"Mother Mary," the David Lowery-directed drama starring Anne Hathaway as a pop star haunted by fame and an estranged friendship, arrived on HBO Max on Friday, giving the film a second life after a mixed reception during its limited theatrical run this spring.
The movie, written and directed by Lowery and produced with Hathaway in the lead role, follows a world-famous singer preparing a comeback performance after an onstage accident. She reunites with Sam Anselm, played by Michaela Coel, an estranged former collaborator who helped launch her career but was denied credit for it. Working together in the English countryside on a dress for the comeback show, the two confront old resentments as the film shifts between grounded drama and surreal, fantastical sequences. The supporting cast includes Hunter Schafer, FKA twigs, Jessica Brown Findlay, Kaia Gerber, Sian Clifford and Alba Baptista.
"Mother Mary" opened in limited release on April 17 before expanding wide a week later, and received a mixed critical response: Rotten Tomatoes lists the film at 69% positive among critics, with a lower 60% audience score, while Metacritic scored it 58 out of 100. The film grossed roughly $3 million against a reported $20 million budget, a soft theatrical performance typical of the ambiguous, genre-blending drama that struggled to find its audience on the big screen.
A case for reassessment
Coverage of the streaming debut has largely framed it as an opportunity for viewers to revisit a film some critics argue was too easily dismissed on release. Collider argued that Hathaway's performance ranks among the finest of her career, even as the film's unconventional structure — which folds a ritualistic, ghost-haunted subplot into a story ostensibly about friendship and fame — left some early viewers cold. The film "doesn't provide the charm and thrills" of Hathaway's more commercial 2026 releases, the outlet noted, but argued it carries greater thematic depth than its box-office returns suggested.
Lowery, whose past credits include "The Green Knight" and "A Ghost Story," has built a career on films that reward patience and resist easy categorization, and "Mother Mary" fits that pattern: a movie more interested in interior states than plot mechanics, built around two performances — Hathaway's and Coel's — that critics singled out even when the film around them divided opinion.
Streaming exclusives and near-misses in theaters have increasingly found second audiences once they land on a major platform, and "Mother Mary" arrives on HBO Max at a moment when awards-season conversation is beginning to take shape for the fall. Whether the film's streaming run reopens that conversation for Hathaway's performance remains to be seen, but its arrival gives the movie a considerably larger potential audience than its limited theatrical release did.