So I saw Darren Aronofsky's "Mother!" last Friday and let me tell you it was something.

I was at the edge of my seat for the full two hours. There were parts of it I hated and there were parts that I loved. There were moments I wanted to leave the theater and moment where I wished the movie would never end.

But this isn't a review of the movie "Mother!"

Some of my friends loved it and some despised it. But I noticed one thing. People did not stop talking about it. Whether it was their new favorite or they were scathing critics, it was a conversation topic for days in my film school communities. I had the privilege of being in the audience for a Q&A with the director where he explained the meaning of his work. He seemed to realize his critics’ opinions but not necessarily care for them.

“It is a different movie,” he said to the audience and everyone chuckled because what we had just experienced was probably unlike anything we had ever seen before. “Mother!” is a passion project for Aronofsky according to an interview with the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, “We wanted to make a punk movie and come at you… some people are not going to want to listen to it. That’s cool.”

His main goal is to get people talking. Which leads me to ask, what is the point of creating something? Do we make art for people to like or to get people talking? As a form of self-expression, creative work should be open for discussion. But it seems as though we tend to stay on the safe side.

Risks are not favored when predicted to be met with mixed feelings. We could’ve gone into “Mother!” and seen a really safe movie, perhaps, a more clear Bible story. It could’ve been a cohesive narrative, a literal retelling of the Old and New Testaments. But we got a shocking piece of avant-garde cinema instead.

Something that requires way more thought. “Mother!” is not something you can just sit and watch and then carry on with your life when it’s over and rarely ever think about it again.

Art that sticks with you is the most important kind. Art that prompts you to ask questions is paramount.

Art that provokes new conversations and rhetoric surrounding it’s style and subject is vital to our progress as a creative species. Of course, it can be argued that art has no fixed purpose, that it simply exists to please us.

But why must everything be liked? Do we create to bask in praise or to trigger a new mode of thought? Both or neither may be true, it’s still an ambiguous idea and an unanswerable question.

Also instead of serving a purpose for those who digest it, its aim may be to nurture the artist, like in the case of Darren Aronofsky. But it can go both ways. Art can be for the creator and the viewer in that the medium, whether it be film, theatre, paintings, or music, has the power to communicate ideas from one to the other. It is a cathartic experience for both.

By that definition, “Mother!” is successful in being “good” art. It is not meant to be liked. It exists stubbornly and free-spirited. It is what it is and it does its job, which is to keep the narrative of risky art going.