Forget the Flowers this Mother’s Day: Movies for Moms and Daughters 

Skip the brunch. These movies — horror, animation, dark comedy, and one suburban serial killer — are the best thing a mom and her adult kid can do together this Mother’s Day. 

These aren’t movies *about* mothers. They’re movies that make you turn to the mother figure next to you or the child you birthed, raised, and/or mentored and understand something you didn’t before. This crosses genres because not all of us are into the traditional films (you know I’m talking about Terms of Endearment). So if it’s laughs, screams, or tissues, this annually updated list will provide. 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

*For the mom who became her own mother and didn’t notice until it was too late. And the daughter who is becoming her mom and is furious about it.*

Three generations of Deetz women dragged into the afterlife to fix what they broke. Lydia spent the first movie resenting Delia. Then she grew up and became her. Astrid hates her for it. The most accidentally emotional gothic horror comedy of the decade.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

*For the mom who sacrificed everything and can’t stop mentioning it. And the daughter who knows, feels guilty, and is also feeling kind of suffocated.*

A multiverse action film secretly about two people who love each other so much it looks like war. The most earned emotional gut-punch in recent memory. Watch it again. Cry harder this time. 

Halloween (2018 trilogy)

*For the mom whose paranoia turned out to be preparation. And the daughter who spent years resenting her for it before she finally understood.*

Three generations of women — Laurie, Karen, Allyson — all shaped by the same monster. Inherited trauma becoming inherited strength. A horror movie about how long it takes daughters to realize their mothers were right.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

*For the mom who loves her son so hard she’d dismantle the woman he chose with pure elegance. And the daughter-in-law who refuses to be dismantled.*

Michelle Yeoh as the mother-in-law from beautiful, immaculate hell. Every culture has her. This one just has better jewelry and more devastating mahjong.

A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)

“For any Mom who wants to feel vindicated when the therapist is on her side.”
As their own mothers drop in unexpectedly, our three under-appreciated and over-burdened moms get worked over by Christmas stress.

Lady Bird (2017)

For the mom who works double shifts and expresses love as criticism because she doesn’t know another way. And the daughter who can’t wait to escape and doesn’t understand why that feels like a betrayal. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig — who knew exactly what she was doing. Gerwig said she felt Hollywood wasn’t giving mothers and daughters the screen time they deserved, so she set out to change that. NPR Nobody is the villain. Both of them are right. Both of them are wrong. You will call your mother when the credits roll whether you want to or not.

20th Century Women (2016)

*For the mom who knows she can’t raise her son alone and is brave enough to admit it. And the kid who doesn’t realize until years later how extraordinary that was.*

A single mom recruits a whole cast of complicated women to help raise her son in 1979 Santa Barbara. Annette Bening at her most alive. Strange, warm, quietly devastating.

A Monster Calls (2016)

*For the mom who is running out of time and knows it. And the child who can’t say the thing that needs to be said.*

A boy, a dying mother, an ancient tree monster, and one unbearable truth. Don’t watch this without tissues and don’t watch it alone.

Room (2015)
For the mom who gave everything she had to protect her child from a reality he couldn’t understand. And the son who only later grasps what that cost her. They survive an unsurvivable thing together. Then they have to survive the world. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay in a film that understands that rescue isn’t the end of the story — it’s where the harder work begins. The bond between them is so specific and so real it will rearrange something in you.

Maleficent (2014)

*For the mom who didn’t plan on loving anyone and got completely wrecked by a kid anyway. And the daughter who has no idea how much she is loved.*

A villain origin story that became the most radical found-family film Disney ever accidentally made. The true love’s kiss isn’t from a prince. It never was. Bring that up at dinner.

Mother (2009)
For the mom who will burn everything down for her son, no questions asked, no line she won’t cross. And the son who has no idea what his mother is capable of. Bong Joon-ho’s first masterpiece before the world caught up with him via Parasite. A Korean thriller about a mother’s obsessive hunt to prove her son didn’t commit murder. Except nothing in this film is what it seems. Watch it knowing nothing else. Thank us later.

Saving Face (2004)

*For the mom who shows up unannounced, pregnant, and expects her daughter to handle it. And the daughter hiding her whole self to protect a mother who doesn’t make it easy.*

A Chinese-American surgeon closeted from her family suddenly has her unwed mother move in without warning. A comedy. Somehow. Alice Wu is a genius and Hollywood has wasted her criminally.

Freaky Friday (2003)

*For the mom who thinks her daughter is being dramatic. And the daughter who thinks her mom has forgotten what it’s like.*

Both of them are right. Jamie Lee Curtis goes full teenager. Lindsay Lohan goes full exhausted single mom. They both commit completely and it earns every single tear it gets.

Real Women Have Curves (2002)

*For the mom whose love comes wrapped in criticism and she genuinely cannot tell the difference. And the daughter still untangling her mother’s voice from her own head.*

America Ferrera’s breakout. A Mexican-American daughter fighting for her body, her future, and her own definition of enough — while her mother makes every single thing personal. Because it always is.

Serial Mom (1994)

*For the mom who maintains a perfect household and has absolutely zero tolerance for bullshit. And the daughter who thinks it’s funny until it isn’t.*

John Waters. A perfectly pleasant suburban mother who murders people who violate social etiquette. Kathleen Turner in full unhinged glory. Obscure, absurdist, deeply wrong, completely perfect. If you and your mom both laugh at dark shit, this is your movie.

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

For the mom who survived unsurvivable things and can’t explain why that makes her hard to love. And the daughter who doesn’t understand her mother’s life because her mother protected her from it. One of the first major Hollywood films with an Asian-majority castAudible, based on Amy Tan’s novel, co-written by Tan herself. Four Chinese immigrant mothers. Four American-born daughters. Generations of sacrifice that got lost in translation. This is the Joy Luck Club. Before Crazy Rich Asians, before Everything Everywhere — this is where that conversation started on screen. Bring everything you have. It will not be enough tissues.

Terminator 2 (1991)

*For the mom who prepared for the worst and got called crazy for it. And the kid who finally sees she was right about everything.*

Sarah Connor is the patron saint of “do what it takes and let them judge you later.” Action movie. Mother movie. Same goddamn thing.

Terms of Endearment (1983)

*For the mom and daughter who bickered their whole lives and suddenly don’t have enough time left to finish.*

Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger doing thirty years of love and irritation in two hours. Jack Nicholson is technically present. You will not care. You will be completely destroyed.

The Secret of NIMH (1982)

*For the single mom running on fumes, love, and sheer refusal to quit. And the daughter who doesn’t yet understand what her mother gave up.*

An animated fantasy about a widowed mouse mother who bargains with dark science to save her sick child. More emotionally honest than most live-action dramas. Criminally underseen.