They say hatred is a curse, a spell that poisons the wielder more than the object of their ire. Director David Lowery certainly believes in the former, but his latest trip into the surreal is more than happy to debunk the latter, too. The filmmaker is the unsung master of the metaphysical; the odd possession is a staple of his oeuvre. And sure, it’s all a metaphor for grief or ambition, a manifestation of some emotion suppressed or denied. With Mother Mary, though, the veil between what’s real and what isn’t — what can hurt us and what haunts us — feels thinner, more dangerous, and more intoxicating than ever.
Few would guess, after lo-fi ghost stories, epic reconstructions of ancient myths, and a misguided update of a classic Disney property, that Lowery would so eagerly turn his gaze to pop fantasia. The director’s follow-up to Peter Pan & Wendy is farther from what most have come to expect from him than anything else: early trailers of the A24 film insist that it is neither a ghost story nor a love story, two themes that Lowery has demonstrated the most success with. But that assertion is also a kind of misdirection, as Mother Mary borrows a little from both — and so much more — to craft something utterly new. Part-ghost story, part-exorcism, part-pop manifesto, part-chamber piece, it turns the proverbial string of fate into a throbbing sacred heart. An ethereal soundtrack (crafted by Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff, and FKA twigs) opens the door to a realm not unlike our own, dragging us into a dream world that we won’t want to escape.
