Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother – Movie Review

In Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Mahershala Ali plays Latif, a not-so-great hitman and father who spends his time trying to find milk for his nipple-seeking baby and recycling skills he developed while training for Marvel’s ill-fated Blade reboot.

Director Bassam Tariq, who was originally attached to that MCU film before it encountered too little (too much?) sunshine, helms this odd action-drama that blends family life, violence, and religious devotion–somewhat unsuccessfully. At once well made and frustratingly unwilling to go full throttle, Your Mother features an immersive performance by Ali and an even better one by Adia (no last name), who plays his on-screen daughter Fatiha. Meanwhile, Abubakr Ali plays an off kilter Islamic porno magnate and John Cho a born again militant Christian.

Interestingly, the interpersonal drama between Latif and Fatiha feels more earnest and believable than anything else Tariq hooks up. The two have terrific and explosive chemistry with another, delivering the film’s most memorable moments.

The rest never quite clicks. You watch and watch waiting for it to go to the level, and it never does. It doesn’t help that the action is choppy, the choreography masked by awkward editing. The climax is downright weird, but even if you find its revelatory moment more powerful than I did, it’s hard to dispute that it leaves you wanting more. And not in a good way, but in a “that’s all? That’s what this movie was building to?” kind of way.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is not without its moments, but just like its title it feels like three different movies shoved together, the sum less than its parts.

Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.