YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER

People have been comparing Bassam Tariq’s latest film to Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog just off of the trailer. After watching Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother last night, I can confirm that the comparisons are more than understandable. Tariq himself admits to drawing inspiration from Ghost Dog.

When I watched it [Ghost Dog] a long time ago there was this feeling where I was like, 'Oh there's this man that lives in an urban environment that wants to follow some kind of ancient code - Bassam Tariq, Huffington Post

Ghost Dog / Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Both movies are about proud stoic Black hitmen that live by a conflicting and somewhat vague spiritual code. In Ghost Dog it’s Samurai-ism and in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother it’s Islam with a mixture of various eastern philosophies sprinkled in. Both films also find our hitmen with targets on their backs after a job goes wrong (classic hitman movie trope). Both films also have interestingly misplaced moments of awkward/dry humor. At the start of Ghost Dog we get a quick peek in to what might have been a lost loved one while Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother opens with our main character’s wife passing away. 

Ghost Dog / Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Both films are rooted in hip-hop. Rza did the score for Ghost Dog and was a huge part of the promotion of it. This time around, Mahershala Ali credited Ka’s Honor Killed The Samurai album as an influence on his portrayal of Latif (I imagine an alternate world where Ka was alive to score this film).

 

Both movies even have similar opening scenes!

Ghost Dog / Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

The major difference between the two films is that Ghost Dog is a loner. In Your Mother, Latif has to juggle his violent occupation with single fatherhood.

It should be noted that while Ghost Dog is an excellent film, it is a loose remake of Jean Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai. But what’s incredibly fascinating is that outside of the mysterious hitman living his life by a cool-sounding spiritual code, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother takes from all the elements that Ghost Dog didn’t lift/borrow/redo from Le Samourai. There are social and racial elements to Ghost Dog and Your Mother that aren’t in Le Samourai. Bassam Tariq's movie is sort of a looser remake of an already loose remake.

Le Samourai / Ghost Dog

It also wouldn't be right to not make the obvious comparison to Lonewolf and Cub. There's an action sequence involving Ali's Latif fighting his way out of a strip club/church with a baby strapped to his chest.

Lone Wolf and Cub / Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

On paper, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is very cartoonish and unbelievable. This story is set in a sort of underground world within Houston, Texas made up of Mormons, Muslim hitmen, gun-toting religious cult leaders with gold fronts and lactating ex-porn stars. Bassam Tariq somehow makes these cartoonish elements seem somewhat believable. Had another director worked with the same source material this would have been a mess. Even though this movie is filled with spiritualism and grief that is meant to be taken to heart, you have to view it on the same level as something like Hard To Kill or Commando. This is a slow-burn action movie at the end of the day. 

Now...I’m still grappling with the finale. I don’t know if it fully works but I appreciate what I think Tariq tried to do. Sensical people will write it off as silly whereas folks that like open endings will be dissecting this for quite some time. I also think there was an opportunity to go full-on John Woo in the end but it only goes half way.

At the end of the day this is a collage of Ghost Dog, Lonewolf and Cub and the residue of the failed Blade movie (both Tariq and Ali were attached to the Blade reboot before it was scrapped). I’m hardly the first person to note this but Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is the positive result of another failed project. I would have loved to see what Mahershala Ali would have done with the Blade character but I’ll settle with this.