Faith and fighting collide in the excellent Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Existence is improv. We're all stumbling through life, struggling to figure out what to do. That's true even when you become a parent and are tasked with guiding young souls through this agonizing yet beautiful world. Latif (Mahershala Ali) knows this better than anyone. His life's been chaos since his wife passed away, leaving this deeply committed Muslim struggling to raise his three children, including a newborn baby, ten-year-old son Qadir (Jahleel Kamara), and teenage daughter Fatiha (Adia). Throwing an extra wrench into the proceedings is Latif’s job. He’s a hitman slicing throats by night and kneeling before Allah by day.

Writer/director Bassam Tariq's Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother follows Latif on a quest to procure breastmilk for his youngest. This odyssey puts him in constant opposition to his boss, Mike Mahmoudi (Laith Nakli), as well as local Christian icon Hwan Yoon (John Cho). Draped in cowboy gear, shimmering grills on his teeth, and an army of followers behind him, Yoon is Latif's latest target. All this man wants, though, is to feed his baby. Time for Latif to grab his sword and protect his family.

I love it when art combines glorious craftsmanship with sillier impulses. Beyoncé's 2022 tune "CUFF IT," for instance, is so perfectly made in its tiniest instrumentation intricacies. It's also a song where Beyoncé sings the word "thotty," a joyous use of internet verbiage sounding triumphant with her vocals. Meanwhile, my beloved Hundreds of Beavers demonstrates pervasive attention to detail in executing the most outlandish gags imaginable. There’s an artistry in how icicles plunge into the eyes of wolves or a puppet frog screams in terror.

Similarly, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is rich in powerful imagery and emotional potency. Tariq’s artistic command is towering. His creative vision, however, also makes this the first (that I’m aware of) movie featuring the phrase “halal jizz." Similarly, even though the story makes the consequences of violence achingly potent, there are still some great “here we goooooooo” fight scene beats putting countless lackluster 87North movies to shame.

Balance is crucial for carving out a fulfilling existence. It’s also an ingredient Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother masters to deeply impactful effect. Something else this feature has a strong command of is creativity. The first big face-to-face scene between Latif and Hwan, for instance, is already a tense set piece just based on the dialogue and performances. However, Tariq underpins this exchange with the sound of Latif’s youngest getting burped just off-screen. The constant “pat pat pat” noise on the soundtrack works sonically reminds audiences of what’s at stake here for Latif. His newborn child’s in danger even when she’s not on-screen.

Devoid of any context, though, the rhythmic pats excel in making your heart race as the conversation keeps going and Hwan’s words grow increasingly menacing and bigoted (“You’ve got that Ramadan smell on your breath,” he remarks to Latif). What a fantastically innovative and character-centric sound choice accentuating tension. Such profoundly specific achievements flow throughout Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother like water slipping through a creek bed. This includes Tariq and cinematographer Katelin Arizmendi’s richly moving imagery. The duo’s close-up shots, especially when utilized in flashbacks, beautifully place viewers in the memories of Latifa and Fatiha.

An especially evocative example of such visuals comes early in the film as Latif drives his family to a mosque. On their way, Fatiha stares outside, rain trickling down the window, and remembers her mother’s fingers adjusting and fine-tuning her hair. There’s no abrupt word or phrasing triggering this sudden digression to the past. Fatiha just suddenly dives into yesteryear. This vividly signals how the pain of missing her mother interrupts her life at any random moment. The immediately moving lighting and tender atmosphere Tariq and Arizmendi conjure up in these brief flashbacks both move the soul and make it clear why Fatiha years for the past.

In contrast to these tight, intimate shots, there’s also the grander Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother visual impulses. Certain images, like Latif standing on a balcony above Hwan’s congregation in a wide shot, evoke an outright mythic quality. The blocking and atmosphere evoke ancient religious paintings plopped into modern Houston, Texas. Whatever mode it’s operating in, Your Mother is a visual tour de force.

The various fight scenes are also impressively realized. Tariq leaps from his grounded, naturalistic directorial debut Mogul Mowgli to this gunfire and punch-heavy feature without breaking a sweat. Creative backdrops (like a ritzy mansion or a strip club being converted into a church) abound in these set pieces. Potent fight choreography and editing keep the hand-to-hand skirmishes visually coherent. Some of these scenes feature a handful of unforgettable “oh, shit!” crowdpleaser moments. Particularly impactful is Latif slathering Vaseline and then shards of glass on his gloves for one confrontation. Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’s action isn’t about spectacle.

Instead, the consequences of violence reverberate throughout this entire movie. When characters perish, there’s tangible weight to their passing. Tariq’s script shrewdly uses this reality to inspire new forms of compelling tension. After all, every punch has consequences and often brings Latif more trouble rather than resolving his woes. However, this pivotal aspect also accentuates Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’s emotional and character details. Sure, it’s endlessly cool seeing Mahershala Ali wield a sword. However, the horrors of taking a life make it abundantly clear why Latif wants to leave this occupation behind. His greatest triumphs come from saving lives and helping his kids rather than being Charles Bronson in Death Wish.

Mahershala Ali beautifully communicates the psychological costs of this hitman life and so much more through his top-shelf performance. In only his second live-action theatrical movie appearance since 2019’s Alita: Battle Angel (following last year’s dismal Jurassic World Rebirth), Ali reaffirms why he was one of the great acting discoveries of the 2010s. For starters, he’s outstanding handling an understated character like Latif. Certain actors (like Brad Pitt in Heart of the Beast) just come off as vacant inhabiting subdued roles. Ali, meanwhile, deftly offers peeks into Latif’s inner world even though this character plays his cards so close to his chest.

That aforementioned initial Latif and Hwan conversation, for instance, sees Ali masterfully communicating flickers of intensity in his eyes even while Latif maintains seemingly perfect composure. Ali’s portrayal of a man keeping so much (his secret hitman life and his pain over losing his wife, namely) bottled up compels you to want to know more about him. It’s a magnificent performance rich with humanity and, when the time calls for it, momentousness.

The latter quality is especially impressive since Ali’s tremendous in communicating how Latif, like any person or parent, is making this up as he goes along. Ironically, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’s moving portrait of people improvising their next moves is realized through meticulously crafted lyrical imagery. The canon of Texas cinema has received a phenomenal new entry, with this production making both Carl Theodor Dreyer (with its use of filmmaking contemplating theological matters) and Johnnie To (with its bone-crunching action you can feel) proud. All that plus “halal jizz” too.