It's difficult to recall another American film that, in pursuing a passionate and personal vision, goes so maddeningly, uproariously wrong.

I will concede the film is not a great success. Too many screens of blinding lights. Too many transitions for their own sake. Abrupt changes of tone.

Bonkers, adventurous, silly, ambitious, charming, foolish; it's all those things and it'll be gone in a week. But it's not mainstream Bore-o fare, and for that it should be celebrated.

The limitations of the body, its susceptibility to disease and death, have never been more keenly felt in Aronofsky’s works.