Mother, May I?

Mother, May I?

Emmett enters into a nightmarish game of therapy with his wife Anya, who has inexplicably taken on the persona of his estranged and recently-deceased mother.

  • Released:
  • Runtime: 99 minutes
  • Genre: Horror
  • Stars: Kyle Gallner, Holland Roden, Chris Mulkey, Daphne Gaines
  • Director: Laurence Vannicelli
 Comments
  • deloudelouvain - 12 April 2024
    Boring
    Mother, May I is categorized as a horror/thriller. Just the mindset I was in tonight, a good, hopefully scary movie. Well it turned out to be a huge disappointment. It's not a horror movie at all, or I must have missed something, and even as a thriller it didn't do the job. Instead what you get is a boring story, very repetitive and at a slow pace. The acting fron the small cast was just okay, nothing mesmerizing at all. Writer/director Laurence Vannicelli didn't convince me at all. It for sure doesn't want me to watch other movies from Laurence Vannicelli. I really wonder why they would categorize this one as horror.
  • jamkafka - 7 August 2023
    Cool ending but kinda disappointing.
    It is evident that "Mother, May I?" is the kind of film that has no resolution and at the same time, a so-called 'bore-fest', that drags on. I feel like this would've worked well if the script wasn't messy, or if it wasn't as dull as it is. I think somewhere in between the lines, there is a goal here, but in my experience as sad as it may be, it is quite a disappointing one. I did like the ending-- I think there is something cerebral in the outcome of the story; where the lines "I need a child" and "I need a mother" blends in a symbolic yet insane way for the Emmett's own suffering to end and for him to be reunited and feel his mother's love once more. Although, with its ending, I think it leaves some plot holes which is why everything is messy and confusing. Even Kyle Gallner couldn't save this film, sadly.

    The film has a very kafkaesque tone with the symbolism of the moth, while trying hard to aim Bergman's Persona which fails to represent.

    However, I am praising Gallner's consistently pleasant performance (he can masterfully make a scene interesting just with his presence), the amazing score that felt very Hitchcockian, the cinematography (those camera tricks with the match cuts and great transitions were just pleasing), and the production design as well as the beautiful color grading of this film.