Mother Mary / Is God Is / Backrooms

Time To Give Up The Ghost

It would be an understatement to refer to David Lowery, Aleshea Harris & Kane Parsons’ recent films as… “Haunting”. Hauntings engulf you; They consume you; They surround your entire being. Most of us are living in an almost phantom culture. Some of us are more out in the world than others, but inside, we feel completely alone as our world continues inching towards what I fear will be a permanent standstill in some form. The memories that have come to define our lives feel like phantoms. You don’t always see them in memory exactly as they were, but you feel them squeezing your shoulders as though you need a reminder. There are the ghosts that come for you, the ghosts you come for, and the ghosts that exist somewhere in between. 

Lowery’s “Mother Mary" follows Anne Hathaway’s title character, a renowned pop star days away from her comeback tour following an injury at her last concert, the circumstances surrounding which she can’t explain. Overwhelmed with imposter syndrome, regret, and exhaustion from hiding a secret she can’t even admit to herself, she seeks refuge with her former best friend Sam (Michael Coel), a prominent fashion designer and her former stylist. Having been cut out creatively as Mother Mary rose to stardom, Sam’s not over the moon to see her soaking wet at her large estate in the English Countryside, nor is she thrilled with Mother Mary’s desperate request for a dress that’s “Her” in time for her concert. Sam silently seethes and toys with her former friend as she leaves her dangling over whether or not she will make the dress. Most of Mother Mary takes place in Sam’s studio, which is a massive barn outside her home, which is undergoing numerous renovations. Sam’s loyal assistant Hilda (Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer) stops by to assist with measurements and tries to keep busy amongst her employer’s personal reckoning. The tone of Mother Mary starts to shift upon revelations of something pointing towards the supernatural. The dress Sam decides to make for Mother Mary plays a huge role in what is happening and how things will be resolved, but to say any more would rob audiences of experiencing something incredibly profound. I was the only one in the theater when I saw this film. I don’t think it was in theaters very long. The emptiness of the theater helped sell the ghost aspect of the story, but I strongly suspect Mother Mary will become a cult classic. It’s shocking, original, and impossible to forget, and so is this artist's work. 

I’d currently place Harris’s “Is God Is” as the second-best film of 2026; The first one being “The Drama. While not as morally challenging as The Drama, morality is a constant theme throughout this film, particularly as it pertains to vengeance, who gets to have it, and what acts of evil truly give license without a shadow of a doubt to take justice into your own hands. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson both deserve Oscar nominations for their flawless chemistry and individuality within their performances as twin sisters, “Racine & Anai, who survived being burned alive as children by their monstrous father (Sterling K. Brown), who had a restraining order against him by their mother (Vivica A. Fox), who bore most of the burns. 

Having spent the rest of their childhood in abusive foster care homes, the two sisters work nights cleaning offices where no one can see them except the occasional employees who work late now and then. Racine is the tough and fiery one, while Anaia (Whose burns are more severe) is shy. Every day, they have to put ice cubes on their burns that sizzle every time. They receive word from their dying mother that their father has never been held accountable by the law and instructs them to murder him slowly and painfully. Racine delights at the opportunity for revenge while poor Anaia tries to talk her out of it. Their quest for blood, justice, and peace brings them on a long, harrowing,g and violent odyssey across the deep south, encountering many ridiculous people determined to stand in their way. This includes their father’s former lover (Erika Alexander), a devoted Church leader desperate for him to return to her, his former lawyer (Mykelti Williamson), who only provides an address after Racine gets physical, and their father’s new wife (Janelle Monae). Monae’s screentime is very brief, but she is hilarious in her embodiment of those who weaponize feminism by proclaiming sisterhood when it’s convenient and running off to protect herself when things get hard. All roads eventually lead them to the monster himself, and K. Brown fully delivers evil at its core. “Is God Is” gives birth to a validation for those suffering in the shadows. It’s a Southern Gothic with grit, heart, fully justified eccentricness, and cries of glory for America’s Racine and Anaia. 

Kane Parsons just made history. At 20 years old, he’s A24’s youngest filmmaker, and his debut “Backrooms” just became A24’s highest-grossing opening. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve carry subtle, angry, frightened performances as Clark, an angry alcoholic and failed architect living in his cheap furniture store, and his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline. Trying to discover why the basement lights keep flickering, Clark falls through the wall into a yellow office space, full of rooms that keep on going. A maze that comes to no end. Clark finds a new purpose in mapping out the rooms and goes so far in his conquest, jeopardizing the safety of his fed-up assistant manager (Lukita Maxwell) and her boyfriend (Finn Bennett). Clark frantically tries to explain his findings to Mary, who suspects alcohol withdrawal. Clark eventually falls into despair and refuses to leave the backroom,s leaving Mary to search for him upon discovering it herself. These rooms build up the memory of those who walk through them. Items, design, shapes, everything comes from the origins of a person’s trauma. Mary is disturbed to find a mess as she ventures deeper into the backrooms, remembering herself as a child living with her agoraphobic and schizophrenic mother, who chastises her for lifting the newspapers she has taped to all the windows, blocking out any sunlight. “It’s safer here,” she insists. Her inability to function healthily results in a bulldozer destroying the house with them inside. Mary’s mother has a complete breakdown and is institutionalized. Reinsve carries the memories of this pain with such subtlety as she races across the Backrooms upon seeing a violent act by Clark’s “Copy,” as the rooms don’t just replicate the settings of the past but those within it. Backrooms has a crazy, wild, bonkers ending that will have you gasping for air. Parsons (Who started out as a YouTuber making strange short films of these Backrooms) plans on continuing the story, and I can’t wait to find the origins of these rooms and what happens with them.

These three films brilliantly and beautifully follow all the kinds of ghosts people carry every day inside of them. Art reflecting real life is what cinema does, and to see that in fictional stories that still feel so real is miraculous. It ALL starts with the writing. ALWAYS. 

These scripts have genius ingrained into them all the way through. They understand that confrontation is frightening. So is loneliness. 2026 has been an exceptional year for cinema; every month, something new and inspiring is released.  It’s important not to have gaps in between several months as we wait for what we want to be released, but great films need to be released regularly in order for audiences to do that. These three films deliver on every front,t and us audiences have to do our part and see them. As the ghosts of our cultural and political climate come closer, we may find that the best thing we can do is confront them. Only then will the hauntings cease and set us free.