Writer/director Anna Muylaert's beautifully shot, frequently comical take on the 'second mother' phenomenon sets the film apart from other explorations of similar material.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 2, 2016

All the elements of the story fit impeccably together for a humorous and occasionally wrenching examination of relationships.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 24, 2015

The characters are so accustomed to keeping up appearances that they can't bring themselves to say what's bugging them. Their interactions may be mild, but the claustrophobic imagery creates the sense of being trapped in a powder keg.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 17, 2015

Though hardly revolutionary, "Mother" subverts conventions - both cinematic and social.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 17, 2015

The Second Mother is an interesting look at generational and class divides in Brazil, without the feel of a lecture or lesson.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 10, 2015

We've seen plenty of stories about the arrival of a mysterious stranger upsetting the order of things. But "The Second Mother," Brazilian writer and director Anna Muylaert's outstanding film, is different.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 10, 2015

The characters' pigeonholed social roles display Muylaert's intentions from the start and render the drama superfluous.

| Sep 7, 2015

Regina Cas is superb in the main role: dolorous, clucking, solicitous, dumbstruck, despairing; a mood for all seasons and every season, for character revelation, a high season.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 4, 2015

The Second Mother strikes a passionate moral chord that also connects with conversations about the importance of achieving social change through cross-generational education.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 3, 2015

Anna Muylaert's close setting cleverly lends itself to broader reflections on tradition, but Cas makes the story sing. Utterly convincing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 3, 2015

The Brazilian movie The Second Mother is a character study that's ostensibly about a hardworking So Paulo housekeeper but is actually about, well, everything.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 3, 2015

The unspoken, unspeakable agony of class and caste is cleverly rendered in this funny, serious movie.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 3, 2015

It is socio-economic warfare beautifully written and it is socioeconomic warfare exquisitely performed and it is socioeconomic warfare undertaken with humour and heart, and if you're still not sold, more fool you.

| Sep 3, 2015

It's the funny, edgy, engaging tale of a fingers-to-the-bone maid who must cope with a small-minded employer, a headstrong daughter and a changing social fabric harder to handle than the endless laundry she hangs on the clothesline.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 2, 2015

This Brazilian drama offers a nuanced, often funny look at family and social status, and Cas's performance is both heartbreaking and hilarious.

| Original Score: A- | Sep 2, 2015

Anna Muylaert's observations on family relations and invisible-but-firm class barriers are always acute, even if she ultimately mines them for hope rather than horror.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2015

The Second Mother is a smart yet subtle portrait of the incalculable riches of a good relationship between parents and children.

| Original Score: 9.1/10 | Aug 31, 2015

It smartly uses its little moments of humiliation to open our eyes to a world of delicate, but deep, injustice.

| Aug 31, 2015

The Second Mother isn't just a backdrop for Cas's bravura acting, nor for the equally well-observed performances of the whole ensemble cast. Muylaert's camera -- the cinematography is by Barbara Alvarez --moves with fluid expressiveness.

| Aug 31, 2015

Muylaert captures the unspoken class distinctions that would, on the one hand, make Val a trusted honorary member of the family while still relegating her to "the help."

| Original Score: B- | Aug 28, 2015