call mom movie review

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Sanna Sundqvist (Niki) Nina Gunke (Sofia) Alexander Karim (Alex) Jonatan Rodriguez (Rodrigo) Evin Ahmad (Maggie) Eric Ericson (Tomas) Julia Corti Kopp (Liv) Cecilia Forss (Kvinnlig terapeut) Björn Gustafsson (Manlig terapeut) Viktor Frisk (Tindermassör) Anna Mannheimer (Granne) Aleksa Lundberg (Anna) Allan Linnér (Radiopsykolog) Victor Iván (Undersköterska) Furat Jari (Kollega till Alex) Saga Gärde (Barnmorska i telefon) Fabrizio Jimenez (Harry) Leis Yasin (Ceasar)

Lisa Aschan

Niki has just turned 35 and has to suddenly grasp all the life choices and relationships that she dug for.

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2019 ‘Ring mamma!’ Directed by Lisa Aschan

Parents wait all their lives for their children to say "Thank you!" And the children in turn wait for a "Sorry!". This impossible equation is the starting point in the comedy "Call Mom!" Niki has just turned 35 and has to suddenly grasp all the life choices and relationships she dug for.

Sanna Sundqvist Nina Gunke Alexander Karim Evin Ahmad Jonatan Rodriguez Eric Ericson Aleksa Lundberg Cecilia Forss Björn Gustafsson Viktor Frisk Anna Mannheimer Julia Corti Kopp Allan Linnér Victor Iván Leis Yasin

Director Director

Lisa Aschan

Producer Producer

Anna-Maria Kantarius

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Saga Gärde David Färdmar Archana Khanna

Editor Editor

Kristin Grundström

Cinematography Cinematography

Linda Wassberg

Art Direction Art Direction

Eva Torsvall

Stunts Stunts

Johan Lindqvist

Composer Composer

Jon Ekstrand

Costume Design Costume Design

Sara Forsberg

SVT Film i Väst Garagefilm International SF Studios

Releases by Date

03 oct 2020, 22 nov 2019, 20 feb 2020, 04 jun 2020, 23 sep 2020, 06 apr 2020, releases by country.

• Digital Cinéfest Sudbury

Russian Federation

• Premiere Moscow International Film Festival
• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical 11
• Physical 11 DVD / Blu-ray

101 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Martin Johansson ★★★

En lyckad svensk dramakomedi, vet inte när jag såg en sådan senast och ett fall framåt för regissören Lisa Aschan vars första två hyllade filmer var skittrista. Ring Mamma! ger lite hopp åt svensk mainstream om hon stannar där.

Review by del mae

Niki might be 35, but she lives as if she’s ten years younger—and that means engaging in continuous spats with her mother. Niki works as an elementary PE teacher and has quite the boisterous sex life (including an affair with her boss… and her masseuse). Her mother, Sofia, is soft-spoken and unable to sit still or look someone in the eye, so she obsessively cleans to avoid both. Stuck in an emotional deadlock, Niki and Sofia simply cannot communicate. Each privately seeks a stronger relationship with the other, but their inability to admit how they feel creates an endless cycle of misunderstanding. Closely guarded secrets ultimately will force Niki and Sofia to confront their emotions as well as each other.…

Review by Ashleigh Holder ★★★★

A really enjoyable and fun watch, which was surprisingly deeper than I expected. The acting was really entertaining, and the relationships between characters were heartfelt. The comedic elements were very present but well restrained, which created a really unique tone and allowed the other elements of the film to feel just as important. Not an incredible film but I thought there was a lot that it did right.

Review by Ellysin ★★★★½

You will cry, and laugh and most importantly: you will call your mom

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Call Mom! (2019)

Original title: ring mamma.

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Parents wait all their lives for their children to say "Thank you!" And the children in turn wait for a "Sorry!". This impossible equation is the starting point in the comedy "Call Mom!" Niki has just turned 35 and has to suddenly grasp all the life choices and relationships she dug for.

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by  Lisa Aschan

Niki has just turned 35 and has to suddenly grasp all the life choices and relationships that she dug for.

more about: Call Mom!

