YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER Review: BLADE What-If Stuns at Houston Cinema Arts Festival

Bassam Tariq delivers a brutal, beautiful and deeply human Houston story led by another outstanding Mahershala Ali performance.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother just had its Texas premiere tonight at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, with writer-director Bassam Tariq and members of the filmmaking team in attendance. I caught the movie last month, and weeks later it still simmers in my mind as one of the most surprising films I have seen this year.

The film has brutal action, but the violence never overshadows the humanity Tariq builds around it. The movie can become explosive one minute and almost completely still the next, using those quieter moments to dig into grief, faith, family, and a father trying to hold everything together after losing his wife.

Of course, another thought kept creeping into my head while watching Mahershala Ali pick up a blade. Cough, cough. Blade.

Tariq was once tied to an earlier version of Marvel’s Mahershala Ali-led Blade, so seeing the two finally work together makes it nearly impossible not to wonder what could have been. With a few Marvelous changes, parts of this story and especially its action made me imagine how these two could have approached the MCU’s vampire hunter.

Thankfully, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is strong enough that it never needs to live in another movie’s shadow.

Mahershala Ali Leads A Different Kind Of Hitman Story

Ali stars as Latif, a devoutly religious hitman trying to balance his work, faith, and responsibilities as a father. After losing his wife, Latif is left raising their children while desperately trying to give them the life their mother would have wanted and distance himself from the violent world that continues closing in around him.

What immediately makes Latif interesting is the contradiction at the center of his life. He is a man living two lives, one as a father and another as a righteous hitman, with violence strangely becoming the place where he feels most peaceful. Domestic life is actually where Latif has more difficulty finding his footing.

Ali sells every part of that contradiction.

He can walk into a dangerous situation and immediately look like the most capable person in the room, but put him at home with grieving children, and suddenly there are problems he cannot fix with strength or precision. Latif knows how to protect his family physically, yet Tariq keeps pushing him toward the much harder question of whether he actually understands what his children need from him emotionally.

Ali is great in just about everything, but there is something especially compelling about watching him play a man whose confidence disappears in the place where he should theoretically feel safest.

The movie also carries a strong Houston identity, which naturally made the story hit differently for me. Hillcroft and other parts of the city are mentioned and lightly showcased. While the movie was primarily shot in Atlanta, I still consider this a Houston movie because Houston is woven directly into the characters and story.

As someone from this city, I enjoyed seeing a different side of Houston become the foundation for this kind of action drama. Tariq doesn’t treat the location as window dressing; religion, community, and family all become important parts of the world Latif is navigating.

Mahershala Ali Definitely Did Not Waste That Blade Training

Now we can really talk about Blade.

Ali handling a blade with precision and flair already made me think about all the training he went through for Marvel, but the transcript makes that connection even more interesting. Ali and Tariq had been scheduled to work together years earlier, and Ali had spent a year doing sword work, training that ultimately helped them pull together the fights in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.

That year of sword work did not go to waste. Ali looks completely natural whenever Latif goes into action, moving with the confidence and precision of someone who has clearly spent serious time training with a weapon. Tariq could have easily leaned into how effortlessly cool Ali looks in these moments. Still, the action carries more weight because we understand exactly who Latif is fighting for and what he risks losing every time he returns to violence.

That is also why my Blade thoughts never completely took over the movie. Yes, seeing Ali wield a blade while being directed by the filmmaker once attached to his Marvel movie naturally opens that door. Still, Latif becomes his own fascinating character because he is carrying responsibilities and emotional wounds that have nothing to do with superheroes or vampires.

The Children Sold The Movie For Me

For all the weapons, hitmen, and dangerous people circling Latif, the children are what ultimately sold the movie for me.

Their relationship with their father anchors everything because this is a family dealing with the absence of someone who held them together. Latif lost his wife, his children lost their mother, and everyone is trying to process the same tragedy while dealing with it in completely different ways.

Ali, Adia, and Jahleel Kamara make that relationship feel lived in rather than manufactured for easy emotion. The kids are not simply there to give Latif something to protect because their feelings, frustrations, and grief become an essential part of understanding why his old way of living cannot continue.

Latif is trying his best to provide the life their late mother would have wanted, but good intentions do not magically make him the father they need. That struggle gives Ali some of his strongest material because Latif is much more comfortable confronting an armed threat than navigating the emotional needs of his own children.

Those scenes are where the movie found its heart for me and really hit me emotionally.

The family dynamic also makes every return to violence carry more weight. Latif may find peace in fighting. Still, each violent decision threatens the domestic life he is desperately trying to preserve, creating a tension that stays underneath almost everything Tariq is doing.

Bassam Tariq Knows When Silence Is More Powerful

Tariq directs the movie with tremendous confidence, especially in the way he handles the difference between its quietest and loudest moments.

When Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother wants to be violent, it can become vicious very quickly. However, some of the movie’s most beautiful images arrive when Tariq lets everything settle down and gives the cinematography room to reflect the characters’ quieter emotional states.

Those moments never feel like downtime between action scenes. They are often where the movie says the most.

Tariq keeps every performance grounded, even as the story pushes into more heightened territory. The result is a brutal action drama that never loses its humanity, with faith, fatherhood, grief, and violence constantly colliding around Latif.

Deirdra Govan’s Costumes Become Part Of The Story

Deirdra Govan’s costume designs were another major standout for me because the wardrobe feels deeply connected to the film’s world and the people living in it. The clothing does not simply make the characters look distinct; it carries pieces of their faith, family, grief, survival, and the contradictions they are trying to live with.

That intention becomes even more meaningful knowing Govan approached the work by listening closely to Bassam Tariq’s vision, Mahershala Ali’s process, and the quieter details of Latif’s life. Her costumes feel like extensions of the characters rather than decoration, with each piece helping communicate identity, history, and emotional weight before a word is even spoken.

John Cho might be the biggest example.

Cho appears as a veteran Texas evangelical pastor with some serious cult-leader energy, and everything about the character immediately jumps off the screen. His wardrobe is something else, right down to the grill, but Cho commits enough that the character never feels like he wandered in from another movie.

Something about him is both entertaining and unsettling, which makes every appearance interesting.

Giancarlo Esposito also appears in a mild but crucial role as a mosque leader, and I genuinely had to do a double take when he showed up. I have built a good professional rapport with Esposito over the years, so the fact that he disappeared into this character enough to briefly make me question whether it was actually him says a lot about how restrained his performance is.

The supporting cast around Ali brings its A-game as well, and that consistency is a major reason the emotional material works. Nobody feels like they are waiting around for Ali to take over the movie because every character helps build the community, family, and competing beliefs surrounding Latif.

Verdict

I see a lot of movies throughout the year, and plenty of them start disappearing from my mind almost immediately after I leave the theater. Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother has done the opposite.

This is easily one of the most surprising films I have seen this year and one of the best-acted.

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