1. Motherboard (2024) – in cinemas 15 August 2025
Director: Victoria Mapplebeck
Relationship: Single mother raising son alone
Filmed over 20 years by the boy’s mother, this deeply personal documentary captures a single mother-son relationship shaped by an absent father, breast cancer, and the ordinary rhythms of growing up. Shot on iPhone.
Why it matters: A raw, immersive chronicle of solo parenting and emotional endurance; told from the inside out. One of the first VR films to place the viewer directly within a mother’s experience.
2. Ben Is Back (2018)
Director: Peter Hedges
Relationship: Mother and son recovering from addiction
When her teenage son returns home unexpectedly from rehab, his mother tries to shield him, and their family, from the fallout of his addiction, all within 24 hours.
Why it matters: A tense and tender portrait of a mother’s relentless love, trust, and fear. Julia Roberts delivers one of her most powerful performances.
3. 20th Century Women (2016)
Director: Mike Mills
Relationship: Independent single mother and teenage son
Set in 1979 Santa Barbara, Dorothea raises her adolescent son with the help of two younger women, forming a community of unconventional caretakers.
Why it matters: A deeply personal film that shows how motherhood can be collaborative, evolving, and emotionally expansive.
4. Lion (2016)
Director: Garth Davis
Relationship: Birth mother and adoptive mother of a lost boy
After being adopted by an Australian family, a young man sets out to find his birth mother in India using Google Earth and childhood memory.
Why it matters: A moving portrayal of how maternal love can transcend distance, language, and even decades of separation.
5. Room (2015)
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Relationship: Mother and young son held captive together
A mother and her son escape from years of captivity, and the story follows their adjustment to freedom and rebuilding life.
Why it matters: A powerful depiction of a mother’s fierce protectiveness and the unique bond forged in extreme circumstances.
6. Boyhood (2014)
Director: Richard Linklater
Relationship: Divorced mother and son over 12 years
A boy grows up under the care of his mother, in a film shot with the same actors over more than a decade, capturing life’s real-time changes.
Why it matters: A tribute to the everyday heroism of mothers; unglamorous, imperfect, but transformative.
7. Mommy (2014)
Director: Xavier Dolan
Relationship: Widowed mother and son with behavioural challenges
A single mother fights to raise her volatile teenage son as they forge an intense, co-dependent bond, supported by an emotionally reclusive neighbour.
Why it matters: Explores the ferocity and fragility of mother-son love with cinematic boldness and brutal honesty.
8. I Killed My Mother (2009)
Director: Xavier Dolan
Relationship: Teenage son and single mother
A precocious teenage boy expresses frustration, obsession, and love for his overbearing mother in a semi-autobiographical debut by Dolan.
Why it matters: A vibrant, chaotic, and tender depiction of the emotional push-pull between a mother and her queer teenage son.
9. Raising Victor Vargas (2002)
Director: Peter Sollett
Relationship: Teenage son and fiercely loving single mother
In New York City, a teenage boy navigates adolescence, love, and responsibility under the watchful and supportive eye of his vibrant mother.
Why it matters: A warm, realistic look at urban family life and the powerful, sometimes complicated, bond between mother and son.
10. Jerry Maguire (1996)
Top 10 list of Best Mother and Son Films
Director: Cameron Crowe
Relationship: Surrogate father-son dynamic with single mother and son
A sports agent’s life unravels until he finds stability and purpose in an unexpected bond with a single mother and her son.
Why it matters: Beyond the romance, the film captures how maternal relationships and chosen families can guide personal reinvention.
