“Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” is one of the rare times recently when it feels like we’re in right timeline of the multiverse. We’ve all heard the jokes about wishing we were in the alternate timeline where X or Y did or didn’t happen, and this incredible movie only exists because “Blade” fell apart. Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and director Bassam Tariq were working on that long-stalled MCU project, and, when it collapsed, they took that collaborative research and training to this original concept: A breathtaking hybrid of religious commentary, samurai action and family drama. It intertwines its themes and characters in a manner that owes a great debt to both belief in the 2020s and stories of faith across the centuries, while also feeling entirely fresh in its study of a man trying desperately to do what’s right for his family and his people. The title refers to a question asked to The Prophet of “Who deserves the best of you?” Asked three times, the answer is always the same.
This parable opens the film before it segues into a fight in a bathroom that would make John Wick wince—it’s religion into violence, faith into what it might take to protect that belief. The robed hitman tussling under a dirty sink is Latif, played with remarkable gravity by the Oscar winner from “Moonlight” and “Green Book.” Ali’s performance is easily among the best of the year, finding ways to add nuance and depth through movement, body language, and fight choreography as much as his mesmerizing face. While the film’s stoic hitman and samurai influences have drawn comparisons to “Drive” and “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” there’s something about Latif that’s also impressively original. The feeling of watching him is reminiscent of seeing the first John Wick movie: A violent pronouncement of a fascinating new figure in the action universe; in this case, it’s one who is equally committed to his roles as father, hitman, and Muslim.
It’s the first duty there that’s going to be a problem for Latif. After the opening scene, he learns that his wife has died—“John Wick” was also about a man spinning out through vengeance as a form of channeling grief into action—and it has left him as the caregiver for his three children: teenage Fathia (Adia, one of the best young performers of the year, by far), pre-teen Kadir (Jahleel Kamara), and a newborn baby who will not take formula. And they’re running out of breast milk. Yes, “Your Mother” is an action film where what its violent hero seeks is mother’s milk. The need for it leads him to a breastfeeding sex worker (Tiffany Boone), only to discover that she has been caught up in what is basically a religious war in the heart of Texas.
Once a performer in the stable of a cultural-sexual influencer (Abubakr Ali) who has been dubbed the king of “Habibi porn,” she’s now been “liberated” by the walking caricature that is Pastor Hwan Yoon (John Cho). Wearing gold teeth, a cowboy hat, and roses on his lapels, he’s a villain out of a Western, someone who thinks his righteousness has been valorized by a God who saved him from death in combat. He has used that to become an eradicator of what he determines to be evil, leading to a war accompanied by his flock against that of Latif’s people, forcing this faithful man to protect the one who he detests for what he has done to women under the banner of his culture.
“Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” has a sweaty immediacy in almost frame. Gorgeously shot by Katelin Arizmendi and fluidly edited by Cam McLauchlin, it has the urgency that so many recent films lack, especially the action that feel guided by focus groups more than human hands. Tariq’s team works in collaboration with Ali’s performance to find a visual language that parallels their protagonist’s instinctual progressions. Latif is always thinking, moving, striking, and so the filmmaking around him needs to do the same. There’s a quietly active aspect to Ali’s performance that’s rare and underrated, even when he’s not killing or even speaking. It’s essential to the film’s success for us to believe that both Latif’s peril and skill set are 100% genuine. Not only does that veracity enhance the film’s stakes, but it keeps the movie humming from first frame to last. This is a flick that doesn’t just unfold; it moves, and that sense of motion is enhanced not just by the top-notch craft in every category but a truly incredible score from Son Lux that blends cultural rhythms with something electronically haunting.
Of course, a story about a baby-toting hitman battling religious fundamentalists has some inherently dense themes as well. Can an assassin even be a righteous man? Ali finds both Latif’s determination and concern not only that he’s putting his family in danger but that maybe he doesn’t deserve mercy himself. He’s matched by a truly captivating performance from Adia, doing some of the best teen acting in a long time. She slowly becomes her father’s conscience, the reflection of what he’s fighting for in his family and possibly what his actions have threatened. It’s a great turn. Cho’s work also becomes essential to the fabric of the piece. If Latif questions whether he deserves the best of anything, Cho understands that his villain is the kind of monster formed by ego more than the sacrifice that must come with faith. Latif wonders if he can do right by doing wrong; Hwan Yoon believes he can never do wrong. God told him so.
The end of “Your Mother” is going to divide audiences. Without spoiling a thing, it leans into the film’s themes in a truly daring plot choice, one that only works if the film has cast a spell on you up to the climax. For me, it’s further evidence of this film’s power and ambition in its refusal to deliver an easy, action-based conclusion. While the combat scenes here are incredibly choreographed, that’s not really all this movie wants to be, and so it shouldn’t have a predictable set piece to end it. It’s a film that wants to entertain while it asks truly difficult questions about faith and family. Who do we give our best? And how do you answer that when there’s nothing left to give?
This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival. It opens on September 25, 2026.
