Sometimes, the announcement of a movie will genuinely sound too good to be true. You’ll read a headline from one of the trades, or a DiscussingFilm tweet summarizing said headline, and suddenly learn about a cast and a concept that you know you’re immediately going to love.
For me, one of those proverbial white whales has been Mother Mary. It’s not just the latest A24 movie from The Green Knight director David Lowery, a partnership that would already be more than enough to get a good chunk of Film Twitter invested. But it is an “epic pop melodrama” co-starring Anne Hathaway and I May Destroy You‘s Michaela Coel, featuring new original music from Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX, and FKA Twigs. I have been waiting for it to become a reality ever since it was first announced in the spring of 2023… and now, I’m finally getting my wish.
On Tuesday, A24 released the first trailer for Mother Mary, as well as the confirmation that it will be released at some point in the spring of 2026. And honestly, it looks even better than I could have imagined: stranger, more visceral, and a lot more genre-bending.
According to the studio’s official description for the film, Mother Mary follows the psychosexual affair between pop singer Mary (Hathaway) and fashion designer Sam (Coel) after the former’s need for a dress for her new tour draws them back together. And the trailer does deliver in that regard, not only in Mary’s gorgeous pop star aesthetic, but in teasing a sort of love-hate dynamic between the two that will surely unravel over the course of the film.
I am so seated.
At the same time, the trailer for Mother Mary also teases a lot of supernatural elements. I will admit that, all the way back in 2023, I was curious as to why Lowery was making a film about a pop star and a fashion designer, given the fantasy-twinged nature of his filmography. He’s played around in different genres and audiences, whether in the family fare like Pete’s Dragon and Peter Pan & Wendy, or in the more adult-oriented things like The Green Knight and A Ghost’s Story. And it definitely seems like we will be leaning into the latter here, while also heading into territory that none of us can really expect.
The tagline throughout the trailer proclaims that: “This is not a ghost story. This is not a love story. This is a prayer. A song. A dress. A communion. A betrayal. A sacrifice.” It not only tells us to leave our expectations at the door, instead of attempting to pigeonhole Mother Mary into a single type of genre movie. But it articulates something oddly beautiful about both of the art forms, music and fashion, that are expressed in the movie.
I’m not the first or last person to argue that there is something otherworldy about good live music. It demands a connection between the performer and the audience that can verge on being spiritual… and often has. That connection has been lauded as something beautiful, and also as something dangerous, as evident by the recurring moral panic surrounding practically every single major pop star today.
While we only hear snippets of Mary’s songs in the trailer, I am confident that Mother Mary is going to translate that connection to film, just based on how evocative and visually interesting the shots of her performing live are. (Plus, just as a lifelong fan of Hathaway’s, I’m excited to see her play a pop star.) Just based on the shots of draped or unfurled fabric shown in the trailer, I feel like the film will also showcase the tactile craftsmanship of fashion design in a way that many are quick to forget in the age of fast fashion. I am so ready.
(featured image: A24)
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