Film

Tully

Name: Tully
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 2018
Cast: Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Ron Livingston, Mark Duplass, Asher Miles Fallica

Family drama

Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman's dramedy about a bone-tired mother of three who accepts a night nanny gifted by her brother, and finds in her a strange, luminous friendship. It's funny, then quietly devastating, then something else entirely — a film about the parts of motherhood nobody photographs. For anyone who has ever wanted one uninterrupted night's sleep.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a sharp, unsentimental look at exhausted parenthood that keeps its humor even when the mood darkens, the kind of film that trusts you to feel the tiredness.

Skip it if your patience for slow, talky domestic scenes is thin, or you need a story that builds toward a clear plot rather than one that circles a single, wearing routine.

What it asks of you: It runs 95 minutes and stays in one house with one worn-out woman and small, repetitive chores, so it asks you to sit with monotony before anything shifts.

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

If you liked this

Young Adult2011

Theron, Cody and Reitman together again, but nastier — a woman refusing to grow up instead of one drowning in the job of raising kids. Same sharp, sad-funny voice, aimed the other direction.

But Its heroine is deliberately unlikeable and the comedy stays barbed throughout, with little of Tully's tenderness to soften the sting.

Private Life2018

Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti make fertility treatment funny and unbearable in equal measure, with the same unglamorous honesty about a body that won't cooperate with a plan.

But It's talky and specific to IVF's particular grind — if that world isn't yours, stretches of it may drag.

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

Tilda Swinton plays maternal dread with no comic relief at all, asking the question Tully only hints at: what if you simply don't love the job?

But It's genuinely bleak and unsettling, built around dread rather than warmth — not something to watch for comfort.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Babadook2014

Both films reach for a supernatural or fantastical figure to give shape to what postpartum exhaustion and grief actually feel like — a presence that arrives at night and refuses to leave.

A widowed mother's sleeplessness curdles into an actual monster in the house — the same unravelling, night-haunted dread as Tully's third act, played entirely straight as horror.

But It is frightening and stays frightening; there's no comic relief waiting to release the pressure.

The Lost Daughter2021

Olivia Colman is extraordinary as a woman haunted by the mother she once was, unpicking guilt and resentment with the same unflinching curiosity Tully brings to exhaustion.

But It's slow, internal and deliberately withholds easy resolution — patience required, and no comic release.

Bad Moms2016

Takes the same exhaustion and lets it explode into loud, raunchy rebellion instead of quiet collapse — a cathartic, silly release valve after a long day.

But Broad where Tully is precise; the jokes are bigger and the insight considerably thinner.

20th Century Women2016

A warmer, more communal take on the same idea — that raising a person properly takes more people, and more honesty, than anyone admits out loud.

But It's looser and more nostalgic, with less narrative drive than Tully's tighter, sadder arc.

Juno2007

Diablo Cody's earlier, sunnier voice — the same quick, odd dialogue and tenderness under the wit, just aimed at a pregnant teenager instead of an exhausted mother.

But Much lighter stakes and a neater ending; don't expect Tully's later gut-punch here.

Away We Go2009

A gentler, funnier companion piece about the terror of impending parenthood, following a couple searching for somewhere — anywhere — that feels like the right place to raise a kid.

But It's whimsical and episodic where Tully is grounded and specific; the stakes feel lower throughout.

Motherhood2009

Uma Thurman spends one frantic day proving a child's birthday party can feel like an existential crisis — smaller and slighter, but it knows the terrain.

But It's minor and uneven compared to Tully's control, more sketch than statement.

A Woman Under the Influence1974

Same question, asked half a century earlier and without a script's safety net: what happens to a woman when 'mother' quietly swallows everyone she used to be?

Cassavetes' raw, decades-early study of a wife and mother coming apart under the weight of a role nobody prepared her for, anchored by a Gena Rowlands performance as fearless as Theron's.

But It's long, loose and improvisational by design — messier and more demanding than Tully's tight ninety-five minutes.

Motherland2017

Strip away Cody's dialogue and Reitman's craft and this is the same raw material — sleepless, overwhelmed new mothers — filmed as it happens rather than shaped into a story.

A documentary set in the busiest maternity ward on Earth, following real women through the exhaustion, chaos and tenderness of new motherhood — no script, and no nanny coming to save anyone.

But It's unsentimental and unresolved in a way fiction rarely allows itself — no third-act twist, just life continuing.