MOTHER MARY
(director/writer: David Lowery; cinematographers: Andrew Droz Palermo, Rina Yang; music: Daniel Hart, Jack Antonoff, Charli xcx; cast: Anne Hathaway (Mother Mary), Michaela Coel (Sam Anselm), Hunter Schafer (Hilda, Sam’s assistant), Sian Clifford (Jade, Mary’s manager), Atheena Frizzell (Emily), FKA twigs (Imogen, backup singer), Jessica Brown Findlay (Tessa, part of Mary’s entourage), Alba Baptista (Miel Contrera, part of Mary’s entourage), Kala Gerber (Nikki, part of Mary’s entourage), Isaura Barbe-Brown (Kyla, part of Mary’s entourage); Runtime: 112; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Toby Halbrooks, Jeanie Igoe, Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo, Jonathan Saubach; A24; 2026-USA/Germany)
“Pretentious psychodrama based on an iconic pop singer and her falling out with her fashion designer friend.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
David Lowery (“The Green Knight”/”Peter Pan & Wendy”) directs and writes this style over substance pretentious psychodrama based on an iconic pop singer and her falling out with her fashion designer friend. The screenplay is tiresome, verbose and muddled. The 100 million dollar budget is outrageous. The story is as flimsy as a chiffon dress. The dialogue is as meaningless as it’s dull.
Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway), a stage name lifted from a Beatles lyric, is a narcissistic American pop singer who needs a special costume made for her upcoming comeback tour in a few days, after her mysterious stage meltdown made her step back from performing.
While just arriving in London from Los Angeles, she reunites with her estranged female friend and collaborator, a Brit fashion designer named Sam (Michaela Coel), and visits her country farmhouse/studio, where she asks her to make her a bold visionary dress she needs for her upcoming tour. She says it must be in any color but red because that’s the Devil’s color!
The self-pitying, bitter, wannabe sounding philosophical talking and self-absorbed Sam is still pissed that her 25-year friendship with the fame-seeking and self-absorbed Mother Mary ended abruptly 10 years ago, when Mother Mary for no apparent reason left her and never said why. Sam knew the singer before she became famous.
The gist of the two-hander film has the former friends (there’s no mention of them being lovers, though there are suggestions they were) talking all kinds of shit about things dear to them that they have to get off their chest. There are flashbacks that take us back to their earlier days.
Mother Mary performs the song “Burial” on stage, when she’s first seen. Later she’s seen on her comeback tour. There are original songs written by Jack Antonoff, Charlie XCX and co-star FKA Twigs, which are all lightweight electro-pop tunes. Mother Mary has been a superstar for many years, supposedly like any of the following pop stars: Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Madonna or Beyoncé. If that’s so, she seemed a little too stiff to be a rock star.
Aside from the beautiful visuals, the gorgeous costumes and the talented star-studded cast, I was turned off by its over-use of metaphors in its heavy-handed conversations and that it never lucidly tells us why the pop star becomes such an unholy mess.
REVIEWED ON 4/16/2026 GRADE: C+
dennisschwartzreviews.com