Posted on 05/11/2014 8:07:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A critic’s list of films on demand that he’d put on his Mother’s Day wish list.
My mom’s favorite movie is “The Sound of Music,” which, to put it mildly, has never really rung my bell. She knows this, and, what’s more, she accepts it. That’s the kind of mom she is — generous and forgiving.
I figure the least I can do on Mother’s Day is forget my aversion to movies about mellifluous Austrian governesses and offer to watch “The Sound of Music” with her. After all, it’s only, uh, three hours long. I’d even endure Amazon Instant Video’s “singalong edition” if her heart would be blessed. But that doesn’t mean the critic won’t try to suggest a few other movies about moms that we could order on demand today instead.
I’m thinking the Swede in Mom (maiden name Bergman) might appreciate the chilly “Autumn Sonata” (Hulu Plus with subscription), in which Ingmar Bergman directs Ingrid Bergman (!) as a world-renowned pianist and terrible mother who dares to reunite with her eldest daughter, Eva (Liv Ullmann), after seven years apart. The ensuing conversation between the two women — a verbal blood feud, really — lasts all day and night, while the movie, as intense as any the master filmmaker delivered, haunts one’s memory long after the final fade.
Or maybe Mom would prefer Spike Lee’s vastly peppier “Crooklyn” (Amazon, iTunes), wherein another unforgettably difficult mother (Alfre Woodard) — “You eat like a pig and chew like a cow,” she tells one of her kids — is surrounded by a bustling brood and a wall-to-wall soundtrack of early-’70s soul and R&B classics. Lee’s typically digressive style finds a perfect match in his semiautobiographical tale of growing up with and without Mom. Black-eyed peas and all, “Crooklyn” is a full meal of
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
I take it, “Throw Momma From the Train” wasn’t on the list.
I honestly haven’t seen any of those films. I know about Sound of Music, of course. And I have heard of Crookyln. I’ve just never got around to seeing either.
I’m partial to “Mother” and “My Greek Wedding” as the grandmas in both movies match my wife so well . . .
Come to think of it, Grandma Mazur from the Janet Evanovich “Stephanie Plum” novels is another close match.
Debbie Reynolds plays the mom in both Mother and One for the Money.
Mama Mia
Stepmom
Mommy Dearest
Steel magnolias
So many others for the Mom’s out there.
Not relevant to Mother’s Day, but seeing your post about Ingrid Bergman I had to say that I watched Gaslight (1944) over the weekend. What a great movie (IMHO), and Bergman was phenomenal, as wall Charles Boyer. It’s so refreshing to watch a movie and not once have to hear an ‘F bomb’ or some crass sexual innuendo.
wall = was
Imitation Of Life always makes me cry. The Sound Of Music does as well...but for a different reason.
Loved that movie.
IOL makes me cry, makes me yell, the whole gamut. It was on today, but I did not watch.
Yes, a powerful film.
Angela Lansberry wasn’t too shabby either.
They could add “Stella Dallas” to the list....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029608/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_77
Agree.
Took the wife to see “Mom’s Night Out”. It was pretty funny. The wife and kids laughed most of the movie.
There was no language or sex. The Mexician guy from the movie Courageous and Trace Atkins stole the show. It was made in conjunction with the Sherwood Church bunch.
Aliens
Terminator 2
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