You Are Not My Mother | Telescope Film
You Are Not My Mother

You Are Not My Mother

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A young woman's mother goes missing and then returns with a different personality.

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What are critics saying?

90

The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis

Imaginative and spooky, You Are Not My Mother shows just how frightening — and stigmatizing — a parent’s mental illness can be to a child.

80

Variety by Guy Lodge

Steeped in local folklore, it lets mythic and mind-based terrors exist side by side, allowing the viewer to interpret and believe what they will. This leeway comes at no cost, however, to its effective atmospherics, which sink into the bones like an unexpected twilight chill.

80

The Irish Times by Tara Brady

For much of its impressive duration, Dolan’s film blurs the line between family friction, bipolar disorder and the supernatural.

79

TheWrap by William Bibbiani

With striking scares, moody atmosphere, and impressive performances, You Are Not My Mother gradually reveals itself to be a wicked, wicked work of horror, with perhaps only a few unanswered questions holding it back from true greatness.

75

RogerEbert.com by Sheila O'Malley

The final sequences are the only "stock" moments in this very specific family drama, and something about the last scene left me cold. But the rest is so effective and emotional, a dedicated portrait of trauma passed down through generations, it doesn't matter.

68

Paste Magazine by Natalia Keogan

Brimming with potential that it doesn’t exactly follow through on, You Are Not My Mother is nonetheless another aesthetically rich horror film that clearly mines an individual’s personal history.

67

The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak

While Bracken helps create the nightmarish mood, Doupe is left to suffer its wrath and humanize the ordeal by struggling to readily believe the unfathomable.

63

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

The frights are muted, but the air of dread that hangs over Irish writer-director Kate Dolan’s debut feature makes it an immersive experience, one anybody with “mother issues” will quickly identify with.

60

The Guardian by Cath Clarke

Intense performances by Doupe and Bracken give it a real emotional pulse.

38

Slant Magazine by Mark Hanson

The primacy that it places on its dopamine drip of dread undercuts whatever genuine commitment it might have toward mental illness and trauma.