Make Your Mom a Star
Four movies that will make Mother’s Day memorable this year
This year, share a movie with your mother on Mother’s Day. Here are four films with mothers from around the world that show us there is nothing more universal than acknowledging how much we owe our moms.
Hamnet
Jessie Buckley in Hamnet
When Jessie Buckley won the Academy Award® for her performance in Hamnet, it was Mother’s Day in the UK. “To get to know this incandescent woman, and journey to understand the capacity of a mother's love is the greatest collision of my life,” Buckley told the Oscar audience. As the wife of a young William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), Agnes (Buckley) lives through the joys of raising a young family to the pain of impossible loss, finding in the end a way to make sense of tragedy through the triumph of her husband’s art. In so doing, Buckley captures the unfathomable power of being a mother. “What Hamnet leaves you with isn’t sadness, but joy—at the human capacity to reckon with death’s implacability through art, or love, or just the basic act of carrying-on in its defiance,” The Telegraph writes. “It blows you back on to the street on a gust of pure exhilaration.”
The official trailer for Hamnet
Dìdi (弟弟)
Joan Chen and Izaac Wang in Dìdi (弟弟)
While writer-director Sean Wang’s debut feature, Dìdi (弟弟), is about a rambunctious 13-year-old Chris Wang (Izaac Wang), Wang dedicates the movie to his mother. As Wang struggles to find his place— be it on Myspace, at the mall, or at school in Fremont, California—his mother (Joan Chen), older sister (Shirley Chen), and grandmother (Chang Li Hua) steer him along. Wang told ELLE that the film “was really inspired by the relationship I had with my mom.” Associated Press writes, “At the core of this story of a young boy wanting to fit in, navigating his first crush and feeling the ebbs and flows of young friendships is his mother, the only person who sees him for who he is.”
The official trailer for Dìdi (弟弟)
Housekeeping for Beginners
Dzada Selim and Anamaria Marinca in Housekeeping for Beginners
In Housekeeping for Beginners, writer-director Goran Stolevski weaves together a tale about the real love that binds a family. When Dita (Anamaria Marinca) suddenly has the job of raising her girlfriend’s two children—an impish little girl (Dzada Selim) and a rebellious teen (Mia Mustafi)—everyone in her crowded home pitches in. Pulling in local friends to her gay roommate (Vladimir Tintor) and his new boyfriend (Samson Selim), Dita finds a village to help with the two girls. While Dita may not be the two girls’ biological mom, Rolling Stone writes, “She truly is mother, in every sense of the phrase.” Little White Lies writes, “Love, within Dita’s crowded household, manifests itself in many ways.”
The official trailer for Housekeeping for Beginners
A Thousand and One
Teyana Taylor and Aaron Kingsley Adetola in A Thousand and One
A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for its remarkable portrayal of a mother (Teyana Taylor). After Inez (Taylor) is released from prison, she moves to Harlem to raise her son, Terry. Taylor borrowed from her own experience as a mother to make her character real and unforgettable. “I think her being a mother in real life really shines through in her portrayal,” Rockwell told Cinema Daily. Never shying away from exploring the complex realities facing African American mothers in America, Taylor’s portrayal is inspiring and eye-opening. The Washington Post writes, “This is a tough, beautiful, honest and bracingly hopeful movie about mutual care and unconditional love, with a transformative and indelible performance at its core.”
The official trailer for A Thousand and One