The best movies to watch on Mother's Day

Greta Gerwig wrote and directed this semi-autobiographical stunner about a chatty Sacramento teen (an arresting Saoirse Ronan) who yearns to be anywhere but home and spends her days quarreling with her equally strong-willed mother (an invincible Laurie Metcalf). Prediction: Just as there’s a Breakfast Club Generation, there will be a Lady Bird one.

James L. Brooks’s mother-daughter melodrama plays like a three-season television series condensed into just over two hours. Shockingly, that’s a positive. You will be crying by the end. We’ll countenance no criticism of Shirley MacLaine or Debra Winger, both of whom crack the pantheon of indelible performances.

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s hyperkinetic Oscar winner is about a lot of things – Asian-American identity, existential despair, generational trauma, hot-dog fingers – but beneath all the fannypack fights and black-hole bagels, it’s ultimately a movie about a mother’s love for her daughter. Watch it with your own mom and prepare to laugh, cry and repeatedly attempt to explain the concept of a ‘multiverse.’ 

What do you get when you combine the director of The Iron Giant, the genius animation of powerhouse Pixar and a witty story about a dysfunctional family of superheroes? An instant whiz-bang classic. Holly Hunter’s rubber-limbed mom, Elastigirl, steals the show with her chirpy, upbeat optimism. You will recognize this parent.

The 1976 original lures our nostalgic hearts, but this 2003 remake was a rare example of Hollywood improving on the source. Much of the success should be attributed to a ferociously funny Jamie Lee Curtis, underrated as a comedian, who cuts loose with snarling teenage abandon. She even got some serious awards buzz.

In the first Alien, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley is fighting on pure survival instinct – and, perhaps, to protect the spaceship Nostromo’s resident cat. In James Cameron’s sequel, she levels up to true mother strength. With the ship’s resident orphan, Newt, imperiled by yet another angry xenomorph, her maternal instincts kick in, leading to a climactic battle between a robot-suited mecha mom and pissed-off alien queen – herself a mother just trying to protect her kin. 

Eight film adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved 19th century novel exist, each with their own pros and cons, but pretty much everyone can agree on this version, starring Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes and Susan Sarandon as the outspoken matriarch of the March clan. Against the backdrop of the Civil War, the tightly bonded family navigate love, loss and early adulthood, in a story that continues to connect with new generations of women – to that end, no one is going to quibble if you pick Greta Gerwig’s 2019 iteration, especially with Laura Dern in the Marmee role. 

Amy Adams is convincingly haggard and exhausted as a stay-at-home mom attempting to rediscover her sense of self who ends up connecting with something more primal – specifically, she begins turning into a dog. The allegorical elements of Marielle Heller’s dark comedy are frankly underbaked, but the depictions of the struggles of early motherhood will strike a chord with anyone who’s gone through them, if not trigger some PTSD.

Director Lisa Cholodenko’s indie family drama drops a dopey sperm donor (Mark Ruffalo) into the lives of a comfortable lesbian couple (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, both wonderful) and watches the relationship seismically shudder. Apart from being gay positive, it’s a movie with two great moms, not one.

You’ll like it! You’ll really like it! Fortunately, Sally Field’s performance in this evocative portrait of small-town life is a good deal more subtle and restrained than her notorious Oscar acceptance speech. As a Depression-era widow beating back the bank’s advances on her Texas cotton farm, Field is as inspiring as mothers get—just like yours.

Cher won raves for her portrayal of Florence “Rusty” Dennis, the saucy, drug-addicted motorcycle mom of a skull-deformed teenage son played by Eric Stoltz. Peter Bogdanovich’s heartstring-tugging drama doesn’t shy away from Rusty’s flaws even as it exalts her devotion to her child’s well-being.

Don’t go head-to-head with the Massachusetts mauler, or you’ll get the taste pounded out of you—and no, we’re not referring to Mark Wahlberg or Christian Bale. Boxing manager Melissa Leo beats up her husband, disciplines frizzy-haired intruders (“What are you doing opening your mouth in my kitchen?”) and fiercely protects her turf.

Leave it to John Waters to make a homicidal housewife the Mother of the Year. Kathleen Turner is wonderfully maniacal as a suburban mom who first gets her taste for murder by defending the honour of her children, then continues to feed her bloodlust through slightly less defensible motives. Any parent who’s dreamed of taking a hot poker to the jerk who broke their daughter’s heart will experience a vicarious rush.

Gena Rowlands is a tough-as-nails mob moll whose maternal instinct kicks in when a young boy is targeted by some thugs. It’s almost as if director John Cassavetes had written this role as a valentine to his actor wife; even though this crime story is far from perfect, it proves once and for all that Rowlands is a national treasure.

If your mother is remotely like ours, she won’t mind watching Faye Dunaway get unhinged in this camp classic. (Afterward, she’ll be able to say, “Well, I’m not that bad.”) Don’t be surprised if she knows much of the dialogue: “No…wire…hangers…ever!!!” “You don’t deserve nice things!!!” “Eat that steak or you’ll have it for breakfast, young lady!!!”