Three Women Weigh in: Favorite Mom-Themed Movie & TV Show Picks
It's a Mother's Day Bonus. And you're welcome.
It’s my honor to welcome
and to this Substack as we dive into mother-themed films and shows that have truly moved us, emotionally, physically, or both. Each of us has chosen a favorite movie and TV series that centers on the powerful, complex bond between mother and child, and in some cases, mothers with other mothers (and clones, kinda?).
More on our contributors:
is a self-professed pop culture nerd whose Substack contains listicles of shows (like this one on fabulous onscreen siblings) you should be watching and salutes kick-ass creative women. She’s also a Libra (like yours truly) and someone to follow on Letterboxd (Film).
, a former film magazine editor and resurrected film critic, writes and her post on the screenwriter for Romancing the Stone [Read here] is what clinched the deal that I would forever be tuning into her work. She has a way of digging into a film’s backstory that’s very meets Inside the Actor’s Studio.
“Picks” Rundown/Format:
Title of Movie or TV Show
WHY was it chosen?
Actors/Production Info
Helen’s Picks 😂👗🛸🇬🇧❤️
🎞️ Favorite Mom Film: You Again [Trailer] [Release Year: 2010]
Why: Kristen Bell’s Marnie is horrified that the high school bully (Odette Yustman’s Joanna) is marrying her brother. Marnie’s mother, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, is equally disturbed to learn that Joanna’s aunt is the same Mona she had a feud with in her salad days. Sigourney Weaver delivers her lines in the same drily comedic style we saw in Heartbreakers, as she and Curtis battle cars, couture, and choreography. Meanwhile, the younger generation is obliviously caught up in their parallel conflict.
Bring your sense of humour and you will not be disappointed by this fun and frivolous comedy, which, being distributed by Disney, does not shy away from a couple of tender moments too. Look out for the alien face-hugger reference!
Starring: Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Odette Yustman, Betty White
Director: Andy Fickman
Production Company: Touchstone Pictures & Frontier Pictures
Producers: Andy Fickman, John J.Strauss, Eric Tannenbaum
📺 Recommended TV Show: If you are in the mood for darker comedy, it’s hard to do better than the British sitcom Motherland. Daughters will get an insight into what it takes to be a mother. Mothers will, no doubt, identify with a lot of the feels!
Joanne’s Picks 👩👧👦👻🖤🧬🧠
🎞️ Favorite Mom Film: Mama [Trailer] [Release Year: 2013]
Why: Because horror and motherhood go great together. Here, you get punk rocker Chastain forced to make room in her life for Victoria and Lilly, her partner Lucas’ (Coster-Waldau) nieces, who went missing five years ago in the wake of their parents’ deaths. As she forges a connection with the older girl, Chastain’s Annabel learns the girls were cared for by a maternal creature who won’t give up her babies, no matter the cost.
The tender chemistry between Chastain and Charpentier highlights the growing bond between Annabel and Victoria; the same can be said for the moments between Charpentier, Nélisse, and Botet’s mommy fiercest. It’s refreshing that the film doesn’t diminish the girls’ love for Mama, putting their needs above all else.
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nélisse, Daniel Kash, Javier Botet
Director: Andy Muschietti
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Producers: J. Miles Dale, Guillermo del Toro
📺 Recommended TV Show: Orphan Black: Of all the amazing relationships on this show about clones and those trying to oppress and/or destroy them, the ones that hit hardest involve Sarah Manning, her daughter Kira, and her foster mum Siobhan. Throughout five seasons, the trio learn from each other, lean on each other, protect each other, and support each other through the really dark times and the lighter moments when they can catch their breath. Maslany’s Sarah and Kennedy’s Siobhan have the most complex relationship on a show filled with them; the actresses dig in, bringing out the women’s brutality along with their deep affection. [Editorial Note from Beth: 100% agree!] Wexler’s Kira has a maturity beyond her young age, yet clearly shares Sarah and Siobhan’s stubborn nature. Besides, nothing says love like Siobhan wielding a shotgun with intent.
