Mother Mary (2026) is written & directed by David Lowery. It stars Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, FKA twigs, Hunter Schafer, Sian Clifford, Atheena Frizzell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Kaia Gerber, Alba Baptista, Isaura Barbe-Brown, Jeanne Nicole Ni Ainle, and Tayler Sieve. The film follows legendary pop star Mother Mary (Hathaway) on the eve of her comeback performance. Unable to perfect her outfit, Mary seeks out her ex-costume designer/best friend, Sam (Coel). As the two hash out their toxic past, they begin to realize that the source of their grudge may cross over into the supernatural. 

Hathaway and Coel feel appropriately cast, and both deliver fantastic performances. You completely buy into the authenticity of their broken friendship and the various emotions that come along with it. Hathaway, in particular, gives an impressive performance, especially physically. This helps sell her status as an A-list pop performer and nonverbally communicates the character’s deteriorating mental state. These are two strong performances; there’s no doubt about it. Unfortunately, they’re wasted throughout this meaningless exercise in overly abstract ‘vibes.’

This slow, plodding, and strangely dark exploration of forgiveness has nothing profound to say about its topic. On top of this, the surface-level storytelling is rarely entertaining/compelling enough to make up for the weak themes. Lowery’s films have become more abstract with each subsequent release, but this is the first time that I feel he’s gone too far. I’m a fan of The Green Knight (2021), which is an inaccessible experience for many people, but this movie is just off the wall in a way that makes it forgettable. 

The viewer can find countless meanings in an overly abstract film like this. The problem is that its cryptic nature also risks meaning absolutely nothing. It occasionally feels as if Lowery is trying to prove that if you simply create tantalizing imagery, the audience will attach some deeper meaning or message to it. This lack of a clear message or motivation is made even more frustrating when one considers that the entire film takes place in a boring, contained setting where the two characters passively-aggressively, incoherently discuss their feelings. I hate to say it, but it often just feels like you’re just watching a mega-rich, Lady Gaga-like performer desperately trying to show us how much of a toll it takes to selflessly perform synth pop jams in over-the-top outfits. Gimme a break; being a great singer (or artist in general) doesn’t make you some kind of philanthropist hero. 

Overall, Mother Mary is David Lowery’s most disappointing, frustratingly abstract film. It displays a majority of pretentious stereotypes that casual audiences associate with A24’s arthouse branding, but it’s also another eye-rolling example of successful Hollywood types begging us normies to understand how much of a toll it takes being this rich, loved, and famous. Thankfully, Lowery’s filmmaking, aside from storytelling, is as capable as always, but what saves the experience from being a complete slog is Hathaway’s emotionally authentic lead performance. It’s frustrating and pretentious, but not an outright bad film. I just struggle to understand who it’s for, other than the people who made it. C