WRITER & DIRECTOR
David Lowery
The Green Knight, A Ghost Story, Pete’s Dragon, The Old Man & The Gun, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

STARS
Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel

Blessed art thou amongst women… or rather blessed are we to be graced by the completely captivating presence of the two women headlining this eye-catching yet ultimately acquired taste movie.

That welcoming sentiment cannot be applied, however, to those of accomplished Fashion designer Sam Anselm (who was brilliant in HBO Max series I May Destroy You). It is just a regular Thursday when her once close friend, global pop icon Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway), rocks up unannounced requesting a new outfit for her come back show… this Sunday! Though the two women were once very close and worked together during Mother Mary’s years of sweeping success, they have now been estranged for 10 years. Yet, despite the time apart, and reasons for it to be unpacked, Mother Mary still believes the only person that knows who she truly is to best represent her on stage is Sam.

Naked, at its most pure, Mother Mary is a stunning film.

Seductive storytelling addresses then undresses the complex layers and palpable and still present wounds that led to the two women falling out and maintaining their distance from one another for so long. The writing of dialogue and scenario by David Lowery is a real feature as Mother Mary and Sam Anselm revisit their past and discuss who is at fault for what, which influences their attempt to collaborate once more in the present. Performances from Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel are transfixing and stand out in different ways. Coel’s delivery of dialogue and the facade her character maintains (until she no longer does) is exceptional! Hathaway is super in her exchanges with Coel too, yet her performance is heightened by contributing her own singing and performing. These sequences are mesmerising and are curiously imagined as Taylor Swift in ten or fifteen years from now by writer & director David Lowery. The music seamlessly immerses into the story, the sound is pumping and sound mixing terrific!

Before Mother Mary heads over to the wardrobe department and slips into something more supernatural, it is courteous enough to advise us in advance “things are about to get strange” via Sam. And sure enough, they do!

By doing so, Mother Mary becomes more of an acquired taste with each passing minute during the second half. While this costume change, or rather addition, did result in the film losing its stranglehold over me and liking the direction of the story less than before, it doesn’t become incomprehensible or overly abstract, and does indeed remain relevant to the core story.

In fact, what puzzled me most by the end of Mother Mary was trying to determine how on earth Sam creates such stunning gowns working in the dark!

Mother Mary is showing in selected cinemas across Australia from May 14th, 2026.

Moviedoc thanks VVS Films and Nixco for the invitation to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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