Mother

South Korean director Joon-ho Bong offers an enjoyably creepy take on Psycho here as the unnamed title character (Hye-ja Kim) goes to incredible lengths to prove the innocence of her mentally challenged son (Bin Won), who's accused of murdering a neighborhood girl. At first, mother suspects the lad's unsavory friend (Ku Jin), but that's only the beginning of a search that includes attending the victim's funeral (her presence naturally causes a scene), confronting students who engage in kinky sex (captured on their cell phones), and seeking out a peddler who might have witnessed the crime (or committed it). Like Hitchcock's classic, Mother alternates between darkly funny moments and bursts of violence (adding a satisfyingly perverted twist at the end), while offering a reverse take: here, it's not the young man who obsessively protects a false memory of his mother, but rather she who harbors an unrealistic conception of her child. Hye-ja Kim delivers a stunning performance—by turns mousy and furiously vengeful—creating a portrait of motherhood that is far from sentimental cliché in a film that serves up an engrossing mixture of murder mystery, psychological thriller, and black comedy. Recommended. (F. Swietek)