I Want to Live in ‘Mother Mary’s Beautiful Nightmare

Art and fame have a confusing intersection in a world where fans trade income for tickets to witness the religious experience of a certain performance. Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway), aptly named, is the sort of artist and star who commands a fawning audience with a shoulder forward pose and a song. This idolization is something that could once sustain her but has more recently left her feeling hollow. Mother Mary is then a tale of an idol as a muse, humbled by reality and swept into a dreamy tale of a relationship told through musical and poetic dialogue.

The dialogue is handled by Hathaway and Michaela Coel as the pop star and her stylist, Sam. The two deliver striking and dynamic performances, playing to the back row even though they’re contained within a silver screen. Coel is particularly transfixing, delivering lines that might otherwise seem hammy and bizarre in our world with such a conviction that you want to hear more. Mother Mary has lost her spark, feeling the depression that comes from the loneliness of fame as influenced by a supernatural experience, and hopes her former dressmaker can take her back to her roots with the perfect garment. Sam has moved on since her stint as the imagemaker to this star, running her own fashion house as a woman in demand, but she cannot ignore the bellows of her muse no matter how much she was once burned by her. The two engage in a game of power and desire, a powerful modern goddess brought to her knees and the woman behind the scenes who’s been elevated to a new status. The story is contained, taking place almost exclusively in Sam’s workshop and beefed up by dreamy flashbacks that transcend planes. That’s what contributes to the experience feeling like a stage play, most of it being told through a form of poetry and intricate choreography that’s only sometimes marked by beautiful moving images the main cast watches along with the audience. The dress isn’t just a dress and their relationship isn’t just a friendly spat, Mother Mary is exploring feminine experiences with pain and otherworldliness and how a connection between this pair is what gives them full life.

Though not entirely abstract in its story telling, there’s something magical in the way David Lowery (who wrote and directed) tells his story of a star-crossed duo. Film fans will be reminded of the dynamic in Phantom Thread and genre nerds will be pointing to In Fabric and even Mandy. Lowery treats one’s image as a life force, with the pop star swallowed by one she can’t control, turning Sam into a fairy godmother who morphs feminine mythos into a magic spell. Mother Mary is used to near religious influence, but she is at the feet of someone named as simply as “Sam” who wields power over her while the two just barely refuse to beg for what they really want.

Lowery worked with frequent collaborator, Andrew Droz Palermo, and music video cinematographer, Rina Yang, to craft the film’s visual style. It’s ice cold and blue tinted, making the pop star’s wet hair look even more punishing and the red fabric even more ethereal. The use of lighting in such a darkened space is gorgeous, never once letting the audience pause being mystified by Coel’s sharp cheekbones or Hathaway glassy eyes. It’s all gothic and moody while wrapped around a character meant to evoke something as bubblegum as Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift.

It can’t be a coincidence this decade has seen so many stories about the commodification of art and the pain that brings to the makers. Smile 2 explored it similarly with a pop star struggling with her will to perform and The Moment (with Charlie xcx, who worked on the music for this film along with Jack Antonoff and FKA Twigs) chronicled a pop star’s attempt to get the most out of a hit. When Mother Mary declines the halo Sam once crafted that became her ultimate signature, Sam insists it was only the copies that hurt her head, not the original design. To the pair, Mother Mary’s newest garments didn’t feel like “her” because they were hollow remakes of the designs Sam, the original artist, had crafted, something Mother Mary comes to realize as she revisits her former friend.

Mother Mary is a ghostly and haunting gothic story about an enchanted bit of fabric modernized to be about contemporary female friendship and pop stardom. Lowery mashes the style of a medieval mystical legend with an entirely modern experience to make something beautiful and timeless. With pouring rain, makeshift witchcraft, and a creaky wooden local, Mother Mary turns an ice-cold experience into a candlelit warm space that I simply want to live within.

Mother Mary hit theaters April 24, 2026