Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again set up a fundraiser for Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.
Today’s theme: LGBTQ
I hated A Ghost Story.
Now that I’ve lost a bunch of you, reader, I want to tell you that I really, really hate movies that seemingly go on and on and at the end, you already knew where it was going even if it seems like the director didn’t.
I hate elevated horror.
Now that I’ve further cut down on the people reading this, hello, friend. I am a fan of watching movies on airplanes. Yes, I’m certain that David Lowery, who directed this, did not intend for people to enjoy art that he spent a year editing on an iPhone up in the sky. Sorry, David Lowery.
I do love airplane movies, because I pick movies I’d never want to watch on the ground. This can lead to some horrible decisions. It can also lead me to find movies I really liked but wouldn’t have watched otherwise.
I’d like to think Mother Mary is on the winning side.
Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) is Lady Gaga and Madonna and any number of fashion-world-changing religious iconography pushing pop stars. She has an accident onstage and her career stops, but she’s about to make her first performance and worries about her costume. She freaks out as dressmakers get her ready and heads out to find Sam Anselm (Michaela Cole, who will write and direct a reimagining of the 1988 film Bloodsport with A24 producing and man, I’m already upset), her former fashion partner, the person that she created her entire being with. Mary is looking to become someone new, as the press wonders if her accident was a suicide attempt.
The main part of the story is that Mary and Sam were, were they, weren’t they lovers at one point. Even if they didn’t go all the way, they did create something. They made Mother Mary: Mary wrote the songs and performed them, Sam designed her look, and together they gave birth to a whole being. Then one day, Mary wanted something different and couldn’t tell Sam, so she did the easier thing and had other people handle it. As she got further away from Sam, it meant less, while for Sam, the pain became so great that she ground one of her teeth until it had to be removed.
The blood left behind became a ghost of resentment, one that has left Sam, making her life, if not better, different. Now she knows it all on her own, while Mary is haunted by what they were.
One night, a fan named Imogen (FKA Twigs) was possessed by this ghost and cut Mary’s hand. And now, the spirit has been following her, even causing her to fall that night, which nearly killed the woman that Mary and Sam created.
I loved how this film ended with Hilda (Hunter Schafer, a transgender actress who was an important part of the North Carolina bathroom bill controversy) telling the story, not Sam or Mary. In the rush to the stage, they took the ghost—now red fabric—and made something Mary can shed to become something new, something no longer held back by the past.
Lowery was inspired by Taylor Swift, saying, “”Her Reputation concert film is one of the best concert films ever. It’s truly phenomenal. I would often be like, “Imagine Taylor Swift in ten or 15 years — that’s sort of who this character could be.”” As for Hathaway, she was inspired by Beyoncé.
The film also has two pop stars, the aforementioned FKA Twigs and Charli XCX, making songs.
So yeah. This movie is pretentious as hell, and I mean that in the best way. It goes on and on, but I enjoyed it so much that I’ve watched it more than just on that plane viewing. There’s a lot to love here, especially in the way that this movie doesn’t use the relationship between its leads in an exploitative way. They just may be. Or are. Or could be.
I can also admit to you, reader, that despite my love of metal, I kind of love what pop music can be. And this gets it. It’s absolutely gorgeous and something worth watching in a real place, not on an airplane.
