Unless your mom has a very dark sense of humor, you shouldn't actually get any of these movies for her on Mother's Day (or ever). There are plenty different kinds of movies out there about mothers, not just tearjerkers (Steel Magnolias), "chick flicks" (Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood), or light comedies (Because I Said So). Some of the most personal, strangest, and best movies about mothers are ones about moms that are less than perfect, overbearing, or downright evil. Enjoy the dark side of motherhood and check out one of these movies:
Brand Upon the Brain! (2006). Director Guy Maddin makes wonderfully strange and surreal movies that resemble early German Expressionist cinema. Brand Upon the Brain is a movie about a house painter named Guy, who returns to his childhood home on a mysterious Canadian island at his dying mother's request. While he is there, he remembers his repressed childhood at the lighthouse orphanage run by his controlling mother where all the orphans have the same mysterious scar. When teen detective Wendy visits the island, a young Guy is love struck. Later on Wendy, disguised as her brother Chase, investigates Guy's parents' activities at the orphanage.
Find it in the catalog!
Choke (2008). Anjelica Huston plays Ida Mancini, Victor's (Sam Rockwell) beloved free-spirit mom, who suffers from Alzheimer's. Ida wasn't exactly a stable mother; she would tell Victor about her unusual conspiracy theories and move from the family place to place. She also hid the identity of Victor's father from him.
Find it in the catalog!
Mommie Dearest (1981). About the actress Joan Crawford, this is one of the best known bad mother movies. Joan is a neurotic and controlling mother, who throws increasingly strange tantrums and eventually disinherits her children.
Find it in the catalog!
Psycho (1960). A mother so overbearing, she can control her son from beyond the grave!
Find it in the catalog!
Squid and the Whale (2005). Joan Berkman (Laura Linney) isn't really so much a bad mother, though she does date her son's hunky but dimwitted tennis instructor (William Baldwin). She is more unappreciated and complicated, but initially her son Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) sees her as a villain. This is a semi-autobiographical movie for writer-director Noah Baumbach, about a teenager dealing with his parents' divorce.
Find it in the catalog!
Volver (2006). The mother, Irene (Carmen Maura), isn't really evil here either. However, she is a ghost who has issues with one of the daughters, Raimunda (Penelope Cruz). Both Raimunda and Irene have dark secrets.
Find it in the catalog!
Wild at Heart (1990). This is a surrealist road movie by director David Lynch. Mariette (Diane Ladd) does not approve of her daughter Lula's boyfriend, Sailor (Nicholas Cage), so she hires a hit man to kill him. Sailor kills the hit man in self-defense, but is then sent to prison. After his release, Lula and Sailor rekindle their romance and hit the road, where they are chased in part by a private detective and hit man hired by Mariette.
Find it in the catalog!
Willard (2003). A shy, awkward young man (Crispin Glover) lives with his crabby old mother in a mansion and is treated poorly at work. Despite his mother's disapproval, Willard begins a friendship with some rats and discovers he can communicate with them. When his mother dies, he uses the rats to get revenge on his enemies.
Find it in the catalog!
