The defence The Prestige Tourist
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Mother
Comedy · Drama · 1996
A neurotic, twice-divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mother to solve his personal problems.
Movie details
Mother
“No one misunderstands you better.”
1996 Comedy · Drama 1h 44m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.9 / 10
7K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
89 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
76 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.8 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
A neurotic, twice-divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mother to solve his personal problems.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Mother?
For the defence
The Prestige Tourist
“You like your greatness pre-approved.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.
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This Boy's Life
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When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.
God's Pocket
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A boozy lowlife tries to bury the truth about his crazy stepson's suspicious death, but a nosy newspaper columnist and the young man's mother complicate matters.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Albert Brooks
Written by
Albert Brooks · Monica Johnson
Albert Brooks
John Henderson
Debbie Reynolds
Beatrice Henderson
Rob Morrow
Jeff Henderson
Lisa Kudrow
Linda
John C. McGinley
Carl
Isabel Glasser
Cheryl Henderson
James Gleason
Waiter
Court is in session
Put Mother on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.