00:00A pop star nearly dies on stage.
00:02She flees to the countryside to find the one person who actually knows her.
00:07And what starts as a story about a dress turns into something closer to an exorcism.
00:13This is Mother Mary, starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole.
00:19And it might be the strangest pop star movie ever made.
00:23Hey, welcome back to the channel.
00:25And if you're new here, this is the place we come to break down new releases completely.
00:30Plot, ending and an honest read on the reviews.
00:34So you know exactly what you're getting into before you press play.
00:37Today, we're covering Mother Mary from A24 and director David Lowery.
00:42And I promise this one gets genuinely weird in the best way.
00:47Written and directed by David Lowery.
00:50The filmmaker behind A Ghost Story and The Green Knight.
00:53Released by A24 in limited theaters, April 17th, 2026.
00:59Before expanding wide a week later, it's a genre-defying psychodrama.
01:03Blending pop concert spectacle with something much closer to supernatural horror underneath.
01:10Anne Hathaway plays Mother Mary.
01:12A world-famous pop icon.
01:14Michaela Cole plays Sam Anselm.
01:17Her estranged former costume designer and best friend, Hunter Schaefer, plays Hilda.
01:23Mary's assistant.
01:25Cian Clifford plays Jade.
01:27FKA Twigs plays Imogen.
01:29A fan with a mysterious connection to the story.
01:33The film opens in the aftermath of a terrifying on-stage accident.
01:38One that's left Mary's team.
01:40And some fans.
01:42Quietly wondering whether it might have actually been a suicide attempt.
01:46As she prepares for a high-stakes comeback performance, the pressure of that unanswered question hangs over everything she does.
01:57During a costume fitting ahead of the show, Mary becomes completely overwhelmed and flees, disappearing into the English countryside to
02:06track down Sam Anselm, the former designer and collaborator she's been estranged from for years, with only three days until
02:15she's due back on stage.
02:16She needs Sam's help badly.
02:20Sam, now working out of a converted barn workshop, grudgingly agrees to design Mary a new dress.
02:27But she's far from forgiving.
02:30She refuses outright to even listen to Mary's new song, forcing her old friend to perform the accompanying choreography in
02:38complete silence while Sam studies her movements instead.
02:42As the two women work, old resentments boil to the surface fast.
02:47Sam forces Mary to confront exactly how their partnership ended.
02:51Despite helping build Mary's entire career in public image together, Sam was ultimately denied credit and quietly pushed out of
02:58her inner circle once the fame really took off.
03:02The film makes clear this wasn't simply a professional falling out, either.
03:06Sam and Mary shared a real romantic and creative bond before everything fell apart.
03:13That unspoken history is exactly what gives their reunion so much unresolved tension, layered underneath every conversation about the dress
03:22itself.
03:24Sam reveals something genuinely strange.
03:27She hasn't been able to listen to Mary's music at all since a bizarre incident of her own.
03:33At a concert following their estrangement, her bitterness toward Mary was so intense, it cracked one of her own teeth.
03:41And after having it removed, a spectral figure made of red cloth emerged from the wound.
03:48Mary reveals she's seen that exact same ghost herself.
03:52During a seance held by her own team, a fan named Imogen, seemingly possessed by some mysterious spirit, cut open
04:00Mary's hand.
04:01That night, the same red ghost appeared and tried to enter her wound directly, though Mary managed to escape it
04:08at the time.
04:10Here's the connection the whole film has been building toward.
04:13Exhausted by her grueling tour schedule, Mary was later confronted by that same ghost during a live concert,
04:20and severely injured when the spirit forced its way inside her as she fell.
04:25This is the real cause of the accident that opened the film.
04:29Though Mary physically recovered from the fall itself, she's remained haunted ever since,
04:35quite literally carrying the ghost inside her.
04:39It's a genuinely inventive way of dramatizing something the film is clearly using as metaphor.
04:45The shared trauma and unresolved history connecting Mary and Sam made disturbingly literal.
04:52With the truth finally out in the open between them, Sam leads a reluctant Mary through a ritual meant to
04:58exercise the spirit for good,
05:01using her actual dressmaking tools and deliberately invoking the memory of everything the two of them built together,
05:08back before things fell apart.
