Mother Mary (2026) – Review

Quick Thoughts:

1. Director/writer David Lowery has crafted a unique film that swings for the fences.
2. Michaela Coel and Anne Hathaway are excellent. 
3. Hathaway’s dancing scene is wonderful. 
4. Cinematographers Andrew Droz Palermo (The Green Knight, A Ghost Story)  and Rina Yang (She’s shot music videos for Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, Haim, FKA Twigs, Sam Smith, Phoebe Bridgers) do a fine job of making the close-quartered conversations look visually interesting. 
5. Mother Mary introduces ideas and metaphors and leaves it up to viewers to sort things out. It’s bound to be divisive. 
6. The songs written by Charli xcx, Jack Antonoff, and FKA twigs (who appears in the film) are legit.

Written and directed by David Lowery (A Ghost Story, The Green Knight), Mother Mary is a unique film that explores fame, forgiveness, regret, hauntings, and creative bonds. Like A Ghost Story and The Green Knight, Mother Mary is left open for interpretation, and it defies easy genre labels. It’s not a ghost story, and it’s not a love story. Instead it’s a conversation-driven film that blends ghosts, Einstein nods, pop music and lost friendship into a hybrid musical drama. It’s simultaneously easy and hard to explain. The high-level explanation is that it’s about a world-famous pop star named Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) who impulsively travels to a remote English manor that is home to her former best friend, Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel), who designed her first (and most iconic) costumes. Mary needs a new dress made in 24 hours, and the two engage in a “spirited” conversation that lasts the night. On the surface, it seems straightforward, but Lowery tosses in flashbacks, busted teeth, séances, dance scenes (without music), palm stabs, spirit fabric, lavish musical performances, monologues, and numerous metaphors that create dense atmosphere.

Mother Mary is similiar to The Green Knight in that it plays like a mini-epic that punches above its weight (AKA budget). In the press notes, Lowery mentions that he originally intended the film to be a two-hander that takes place over the course of one night. However, after meeting with Hathaway, Coel, FKA Twigs, Charli xcx, and other contributors, the film’s scope expanded into a mini-epic that looks absolutely gorgeous. By the end of the movie, you will be very familiar with the contours and lines of Coel’s and Hathaway’s expressive faces because the camera stays close to the pair as they converse throughout the long night. Both performances are vulnerable, ambitious, and open, which helps the 110-minute film immensely.

Lowery stretches the concepts of forgiveness, fame, and reconciliation pretty thin, but it’s in the quest of trying to decipher long-held feelings that have lingered between two genius creators who’ve been estranged for 10 years. Many of the critics left the screening feeling flummoxed, frustrated, or exhilarated, and these are the correct feelings to have because Lowery doesn’t make it easy for audiences. This is a good and bad thing, as many theatergoers aren’t looking to decipher metaphors or explore themes of forgiveness. 

Since it’s a David Lowery film, the technical aspects are wonderful, the cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo and Rina Yang (who shot the concert and performance stuff) is gorgeous, and the costume design by Bina Daigeler (Tár, Euphoria, Volver, Only Lovers Left Alive) couldn’t be better. Overall, the film’s mise en scène had me admiring every frame and appreciating the work done by the prop department, sound designers, and production designer Francesca Di Mottola. 

While writing the script, Lowery listened to Lorde, St. Vincent, Robyn, Taylor Swift, Halsey, James Blake, Aldous Harding, PJ Harvey, Charli xcx, and FKA Twigs, and he and Hathaway do a fine job of capturing the allure of a world-famous pop star. He also drew inspiration from movies like Persona, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Red Shoes, Eyes Wide Shut, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, and Taylor Swift: The Reputation Stadium Tour. The end result is a visually interesting experience that is bound to polarize and entertain. The film isn’t as radio-friendly as a popular pop song, but if you’re looking for a big creative swing, you will appreciate what Mother Mary has to offer.