‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’ Review: Mahershala Ali Is The Glue That Binds A Dour Texas-Set Action Drama – Toronto Film Festival

Everything and nothing seems to happen in this curiously inert action drama, which stars Mahershala Ali as a philosophical Black Muslim hitman trying to raise three children after the death of his wife. The concept itself not without precedent — Forrest Whitaker calmly practised Tai Chi and composed haikus in between Mafia jobs in Jim Jarmusch’s 1999 Ghost Dog; The Way of the Samurai — but the idea of a violent killer who spends his spare time “home-schoolin’, cookin’ meals and cleanin’” is a new one for a fairly straightforward genre movie.

Ali plays Latif, who we first see at work in a bright but grubby restroom, where the hitman dispatches his victim with a sword. As Latif mops up the copious amount for blood, we see the contents of his toolkit, which contains diapers and wet wipes. Latif, it transpires, is a family man who works hard to keep his underworld ties a secret from his children, the teenage Fatiha (Adia), 10-year-old Qadir (Jahleel Kamara), and baby girl Aziza. Latif’s dedication to Aziza, who refuses to feed, is one of the film’s core themes, as he fights his way out of increasingly intense situations, pausing only to find fresh breast milk for her.

Latif may kill for money, but he has standards; he refuses to use a gun and only takes on assignments if the target really deserves it. He is also a dedicated Muslim and a regular at the mosque, which is a sign early on that this isn’t going to be the average shoot-’em-up. Though usually a very smooth operator, Latif has bungled the latest job for his hander Mike (Laith Nakli). As a result, Latif is pulled in, against his wishes, into an escalating feud between Mike and his sleazy porn-impresario nephew Haddy (Abubakr Ali) and the Pastor Hwan Yoon (John Cho), leader of an aggressive Christian Nationalist militia/cult.

The film has two main moods, firstly the dingy, dimly lit, and sometimes hard-to-hear milieu in which Latif juggles his clandestine activities with parenting, and secondly the harsh, saturated world of Pastor Hwan Yoon, a flamboyant figure played by Cho as a kind of line-dancing Asian David Duke (Your Mother… is nothing if not bold in its casting choices). The later tonal shifts from one mood to the other detract from the film’s more naturalistic vibe, and the first half is much more satisfying. The Pastor feels beamed in from a comic-book movie, and it may be no coincidence that Tariq’s film rose from the ashes of an attempt to collaborate with Ali on a remake of Marvel vampire movie Blade.

Thankfully, there many lighter moments, most revolving around a recurring group of Mormons who come to Latif’s aid when he needs them, Your Mother… is a largely dour attempt to inject a little self-reflection to the traditional hitman set-up. Though 180-degrees from his debut, Mogul Mowgli (2020), Tariq’s film shows a similarly inventive depth to its writing, and it’s tempting to wonder what that film’s star, the intense but spiritual Riz Ahmed, could have done with the same material: Ali certainly has a brooding presence, but the studiedly sonorous solemnity of the performance does become a little wearing.

The most curious thing about Your Mother…, though, is that while it purports to celebrate womanhood, and motherhood in particular (the film takes its title from a famous Muslim parable about an encounter with the Prophet), there aren’t too many women to be seen here. Which is especially odd given Latif’s relationship with his daughter, an old head on young shoulders, is the strongest of all.  

The film will find an audience for sure, but it will be a hard sell, being far too intelligent for a mindless action movie and not arty enough for those intrigued by its heady promise of violence and theosophy. The latter should check out the work of another Tariq, Tariq Saleh, whose subtle interrogations of religion and politics in a genre context — notably Cairo Conspiracy (2020) — are much more satisfying, accessible and profound.

Title: Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Festival: Toronto (Special Presentations)
Director/screenwriter: Bassam Tariq
Cast: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Abubakr Ali, Adia, Giancarlo Esposito
Distributor: MGM Amazon Studios
Running time: 1 hr 52 mins