Final Rating: 3.5/5
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, directed by Bassem Tariq, follows Latif (Mahershala Ali) who, after the sudden passing of his wife, suddenly finds himself a single father to his three children, including a still-breastfeeding newborn.
As a devout Muslim, he does have a local community that helps come together and give him and his family strength and support. This is undercut by the fact that Latif makes his living as a hitman, something that he cannot so easily walk away from to tend to his familial duties.
Latif must be more hands-on with being a father, with his first priority being to find the one thing he cannot provide for his youngest: breast milk. This stress is compounded when his boss, Mike Mahmoudi (Laith Nakli), contacts him with his next target: a born-again Christian leader named Hwan Yoon (a bizarre-yet-restrained performance from John Cho) who leads a militia looking to hunt down Mike’s son Hatty (Abubakr Ali). Hatty runs Muslim-themed pornographic empire, and Yoon’s puritanical army is looking to “cleanse” the world of it.
The film was conceptualized by Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) in the wake of a delayed, and eventually shelved, Blade film with Marvel Studios. Mahershala Ali was slated to play the title character and took an extensive amount of training in preparation for the combat and stunts that the role would have entailed. Once that project collapsed, Tariq conceptualized Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother to take advantage of Ali’s newfound skillset.
Latif lives by his own code as a hitman, not unlike Forest Whitaker in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (a film that is a clear inspiration to Tariq). He does not use guns, preferring close range weapons like swords and knives. This mirrors his religious devotion to Islam and the Muslim community around him in Houston, which he holds deeply until his faith is tested by his circumstances.
Although faith and family play a huge role throughout, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother follows several thematic elements at different times. There is a loss of innocence that Latif’s two oldest children must deal with in the wake of losing their mother.
The oldest daughter, Fatiha (played with great emotional range by Adia), is particularly conflicted with the sudden responsibility thrust upon her by her father. She is clearly already questioning her Muslim faith and position as a young woman within it. Her character and the plotlines dealing with the family and Muslim community are necessary to keep the audience grounded amongst the action.
On the other side, the personalities are cranked to their highest settings. Hatty’s entitled, bratty, rich kid influencer schtick is as purposefully grating as it needs to be. Hwan Yoon adopts more of the charming evangelical approach, even when he’s brandishing rifles and acting as an ultra-right-wing messiah.
John Cho finds more success in his character of Yoon and is deserving of praise for his performance. He makes for a formidable foil to Latif. Cho and Ali don’t share many scenes, but when they do they make everything around them better.
Despite some fantastic action and combat set pieces, the film is a bit uneven overall. Visually, it seems to be caught between the stylish high energy of a John Wick and the dramatic chamber drama of a Barry Jenkins film. The film does also feel like it is taking on a lot of subtextual themes that aren’t quite given enough time to really be explored.
What does keep the film together is the strength of the performances. Mahershala Ali has become one of the great screen presences working today, and he holds the weight of the film firmly on his shoulders. The supporting cast is memorable and strong, whether getting their own moments to shine or holding a mirror up to Latif.
It’s also held together by a strong editing touch (courtesy of Cam McLauchlin) and a memorable score from post-rock band Son Lux. One does wonder what a Blade film with these talents would have amounted to, but they certainly coalesced into a frequently interesting and meditative journey with this film.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother was seen during the 2026 Calgary International Film Festival.
