Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother First Reviews: The Blade Movie We Should Have Gotten
Critics at the Toronto International Film Festival say Bassam Tariq's action flick is visceral yet thoughtful, moving but surprisingly funny, and anchored by a captivating Mahershala Ali.
Two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali stars in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, an action movie by Bassam Tariq that just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to unanimous praise. Ali plays a religious hitman protecting his three children after the death of his wife, and the first reviews say it’s a role he was meant for. Ali and Tariq’s collaboration is also viewed as a preferred substitute for the Blade movie they’d been set to make for Marvel.
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Here’s what critics are saying about Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother:
Is it one of the must-see movies of the season?
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother… deserves a substantial theatrical audience.
– Guy Lodge, Variety
It has completely blown audiences away.
– Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother almost seems like a cinematic miracle… a nail-biting drama that doubles as both a riveting action flick and a stirring tale of stepping up when it matters most.
– Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother delivers an expertly made viewing experience, although not necessarily the one audiences might expect.
– George Bate, Screen Rant
The film will find an audience for sure, but it will be a hard sell, being far too intelligent for a mindless action movie and not arty enough for those intrigued by its heady promise of violence and theosophy.
– Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
I’m not as enraptured by Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother as others, though I feel it will grow on me over time. There’s a lot to like here, even some things to love.
– Joonatan Itkonen, Region Free
Does it make up for the loss of Blade?
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is the Blade movie we finally wanted.
– Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds
It gives you a taste of what might have been.
– Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother [is] clearly the film that Tariq and Ali were meant to make together all along… It boasts at least as much lethally fancy swordplay as Blade, and significantly more ideas.
– Guy Lodge, Variety
What Ali, Tariq and the collaborators have assembled feels not just like kismet but divinely ordained, as if this was the movie they were always meant to make.
– Zachary Lee, TheWrap
We should be thankful that Ali and Tariq’s instincts led us to Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother…[it’s] ultimately the best-case result of a studio’s multimillion-dollar mishandling of two cinematic powerhouses.
– Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
Marvel is going to be punching the air over what they’ve lost because it’s clear after watching this that had they just let Bassam Tariq cook, we would have had something magical with his iteration of Blade with Mahershala Ali at the helm.
– Sarah Musnicky, But Why Tho?
Will action fans enjoy it?
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is as satisfying a cinematic brawlathon as anything seen in the multiplex of late.
– Guy Lodge, Variety
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is the kind of action film that reminds you just how exhilarating the genre can be when spectacle actually has something to say.
– Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report
The fight sequences are exceptional, with Tariq’s precise direction pulling audiences in with every punch thrown and slice of a sacred blade.
– Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
[It opens] with a quick yet brutal killing in a bathroom that makes the fight scene in Mission: Impossible – Fallout look like small potatoes.
– Chase Hutchinson, The Playlist
The fight choreography is sharp and well executed… [but] I would have preferred a bit more action sequences.
– Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds
The action is surprisingly scant, but its brief eruptions are intense, realistic, and soaked in both blood and remorse.
– Siddhant Adlakha, IGN Movies
There aren’t as many fight scenes as there could be, but it’s definitely more than some might expect.
– Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics
There’s only the slightest bit of action, and most of the choreography is notably poor.
– Joonatan Itkonen, Region Free
What other movies will it remind us of?
There are a few shades of One Battle After Another in the way Tariq folds family, humor, and social commentary into an action film without letting any one part take over.
– Tania Hussain, Collider
[There’s] a shade of John Wick.
– George Bate, Screen Rant
Latif’s quietly stoic demeanor earns a closer comparison to the begrudging purgatory with which John Wick finds himself, and those films are an easy comparison to jump to for similar bouts of ultraviolence enacted by an imposing killer whose one wish is to stop killing.
– Trace Sauveur, AwardsWatch
It might be tempting to compare Tariq’s film to something like Drive, especially with one particular visually vibrant and violent scene feeling like a mirror image of that.
– Chase Hutchinson, The Playlist
Someone like me expected the Houston equivalent of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai… I’m happy to report that, while it captures some of that Jarmusch spirit, it’s so much more.
– Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
How does the movie look?
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is beautiful to look at, without ever feeling overly designed.
– Tania Hussain, Collider
Editor Cam McLauchlin turns Katelin Arizmendi’s cinematography into something resplendent, opting for wide compositions as Latif dispatches enemies, as if to frame him the way religious paintings would depict scenes from Holy books.
– Zachary Lee, TheWrap
There are moments when the imagery feels almost religious in its framing, as though the film is turning violence itself into uncomfortable iconography.
– Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report
It’s framed as a serious-minded film about faith and family — it’s certainly shot like one, with its realistic locations and grainy cinematography.
– Katie Rife, IndieWire
How is the screenplay?
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is a brilliant exploration of grief and lost faith.
