David Lowery’s “Mother Mary” is exactly the kind film I love to see in the theater, as it’s made for the big screen and an experience that is guaranteed to polarize just about everyone.
I get it, as Lowery’s latest is bizarre, challenging and, on a scene-to-scene basis, risks falling on its face.
All I knew of the film going in is that it’s “the Anne Hathaway movie where she embodies Lady Gaga.” Not an unreasonable synopsis, but there’s much, much more.
Hathaway stars as Mother Mary, a pop singer super star whose awesome stage performances suggest the elaborate production values of Lady Gaga, Madonna, that time Britney Spears danced with a snake and anything from Cirque De Solei. Mary’s music and persona are on fire with the public, while her private life is a different matter.
Mary takes a trip to a secluded countryside and reconnects with Sam, an acclaimed fashion designer (Michaela Coel) who was never given enough credit for the iconic designs she provided Mary on her tour. Sam expresses animosity and distance towards Mary, until the two come to a strange common ground: lately, they’re both haunted by the same ghost, which appears as a massive floating red silk cloth with a glowing red ball.
Long scenes of dialogue exchanges between Hathaway and Coel are broken up by Hathaway’s stage performances, which are knockout set pieces. From the widescreen cinematography, which captures the musical numbers in the most you-are-there, immersive manner possible, to the songs themselves, which are good and performed well by Hathaway, these scenes are the biggest mainstream draw the film has.
The rest of the film is take-it-or-leave-it weird and even plays that way before the supernatural elements surface. Lowery seems to be making a comment on how Mary’s stage and personal life are all, in one way or another, a performance, which explains why even the quiet scenes with only two characters are presented in a theatrical manner.
Some scene transitions are even conveyed with large doors opening into another setting, as though this were all a filmed theater piece.
To answer an obvious question – yes, “Mother Mary” could work well as a play and presumably would be an event on Broadway. As a film, even for those who love theater, heady art movies, pop music and Hathaway, will be a challenge to absorb, especially on the first viewing.
Some moments are silly and are just asking for mockery, such as when a character declares they’re about to sing “the greatest song ever written,” which we never hear (maybe Lowery knew this was too big a feat to pull off, unless Hathaway started singing “Baby Got Back.” I’m kidding).
Lowery previously wrote and directed the 2021 masterpiece, “The Green Knight,” the best blend of magical realism and grandiose storytelling from him yet. The 2016 remake of “Pete’s Dragon” is also from Lowery and easily one of the best, most refreshingly different of the live action Disney remakes, which retells the tale without simply xeroxing the original scene-for-scene (like most of the other live action Mouse House remakes).
The closest film Lowery has made to “Mother Mary” is his “A Ghost Story” (2017), which matches this film for its audacity, character-driven narratives and staging that straddles the possibilities of theater and cinema.
If Lowery keeps making movies like this, he’ll likely end up recognized as an artist making distinctive and personal works.
For now, he’s a visionary with a cult following that should be larger.
Hathaway is electric in this, on stage and in her dramatic scenes, but she’s matched by a towering performance by Coel.
The songs were written by Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff and FKA Twigs, and they’re all good enough to start popping up on an FM station. If Hathaway decides to perform on tour as Mother Mary, it wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Many will understandably hate it, a few (including me) will defend it and the rest will likely call it a future camp classic…and they’d be right.
If anything, I’m excited that something this wild is playing in mainstream theaters, though most of Hathaway’s fanbase is clearly more willing to turn up for the middle-of-the-road “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
I applaud A24 for continuing to distribute risk-taking art movies, especially when they’re as untamed as this one.
Three Stars (out of four)