Early on in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, our protagonist Latif (Mahershala Ali) is forced to fight his way out of a strip club converted into a church. He puts on gloves, applies vaseline to the outside, and runs them through broken glass created only moments before by his own violent outburst. Latif creates a brutal weapon that he uses to cut through more gun-toting goons, a weapon only conjurable because of prior brutality. This exploration of the cycle of violence is one of many themes explored in Bassem Tariq’s rip-roaring road trip action drama that’s limited on action, but certainly makes up for it with drama.
Tariq’s followup to Mogul Mowgli has strange origins. Marvel Studios’ doomed Blade film was supposed to be directed by Tariq, and starred Mahershala Ali after he came to the studio with a pitch. When the project fell through, Ali took his sword training he had been doing for Blade and joined up with Tariq for YMYMYM, a film that hints at what Blade could have become, and yet is distinct in so many ways. We meet Latif, a devout Muslim hitman, while he’s completing a job. While cleaning up, he’s notified of his wife’s death. It’s never explained what exactly kills the mother of his 3 children, but there are bigger issues at hand: his baby only drinks breast milk, and they’re running out of it. What follows is the quest to secure that milk, hindered by a new job that Latif is forced to complete for his boss.
Despite the premise of a grieving father hunted by deadlines and armed foes, YMYMYM is surprisingly funny, with much of the humor deriving naturally from the chaotic, unfiltered behavior of the children caught in the crossfire. Latif’s oldest daughter navigates adolescent rebellion in absurd ways; what she’s caught watching on her computer spurs many of the film’s early laughs. It’s a journey anchored by the inescapable truth of single fatherhood: try as Latif might, no one can ever truly replace a mother.
Latif’s newest job pulls him into the orbit of Pastor Hwan Yoon, played with magnetic menace by John Cho. In a cowboy hat, gold grill, and sporting southern drawl, Cho is unforgettable as an Iraq war veteran turned religious extremist, preaching scripture at gunpoint and having his men adorned in red arm bands. Both Latif and Hwan are devoutly religious men who steer clear of the pornography that seemingly corrupts the men around them, yet their paths split into radically different interpretations of faith – one leaning into grace and community protection, the other weaponizing fundamentalism into a cult of violence. Ali is effective as always in his best performance since Moonlight. His quiet, solemn energy explodes into violence at just the right moments.
Channeling the solitary, code-bound energy of Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog, Tariq’s film elevates itself through an exploration of redemption, martyrdom, and the question of resurrection. All roads lead straight to hell, a character remarks, leaving us to wonder whether Mahershala’s hitman can survive the trip. Driving the emotional momentum forward is an evocative score by Son Lux, mixing Arabic vocals with bass-heavy production. YMYMYM spurs conversations about faith and whether devotion really leads to salvation, with a climax that’s sure to make audiences question their own faith.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and releases in theaters on September 25.
