Anne Hathaway has an insane year ahead of her, with five movies being released on the 2026 movie calendar, including the highly anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey. Before those, though, we’ve got Mother Mary, a psychological pop thriller whose trailer looks like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour but with witches. The movie is in limited theaters now before its wide release on April 24, and the reviews are in to help us decide if we’ll be partaking in this psychosexual affair.
Mother Mary is an upcoming A24 release, so surely we should expect the unexpected when Anne Hathaway’s titular pop star reconnects with her estranged friend and costume designer, Sam (Michaela Coel), for help with a dress for her comeback tour. Clint Gage of IGN rates it a “Great” 8 out of 10, saying it looks amazing and has cool vibes to spare. More from this review of Mother Mary:
David Lowery’s latest is a visually fascinating chamber piece with great performances from Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel. The story of old wounds between former friends and creative partners isn’t the most relatable mannequin on which to assemble a film, so the story of icon Mother Mary and couture designer Sam doesn’t have enough range to carry the film through its final moments. However, everything else, from the sound design to the cinematography and the operatic fantasy of this pop star ghost story (a subgenre I wouldn’t have pegged as ‘up my alley’ but here we are) makes Mother Mary a great piece of art.
Dan Bayer of Next Best Picture calls the relationship between Mary and Sam a “diva-off for the ages” with its “bitchy fabulosity.” The stars make a meal out of writer/director David Lowery’s dialogue, which layers in themes of identity, artistic collaboration and celebrity worship for a movie that demands rewatches, the critic says. It’s also just fun. Bayer gives it an 8 out of 10, writing:
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Mother Mary’s songs, glittering synth-pop anthems written by pop geniuses Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX, have a trance-like pull to them, and Hathaway performs them with the charismatic ease of a born pop star. The film is even structured like a mystery, taking its time to explain the history between its two leads and even longer to reveal the source of Mother Mary’s spiritual discomfort. As things get stranger, Lowery adds more surrealistic elements to the mix, giving the film an intoxicating air that draws you in and never lets you go.
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert rates the movie 3 stars out of 4, saying A24 and David Lowery are taking a big swing with this one, telling a story of obsession and celebrity in a way that hasn’t been done before. Tallerico writes in his Mother Mary review:
[Lowery is] once again working in a dramatic register that could be called dreamlike, valuing sound and image over traditional narrative. Mother Mary is about two people connected by something greater than words, an almost supernatural bond that ties a pop star beloved by the world and the estranged friend she left behind. It is another story about the intersection of fame and art, but it’s not like one you’ve seen before, a two-hander that owes as much to The Exorcist as it does to Lady Gaga.
David Fear of Rolling Stone calls the film “the mother of all modern-pop superstar nightmares,” writing that David Lowery takes the accessible topic of pop superstardom and turns it into something that could never feel mainstream. This tale of Mary and Sam is “a fucking head trip,” the critic says, writing:
Lowery is grasping at something that lies beyond the confines of genre flicks, cracked-up character studies, and highfalutin fashion dramas, and when he and his cast do tune into that desired frequency, it’s thrilling and unsettling in a way that’s hard to nail down. A certain leap of faith is required. But for those who believe that movies can get into your head and under your skin in ways that sometimes defy description, and tap into the same transcendent state that great pop music does — that sensation of temporarily floating into some other dizzying realm — this is for you. It isn’t the movie you think you’re walking into. Amen for that.
Jake Coyle of the AP rates Mother Mary 2.5 stars out of 4, calling it a “fitfully spellbinding chamber drama.” As the plot progresses, the story gets increasingly surreal, sliding into body horror and simultaneously becoming more visually captivating and more tiresome. Coyle continues:
It’s best at its least adorned, when Lowery leaves it to Hathaway and Coel, in a grand, shadowy workroom to work through their past. As the movie grows more abstract, it loses momentum. But an impassioned melodrama and a curiously sincere belief in the transformative power of pop music wrap Mother Mary in a gothic garb all its own.
It definitely sounds like audiences are in for a wild ride with this one, and critics seem overall pleased with A24’s newest offering, scoring it at 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. Mother Mary is in select theaters now and will see its wide release Friday, April 24.