We rounded up some of the best feel-good, family-friendly films that are perfect to watch with your mom. From movies about complex mother-daughter relationships to classic comedies, these are the 50 best movies to watch with your mom for Mother’s Day.
50 best Mother’s Day movies about moms!
Lady Bird
Saoirse Ronan gives a stunning performance in LadyBird—a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl growing up in the early 2000s, navigating high school and her sometimes-tricky relationship with her mother.
Dumplin'
Available to stream on Netflix, Dumplin’ stars Jennifer Aniston as the pushy, but often well-meaning former beauty queen and mother of plus-sized teen Willowdean (AKA Dumplin’), played by Danielle Macdonald. Set against a Dolly Parton soundtrack, Dumplin’ looks to revolutionize their Texas town’s beauty pageant by winning it her way.
Freaky Friday
There’s actually two versions of Freaky Friday to enjoy this Mother’s Day, but it’s the Lindsay Lohan/Jamie Lee Curtis rendition from 2003 we love the most. After all, the music is just too good!
Bad Moms
Overworked and under-appreciated, Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell star as the movie’s titular “bad moms.” Hilarious and outrageous at times, this comedy will definitely give you a stronger appreciation for all your mom did and still does!
Erin Brockovich
Talk about a strong, independent single mother! Julia Roberts plays the titular character in Erin Brockovich, which is based on the true story of an unemployed single mom who takes on a California power company after finding out it was responsible for polluting the city’s water.
Hillbilly Elegy
Also based on a true story, Hillbilly Elegy is all about family. Not all families are perfect or even functioning—and even after a Yale Law student makes it out of his hometown, he still feels pulled back toward his complicated, sometimes downright cruel family.
Mothers and Daughters
It’s all in the name! Mothers and Daughters is described as “interwoven stories of what it is to be a mom.” Starring Selma Blair, Luke Mitchell, Christina Ricci, Ashanti, Susan Sarandon, Courteney Cox and more, this PG-13 drama is all about, well, mothers and their daughters.
The Women
Can women really have it all? The Women is hilarious, heartbreaking and heartwarming all in one. At the center of the plot is a wealthy New York woman wrestling with whether or not to leave her cheating husband, but her all-star cast of friends, acquaintances and other women in her life make it a must-watch.
In the Land of Women
A hotshot writer temporarily moves in with his grandma and while he’s there, befriends a mother-daughter duo with a complicated relationship.
Juno
Elliot Page plays a pregnant teenager who decides to give up her child to adoptive parents. Allison Janney is her dog-loving nail technician stepmother. Juno is a timeless watch that just gets better with time.
The Secret Life of Bees
Based on the novel of the same name, The Secret Life of Bees takes place in a small town in South Carolina in 1964. As a teenage girl comes of age, she grapples with questions about her late mother and wonders who in her family now can help her understand her mom.
The Blind Side
Sandra Bullock plays perhaps one of the most iconic movie mothers in recent years in The Blind Side, a movie about a Southern Christian family who adopts a homeless high schooler who becomes a football star. Watch it for the Bullock performance of this mother figure, not its savior status.
Little Women
Watch both the 1994 version and the 2019 adaptation with Emma Watson, Ronan, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen and Laura Dern. Each film is incredible in its own right and you can never go wrong with this classic.
Tallulah
What is motherhood, anyway? What makes a mother? Another Page and Janney movie, Tallulah examines some deeply difficult questions about parenthood. When Page’s character Tallulah basically kidnaps a toddler, it’ll have you questioning everything you thought you knew was right.
Stepmom
A real tear-jerker, Stepmom is a must-watch when cuddled up with the mother figure in your life. You may cry—after all, the movie’s about a terminally ill mom trying to navigate her tense relationship with her ex’s new girlfriend.
Georgia Rule
Three generations of women try to understand why their relationships are so fractured, while the youngest of them all harbors a secret that could destroy her whole family.
Monster-In-Law
Jane Fonda is absolutely ruthless as Jennifer Lopez’s Monster-in-Law to-be. She wears white on Lopez’s wedding day, causes havoc at every turn and is just plain awful to the bride-to-be. It’ll have you appreciating your in-laws like never before.
Because I Said So
The mother-daughter relationship is strong AF in Because I Said So but it’s Mandy Moore’s accidental love triangle that really keeps things interesting in this romantic comedy about family and love.
This Is 40
Need a laugh? This Is 40 may be about marriage, but Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann make this hilarious comedy worth watching with mom.
Calendar Girls
Normally nudity can be awkward to watch on-screen when you’re with your mother, but in Calendar Girls it’s all in good fun. After one of the women in the Women’s Institute chapter loses her husband to cancer, her friends rally behind her by posing nude for the local hospital’s calendar. And it gets quite a lot of attention!
Mrs. Doubtfire
If you and Mom are looking for a laugh, you can’t go wrong with the classic Mrs. Doubtfire.
Three Men and a Baby
What happens when three selfish bachelors are left to care for a baby? Let’s just say, hilarity ensues but things get pretty heartwarming at times, too.
