YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER***** - BFI London Film Festival 2026 - Day 11

YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER is an absolutely fantastic film. It's hilarious, the action choreography is thrilling, it's genuinely moving, and it takes us into a world and a community few of us will know.  Writer-director Bassam Tariq (MOGUL MOWGLI) is really doing something as unique and authentic and purposeful as when Tarantino first came to our screens. 

The film is set in contemporary Houston, where community comes from religious groups.  Mahershala Ali plays a hitman called Latif, whose beloved wife has just died leaving him with three kids to take care of.  The fact that he got the call about his wife amidst murder clean-up AND the fact that his infant needs breast-milk become the twin MacGuffins that propel the action of the film. 

First off, because his boss Mike needed to clean-up the murder, Latif now owes him, and Mike wants him to pay that debt by assassinating an evangelical Christian cult-leader called Pastor Hwan (John Cho) that's going for Mike's nephew Hatty.  Second, Latif needs to find a nursing mother that can provide his hungry infant Zizi with food.  

All of which speaks to a gonzo cast of characters and a richness of world-building that echoes early Tarantino and comes complete with some rather sweet Mormons and a vibrant mosque community.  

What I love about this film is that it shows how the younger generations intermix and riff on each other's cultural language and tropes. It also dares to speak openly and honestly about faith, loss of faith, and balancing the desire to be pious with the desire to have a boyfriend or the need to provide for your kids. 

It was amazing to me how in one moment we would be laughing at Hatty's mogul stylings and then listening to him opine about his faith in moving terms. Or how we could see Latif's elder daughter Fatiha have to contend with being a mother stand-in and try to be pious, but then also be a normal teenage girl with a crush on Elder Wade.

I also loved how despite it's hilarious dialogue and exaggerated settings and crazy fight-scenes this was a movie that kept me guessing and laid some profundity on me in its final moments.  John Cho plays Pastor Hwan for laughs, as he should, but his character speaks to the profound issue of the rise of Christian nationalism.  And Latif is on a long journey of realising that while he can never replace the children's mother, he can be the best father he can.

So kudos to all involved. This is some of Ali's best stunt and acting work in a storied career. I would argue that it's a career best performance from John Cho.  But it's Adia as Fatiha who is the heart and soul of the film and most clearly shows how Tariq's script allows its characters a fully realised spectrum of emotions and responses.

YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER is rated R and has a running time of 1hr 51m. It played Toronto and was released in the USA last month. It will be released in the UK on November 20th.

THUNDERBOLTS* - ****

I bugged out of the Marvel Universe after GUARDIANS 1. Too many movies. Too many big bads blowing up cities. Too many sardonic quips from Iron Man. It just all became so same.  But for whatever reason I decided to watch THUNDERBOLTS* and thoroughly enjoyed it!  

The first phase of the MCU is over. The po-faced Captain America type characters are gone.  This is a post-Avengers world. And we are dealing with its detritus and emotional baggage.  I like the beaten up, jaded look of the characters. Florence Pugh's little sister to Scar-Jo's deceased Black Widow looks she's coming off a bender.  The millennial, I-hate-my job-angst is both hilarious and relatable. I like the idea that rather than saving the world she's just a mercenary. I really like the idea that despite all the tedious fight scenes what really matters is having mates with whom one can be vulnerable and tackle all the demons that haunt us. That's a nice message.  

And it's wrapped in a genuinely very funny script Eric Pearson and Joanna Cala and SUPERB line delivery from Florence Pugh and David Harbour as the most ridiculously messed-up and adorable father-daughter superheroes seen on screen. We haven't seen the name Bob deployed for this much comic effect since Blackadder 2.  I also LOVE Julia Louis-Dreyfus in basically anything. Here, she's a billionaire arms-dealer - kind of like the successful version of her character in Veep - who wants to control the mercenaries.  She manages to pivot so quickly it takes your breath away.

Kudos to director Jake Schreier for pulling off a genuinely enjoyable, funny and moving Marvel film. It's certainly a handbrake-turn away from his wonderful ROBOT & FRANK but I am here for it.

THUNDERBOLTS is rated PG-13, has a running time of 127 minutes and is on global release.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE*

I first tried to watch this film last year and gave up after 20 minutes. When it won a bunch of Golden Globes I tried again and it made it through an hour twenty.  I wasn't going to go back but a friend said there was this amazing speech by Ke Huy Quan that was SO moving so I watched again to the end. Alls I can say is that I'm really happy Ke Huy Quan is finally getting work again and that Michelle Yeoh is finally getting recognition as a serious actress. And I'm super glad the "two Dans" - who directed and wrote this movie really love sci-fi and meta verse films and Kubrick. But this film is a mess. A really boring, bullshit mess and I do NOT get the hype.  

Somewhere in it's bloated running time there is  touching story about a middle-aged woman who runs a laundrette and is trying to file her taxes. She is trying to reconcile herself to her life choices, and trying to rescue her daughter from depression, and trying to rediscover her love for her husband, and indeed herself.  THAT would be a worthwhile film. We rarely see such stories of middle-aged women, let alone Asian women.  But this film is so crowded with juvenile humour and what-if scenarios in alternative universes that the actual deep emotion is undercut.  I can't FEEL if I'm being distracted by Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis with hot dog fingers. Maybe that's on me. 

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE has a running time of 139 minutes and is rated R. It played SXSW 2022 and is on release globally.