Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother: Film Review

"Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother"Written and Directed by Bassam TariqStarring Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Adia, Jahleel Kamara, Abubakr Ali, Laith Nakli, Tramell Tillman, Tiffany Boone, Giancarlo EspositoRated R for violence/bloody images, language, and some sexual contentRuntime: 111 minutesRelease Date: September 25, 2026 (limited), October 9, 2026 (nationwide)

Final Thought

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is both one of the best action films and best character studies of 2026.

Rating

★★★★.5 / 5

Logline

From Orion Pictures:

From writer-director Bassam Tariq, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother stars Mahershala Ali as Latif, a devoutly religious hitman who struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him - and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.

Review: The Extremists Are Christian

*Note: The underlined portions are hyperlinks.

In the required theology class of my last semester of undergrad at LMU, my final paper - titled “Muslims and the (Film)Making of America” - explored a brief history of Muslim characters in Hollywood films and probed the idea of "fair and accurate" representation of Muslims in film. In the pre-9/11 Hollywood tradition, offensive and reductive orientalist depictions of the Islamic faith were common, effectively "othering" Muslim people (think "the Libyans" in Back to the Future or "the Egyptians" in Raiders of the Lost Ark). Post 9/11, in an even-more-Islamophobic America, Muslim characters became more anonymized and used as part of the landscape of war rather than fleshed-out individuals. The obvious argument against these characters is their evident stereotypical nature, but the stance I argued was a bit more nuanced: that these characters are equally offensive because of their emptiness.

It doesn't matter if the character does bad things, but it does matter if the character only does bad things. There are exceptions to these kinds of characters, especially as you investigate smaller independent cinema, but in studio films - for most of Hollywood's cultural reign - the lack of complexity of Muslim characters does their culture an immense disservice. What makes representation "fair and accurate" is if characters are presented as real people - fallible, multifaceted, and human. In Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother - a shining, rare example of modern Islamic exploitation cinema - there exists one of the most complex and real Muslim characters I've ever experienced in a Hollywood film and one of the strongest character pieces of the year.

Bassam Tariq's second narrative feature Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother unites most of the team from the scrapped Blade reboot to tell a story of a devoutly Muslim hitman, Latif (Mahershala Ali). After the sudden death of his wife Khadijah, Latif must now care for his three children - Fatiha (Adia), Qadir (Jahleel Kamara), and the baby Aziza - alone while trying to keep away a life that he's trying to run away from. On a hunt for breast milk, Latif becomes involved with the safekeeping of his boss' porn-peddling nephew Hatty (Abubakr Ali) from a crazed Christian crusader, Pastor Hwan (John Cho). Craziness ensues, Mormons show up, it's a fun time.

A religious man must fight against porn crusaders and religious extremists to keep his children safe... only this time the protagonist is Muslim and the extremists are Christian.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother represents a unique example of exploitation cinema writ Muslim. Exploitation films are typically intended to "exploit" audiences' desires by centering the taboo, violent, and profane. They are meant to serve their niche, but most find a cult following as there is often a charm to the low-budget, schtick-heavy genre. This film is not low-budget or schtick-heavy, but in it, three "niches" - religion, sex, and violence - converge as we live with a man conflicted between the man he was and the man he needs to be. The pulpy violence, pornified sexuality, and overt religious messaging all contribute to the inherent campiness of the genre, but the "one-man-army" nature of the story aligns this film's protagonist with iconic blaxploitation characters like Shaft and Sweet Sweetback, and as a religious exploitation film, Your Mother (x3) is completely unique as few faith-based American action films are Islamic.

L-R: John Cho and Mahershala Ali in "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother"

Tariq's film is interesting in how it juxtaposes sex and violence against devout religion. After a point, it became clear that the intent was to represent the two largest perceived threats and two largest hypocrisies of religion, but I must say it took a second for me to get there. The use of pornography as plot device is jarring at first - furry porn is introduced as an early, solely comedic bit - until its greater thematic function becomes clear, and it does, but because porn is introduced comedically, the film takes too long for its story significance to stop feeling unserious. The sexual nature of this story eventually adds an interesting layer to its religious machinations, though, as the devout Latif is forced to decide between showing mercy to, effectively, a pimp and kowtowing to those who enact violence in the name of Christianity.

I love the subversion of Tariq’s depiction of the Christian faith. In Your Mother (x3), Christianity is the antagonist. The faith is villainized in same way the Islamic faith has been traditionally villainized by Hollywood. Christians rarely contemplate their position as villainous in other non-hegemonic cultures’ stories in the way those cultures have been historically forced to. I’m glad Tariq forces that reflection here.

The flag flown by the Christian antagonist bears the symbol of a cross with sword point - a bold image directly linking Christian nationalism to violence. Every “amen” comes from lips mere inches away from guns pointed towards Heaven. Throughout the film, violence is used to impose religion, and throughout the film, Latif - dubbed “Black ISIS” by multiple characters though his motivations are noble and never resemble those of the extremist group - grows worried that he’s doing the same thing. Not only is this film thematically complex, but its lead character is also equally so with a performance from Mahershala Ali to match.

Ali’s Latif is a man, guided by faith, whose life is turned upside down. Though his nature as a hitman already might not be halal, after the death of his wife, his circumstances place him at odds with his faith in incredibly extreme ways as his multiple lives are forced to converge. He has to take his kids everywhere, often mistakenly placing them in inappropriate or dangerous situations - I can only imagine the harm that does to the self-image of a single parent. His hunt for breast milk proves to be a humbling venture for the prideful man. He even finds himself at odds with prayer, exhibited in a poignant car scene where his son begs to be let out to pray.

I also notice great similarity between Latif and the titular protagonist of Jim Jarmusch’s 1999 film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. There are much deeper emotional stakes here, but both are characters that abide by a strict religious code that dictates both how and why they execute their contract kills. Academy-Award winner Mahershala Ali and his year of Blade training are excellent in this role as he plays all these nuances with aplomb, but the true surprise is Adia, in her feature film debut, as his daughter Fatiha. She holds her own in several key moments of contention between her character and her father. Giancarlo Esposito, in a small but important role here, is always welcome, while John Cho and Tramell Tillman add great flavor to the story as well.

This is a Muslim story. Writer-director Bassam Tariq is not Black - he is Pakistani - and as such, the characters’ Blackness has less story significance than I would like. However, these characters are Black nonetheless, and as Black Muslims are even more underrepresented than Muslims in general, I appreciate their centering. Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother makes a strong argument for diverse Muslim stories.

L-R: Adia, Mahershala Ali, and Jahleel Kamara in "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother"

Between this film and Is God Is (review here), Orion Pictures is 2 for 2 this year with bold explorations of black religiosity - this film being heavy on the religiosity. Latif’s Blackness truly informs his character more than the story, but it’s his and his children’s relationships with Allah that make this film bold and unique, make this film’s representation fair and accurate, and make the image of a Black Muslim man holding his baby and a sword immediately iconic. This film is as unabashedly Islamic as any Angel Studios film is Christian, but it shines because it never feels like a sermon - this is a story about love being the backbone of faith. Complete with stunning cinematography from Katelin Arizmendi, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is sure to find its audience and cultural longevity. It’s also cool as fuckkkkkkk.

Viewed on 9/12/26 at press screening

Published on 9/17/26

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