05:10In the film's most striking sequence, Mary takes Sam's fabric shears and slices open her own chest,
05:19and Sam physically pulls the ghost out from inside her,
05:24turning the literal spirit of their shared trauma into nothing more than harmless red fabric,
05:31right there in Sam's hands.
05:34With the ghost gone, Mary genuinely apologizes to Sam for everything she put her through,
05:40the broken trust, the stolen credit, years of real hurt finally acknowledged out loud.
05:47Her team rushes in to get her to the comeback show in time,
05:51while Sam, inspired by everything that just happened, gets to work.
05:56Sam takes the red fabric pulled from Mary's own body and crafts it directly into the new dress.
06:04The film closes with Mary's assistant Hilda, describing the actual comeback performance,
06:10Mary shedding her original costume live on stage,
06:14and dedicating the song entirely to Sam, who watches it all unfold from afar.
06:21Sam takes the red fabric pulled from Mary's own body,
06:24and crafts it directly into the new dress.
06:27The film closes with Mary's assistant Hilda, describing the actual comeback performance,
06:32Mary shedding her original costume live on stage,
06:36and dedicating the song entirely to Sam, who watches it all unfold from afar.
06:42Hathaway herself has pointed to a different influence for her actual performance,
06:47citing Beyoncé specifically, and the song American Requiem from Cowboy Carter,
06:52as key to understanding how to inhabit Mary as a singer.
06:55She's also said she studied Beyoncé's homecoming concert film closely,
07:00while preparing for the role.
07:02The original songs come from a genuinely stacked lineup.
07:05Jack Antonoff, Charlie XCX, and FKA Twigs,
07:09all contributed music, all performed by Hathaway herself.
07:13A companion soundtrack album, Mother Mary, Greatest Hits,
07:16released alongside the film, featuring seven original songs,
07:20and the lead single, Burial.
07:23So how's the movie actually landing?
07:26Genuinely mixed, but far from a disaster.
07:29It sits at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes,
07:32across more than 180 reviews,
07:34with critics broadly agreeing,
07:36Hathaway makes a believable pop star,
07:38even when the story itself gets frustratingly obtuse.
07:42Some critics went considerably further than that, though.
07:46IndieWire gave it an A-,
07:47and RogerEbert.com awarded three out of four stars,
07:52specifically comparing the film to The Exorcist
07:54as much as to Lady Gaga's own work,
07:57calling it a genuinely fresh take
07:59on the intersection of fame and art.
08:02Not every critic was won over, though.
08:04Variety called it tuttingly pretentious,
08:07directly comparing it, unfavorably,
08:09to Brady Corbett's Vox Luxe.
08:11Time magazine flatly called it arty,
08:14self-conscious, and a total slog,
08:16while The New Yorker felt it never fully disguised
08:19its small production scale.
08:21Financially, the film struggled badly,
08:24grossing only around $3 million
08:26against its $20 million budget.
08:29For an A24 release built around two major stars,
08:32that's a genuinely rough outcome,
08:35and it lines up closely with how divisive
08:37the reviews turned out to be.
08:40So, is Mother Mary worth watching?
08:42If you want a straightforward pop star drama,
08:46several critics say,
08:48this genuinely isn't that.
08:50But if you're drawn to Lowry's
08:52more experimental, dreamlike style,
08:55the kind he's brought to a ghost story
08:57and the Green Knight,
08:59and you want to see Hathaway and Cole
09:01go all in on something this strange,
09:04this delivers a genuinely unique experience.
09:09Mother Mary, streaming and available to rent now,
09:13directed by David Lowry,
09:15starring Anne Hathaway and Mikaela Cole,
09:18distributed by A24,
09:20one hour and 52 minutes,
09:22a pop star, a costume designer,
09:24and a ghost that turns out to be made
09:26of everything they never said to each other.
09:29And that's the full story of Mother Mary,
09:32plot,
09:33ending,
09:34and everything critics couldn't agree on.
09:36I'm genuinely curious where you land on this one.
09:40Artie and brilliant,
09:41or artie and empty?
09:42So drop your take in the comments.
09:45If this recap helped you decide whether to watch it,
09:48a like really does help this channel,
09:51and subscribing means you'll catch the next breakdown
09:53as soon as it's ready.
09:55Thanks for watching,
09:57and I'll see you in the next one.
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