Everything and nothing seems to happen in this lethargic and strange action drama, which stars Mahershala Ali as a philosophical black hitman trying to raise three children after the death of his wife. The concept itself was not without precedent — Forest Whitaker quietly practiced tai chi and composed haiku between mafia jobs in the 1999 Jim Jarmusch film. ghost dog; Way of the samurai — but the idea of a violent killer who spends his free time “homeschooling, cooking meals, and cleaning” is new for a fairly straightforward movie.
Ali plays Latif, whom we first see working in a bright but dingy toilet, where the killer kills his victim with a sword. As Latif wipes away the copious amount of blood, we see the contents of his kit, which contains diapers and wet wipes. Latif turns out to be a family man who works hard to keep his underworld connections secret from his children, teenager Fatiha (Adiya), 10-year-old Kadir (Jalil Kamara), and baby girl Aziza. Latif’s devotion to Aziza, who refuses to breastfeed, is one of the film’s core themes, as he struggles to get out of increasingly difficult situations, stopping only to find fresh breast milk for her.
Latif may kill for money, but he has standards; He refuses to use weapons and only takes on missions if the target is truly worthy of it. He is also a practicing Muslim and a mosque attender, an early sign that this will not be an ordinary shooting. Although he’s usually a very smooth client, Latif screws up his employee Mike (Laith Naqli)’s latest job. As a result, Latif is drawn, against his will, into an escalating conflict between Mike, his porn-addicted nephew Hadi (Abu Bakr Ali), and Reverend Huan Yuen (John Cho), the leader of an aggressive Christian nationalist militia/sect.
The film has two main moods, firstly the dingy, dimly lit, sometimes hard-to-hear milieu in which Latif juggles his clandestine activities with child-rearing, and secondly, the harsh, saturated world of Reverend Huan Yuen, a flamboyant character played by Cho as a kind of Asian dancer David Duke (Your mother…He is nothing if not bold in his choices.) The subsequent tonal shifts from one mood to another detract from the film’s more natural atmosphere, and the first half is more satisfying. The Pastor looks like it’s straight out of a comic book movie, and it may not be a coincidence that Tarek’s film arose from the ashes of trying to collaborate with Ali on a Marvel vampire remake code.
Fortunately, there are several lighter moments, most of which revolve around a recurring group of Mormons who come to Latif’s aid when he needs them, Your mother… It’s a pretty cruel attempt to inject a little self-reflection into the traditional killer style. Although it has changed 180 degrees since its first appearance, Mogul Mowgli (2020), Tariq’s film shows a similar creative depth to his writing, and it’s tempting to wonder what that film’s star, the intense but soulful Riz Ahmed, might have done with the same material: Ali certainly has a lively presence, but the resonant, studied earnestness of the performance He does Get a little worn out.
Most curious thing about Your mother…Although although it aims to celebrate femininity, and motherhood in particular (the film takes its title from a famous Islamic proverb about an encounter with the Prophet), there aren’t many women here. Which is especially strange considering that Latif’s relationship with his daughter, a big head on young shoulders, is the strongest it has ever been.
The film will certainly find an audience, but it will be a difficult sell, being too clever for a mindless action film, and not arty enough for those enthralled by its raw promise of violence and theosophy. The latter should review the work of another Tariq Saleh, whose nuanced interrogations of religion and politics were within the context of the literary genre – particularly Cairo conspiracy (2020) – More satisfying, accessible and profound.
address: Your mother your mother your mother
festival: Toronto (Special Offers)
Director/screenwriter: Bassam Tariq
ejaculate: Mahershala Ali, John Chu, Abubakar Ali, Adia, Giancarlo Esposito
distributor: MGM Amazon Studios
Operating time: 1 hour and 52 minutes