Beth’s Picks 👩👧 💔🤰🌸🇪🇸
🎞️ Favorite Mom Film: Parallel Mothers / Madres Paralelas [Trailer] [Release Year: 2021]
Why: Nobody does complex, messy, layered mother representation better than Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. From one of his earlier films, All About My Mother [1999] to Parallel Mothers, he’s leveraged his muse, actress Penelope Cruz, for full emotive effect. Here, in Parallel Mothers, she plays Janis, a middle-aged, unattached photographer who discovers she’s pregnant. The film's crux follows her relationship with another mother, Ana, an adolescent girl of some wealth, with whom Janis bonds as both go into labor in the same room at the same time. [A similar theme narrative is found in the film adaptation This Time Next Year, where the storyline of the friendship between the two mothers of the romantic leads is more compelling than any romance.] As I observed previously, it’s because “the birthing process (and its pain) connects mothers in such deeply therapeutic ways.”
One of Almodóvar’s recurring themes is the sisterhood and maternal bonds that connect women, often single mothers. His characters are expressive, nurturing, reflective, and beautifully flawed. What unites them is their refusal to be confined by convention or anyone else’s expectations. They “live life and are free,” as one telling line from the film puts it. But it’s within the community of women that they truly come alive, because women are, after all, the bearers of life.
“Following in my family's traditions, I’m going to be a single mother. Just like my mother and grandmother.” - Janis
Starring: Penelope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Rossy de Palma, Julieta Serrano
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Production Company: Sony Pictures and Entertainment Iberia
Producers: Agustín Almodóvar
📺 Recommended TV Show: The Aussie sitcom The Letdown approaches early motherhood with a kind of blunt honesty and raw sincerity that this incredibly challenging period demands. This show, similar to my film pick above and the film Nightbitch [review here], not to mention CBC’s Workin’ Moms, speaks to the salvation of mom peer groups, with often comic and tender connections in forming friendships there. The Letdown, a double entendre referencing both a breastfeeding term and the emotional “let down” that follows the heavy responsibilities of momhood, also captures the absolute loneliness of becoming a mother, where your partner’s experience is vastly different. Still, there’s this new life you’re inextricably connected to, forevermore, through the transformative act of becoming a mother.
As Brandi Carlisle sings in her beautiful ballad “The Mother” [Listen here]:
Welcome to the end of being alone inside your mind
You tethered to another, and you're worried all the time
You always knew the melody, but you never heard it rhyme…The first things that she took from me were selfishness and sleep
She broke a thousand heirlooms I was never meant to keep
She filled my life with color, cancelled plans and trashed my car
But none of that is ever who we are
A Final Note
Nothing (no book, no advice, no well-meaning warning) can truly prepare you for motherhood's emotional and mental weight. It’s staggering. Looking back, especially now that my own kids are older and those early years feel like a hazy blur, revisiting that time through these films and TV shows has cracked something open in me. It’s helped me remember just how hard it was, at the beginning, yes, but let’s be real, all the way through, and it's stirred up a deep, almost aching empathy for that version of myself. My little sister just had a baby, and meeting my new niece has pulled me right back into those raw, beautiful, exhausting early days. So maybe, in some small way, this collection is for her. A quiet offering. A way of saying: I see you, and you’re not alone. It also serves as a note to my younger self: Be kind to yourself. It’s a long and sometimes bumpy ride, if you’re lucky.
Let’s Discuss - Sound Off!
What’s your favorite mom-themed depiction in a film or TV show?
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Oy, I had to write these down. Always looking for a comedy. Loved Orphan Black. And Almodovar has a wonderful obsession with women. Did he have sisters or a crazy mama?
LOVE Parallel Mothers! Motherland and The Let Down are so true to life... it's like oof. I think I over-identify with Anna Maxwell Martin sometimes! 😂