
Forty-six year old Diane Després - "Die" - has been widowed for three years. Considered white trash by many, Die does whatever she needs, including strutting her body in front of male employers who will look, to make an honest living. That bread-winning ability is affected when she makes the decision to remove her only offspring, fifteen year old Steve Després, from her previously imposed institutionalization, one step below juvenile detention. She institutionalized him sho... (Full plot summary below)
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Forty-six year old Diane Després - "Die" - has been widowed for three years. Considered white trash by many, Die does whatever she needs, including strutting her body in front of male employers who will look, to make an honest living. That bread-winning ability is affected when she makes the decision to remove her only offspring, fifteen year old Steve Després, from her previously imposed institutionalization, one step below juvenile detention. She institutionalized him shortly following her husband's death due to Steve's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and his violent outbursts. He was just kicked out of the latest in a long line of facilities for setting fire to the cafeteria, in turn injuring another boy. She made this decision to deinstitutionalize him as she didn't like the alternative, sending him into more restrictive juvenile detention from which he would probably never be rehabilitated. However, with this deinstitutionalization, she has to take care of him which means only being able to do home based work. Despite they always yelling expletives at each other and Steve sometimes demonstrating those violent tendencies toward her, Die and Steve truly do love each other, his emotions which are sometimes manifested as an Oedipus complex especially as he seems to need her complete attention most specifically when it is being directed at possible male suitors. Their lives, both individually and as a family, are affected with the entrance of two of their neighbors. The first is Paul, a lawyer, who does have that sexual interest in Die as he tries to help Steve through his legal problems. The second and more important is Kyla, who lives across the street with her husband Patrick and their adolescent daughter, they who are in transit in their life to wherever Patrick's job will take them. Kyla is a high school teacher on sabbatical as she deals with her own emotional issues, which are manifested in stuttering whenever she feels incapable of dealing with her life. Kyla may find that she needs the Després as much as they need her.
Leave your thoughts about Mommy.
| Chicago Daily HeraldDann GireNot since the Coen brothers' Blood Simple has a movie confirmed a voice this fresh and visual. |
| The Young FolksAllyson JohnsonMommy is going to linger. The love, the laughter, the anger and the sorrow--it sticks. |
| FILMINK (Australia)Tom CliftDolan fully embraces his melodramatic tendencies...this is a gaudy, exuberant film, as messy as it is astounding. |
| Irish TimesDonald ClarkeA hugely emotional film that makes no apologies for its engagement with the ripest melodrama. |
| Radio TimesDamon WiseIt borders on pretentious but never is, thanks largely to Dorval's wonderful, authentic performance as the titular everywoman. |
| East Bay ExpressKelly VanceYou'd think twice about providing Steve a foster home, or an aperitif. |
| Huffington PostBrandon JudellOffers up a rash of extraordinary performances, dialogue and direction as it tells a tale of a hard-living mother who loves her teenage son,who's a rather at-times charming, intermittently violent, skateboarding typhoon of a challenge to live with. |
| ZEALnycThelma AdamsLike the bastard child of John Cassavetes and Ingmar Bergman, prolific French Canadian film director Xavier Dolan has made an exhilarating, intimate family drama that digs deep and plays dirty. |
| VarietyPeter DebrugeIt’s uncanny how much Dolan’s style and overall solipsism have evolved in five years’ time, resulting in a funny, heartbreaking and, above all, original work — right down to its unusual 1:1 aspect ratio — that feels derivative of no one, not even himself. |
| The ListEmma SimmondsDolan's previous four films established him as an original and exciting voice. With the wildly funny, emotionally messy and wholly wonderful Mommy the filmmaker steps into the big league - aged just 25. |