3 Movies Like How to Survive Without Mum (2023)

Staff & contributors
It took a while to get going, but this packed hour was filled with the many fascinating gripes of Fern Brady, who comes across relatable in the most absurd way. I don't know if I just wasn't properly lubed up until about 25 minutes in, but the more you hear her talk about her aversion to marriage and muse about death and decline, her range as an animated and insightful person starts to really shine. And as engrossing as her stories can get, perhaps the most consistent thing she does is her voices—she is a hilarious character. Which is to say this felt honest, friendly, and absurd, in all the best ways.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Fern Brady

Director: Phoebe Bourke

Rating: R

The concept of Maaveeran is downright brilliant. As the timid comic strip writer is forced to be as brave as the hero he created, there’s something here that encourages its audience to listen to the yearnings already inside them. It allows for some cartoonish comedy that comes across as earnest. However, there's a certain hesitancy in the writing that makes the film’s second half a letdown. The film sticks too long to its protagonist’s cowardice that there’s so little time to wrap everything up. It’s still entertaining till the end, but a better sense of pacing would have kept the first half’s riveting comedy, and would have made a better case for being a hero.

Genre: Action, Drama

Actor: 'Jeeva' Ravi, Aditi Shankar, Balaji Sakthivel, Dhileban, Madhan Kumar Dhakshinamoorthy, Monisha Blessy, Mysskin, Ravi Teja, Saritha, Semmalar Annam, Sivakarthikeyan, Sunil Varma, Suresh Chakravarthy, Vijay Sethupathi, Yogi Babu

Director: Madonne Ashwin

To Catch a Killer feels like a limited series shrunken down to fit a movie’s runtime: its many ideas, though potentially compelling on their own, are so underserved by the breezy treatment here that they lose all value. The film wants to hit every hot button — misogyny in the police force, demagoguery on TV news channels, high-level corruption, white supremacy, and the mental health crisis — but its frantic box-ticking makes it feel like a speed-run of topical issues rather than anything genuinely reflective. 

The characters feel similarly underdeveloped, not least star Shailene Woodley’s, a Clarice Starling wannabe who winds up delivering emotional counseling to the film’s bafflingly motivated serial killer in just one of many implausible scenes. Add to that the cringe-inducing dialogue, which is crammed to bursting point with clunky metaphors, and you can call off the manhunt —  the script is the real killer here.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Adam LeBlanc, Alain Chanoine, Alex Gravenstein, Arthur Holden, Ben Mendelsohn, Benz Antoine, Bobby Brown, Chip Chuipka, Christian Jadah, Christian Paul, Christine Rodriguez, Daniel Brochu, Darcy Laurie, Dawn Lambing, Dusan Dukic, Erniel Baez, Frank Schorpion, Heidi Foss, Jason Cavalier, Joan Hart, Jovan Adepo, Karine Dion, Kelly Lee, Kevin Woodhouse, Laura Mitchell, Lesley Pahl, Leyda Aleyli, Lilou Roy-Lanouette, Luc Morissette, Marcello Bezina, Mark Antony Krupa, Mark Camacho, Mark Day, Mark Trafford, Martyne Musau, Matt Langton, Maurizio Terrazzano, Michael Cram, Michael Dozier, Nabil Khatib, Nick Walker, Nir Guzinski, Patrick Abellard, Patrick Émmanuel Abellard, Patrick Labbé, Paul Ash, Ralph Ineson, Richard Zeman, Rosemary Dunsmore, Ryan Stick, Sean Tucker, Shailene Woodley, Ted Pluviose, Teneisha Collins

Director: Damián Szifron