Mama’s Boys: 6 films that explore the unique bonds between mothers and their gay sons
sometimes the first people we come out to.Of course, those experiences are far from universal, and there are just as many who share a fraught or—to say the least—complicated connection with mommie dearest.
Regardless, there are few relationships more impactful to the life of a gay man than that with their mother, so it’s perhaps not so surprising that there’s a long history of films that explore this thematically rich dynamic.Take, for example, the 2022 documentary Mama’s Boy.
The film follows Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black as he revisits his Mormon upbringing, specifically through the lens of his bond with his mother.
There’s also The Inspection—a boot camp drama about a gay man who enlists in the Marines to impress his disapproving mother—and the sentimental romance, Spoiler Alert, which notably features Sally Field (who else?) as the loving mother of a gay man facing an uncertain future.In that spirit, we thought it was the perfect time to take a look back at recent features that delve into the unique mother-and-gay-son dynamic, a thematic subgenre of queer cinema that includes sweet dramedies, tense character studies, documentaries, tearjerkers, and more.
