There’s much to appreciate about David Lowery’s filmography, but it’s especially intriguing to see him take on micro epics for A24. Sure, The Green Knight was a larger-scale dark fantasy more akin to the sword & sorcery films of the 80s with an arthouse edge, A Ghost Story and now Mother Mary feel like attempts by a filmmaker to really push a level of scope that relays a large amount of development, despite not stepping much further than a few sets and locations. With Mother Mary in particular, it feels like we learn about a whole lifetime and everything that’s transpired within it, and yet the grandest element may be a metaphorical spirit trapped inside a floating piece of fabric. Whatever the case, this all speaks to a director attempting to convey plenty and understanding how to pull it off.
Anne Hathaway stars as Mother Mary, a famous pop singer whose success has made her a celebrated icon while also creating plenty of dilemmas in her life. On the eve of her comeback performance, Mary attempts to take control of a crisis of conscience and decides to visit the best friend she abandoned years ago – fashion designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel). While Mary is hoping Sam will design her a new dress for this potentially life-defining performance, there is also hope that a reconciliation will occur. What follows is a long, hallucinatory night focused on memories, confessions, and other emotion-filled revelations, speaking to the intense connection shared between these two visionaries.
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While not surprising, it is great to see Hathaway really embracing this character. Yes, there’s a lot to be impressed by as far as transforming oneself into a pop star and doing all the work involved to learn how to sing a certain way, perform the songs, figure out the choreography for various dances, and all of that. However, so much of this film is about Mary revealing herself to Sam in a way she seemingly never has with anyone before, so it’s just as impressive to watch Hathaway display so many different layers of vulnerability. You can see how stripped she feels as she keeps trying to reach in and open herself up to someone she truly hurt.
It’s also great seeing Coel be as effective as she is here. Having just watched her turn in a completely different performance in The Christophers, after a few years away, it’s nice to see her, in general, paying off all the goodwill she built up with the various series she created and was heavily awarded for. As Sam, we are seeing someone who is established as confident in their ability, but perhaps leaning on being busy to avoid dealing with deeper issues. The reluctance we see and the attempts to hold on before letting Mary genuinely try to repair a broken friendship are enough to establish the tension at play. This allows both actors to build on an interesting chemistry that speaks to the psychosexual nature of their relationship.
Ideally, the rest of the film would pay off this starting point through interesting revelations fueled by the various flashbacks we see, possibly aiming at what different sides would have to offer. Instead, the movie ends up feeling more fueled by the vibes than offering much more than what I’ve come to expect from probing looks at the psyche of a pop star. Obviously, the unique choice here is to combine this with a gothic melodrama, which I’m all for. Nothing about what’s being presented means this movie doesn’t commit to the craft on display or falls apart. Mother Mary seems to have no deeper intention beyond some easily understandable takeaways, dressed up in a lot of stirring visuals.
Not for nothing, but the film also teases a lot more musical performances than it delivers. Featuring original songs by Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff, and FKA Twigs (who is also featured in the film as a sort of soothsayer), one kind of hopes to see more in the way of grand numbers that speak to why Mother Mary is such an iconic pop sensation. Granted, making that on an A24 budget, let alone coming up with a fictional persona that would believably rival Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga, is a lot to ask. Still, given all the talent involved and the various stories, and how informed they are by Mother Mary’s status, I was hoping to see more of this aspect in the film, rather than having to wait for the soundtrack.
As the film progresses, it also becomes more abstract. Calling to mind everything from David Lynch to The Red Shoes by Powell and Pressburger, there’s plenty to appreciate in what the film delivers, including the relationship it wants its characters to have with fashion. Now this is a trickier element, as it seeks to connect the characters’ moods, the songs’ themes, and the inner workings of Mother Mary’s mind to everything Sam envisions in the choices she makes regarding high-profile costuming. Fortunately, the film went out of its way to find creative costume designers who could match what Lowery was after for this story he’s crafted. The fact that he was able to tie that into metaphysical ideas that draw on the notion of supernatural involvement in these women’s lives only adds to the implied complexities here (even if I see it as more of a visually astounding distraction).
I haven’t even mentioned the presence of Hunter Schafer, Kaia Gerber, Jessica Brown Findlay, and others who essentially serve as sounding boards for our two lead characters. That’s not to diminish what any of them could bring, but more an emphasis on how reliant and focused this film is on telling the story of two extraordinarily talented people who had a falling-out. One of them, more dramatically, became a person enraptured by the persona they’ve crafted for the public, nearly killing themselves in the process. Watching a movie primarily about what it is that could push them back together, let alone what sort of artistic statement they could make after having confronted the various difficulties and mysteries in their life, allows for a film that is ambitious, epic, despite its small scale, and strong enough to want me to tune in to Mother Mary’s set after the fact.
Mother Mary opens in select theaters on April 17, 2026, and spreads wider on April 24.