Where the Heart Is
This 2000 movie starring Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd and Joan Cusack doesn’t get enough credit for being as good as it is. A pregnant 17-year-old woman is abandoned by her boyfriend in a Walmart where she makes the best of her situation and well, lives in the store.
The Kids Are All Right
The kids in question are two children conceived by artificial insemination and raised by two mothers. But as they grow up, their biological father comes into the equation and together, they form a family.
Stuck in Love
Love is tricky. Duh! In Stuck in Love, each main character is dealing with the different complexities of love.
The Age of Adaline
Adaline (played by Blake Lively) becomes ageless—as in, literally unable to age—after an accident. But loving others when you’re near-immortal can be tricky, as Adaline knows all too well. Grab the popcorn for this one—it’s a page-turner!
Brave
Disney takes on the mother-daughter relationship with a queen and a princess who wants a spell to change her fate. Or rather, change her mother!
It’s Complicated
Things get complicated when Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin enter a hilarious love triangle that affects the whole family.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Everybody loves My Big Fat Greek Wedding! Sure, it’s about being Greek and getting married, but at its core, it’s about love—love for your partner, love for your parents and love for your family.
Baby Boom
This 1987 movie never gets old. J.C. is a successful exec in Manhattan, but her workaholic lifestyle gets turned upside down when she inherits a baby from a family member.
9 to 5
Working 9 to 5! Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are trying to “have it all,” but their sexist boss makes their lives a living hell. So? They plot their revenge. #GirlPower!
Soul Food
Can one person really be the glue to an entire family? In Soul Food, the fam’s matriarch, Big Mama, falls into an unexpected coma, forcing the family to cope in different ways. It’s about mothers, grandmothers, daughters, granddaughters and everybody in between.
Julie & Julia
Julie & Julia is a feel-good movie, based on a true story, about one blogger’s journey to cook her way through Julia Child’s first recipe book. Interwoven throughout is Child’s own story of how she got started in the culinary arts.
Mother’s Day
Perfect name for the occasion, right?! In this sweet family film, three generations of family come together in the days leading up to Mother’s Day. It’s not only perfect to watch with your mom but with your siblings and other family members, too.
Otherhood
What happens after you raise your babies? Otherhood describes the time period “after” motherhood (though we all know you never stop being a mom). Three mothers and their adult sons navigate the stage after motherhood, which they coin as Otherhood.
Mamma Mia
At first glance, Mamma Mia seems to be all about the father-daughter relationship as Sophie, a bride-to-be, invites over all three men that might just be her biological father. But in the end, it’s the mother-daughter relationship that steals the show.
Wonder
Based on the bestselling book of the same name, Wonder tells the inspiring true story of August Pullman. Pullman, known as “Auggie,” was born with a facial deformity—Treacher Collins syndrome and hemifacial microsomia. As he enters fifth grade, Auggie goes to a public elementary school for the first time.
Anywhere But Here
Why is Sarandon in like, every great mother-daughter movie ever?! Anyway, she co-stars with Portman in this heartwarming movie about a mom and daughter looking for success in a big city.
Real Women Have Curves
Um, YES to America Ferrera! In one of her earliest films ever, she plays an 18-year-old in East Los Angeles, struggling to balance her own dreams and her mother’s dreams for her.
My Girl
Sigh. My Girl is such a beautiful but devastatingly coming-of-age story. A young girl, Vada, lives in a funeral parlor with her single dad and struggles to come to terms with her life.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Siddalee has a tumultuous relationship with her mother. But years later, she receives a scrapbook all about her mother and her mother’s childhood friends, and how they formed a sisterhood called the Ya-Yas.
Now and Then
When in doubt, put Now and Then on! Four 12-year-olds are growing up together during the summer of 1970. Meanwhile, the film flips forward in time to the women now that they’re all grown up.
Roma
If it’s a drama you’re looking for, Roma won the 2018 Best Picture of the Year Oscar. It follows a year in the life of a middle-class family’s maid in Mexico during the 1970s. It’s also available on Netflix, so it’s a super convenient watch, too.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Four besties (whose mothers were besties!) want to be close forever, but one summer, their lives take them different ways. A pair of denim jeans that miraculously fits each of them—despite their drastically different body types—may just be the thing that keeps them together.
Little Miss Sunshine
An aspiring beauty pageant queen-in-training and her family go to the ends of the earth in their VW bus to make her dream a reality.
Akeelah and the Bee
When the adults around Akeelah realize just how smart she is, they rally to help her get into the National Spelling Bee.
Thelma & Louise
A classic story of independent women, Thelma & Louise starring Geena Davis and Sarandon follows two besties on a journey that soon turns into them running from the police.
The Parent Trap
It’s a classic! While you have two renditions to choose from (1961 and 1998), we’re partial to the Lohan version in which she plays both twins.
Mermaids
The epitome of a mother-daughter relationship movie, Mermaids tells the story of an unconventional single mom who uproots her family to Massachusetts. It’s the perfect family story to share with mom.
The Joy Luck Club
Four East Asian women and their daughters share their lives, life lessons and stories together to guide one another through life. You may even tear up! Looking ahead, celebrate dad with these Father’s Day songs.