– Sarah Musnicky, But Why Tho?
The film’s most potent thematic and narrative offering lies in its exploration of the divine in the mundane.
– Zachary Lee, TheWrap
The underworld concerns of who owes what to whom are backgrounded in Tariq’s tight, terse script.
– Guy Lodge, Variety
It’s a story that… feels alive and lived in.
– Tania Hussain, Collider
Tariq’s spin on the beloved subgenre of hitman films is far more introspective than most would expect, as the screenplay is rooted in the familial and spiritual conflicts Latif is navigating rather than the violence itself.
– Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
By reimagining the action hero through a specifically Muslim lens, Tariq has redefined the genre into something more introspective and compassionate, rapturous and revelatory.
– Robert Daniels, Screen International
Is it funny?
Funny when you least expect it.
– Tania Hussain, Collider
The film is riddled with humor that, occasionally, is so out of pocket that you’re left gasping.
– Sarah Musnicky, But Why Tho?
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother surprises with just how funny it is. Tariq’s film offers more laugh-out-loud moments than the average studio comedy.
– George Bate, Screen Rant
The humor is what hooked me… No potential for a punch line is left hanging.
– Jared Mobarek, The Film Stage
The absurdity never cheapens the grief because the humour feels rooted in personality rather than punchlines.
– Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report
All of the film’s humor serves as a way for us to love these characters better.
– Zachary Lee, TheWrap
Will it also move us?
As darkly funny as the film may be, its drama is treated both seriously and tenderly.
– Siddhant Adlakha, IGN Movies
By the time Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother reaches its final stretch, the film has become something far more tender than its premise initially suggests.
– Tania Hussain, Collider
It’s this film’s tender center that feels special.
– Robert Daniels, Screen International
This remains an emotionally impactful film centered around the Islamic tale from which the title is derived.
– Jared Mobarek, The Film Stage
Its climax packs a powerful emotional punch.
– George Bate, Screen Rant
How is Mahershala Ali’s performance?
Mahershala Ali once again proves why he is one of the best actors working today.
– Tania Hussain, Collider
Mahershala Ali has never given a bad performance, but rarely has he been as captivating as he is in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
– Chase Hutchinson, The Playlist
Ali has never been better.
– Zachary Lee, TheWrap
Ali is magnificent.
– Joonatan Itkonen, Region Free
Ali is superb in a role that layers myriad soulful pathos beneath a hard shell of strict parenting.
– Trace Sauveur, AwardsWatch
Ali is remarkable in a role ideally tailored to his potently still screen presence.
– Guy Lodge, Variety
The training leading up to Blade pays off well here, with Ali handling his fight scenes with a speed and efficiency that sells the dark path Latif walks.
– Sarah Musnicky, But Why Tho?
Ali certainly has a brooding presence, but the studiedly sonorous solemnity of the performance does become a little wearing.
– Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
How is the villain?
John Cho, of Harold and Kumar fame, stuns as a vampiric foe.
– Radheyan Simonpillai, Guardian
The film also has a formidable antagonist in Haun Yoon, played with precision by John Cho… [who] gives him an easy confidence that makes him intriguing to watch and difficult to trust.
– Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds
Cho understands that his villain is the kind of monster formed by ego more than the sacrifice that must come with faith.
– Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
Cho delivers one of the film’s more surprising performances as Hwan Yoon… with a hard stillness that makes him genuinely scary.
– Tania Hussain, Collider
Not only is Cho a wrecking ball of a performer once unleashed… but he’s also genuinely menacing in the smaller moments as well.
– Chase Hutchinson, The Playlist
Are there any other standouts in the cast?
Abubakr Ali, whose comedic delivery and timing are so on point that someone needs to hand him more comedic roles immediately.
– Sarah Musnicky, But Why Tho?
Adia, in a superb big-screen debut.
– Guy Lodge, Variety
It’s the young actress Adia, who plays Latif’s teenage daughter, who has one of 2026’s best feature debuts.
– Tania Hussain, Collider
A truly captivating performance from Adia, doing some of the best teen acting in a long time.
– Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
Adia is a revelation.
– George Bate, Screen Rant
Does the movie have any problems?
Where the movie falters most is in its refusal to detail what Latif’s code actually looks and feels like.
– Siddhant Adlakha, IGN Movies
Unfortunately, some promising themes, particularly those pitting individual moral codes against the dogma of organized religion, get lost in the chaos.
– Katie Rife, IndieWire
Where the film stumbles is in its climactic battle sequence and resolution, with moments feeling more convenient than wholly earned.
– Sarah Musnicky, But Why Tho?
It is overly restrained… The commentary on religious matters, while interesting, seems to culminate on a rather simplistic note.
– George Bate, Screen Rant
I could’ve used fewer lulls between the most violent sequences.
– Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is in theaters on September 25, 2026. Buy tickets on Fandango.
