Top 5 Films To Watch For Mothers Day Today
5. Lady Bird
Lady Bird is a coming-of-age film written/Directed by Gretta Gerwig and it stars Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird McPherson. This film takes a look at Lady Birds upbringing in Sacramento with her very judgemental mother as she heads off to college. As much as I enjoy this film it's kind of heartbreaking in a lot of ways because of how neglectful Lady Birds mother is to her. Not once does Lady Bird feel any kind of love from her mother, it's actually the opposite because she is very condescending towards her.
Early in the film her mother states that her own mom was an alcoholic. Lady Bird is a great coming-of-age about generational trauma and the causes it has on your own children when you aren't willing to break that cycle.
4. Hamnet
I decided to go with a most recent film from 2025 and that is Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. When award season was coming up a few months ago this is one of the films I went to see in theaters during the release becauss I missed it during the initial release of the film. Truth be told one of the reasons I skipped Hamnet was because I'm not the biggest fan of Shakespeare's work. I’m glad I decided to watch this because I was wrong about not loving Shakespeare's work.
Hamnet is a devastating tale of love, grief and depression. Not only is this film a love story but it's also about motherhood and how traumatic losing a child can be for a parent. I wasn't expecting to cry during this but Hamnet absolutely just tore me to pieces.
3. Hereditary
During the most recent years of the Academy they finally learned how to embrace horror films. I wish they embraced them along time ago because if so they would have nominated Toni Collette for Hereditary back in 2014. Horror movies are way more complex than just jump scares. Hereditary is Written/Directed by Ari Aster who would later bring us Midsommar which would later became one of the most talked about films of 2019. Premise: “Following the death of the Leigh family matriarch, Annie and her children uncover disturbing secrets about their heritage. Their daily lives are not only impacted, but they also become entangled in a chilling fate from which they cannot escape, driving them to the brink of madness.”
There is going to be a common theme when it comes to some of the films on this list: generational trauma. Annie (played by Toni Collette) went through so much trauma growing up that she still doesn't know how to process it and because of that she has inadvertently passed it on to her two kids: Charlie & Peter. Also, the table scene is easily one of my favorite scenes in any movie, horror or otherwise.
2. Coraline
Coraline is a fantasy/horror film based on the book of the same name released in 2009. I was 12 when this film came out and I was terrified of it then and I'm still terrified of it now. The original book of Coraline almost didn't happen because parents were terrified of the book but their kids wanted to know how the story finished. Even though I'm not a parent I can imagine how terrifying this film would be to watch as one.
There are so many theories and easter eggs planted into this film that makes it sooo much scarier than it already is. With no friends and very busy parents Coraline doesn't really any kind of emotional connection with anyone. This film isn't just about child neglection but it's also about the loneliness of being an only child and child predators. The other mother’s way of, “loving” children like Coraline and anyone else that has ended up in her world is more of a parasocial relationship than anything else.
1. Everything Everywhere All At Once
Not only is Everything Everywhere All At Once one of the strangest films I've seen but it's one of the best films produced by A24. Premise: “An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.” Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang whose not only ashamed on her daughter being queer but also miserable in her marriage as well. A lot of Evelyn's unhappiness stems from her father being so strick/judgemental when she was growing up and the way she treats Joy (played by Stephanie Hsu) is a mirror of her relationship with her father.
Both of Evelyn's relationships with her daughter and husband just continues to drive a wedge between everyone. The core idea of this film is that, no matter what universe we live in or who we are nothing really matters. While Evelyn has to stop Jobu Tupaki (Joy Wang's alter ego) from destroying the multiverse she also has to save her relationship with her husband Waymond & her daughter before she takes her own life. It's funny, heartbreaking and just a phenomenal film about trying to repair the broken relationships with your loved ones.
