Our Favorite Movie Moms

No matter how mothers are represented in feature films, there is plenty to unpack, notice and enjoy. What makes a good "movie moms" movie night isn't finding a normal, realistic or sympathetic depiction of motherhood on the big screen. Instead, we recommend feature films starring mothers whose roles reflect and reject themes about the world and what it expects from mothers in a given places and times. Deviant and dangerous moms, pushing against connections to children and marriage can be just as richly fun to watch as the moms who perfectly embody the mythic outline of a 1950's nuclear homemaker. Stage mothers, step mothers, absent mothers, career mothers, mothers who are portrayed as so fulfiled that they fade into the background... when watched with a critical eye are all wonderfully ripe for consideration over a bowl of buttery popcorn. Check out one of our selections and if you have titles to add to our list, email us at rdesk@mhl.org

Erin Brockovich

A young mother in desperate need of a job begins to work as a paralegal and stumbles across a toxic situation in groundwater which develops into a monumental lawsuit against a giant corporation

Guilt trip / produced by Evan Goldberg, John Goldwyn, Lorne Michaels; written by Dan Fogelman; directed by Anne Fletcher

A chemist trying to sell his new home cleaning solution asks his mother to join him on a road trip across the country

All about my mother

Grief-stricken Manuela returns to Barcelona after the death of her son to search for the boy's father, and in the process becomes caregiver to an extended family of colorful characters

Mildred Pierce

Mildred, a newly divorced woman living in Depression-era U.S., sacrifices her life for her greedy daughter while building a career as a restaurant owner

Brave

Scottish princess Merida makes a decision which defies her family custom and brings chaos to their kindgom

The Bélier Family: La famille Bélier
available on Memorial Hall Library's streaming Kanopy subscription

The Béliers are ordinary people: Rodolphe and Gigi are married, have two children and run their farm for a living. Ordinary people? Well, almost... since three of them, Dad, Mum and their son Quentin, are deaf. Which is not the case of the boy's big sister, Paula. And not only can she speak but her music teacher scouts her beautiful voice as well. He offers her to sit for the entrance exam of the Maîtrise de Radio France, a vocal elite choir in Paris. Her parents, who rely on her as their ears and mouth in the outside world, take the news badly. Paula, who hates the idea of betraying her parents and her brother, goes through a painful dilemma

Everything everywhere all at once

Evelyn Wang, a flustered immigrant mother, is contacted from a parallel universe and told that only she can save the world. The unlikely hero must learn to channel her newfound powers and fight through the splintering timelines of the multiverse to save her home, her family, and herself in this big-hearted and irreverent adventure.

Baby mama

When a single career woman decides she wants a baby, she hires a free-spirited surrogate mother

Terms of endearment

The story of a mother and daughter and their relationship over a thirty-year time span

Crazy rich Asians /

When an American-born Chinese woman attends a wedding in Singapore with her boyfriend, she discovers that his family is very wealthy and other women in his social class are trying to date him

Stepmom

Anna and Ben, the two children of Jackie and Luke, have to cope with the fact that their parents divoced and that there is a new woman in their father's life: Isabel, a successful photographer

Where'd you go, Bernadette /

After years of sacrificing and caring for her family, Bernadette decides to follow her creative impulses and sets out on a journey to rediscover herself

Laurel Canyon

A straight-laced psychiatrist and his prim fiance move into his hedonistic mother's home during his internship

Mamma mia!

After reading her mother's diary, Sophie discovers she has three possible fathers, so she secretly invites them all to her wedding at her mother's hotel on a Greek island

Till

Till is a profoundly emotional and cinematic film about the true story of Mamie Till Mobley's relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. In Mamie's poignant journey of grief turned to action, we see the universal power of a mother's ability to change the world.

Philomena /

A woman searches for her lost son, who was taken away from her many years ago after she was forced to live in a convent after she became pregnant

Enough said /

Divorced mom Eva may be falling for Albert, a sweet, funny, like-minded divorced man. But as their relationship blossoms, Eva befriends Marianne, who's always complaining about her ex-husband. When Eva realizes that Albert is the target of Marianne's rants, she begins to question her own perceptions about first impressions and second chances.

Parallel Mothers

Two women, Janis and Ana, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn't regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way.

Freaky Friday

In this modern version of the Jodie Foster original, a busy doctor and her tomboy daughter swap bodies and are trapped in each others' life

Lady Bird

Seventeen-year-old Lady Bird McPherson struggles to balance the challenges of her last year of high school with her family relationships

Jojo Rabbit /

When a German boy discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl during World War II, he must decide what to do with the help of his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler