Mother's Little Helpers

I see the reality in this movie. Many won't ever have to deal with the truth of this story but for those have, this is a story that needed to be told. Thank you.

Death, taxes and less-than-perfect parenting are inevitable parts of most American stories but I've rarely seen them explored with such authenticity, humor and heart. Few films hit the right notes of the gut punch of losing a parent, and the belly laughs you can only share with a sibling. This one took me to that deep place and I genuinely laughed and cried while watching this film on my phone in bed. I watched it again immediately!

Really enjoyed this flick. The casting was so good. Melanie Hutsel is one of my favs!

I laughed and I cried (literally). This movie tackles a subject to which many of us can relate - the dysfunctional family. With a sharp comedic twist, this film is smart, witty and cathartic in the most entertaining way!

Mother's little helpers was a film that didn't dive into the themes it talked about enough and gave a very superficial take on this family coming together. The film is way too slow at the beginning and characters don't exactly react to certain aspects of the plot to the extent I thought they would when the film was unfolding, for example their were instances when a character would be upset about something and then another event will take place they would go back to being happy again in a short amount of time and it felt a little jarring. It also hit a point when the most interesting element of the film in the 3rd act hit and it felt a little underwhelming due to an underwhelming build up.

On the positive side you can tell the filmmakers put a lot of passion into writing the dialogue and crafting the movie, there were transitions in the film where they would cut to the characters in their childhoods and then go back to them now which felt like an interesting use of juxtaposition. Kestrin Pantera, Sam Littlefield and Melanie Hutsell's characters also felt like they got full character arcs, which is fitting as these three were the strongest actors in the film. However, the rest of the cast almost felt like filler and they didn't get very satisfying arcs in their story.

Overall I was fairly disappointed by Mother's Little Helpers which is a shame as you can really see the passion they put into making this. I would have loved to see more emotional weight to the consequences of the film as well as more satisfying arcs for some of the side characters.