Film

Mommy

Name: Mommy
Genre: Drama
Released: 2014
Cast: Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément, Antoine Olivier Pilon, Patrick Huard, Alexandre Goyette

Family drama

Mommy is a visually radical Canadian drama about a mother and her volatile teenage son navigating life after his father's death. Director Xavier Dolan shoots it in a nearly square frame that closes and opens like a breathing body. It's raw, funny, occasionally explosive, and utterly alive—a portrait of love and damage that refuses easy sentiment.

TMDb rating

4.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want big, messy emotions played at full volume, and a director who treats a cramped frame and pop-song bursts as a way into feeling, not a gimmick.

Skip it if you prefer quiet restraint, because at 138 minutes its noise, rawness and emotional volume can wear you down rather than move you.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a long, volatile ride where the tone swings from giddy to crushing and the camera rarely lets you rest.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Whip It2009

A story about a mother and daughter on opposite sides of the same dream, with real tenderness underneath the friction. Drew Barrymore directs with warmth and without condescension toward either generation.

But Roller derby as the central metaphor might feel slight compared to Mommy's weight, and the tone is lighter, more uplifting than you might want.

The Florida Project2017

Brilliantly observes how a child and adult experience the same poverty differently. Sean Baker finds humor and dignity in desperation, and the bond between caregiver and kid is the real story beneath the precarity.

But It's quieter and more observational than Mommy; the anger is simmering rather than explosive, which some find less cathartic.

Hereditary2018

A family horror film that treats its central mother-son relationship with devastating seriousness. Ari Aster refuses to trivialize mental illness or generational trauma, even as everything collapses around them.

But It's a supernatural thriller, so if you want Mommy's emotional realism without the genre machinery, this trades one anxiety for another.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Mommy

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Laurence Anyways2012

Same director, same formal radicalism, same belief that love and damage are inseparable. A spiritual precursor to understanding what Mommy is attempting.

Xavier Dolan's previous film, also about impossible love and people who won't let each other go. It's formally wild—shot in the same nearly-square frame—and has the same emotional generosity and visual invention. A chance to see the director's obsessions fully formed before Mommy.

But At 161 minutes it's even longer, and it's a romance that asks a lot of patience. If Mommy felt slow or indulgent, this will test you further.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Casey Affleck as a man forced to become guardian to his nephew. The film is about how love and resentment coexist, and how you survive caring for someone when you're barely surviving yourself.

But Grief is the whole atmosphere here, which is beautiful but unrelenting. Mommy has moments of lightness; this doesn't really.

A Prayer Before Dawn2018

A young man unraveling, with a parent trying to hold him together from a distance. The film is visceral and unafraid of showing self-destruction, and the relationship has real complexity and hurt.

But It's about addiction and fighting in Thailand, which is a very different context. Some find the style self-indulgent; it's not for everyone.

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

A mother trying to understand her son's violence, told in fragments. Lynne Ramsay's direction is as formally innovative as Mommy's, and the film refuses easy answers about maternal love and responsibility.

But It's darker and more ponderous, and the formal structure can feel cold. Mommy is more alive; this one is more like drowning.

It's Such a Beautiful Day2012

An experimental animated film about mental illness and family that has genuine tenderness alongside its strangeness. Don Hertzfeldt finds humor in despair without betraying the despair.

But It's animated and very short (90 minutes total including two related shorts). The style is deliberately crude, and some find the fragmentation gimmicky rather than moving.

Boyhood2014

Linklater filmed the same characters over twelve years. A mother trying to raise a son while her own life derails. It's meditative where Mommy is explosive, but the accumulated small moments build to something massive.

But It's very long and deliberately paced. If you want intensity and confrontation, Boyhood is about what happens in the quiet spaces between crises.

Caché2005

Both films use the family structure as a pressure chamber to examine guilt, complicity, and the violence that genteel people do. Very different registers, but the same moral question underneath.

A French film where a family is haunted by their own moral failure. Michael Haneke shoots domestic life like a crime scene—ordinary rooms become unbearable. It shares Mommy's interest in how shame lives inside a home.

But It's much colder and more withholding than Mommy. Haneke refuses catharsis or easy emotion. Some find it punishing rather than moving.

Requiem for a Dream2000

Both films use radical visual technique to make interior states visible, and both are about parents and children bound by love and unable to save each other. But where Mommy has moments of grace, Requiem is relentless descent.

Darren Aronofsky's film about four people—including a mother—self-destructing through addiction. It's formally radical, emotionally extreme, and interested in how loved ones witness collapse they cannot prevent. The visual style is dizzying and unforgettable.

But It's genuinely punishing—designed to be watched once and haunt you. The drug use is graphic, the endings are bleak, and it doesn't offer the human warmth Mommy does. This is cinema as ordeal.