Mother Mary (2026)
Directed by: David Lowery
Premise: A popstar (Anne Hathaway) hits a personal and creative crisis on the eve of her comeback performance. She reunites with her estranged friend and clothing designer (Michaela Coel) in search of a new outfit.
What Works: David Lowery is an ambitious and talented filmmaker whose movies include A Ghost Story, The Green Knight, and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. Mother Mary is beautifully made. It’s designed and lit in dramatic ways that are simultaneously stripped down and create an impression of scale. Much of the movie consists of the two leads in a studio workspace and yet the weight and noise of superstardom hangs over their intimate scenes. The concert sequences are artfully staged and the songs, which are credited to Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX, are well performed by Anne Hathaway. Mother Mary is about the relationship between a popstar and her designer and both Hathaway and Michaela Coel are very good, suggesting the women’s shared past in the details of their performances. These characters have achieved stardom in their fields because of their symbiotic relationship which is part of what Mother Mary is about. The film deals with big, abstract ideas: the nature of creative inspiration, the way pop culture elevates people into icons, and the importance of fashion in creating those icons.
What Doesn’t: While Mother Mary tackles big ideas, the filmmakers don’t know what to do with them. Part of the problem is that the concepts remain abstract. Mother Mary borrows from possession movies and imagines that Hathaway’s character has been imbued with a supernatural creative spirit in the form of a flowing fabric. Mother Mary presents creative inspiration as though it is isolated from the rest of the world and separate from the artist’s life experiences. This is backwards. Creativity is rooted in specific and concrete moments. Artists seize on those experiences and emotions to create works that hopefully transcend their specific circumstances and adumbrate larger or abstract truths. Mother Mary imagines artistic inspiration divorced from experience and perspective. That makes the art created by these characters and the film itself both empty and impersonal. The songs are good but the film doesn’t draw connections between the music and the singer or her outfits. Hathaway’s character sometimes appears in ways that suggest the Virgin Mary but not to any discernable end. Mother Mary has no emotional impact because there is nothing human about these artistic endeavors. The filmmakers try to force profundity and meaning but it is unearned and just makes Mother Mary both self-important and very silly. The last third of the picture is unintentionally funny.
Bottom Line: Mother Mary is an ambitious failure. It’s handsomely made but all that craftsmanship is in service of nearly two hours of naval gazing. It’s more likely to inspire snarky laughter than sublime awe.
Episode: #1097 (May 3, 2026)