Movie Review: Mother Mary

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An absorbing surreal drama. 

This film has a popstar about to make her debut comeback but uncomfortable with the dress she is to wear. She goes back to her old designer to have her make a dress last minute. However, the two have old wounds that still hurt.

The magic of this movie comes directly from our two main characters. Even with the supernatural elements and larger than life musical numbers, this relationship remains the main focus of the film. Though it is not clear if that relationship was romantic or a friendship, but it is obvious that their former relationship was much closer than singer and designer. One can see in each scene the pain that each of them feels as the other comes back into their life and underneath the pain, one can also see that they still care about each other in a way. At the same time this film shows how multiple people go to create the image of a popstar, yet only the popstar gets credit for this and how this can lead to division between the star and the other creatives. This emotionally complex relationship is not easy to convey but director/writer David Lowery (who I was already a fan of due to The Green Knight (2021), The Old Man and the Gun (2018) and Pete's Dragon (2016)) and actresses Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel (who often steals the show here and who also gives another great performance in The Christophers (which is also currently and theaters) capture it perfectly down to the smallest nuance. The film has many scenes focusing on just these two characters talking. In lesser hands these talky scenes could have come off as boring. However here they come off as fully gripping. 

Naturally being a film where one of the main characters is popstar, there have to be some song performances. These performances are a visual treat with excellent chorography and lighting. Many of her fans refer to the popstar's concerts as almost a religious experience. The performances do feel larger than life enough to make us understand this. The songs (co-written by popstar Charli XCX and Jack Antonoff (member of the pop-rock band Fun and a songwriter that has worked with such real popstars as Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter)) would fit perfectly into playlists of real-life popstars. While this is far from my taste in music, I can definitely appreciate the artistry that went into these songs and performances. However, I do feel sometimes that these performances kind of interrupted the flow of the story for me.    

While the early scenes in this film are quite grounded, the movie does take a turn in a supernatural direction as it goes on. There are a few scenes that do a good job leading up to this, such as a dance number without music that often looks like a demonic possession, but the change to a supernatural story does lead to some less than perfect tonal shifts. This is especially true with a few (surprisingly pretty creepy) scenes that feel straight out of a horror movie. These scenes just simply feel out of place with the character driven drama that made up most of the film. 

What is very well done about the supernatural elements is that they are kept purposefully vague. They are never fully explained and have multiple ways that audience members can interpret them. All of these interpretations are equally valid. 

All in all this is an excellent, if sometimes flawed, film.