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![Faye Dunaway in the film Mommie Dearest, Sally Field in Forrest Gump and Diahann Carroll in Claudine Faye Dunaway in the film Mommie Dearest, Sally Field in Forrest Gump and Diahann Carroll in Claudine](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2021/best-and-worst-movie-moms/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/container_image/articlecontentfragment/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/2021/04/1140-movie-moms.jpg)
"A boy's best friend is his mother,” Norman Bates observed in Psycho. So for those who intend to shower Mom with some movie love this Mother's Day, we've compiled a roundup of some of Hollywood's most memorable maters: some good, some bad, and some whose suspect maternal instincts are somewhere in between.
![Lorelei Linklater, Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane lying on a bed reading a book in the film Boyhood Lorelei Linklater, Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane lying on a bed reading a book in the film Boyhood](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2021/best-and-worst-movie-moms/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/body_one_cf_one/par1/articlecontentfragmeImage1/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/2021/04/1140-boyhood-patricia-arquette.jpg)
Good Mom: Patricia Arquette in Boyhood (2014)
There's literally a lifetime in Richard Linklater's filmed-over-12-years Oscar winner. Not only did Patricia Arquette's single mom, Olivia, ultimately do a great job with her own son and daughter, but she unwittingly changed the life of the man who worked on her septic line, who on her advice returned to school and graduated from college. It's one milestone to the next until she is left alone in an empty nest. The film should really be called Motherhood, because Olivia is the most interesting person in it.
Watch it: Boyhood, on Criterion Channel, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, Apple TV
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Bad Mom: Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People (1980)
Mary Tyler Moore's Beth Jarrett is not going to turn on anybody's world with her cold, cold smile. The affluent, picture-perfect Jarrett household betrays a rotting core of grief that has left Jarrett emotionally (and in every other way) distant from her young son (Oscar winner Timothy Hutton), who holds himself responsible for his older brother's tragic death. For Beth, appearances are everything, and it tears her family apart.
Watch it: Ordinary People, on Paramount+, Amazon Prime, Google Play
Good Mom: Diahann Carroll in Claudine (1974)
A deglamorized Diahann Carroll was Oscar-nominated for her gritty performance as a single welfare mom who lives in Harlem with her six children. Her already chaotic life is further upended when she is pursued by a garbage man (James Earl Jones in a rare romantic leading role). Despite a series of familial and romantic crises, Claudine keeps it together.
Watch it: Claudine, on Vimeo
DON'T MISS THIS: 10 Celebrities Who Gave Their Moms the Star Treatment
![Cicely Tyson stars in the film Sounder Cicely Tyson stars in the film Sounder](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2021/best-and-worst-movie-moms/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/body_one_cf_one/par11/articlecontentfragme/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/2021/04/1140-sounder-cicely-tyson.jpg)
Good Mom: Cicely Tyson in Sounder (1972)
Cicely Tyson was nominated for an Oscar as Rebecca, a sharecropper's wife who does what she has to do to manage her family and the crops when her husband (Paul Winfield) is arrested and sent to a remote work camp. Roger Ebert called Tyson's performance “a wonder": “We know her strength and intelligence. Then we see her dealing with the white power structure, and her behavior toward it is in a style born of cynicism and necessity. She will say what they want to hear to get what she wants to get.”
Watch it: Amazon Prime, Tubi
![John Cusack and Anjelica Huston star in the film The Grifters John Cusack and Anjelica Huston star in the film The Grifters](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2021/best-and-worst-movie-moms/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/body_one_cf_one/par14/articlecontentfragme/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/2021/04/1140-the-grifters.jpg)
Bad Mom: Anjelica Huston in The Grifters (1990)
If Anjelica Huston's Lilly Dillon were to pass herself off as Mother of the Year, that might be the biggest con she has ever pulled, and she's pulled plenty at the cost of her relationship to her son, aspiring grifter Roy (John Cusack). But she is way, way out of Roy's league and a Freudian nightmare to boot: “What if I told you I wasn't really your mother? You'd like that wouldn't you?”
Watch it: The Grifters, on Hulu, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu
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