The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureCinemaMovie reviews

I Love My Mum

I Love My Mum | Movie review
31 May 2019
Musanna Ahmed
Avatar
Musanna Ahmed
31 May 2019

Movie and show review

Musanna Ahmed

I Love My Mum

★★★★★

Release date

31st May 2019

Links

FacebookWebsite

If the children of Britain really do love their mums, they’ll make sure their mums never ever see I Love My Mum.

Featuring the most spectacularly unappealing pair of characters in a movie since Die Antwoord in Chappie, this road trip “comedy”, about a mother and son who accidentally find themselves in the Maghreb and make their way to France via Spain, is a prescription for Naproxen. It’s truly unbearable to watch these nincompoops from the opening five minutes, wherein they fight over their last scraps of cheese, drive to a supermarket to get more cheese and unwittingly crash into a port from where they’re shipped in a container to Morocco. Thus begins their journey, which morphs from intending to go back home to rerouting to Calais, where the rich, estranged patriarch of the family takes residence.

Kierston Wareing plays the buffoonish, slovenly Olga. She’s somehow more likeable as the horribly toxic mother in Fish Tank. Opposite Wareing is Tommy French as Olga’s son Ron. The feature film debutant makes a convincing case for the most inept performer in Britain, helpless as Alberto Sciamma’s direction demands he intensifies the stunningly irritating characterisation of an adolescent blockhead. It’s extremely difficult to withstand his irksome presence, leading to genuine pleasure in the one good scene of this movie – after stealing a cabbie’s car and unexpectedly taking a few ad-hoc jobs for cash, the driver finds Ron at the end of the day and reclaims his vehicle by punching Ron in the face. Repeatedly.

The unassuming extras in the background in Morocco are the real stars, sparking curiosity about many things: Were release forms signed? Did the filmmakers get permission to shoot here? Are these people generally nonchalant because their objectionable representation (which reaches its nadir in a migrant boat scene) is less offensive than anonymously being part of the worst British movie since Keith Lemon: The Film? These inquiries are far more interesting to ponder than whatever will happen to the central duo, who are strung along on an adventure that’s more asinine than expecting a positive outcome for Brexit.

Britain’s already had Mother’s Day for 2019; is it supposed to be Matricide Day at the end of May? That’s the only rationale for why I Love My Mum would be given a cinematic release. But, of course, such a day is non-existent –just like the enjoyment to be derived here.

★★★★★

Musanna Ahmed

I Love My Mum is released in select cinemas on 31st May 2019.

Watch the trailer for I Love My Mum here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Imperial Blue

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

MLK/FBI

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Sing Me a Song

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Wonder Woman 1984

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More

Come Away

★★★★★
Sylvia Unerman
Read More

Murder Me, Monster

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

David Byrne’s American Utopia

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Dreamland

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Musanna Ahmed

I Love My Mum

★★★★★

Release date

31st May 2019

Links

FacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Outside the Wire
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • You Me at Six – Suckapunch
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories
    Theatre
  • Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards
    Cinema
  • Persian Lessons: Exclusive new clip
    Cinema
  • Jeremiah Fraites: Piano Piano
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Quo Vadis, Aida?
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Lonely the Brave – The Hope List
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
  • Mayor
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

The Glass Menagerie at Arcola Theatre | Theatre review
“When people watch Black Mirror they expect to see someone staring at a see-through phone until their life falls apart”: Series creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones discuss season 5 of their Netflix thriller