Bad Mother
2024 · 25m · USA
Directed by Molly Longwell
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: darkly comic, tense
On the eve of a funeral, the grown kids come home — just in time for Mom to learn Dad's been cheating. Wine flows, passive aggression escalates, and the family politely combusts.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Funeral plus fresh infidelity confession plus wine: this is how family movies should actually open.
Twenty-five minutes lets the family politely combust rather than vignette-pop — Longwell understands rot needs runtime. August: Osage County contained and sober-ish, a real claim and largely kept.
Twenty-five minutes lets a family dynamic actually rot rather than vignette-pop — the eve of a funeral plus a freshly-revealed affair plus the grown kids coming home is a dense room. Longwell trusting the runtime is the craft.
Reviews
Richly explores a messy family with problematic tendencies and irritable dynamics