Highest-Rated Movies about 'Bad Mother'

Psycho (1960), Autumn Sonata (1978), Lilya 4-Ever (2002), Kolya (1996), The Goonies (1985), Shelter (2007), Ordinary People (1980), Gone Baby Gone (2007) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Bad Mother movies.

#16. Three on a Match (1932)

Storyline: Mary Keaton, Vivian Kirkwood (née Revere), and Ruth Westcott have just run into each other having not seen each other in ten years since they graduated from Public School 62 together, and become friends of sorts in their re-acquaintance. Their intervening lives went much as probably would have been predicted when they were in public school: Mary, the troublemaker who almost didn't graduate with her class, spent some time in a reformatory but went straight and became a showgirl; Vivian, the popular beauty with a charmed life, married wealthy and renowned lawyer Robert Kirkwood, the two with an adolescent son, Robert Jr.; and Ruth, the quiet, hard-working, smart one, who became a stenographer. While Mary's life took a positive turn since her reformatory years, Vivian has come to the realization that she is unhappy with her life, its path a little too easy in its predetermination. She realizes she probably never loved Robert. Her quest for pleasure, with a blessing of sorts from Robert who doesn't want his wife, whom he still loves, to be as distant as she seems, will affect Mary, as well. Their collective destinies may be foreshadowed by an old wives' tale about three sharing a single match, from which the film takes its name.—Huggo (updated by R.M. Sieger)

Plot Keywords: pre code film, childhood friend, drug addiction, suicide, kidnapping, divorce, gangster ...

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#17. White Oleander (2002)

Storyline: Astrid Magnussen is a 15 year old girl, living in California. Her mother, Ingrid, is a beautiful, free-spirited poet. Their life, though unusual, is satisfying until one day, a man named Barry Kolker (that her mother refers to at first as "The goat man") comes into their lives, and Ingrid falls madly in love with him, only to have her heart broken, and her life ruined. For revenge, Ingrid murders Barry with the deadly poison of her favourite flower: The White Oleander. She is sent to prison for life, and Astrid has to go through foster home after foster home. Throughout nearly a decade she experiences forbidden love, religion, near-death experiences, drugs, starvation, and how it feels to be loved. But throughout these years, she keeps in touch with her mother via letters to prison. And while Ingrid's gift is to give Astrid the power to survive, Astrid's gift is to teach her Mother about love.

Plot Keywords: classroom, photograph, police officer, painting, teenage girl, school, police ...

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#18. Little Voice (1998)

Storyline: The pathetically shy LV lives the life of a recluse listening to her late father's old records in her room and in the process driving her abusive, loud-mouthed mother, Mari Hoff, to distraction. At night, however, when her father's ghost visits, LV sings the songs of the great divas such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Dame Shirley Bassey. One evening, LV is overheard by one of her mother's loathsome boyfriends, the disastrous dead-end talent scout Ray Say, who recognizes her innate talent and realizes this is his last big chance for the glittering prizes. Gambling everything, Ray Say forces LV to appear at a local run-down, seedy nightclub run by Mr. Boo. As preparations for the big event proceed apace LV meets the equally shy Billy, a pigeon-racing telephone engineer and they form a tentative, gentle friendship. The big night finally arrives and everything is in readiness, the band, the club, and even a big agent from London, but what about LV?

Plot Keywords: yorkshire, reference to marilyn monroe, photograph, working class, strip club, single mother, convertible ...

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#19. The Grifters (1990)

Storyline: Lily works for a bookie, placing bets to change the odds at the track. When her son is hospitalized after an unsuccessful con job and resultant beating, she finds that even an absentee parent has feelings for her child. This causes her own job to go wrong as well. Each of them faces the down side of the grift.

Plot Keywords: hidden money, femme fatale, mother son relationship, female criminal, female nudity, cigar smoking, female full frontal nudity ...

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#20. Serial Mom (1994)

Storyline: A picture perfect middle class family is shocked when they find out that one of their neighbors is receiving obscene phone calls. The mom takes slights against her family very personally, and it turns out she is indeed the one harassing the neighbor. As other slights befall her beloved family, the body count begins to increase, and the police get closer to the truth, threatening the family's picture perfect world.

Plot Keywords: serial killer, parody, video store, dentist, dysfunctional family, bad mother, anti heroine ...

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#21. Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)

Storyline: Joe continues to tell to Seligman the story of her life. Joe lives with Jerôme and their son Marcel and out of the blue, she loses sexual sensation in intercourse. Joe seeks kinky sex, perversions and sadomasochism expecting to retrieve her sex drive. Jerôme leaves home with Marcel and gives his son to a foster house for adoption. Then Joe is sent to therapy by her gynecologist but she does not admit that she is addicted to sex. Meanwhile Seligman tells Joe that he is virgin and helps her to understand her actions. Joe believes that Seligman is her friend, but is he?

