TL;DR It's worth the hype and the execution made me love it despite the subject matter being very POZed. 
  

 
 
You'll know within the first 5 seconds of the film if you'll enjoy it or not. Brendan Fraser is shown jacking off to gay porn when a Nick Fuentes look-a-like walks in on him. This is probably the only part of the film that felt excessive and overplayed to me. It reeked of edgy streaming platforms that (unbound by basic cable decency laws) put an absurd amount of shock value to keep the retard consumer's  increasingly low attention span engaged. For example, I tried watching "The Last Czars" with my mom a few years back, but it opens up with an orgy. I'm no prude, but c'mon, it's just awkward, and distracting if not relevant to the plot. 
      
But that's my main argument for why you should watch "The Whale." I think every bit of uncomfortableness and crude detail was relevant to the story. And you could even argue the first scene was as well because throughout the film every slight moment of joy is immediately snatched from Brendan with excruciating pain. He laughs at a joke then wheezes and clutches his heart. He starts to gorge on a sub then begins to choke. This is why some people claim it's a fatphobic film. I thought it was fake outrage and clickbait, but I think many fatties are genuinely upset. Because Aronofsky does what he does best: puts an artsy magnifying glass on the hideous reality of his character study. And yet, Brendan's character has so many redeeming qualities and the story has so many relatable elements you walk away feeling satisfied & bonded with the characters. Unlike his other film, "Requiem For A Dream," that makes you feel gross, anxious, and guilty; thankful you can't relate.