"Mother Mary:" A Stunning Spectacle Haunted by Its Own Script

Before anyone else, 2026 belongs to Anne Hathaway. This week marked the release of her first film since 2024's poorly received The Idea of You, but the Oscar-winning star is set to star in a downright insane FIVE films this year. With performances in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Michael Showalter's Verity, David Robert Mitchell's The End of Oak Street, and the highly anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2, Hathaway has had a busy few years and only time will tell if it all paid off. Her five film streak kicked off this past weekend with musical horror/drama, Mother Mary by modern auteur filmmaker, David Lowery. But is Mother Mary going to kick off a banner year for Hathaway, or just her bank account?

Mother Mary is director, David Lowery's third feature with A24 after 2017's A Ghost Story and 2021's The Green Knight. It follows Anne Hathaway as the titular pop star character as she reunites with her former best friend and costume designer, Sam (Michaela Coel) on the eve of her comeback performance. Old wounds reopen as the two recount their falling out and discover that they are both being haunted by the same vengeful spirit. In addition to the leads, it also employs the talents of Hunter Schafer, Kaia Gerber, and original music by FKA twigs and Charli xcx.

As a film, Mother Mary is sort of hard to explain. It is a drama but also a supernatural horror as well as a double character study. The titular pop star is clearly supposed to be reminiscent of Madonna, FKA twigs, and most of all, Lady Gaga. I went into this film as a big fan of Lowery, Coel, Hathaway, and A24, so needless to say expectations were high, but it ended up being more of a mixed bag than I ever could've anticipated. In terms of good and bad I would say there's a 70/30 split.

I have been of the belief for the past few years that Michaela Coel is one of the most underutilized talents in the industry, not just as an actor but a writer as well. She has been gradually starting to receive her flowers but hopefully Mother Mary will convey to audiences what I've been saying all along. Her performance as Sam is foreboding, intense, and downright terrifying at some moments. Coel and Hathaway have an undeniable chemistry and their respect for each other as artists is clear. Anne Hathaway gives her all in this film in terms of physicality and emotion, but for me the crown jewel of Mother Mary was Michaela Coel's performance.

Due to the fact that we're so early into 2026, I feel confident in saying that this is probably the best shot film of the year so far. While I have my qualms with the writing and cohesion of the script, the visuals are downright unmatched. Mother Mary's image as a pop star is so established and strong thanks to the spellbinding costume design by Bina Daigeler. I would be genuinely surprised if she didn't score an Oscar nomination for her work here. The cinematography by Rina Yang and Andrew Droz Palermo pairs so well with the editing by David Lowery himself. There were several moments throughout my screening where I whispered to myself "wow, what a great shot." The fantastic production design by Francesca Balestrra Di Mottola and lighting by Florian Kronenberger also deserve a special nod. Overall, the technical crew of Mother Mary was nothing short of a dream team.

That being said, Mother Mary can accurately be called an example of style-over-substance filmmaking. After the third act the script feels disorganized and goes off the rails. If I can be a backseat writer for one second, I think this story would've been stronger if Lowery dropped all the supernatural elements, opting instead for a film about two women at the top of their fields, reuniting after a painful falling out. As soon as Mother Mary turned into a ghost story it kind of lost me. The film has been getting incredibly mixed reviews and there's no doubt that this script is the culprit.

After winning an Oscar for her live singing in Tom Hooper's Les Misérables, it's nice to see the return of Anne Hathaway as a singer on screen. I believed her as a legacy pop star at the end of her rope. A large part of that is due to the original music by FKA twigs and Charli xcx. Over the past year, Charli xcx has been popping up in movie after movie as an actor, normally in small, supporting roles. She's a film lover through-and-through, but I think her contributions to film are much more suited to scoring films like this rather than acting in them. I found her big feature, The Moment to be self-indulgent nonsense but her musical talents are undeniable and put to good use in Mother Mary.

So yes, Mother Mary is a shining example of style-over-substance filmmaking, but it is so ambitious and stylistic I can't help but admire it. No matter how successful the result, I will always have respect for those who take creative risks, and this film is full of them.