Plot Keywords: explicit sex, unsimulated sex, female nudity, nymphomaniac, nymphomania, female frontal nudity, sex scene ...

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#22. Mommie Dearest (1981)

Storyline: The relationship between Christina Crawford and her adoptive mother Joan Crawford is presented from Christina's view. Unable to bear children, Joan, in 1940, was denied children through regular adoption agencies due to her twice divorced status and being a single working person. Her lover at the time, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lawyer Greg Savitt, was able to go through a brokerage to adopt a baby girl, who would be Christina, the first of Joan's four adoptive children. Joan believes that her own difficult upbringing has made her a stronger person, and decides that, while providing the comforts that a successful Hollywood actress can afford, she will not coddle Christina or her other children, she treating Christina more as a competitor than a daughter. Joan's treatment of Christina is often passive-aggressive, fueled both by the highs and lows of her career, the narcissism that goes along with being an actress, and alcohol abuse especially during the low times. However, Joan sees much of ...

Plot Keywords: bad mother, abusive mother, sadistic cruelty, bitch, evil woman, child abuse, borderline personality disorder ...

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#24. The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Storyline: When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, then-Captain Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened -- or didn't happen -- in Kuwait. As Marco (now a Major) investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.

Plot Keywords: conspiracy, mother son relationship, political campaign, military veteran, military officer, fbi, admiral ...

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#25. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Storyline: Picking up where the original Nightmare left off, Nancy has grown up and become a psychiatrist specializing in dream therapy. She meets a group of children at a local hospital facing Freddy Krueger, the same demon she once encountered in her sleep. One of them is Kristen, who has the power to draw other people into her dreams. Working with a male doctor assigned to the case, Nancy helps the kids realize their special abilities within the nightmare world. When Freddy captures one of her charges, she leads a rescue attempt into Krueger's domain, in hopes of putting his spirit to rest once and for all.

Plot Keywords: reference to edgar allan poe, corpse, dream within a dream, orderly, cut arm, nurse, slow motion scene ...

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#26. Throw Momma from the Train (1987)

Storyline: Larry Donner is an author and writing professor who tutors people that want to write books. Larry's life has become a misery when his ex-wife Margaret has published a book he wrote under her name and has gotten rich over it. Owen Lift, one of Larry's students, offers Larry to kill Margaret, and in return Owen, wants Larry to kill his horrible mother. Larry thinks it's a joke, until he learns Owen killed his ex-wife. And Larry has now become the prime suspect.

Plot Keywords: writing, directed by star, mother son relationship, domineering mother, resentment, black comedy, murder for hire ...

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#27. Running with Scissors (2006)

Storyline: The story of how a boy was abandoned by his mother and how he, later, abandoned her. The year he'll be 14, the parents of Augusten Burroughs (1965- ) divorce, and his mother, who thinks of herself as a fine poet on the verge of fame, delivers him to the eccentric household of her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. During that year, Augusten avoids school, keeps a journal, and practices cosmetology. His mother's mental illness worsens, he takes an older lover, he finds friendship with Finch's younger daughter, and he's the occasional recipient of gifts from an unlikely benefactor. Can he survive to come of age?

Plot Keywords: massachusetts, beer, marriage counselor, breaking and entering, waiter, student, head injury ...

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#29. Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006)

Storyline: Junior high in a time of rotary phones. Cougars have been spotted in the area. Logan is 13, the odd kid, with an active imagination and few friends. His young, single mother seems stressed. Latency is giving way to puberty, and Logan, who keeps a tube of lipstick in his dresser, may be gay or, more mysterious, transgender. He stares at himself in the mirror. He becomes friends with Rodeo, older and more mature, good-looking, with girlfriends. They take walks. Logan calls Rodeo and pretends to be a girl. Will he disclose himself to Rodeo? The kids at school talk. The school wants to promote kindness and tolerance. There are stories of child suicide. How do we find our way?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: infatuation, hallucination, groceries, goggles, ghost, friendship, footprint ...

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#30. Flowers in the Attic (1987)

Storyline: Dreams of an inheritance turn into a nightmare for four innocent children. Locked in the deserted north wing of the family mansion. Beaten by a vicious grandmother. Tormented by a menacing caretaker. Starved and left alone to wither - and perhaps die - like FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC. Their only hope lies in escape. But a horrible truth awaits them in the main house - a truth that will push the children toward a dizzying and violent solution. FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC - living proof that even the prettiest flowers can grow deadly in the attic's darkness.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: incest, captive, sadist, bathtub, partial female nudity, girl, little girl ...

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