Mother Mary (2026)
Movie · 2026 · Music, Drama, Thriller · 1h 52m · R · English
Curator score: 2.1/10 (101.3K ratings)
Tagline: This is not a ghost story.
Long-buried wounds rise to the surface when iconic pop star Mother Mary reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer Sam Anselm on the eve of her comeback performance.
Ratings:
- Curator score: 2.1/10
- IMDb: 5.5/10
- Letterboxd: 2.92/5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 70%
- Metacritic: 60
- TMDB: 5.7/10
Director: David Lowery
Production: A24, Augenschein Filmproduktion, Topic Studios, Sailor Bear, IPR.VC, Homebird Productions
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, FKA twigs, Sian Clifford, Kaia Gerber, Alba Baptista, Atheena Frizzell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Isaura Barbé-Brown, Jeanne Nicole Ní Áinle, Taylor Sieve, Dani Vitale
Curator Review
Verdict: A visually ambitious psychodrama about celebrity, art, and female friendship that sounds more fascinating than fully coherent. The appeal is in its heightened mood, performance energy, and David Lowery’s willingness to make something strange and emotionally bruised, but the abstract style may feel overextended for viewers who want a cleaner narrative or more grounded character work.
Best for: Viewers who like art-house melodrama and symbolic storytelling; Fans of backstage music-world stories; Audiences drawn to queer subtext, fashion, and performance aesthetics; People who enjoy emotionally intense, divisive films
Skip if: You want a straightforward music biopic or conventional thriller; You dislike heavy metaphor and opaque storytelling; You prefer plot-driven films with clear emotional payoffs; You are impatient with stylized, self-conscious art cinema
Overview: Mother Mary looks like a feverish collision of pop spectacle and emotional autopsy, with the comeback-performance setup serving as a pressure cooker for old resentments. The premise suggests a film less interested in the mechanics of fame than in the damage that fame leaves behind, especially when filtered through costume, image, and performance as forms of self-invention.
Worth noting: David Lowery seems to be leaning into the kind of grand, enigmatic mood piece that invites both devotion and frustration. The Letterboxd response points to a film that is visually and sonically forceful, but also deliberately abstract, with metaphors that may overwhelm the human drama they are meant to illuminate.
Bottom line: For viewers open to an odd, theatrical, emotionally charged experiment, there is likely a lot to admire in the ambition alone. If you need narrative clarity or a more conventional arc, this may feel like a beautiful provocation rather than a satisfying drama.
Top Letterboxd reviews:
- jer ☘️: MOTHER MARY, MM. FLIP IT AROUND, WICKED WITCH.
- Louis Peitzman: In the words of Mother Mary, "These metaphors are exhausting."
- kez: could’ve been gayer should’ve been gayer
- cristinacolinaa: why are we speaking in abstract metaphors & epileptic exorcisms for 2 HOURS 😭
- -ˏˋ mak ˊˎ-: phantom thread for lesbians
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Topics: art-house drama, music industry, psychological thriller, queer-coded, melodrama, stylized visuals, backstage tension, identity crisis, experimental tone, fashion aesthetics
https://watchlist.tannermartz.com/apple/movie/mother-mary/1102883
Mother Mary (2026)
Movie · 2026 · Music, Drama, Thriller · 1h 52m · R · English
Curator score: 2.1/10 (101.3K ratings)
This is not a ghost story.
Overview Long-buried wounds rise to the surface when iconic pop star Mother Mary reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer Sam Anselm on the eve of her comeback performance.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.1/10
IMDb: 5.5/10
Letterboxd: 2.92/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 70%
Metacritic: 60
TMDB: 5.7/10
Production A24, Augenschein Filmproduktion, Topic Studios, Sailor Bear, IPR.VC, Homebird Productions
Cast Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, FKA twigs, Sian Clifford, Kaia Gerber, Alba Baptista, Atheena Frizzell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Isaura Barbé-Brown, Jeanne Nicole Ní Áinle, Taylor Sieve, Dani Vitale
Curator Review
Verdict
A visually ambitious psychodrama about celebrity, art, and female friendship that sounds more fascinating than fully coherent. The appeal is in its heightened mood, performance energy, and David Lowery’s willingness to make something strange and emotionally bruised, but the abstract style may feel overextended for viewers who want a cleaner narrative or more grounded character work.
Best for
Viewers who like art-house melodrama and symbolic storytelling
Fans of backstage music-world stories
Audiences drawn to queer subtext, fashion, and performance aesthetics
People who enjoy emotionally intense, divisive films
Skip if
You want a straightforward music biopic or conventional thriller
You dislike heavy metaphor and opaque storytelling
You prefer plot-driven films with clear emotional payoffs
You are impatient with stylized, self-conscious art cinema
Overview
Mother Mary looks like a feverish collision of pop spectacle and emotional autopsy, with the comeback-performance setup serving as a pressure cooker for old resentments. The premise suggests a film less interested in the mechanics of fame than in the damage that fame leaves behind, especially when filtered through costume, image, and performance as forms of self-invention.
Worth noting
David Lowery seems to be leaning into the kind of grand, enigmatic mood piece that invites both devotion and frustration. The Letterboxd response points to a film that is visually and sonically forceful, but also deliberately abstract, with metaphors that may overwhelm the human drama they are meant to illuminate.
Bottom line
For viewers open to an odd, theatrical, emotionally charged experiment, there is likely a lot to admire in the ambition alone. If you need narrative clarity or a more conventional arc, this may feel like a beautiful provocation rather than a satisfying drama.
Top Letterboxd reviews
jer ☘️ (4.5★) · 5887 likes
MOTHER MARY, MM. FLIP IT AROUND, WICKED WITCH.
Louis Peitzman (2.5★) · 4835 likes
In the words of Mother Mary, "These metaphors are exhausting."
kez (4★) · 4583 likes
could’ve been gayer should’ve been gayer
cristinacolinaa (2★) · 3579 likes
why are we speaking in abstract metaphors & epileptic exorcisms for 2 HOURS 😭
-ˏˋ mak ˊˎ- (2.5★) · 2795 likes
phantom thread for lesbians
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Topics
art-house drama, music industry, psychological thriller, queer-coded, melodrama, stylized visuals, backstage tension, identity crisis, experimental tone, fashion aesthetics
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