Netflix’s new fictionalized Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde has sparked widespread controversy for everything from its graphic abortion scene to its exploitative JFK scene. The film’s exaggerated portrayal of Monroe’s abusive mother has also come under fire. There’s nothing wholesome to be found in Blonde, but there are plenty of beautifully authentic and heartwarming mother-daughter dynamics from movie history.
From Christine and Marion’s affectionate bickering in Lady Bird to Ripley and Newt’s instant connection in Aliens, there are plenty of moving mother-daughter relationships to be found on film.
Tess & Anna Coleman (Freaky Friday)
The biggest difficulty in parent-child relationships is that the parent and child struggle to see things from each other’s perspective. The “body swap” premise of Freaky Friday tackles that difficulty head-on.
A perfectly matched Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis lead the remake as aspiring musician Anna and her widowed therapist mother, Tess. After they spend a day in each other’s shoes, Anna and Tess start to empathize with each other’s point of view.
Emma & Aurora Greenway (Terms Of Endearment)
James L. Brooks’ tearjerking adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s novel Terms of Endearment covers 30 years of a beautifully realized mother-daughter relationship. Shirley MacLaine stars as the mother, Aurora, alongside Debra Winger as the daughter, Emma.
Both characters suffer from their own individual problems – Aurora can’t find love and Emma has family issues – but the story is told through the lens of their deep connection to one another.
Meg & Sarah Altman (Panic Room)
David Fincher’s most Hitchcockian film, Panic Room, is a high-concept thriller about a single mother trying to keep her daughter safe during a home invasion. Jodie Foster stars as Meg Altman and a young Kristen Stewart plays her daughter, Sarah.
When three burglars break into their new home, Meg and Sarah hide out in the titular state-of-the-art panic room. Meg will do anything to protect Sarah, including leaving the panic room to get her diabetic daughter’s glucagon syringes.
Donna & Sophie Sheridan (Mamma Mia!)
The star of Mamma Mia! is, of course, the music of ABBA. But the cast is led by Meryl Streep as hotel owner Donna Sheridan-Carmichael and Amanda Seyfried as her daughter, bride-to-be Sophie. The story revolves around Sophie’s quest to identify her long-lost biological father from a handful of potential candidates.
But the message is ultimately that, no matter who Sophie’s dad is, she’s always had a mother who loves her and looks out for her.
Chris & Regan MacNeil (The Exorcist)
William Friedkin’s horror masterpiece The Exorcist is primarily the story of two priests attempting to save 12-year-old Regan MacNeil from demonic possession. But at its core – and particularly in the first half – it’s really about the lengths that a mother will go to in order to save her daughter.
Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn both earned Oscar nominations for their portrayals of Regan and her exasperated single mother Chris, respectively.
The Bride & B.B. (Kill Bill)
In the first half of Quentin Tarantino’s two-part martial arts epic Kill Bill, the Bride seeks bloody vengeance for the deaths of her fiancé and her unborn baby. But the cliffhanger ending of Volume 1 reveals that her child is alive and well. In Volume 2, the Bride has a new quest: to be reunited with her daughter.
By the end of the movie, after killing Bill and the rest of the Deadly Viper assassins, the Bride’s happy new life with her daughter B.B. is more than earned.
Suzanne Vale & Doris Mann (Postcards From The Edge)
Carrie Fisher adapted the screenplay for Mike Nichols’ Postcards from the Edge from her own semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. The fictional narrative was inspired by Fisher’s relationship with her own mother, Debbie Reynolds.
Meryl Streep stars as Suzanne Vale, a movie star and recovering addict who is requested by her studio to move in with her overbearing mother – Doris Mann, played by Shirley MacLaine – so she can keep her sober and allow the studio to insure her next production.
Evelyn & Joy Wang (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
The Daniels’ verse-jumping sci-fi epic Everything Everywhere All at Once is both an action-packed genre-bending blockbuster extravaganza and a moving, intimate family drama about a mother’s struggle to let her daughter live her own life.
The multiversal antics of Everything Everywhere serve as a metaphor to bolster the mother-daughter story. Evelyn Wang is transported across the multiverse to battle a destructive cosmic entity that her other self created, manifested as her nihilistic Generation Z daughter Joy.
Ellen Ripley & Newt (Aliens)
Ellen Ripley might not be the biological mother of orphaned Newt, the sole survivor of an off-world colony ravaged by xenomorphs that she takes under her wing in Aliens. But they develop a heartwarming mother-daughter dynamic after they both lose their own families.
When Newt is abducted by the xenomorph queen, Ripley goes into the alien nest alone, armed to the teeth, to liberate her new surrogate daughter by any means necessary.
Christine & Marion McPherson (Lady Bird)
Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut Lady Bird covers every dimension of the titular Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson’s coming-of-age experience, from her first romance to her second romance to her sibling rivalry to her attempts to fit in with the cool crowd to her return to her true best friend. But the movie’s main focus is her relationship with her mother, Marion.
Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf share a deeply authentic on-screen mother-daughter dynamic. The opening shot of Christine and Marion lying in bed, mirroring each other, perfectly sums up their relationship: they’re diametrically opposed and they’re also exactly the same.