The film is a loving yet obsessive parody of the generational stereotypes that stand between the Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation.

| Aug 27, 2024

Reynolds's exquisitely calibrated, mercurially comedic performance reveals the stifled passions that inform a lifetime of rigidly refined habits.

| Sep 14, 2020

Brooks' minimalism can be amazingly jampacked, but Mother is perilously slack.

| Jun 5, 2020

What's really surprising here is that Brooks has finally discovered the very human heart beating beneath his trademark malcontent.

| Jun 5, 2020

In its deceptively modest way, this edgily sweet comedy gets closer to the bone of mother-son relationships than many a more solemn opus.

| Dec 7, 2018

Brooks has created his best work so far. His oddball comedy has sometimes missed the target, but with Mother he has chosen an ancient theme and given it a smart, modern spin.

| Jan 17, 2018

Reynolds is in sparkling form and the script teems with painfully truthful ironies.

| Oct 7, 2010

The finely honed Mother proves that a new Brooks film is well worth the wait.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2004

''Mother'' winds up showing a surprising degree of insight without compromising its deft, badgering comic tone.

| May 20, 2003

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 12, 2002

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Not only will you laugh at someone else's pathetic problems, it'll save you money on therapy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

It wasn't the automatic laughter produced by slam-dunk punch lines, but the laughter of recognition, of insight, even sometimes of squirmy discomfort, as the truths hit close to home.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

A must-see.

| Jan 1, 2000

Mother is shrewd, funny, and sweetly engaging; it's the first film Brooks has made that may even bring a tear to your eye.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 14, 1996

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 14, 1996