Film

Mothers

A Czech comedy about four best friends navigating motherhood, desire, and identity. Brash and unglamorous, it finds humour in the specific exhaustion of early parenthood—the gap between who these women are and who they're supposed to be. Irreverent, frequently crude, uninterested in sentiment. For anyone who's laughed at the unglamorous truth of having kids.

TMDb rating2.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy sharp, talky female friendship comedies where the jokes come from candid conversations about bodies, men and motherhood, and you don't mind the mess showing through the polish.

Skip it if you want a tightly plotted story with a clear through-line, since this one drifts between four lives and leans on a loose, episodic rhythm that some viewers will find scattered.

What it asks of you: It runs a brisk ninety-five minutes and asks you to keep track of four women at once, moving quickly between their households, flirtations and small domestic crises without much pause to settle.

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Four Rooms1995

Four women, one night, mounting chaos. Like Mothers, it's energetic ensemble comedy where character friction generates the laughs, and everyone's hiding something messier than they admit.

But The '90s indie aesthetic feels dated now, and the plot mechanics creak. It's slighter than it thinks it is.

Four Rooms poster

Bridesmaids2011

Adult women behaving messily in friendship groups, with real stakes underneath the comedy. Vulgar, specific, and genuinely interested in how female friendship survives resentment.

But The comedy sometimes relies on cringe and humiliation. If that register bothers you, you'll feel it.

Bridesmaids poster

Obvious Child2014

A woman in her thirties, sexually active, funny, refusing to perform gratitude about her choices. Sharp dialogue and a refusal to make her messiness into a lesson. Honest about desire and ambivalence.

But Very indie, very talky. If you want plot momentum or high stakes, you won't find them here.

Obvious Child poster

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Monitor2011

Both use motherhood as their central subject, but one treats it as comedy fodder and this one as psychological horror. They're different angles on the same obsession with what happens when women's lives narrow to one role.

Swedish horror-thriller about a mother haunted through her baby monitor. A completely different genre, but it uses motherhood as the source of uncanny terror, treating maternal anxiety as psychologically real and cinematically serious. The precision is terrifying.

But It's genuinely unsettling in ways that have nothing to do with jump scares. If you want motherhood comedy to stay comedy, this will unsettle that mood entirely.

The Monitor poster
More like this (8)

Mamma Mia!2008

Four women (including a pregnant bride) at the centre, supported by excellent men, having a ridiculous time. It's joyful and unashamed about female pleasure and friendship mattering most.

But It's a musical jukebox film. If ABBA and plot absurdity make you groan, this won't win you over.

Mamma Mia! poster

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants2005

Four best friends, separate summer stories, real stakes. Young but smartly written, interested in how female friendship holds through different life stages and desires.

But It's earnest and occasionally saccharine. The magical pants conceit feels slight if you're not in the mood for fable logic.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants poster

Frances Ha2013

A woman in her late twenties, chaotic and unmoored, watched closely without judgment. Black and white, restless camerawork, utterly particular dialogue. About friendship and ambition and mess.

But Nearly plotless, deliberately awkward, shot in grainy monochrome. It moves at its own pace; conventional story satisfaction isn't on offer.

Frances Ha poster

Ghostbusters: Afterlife2021

Released the same year as Mothers, it's an ensemble piece where character and relationship matter as much as spectacle. Warm, funny, interested in how people actually talk to each other.

But It's fundamentally a legacy franchise film. If you have no goodwill toward the Ghostbusters property, the plot scaffolding will feel hollow.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife poster

It's Complicated2009

Meryl Streep as a woman with desires, friendships, and a refusal to choose the 'right' path. Adult comedy about adult women, funny and unashamed about sexuality and ambivalence.

But The romance plot is conventional and the resolution safe. It smooths down the edges where Mothers keeps them sharp.

It's Complicated poster

Wine Country2019

Seven women on a trip, bickering and laughing and revealing old wounds. Amy Poehler directed; the ensemble work is naturalistic and the friendship drama feels lived-in.

But Netflix comedy, uneven tone. It stumbles between comedy and sentiment, and doesn't always land either.

Wine Country poster

Tully2018

Both know that modern motherhood is absurd and exhausting, but Tully goes into the psychological cost where Mothers stays with the social comedy. One is tragicomedy; one is primarily comedy. Same world, different light.

Charlize Theron as a mother of three on the edge of total collapse, hired a night nanny. Starts as dark comedy and becomes something much stranger and sadder. Handles maternal ambivalence with real weight without losing the funny parts.

But The ending is divisive and deliberately unsettling. Some will find it brilliant; others will feel manipulated. It also contains scenes of genuine depressive despair.

Tully poster

Amélie2001

Both centre women's agency and pleasure rather than their utility. Amélie reshapes her world from the margins; Mothers's women reshape theirs through honesty and refusal. Different strategies, same core preoccupation.

French whimsy about a young woman reshaping the lives of people around her. Utterly different tone—it's magical where Mothers is vulgar—but both are obsessed with female interiority, desire, and the gap between how women appear and how they actually are. Visually rapturous; formally inventive.

But The whimsy can feel excessive and the sentimentality cloying. If you find the aesthetic too cute, you'll struggle to engage.

Amélie poster

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