GENRE | Anne Hathaway Hails 'Mother Mary' – A Pop Nightmare

"Catch me by surprise with your sincerity."

A24 / VVS Films

Eclectic filmmaker David Lowery writes and directs the gothic pop music psychodrama, Mother Mary, starring Anne Hathaway as an iconic singer (think Lady Gaga meets Taylor Swift) in search of a new stage costume from her estranged former collaborator (Michaela Coel). It's an all-female, two-hander chamber piece of ghostly confrontation that doubles for the complications of artistic and creative partnerships.

There are few other elements outside of the warring pair reluctantly coming back together to collaborate through their parallel art forms, with Hunter Schafer as Coel's dutiful assistant and a small role from FKA Twigs late in the film as a possessed fan, adding much-needed atmospheric overtones to the haunting portrait of a pop idol. Hathaway is undeniable as the powerful yet vulnerable side of a famous star. Her dynamic performance is fleshed out thanks to the catchy beats and simplistic lyrics from original songs by Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX.

Mother Mary is a beguiling artistic nightmare brought to the stage. It's a genre-defying exploration of creative pursuit turned into obsessive possession, underlying a spooky sense of what it means to be an artist. Hathaway and Coel terrorize us for 112 surreal minutes of the less glamorous underside of fame.


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