Notoriously, director David Lowery holds scenes longer than most other directors, even after what needed to be addressed transpired. It is quite funny since the first fifteen minutes of the film did not his signature of holding a scene. It was traditionally edited. The cuts were flawless and smooth and the pace was great until the stand-off, which dominated the film. Lowery holds the scene to see if a gesture or an action from the actors will bring forth more to the story and flush a cohesiveness. Continuing to hold a scene- like for instance, a mega-pop diva who lives in the stratospheric layer of stardom and his possessed by- I don’t know, some kind of entity,  is requesting a new dress be made for immediately by her once close friend who is an accomplished fashion designer but leads to over a third of the film being dialogue that goes nowhere, no really nowhere.  “Mother Mary” feels like a film that never went beyond its concept.  A concept about identity and process of making art, and authenticity. It claims to be not a ghost story and not a love story, which is fine but yet, those are stories. “Mother Mary” isn’t a story, it is an aesthetic of a story. It is a film, more concerned about the look of the film then what the film is trying to say. It’s been days since I’ve seen it and still find difficulty with any kind of theme or message. An entity will stop possessing your body if you can say how sorry you are for being a jerk? Really, that’s what I take away from viewing it. 

Smile part 2 had more to say about a pop diva possessed by an entity in this film, and didn’t do in a way to be pretentious.  There was potential in this -having Ann Hathaway playing an aging pop star that sensed that her loss of creative authenticity, possibly her identity to fame and success.  The film is primarily a discourse of friendship and a loose connection of a dream. All that discourse and still didn’t have much to convey, and still not care about anyone in this film. It wouldn’t matter whatever happened to Mother Mary in this. It wound’t matter if lived or died, because there is no story.  It should have been a short film, maybe an hour or so, but Lowery holding on to scenes and stretching the time didn’t work like it did in “The Green Knight” and “Ghost Story”  there was just nothing there.

There is a pop band of twin sisters called “Mother Mary” that has no affiliation to this film and made a statement of their own about a film using their name. And that fits perfectly to the whole development of this film. It thinks it is original while there are many elements of it that are easily noticed borrowed from other material and ignoring the similarities.  We do see the dress that is being discussed in the film and immaculately it is on display on a mannequin, and not a real person.  Absolutely how fitting. 6/10