Interview: Evin Ahmad • Actress

"I would like to play in a political drama thriller, I find them so interesting"

BERLINALE 2022: The Swedish-Kurdish actress, set to star in the second season of the Swedish Netflix Original series Snabba Cash , discusses acting in film and theatre, and literature   

Interview: Ivan Hronec • Distributor, Film Europe

“This will sound strange, but during the lockdown we managed to have some progress”

We interviewed Ivan Hronec, head of media company Film Europe, who gave us some insight into their particular business model   

Servants wins the top prize at Febiofest Prague 2020

The Swedish comedy Call Mom! by Lisa Aschan has come out on top in the Comedy Competition   

29/09/2020 | Febiofest Prague 2020 | Awards

Febiofest Prague prepares for take two

Although it will take place as a physical event, the organisers are also preparing the Czech festival in hybrid form, after the original edition was disrupted by the pandemic   

09/09/2020 | Febiofest Prague 2020

Lisa Aschan shooting Call Mom!

The Swedish helmer is currently immersed in her third feature, a dramedy exploring a mother-daughter relationship, starring Sanna Sundqvist and Nina Gunke   

16/11/2018 | Production | Sweden

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Movie Review: Mom

Mom Rachit Gupta, April 1, 2018

• Mom Movie Review

Cast:  Sridevi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshaye Khanna, Sajal Ali, Adnan Siddiqui, Abhimanyu Singh  Director:  Ravi Udyawar Quick take: Intense, taut and gratifying thriller Rating: 3.5 stars

Mom is a film that excels in its cinematic moments. Its revenge based story is a little too familiar, but the treatment and the obsession with finer details make this thriller an engrossing experience. The film is peppered with strong dramatic moments that keep appearing every few minutes and each one leaves a lasting impact on the viewer. The core theme here is that of a mother, struggling to keep the relationship with her daughter alive. That intimate premise unfolds in a more familiar revenge story where an ordinary mother hatches an unlikely but murderous plot to bring vigilante justice to her daughter’s rapists. Mom is a heavy duty, darkly dramatic film that doesn’t mince its ideas. It’s a story full of brutality and shock. The dramatic punches are what make this film such a gratifying experience.

Sridevi plays Devaki, a teacher and a doting mother. Her family looks picture perfect with husband Anand (Adnan Siddiqui) and two daughters Arya (Sajal Ali) and the young Pihu. Arya doesn’t like to call Devaki, Mom. She addresses her step mother as simply Mam. Because Devaki is also her biology teacher. Devaki struggles to break into the good books of her teenage daughter. But she remains hopeful, resolute and positive. Things go haywire, when Arya is kidnapped at a party, gang raped in a car and then dumped to die in a gutter. The tragic series of event, create a massive stress on the mother-daughter relationship. While the mother weeps, wails and tears through your heart. The girl struggles to cope with her tragedy. She pushes the mother away even more, haunting the viewer and scaring them in the process. The first half of Mom crushes the viewers’ spirit, deserting all hope and innocence, with clinical precision. Director Ravi Udyawar’s treatment of the film is spectacular. The choice of back ground music, the unsettling camera movements, the sense of dread and despair is phenomenal. There’s a lot of thought put into crafting each scene, each shot of Mom. Anay Goswami’s cinematography and AR Rahman’s haunting soundtrack amplify the emotions and the drama. The writing by Ravi Udyawar, Girish Kohli and Kona Venkat Rao is detailed and intelligent.

Mom is not an easy film to watch. The stark power of the first half is quite overwhelming. It’s doesn’t help when Sridevi acts out of her skin. Every time she trembles and cries, she draws the viewer in. Every emotion that’s served up in Mom – despair, suffering, frustration, anger etc comes forth with Sridevi’s performance. Sajal Ali playing the distant daughter who suffers a horrible tragedy is great in maintaining the coldness of her character. The film also has Akshaye Khanna and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in supporting roles. Akshaye plays an honest and tough cop with great effect. But it’s Nawazuddin’s act as an eerie but cool private detective DK that steals the show. He’s not there in every scene, but every time he shows up, Mom’s entertainment value swells up. He handles the comedy, the drama and the heartbreak with ease. Scenes featuring both Sridevi and Nawaz are absolute delight to watch.

The biggest problem with the film is that the second half deviates from the dark and delicious themes of the first, to indulge in the revenge drama track. While the situations in the second half are written with perfect logic, they are bit lofty. The action and the suspense approach distracts from the much more powerful story of mother, daughter and a family slowly nursing itself out of tragedy. But that’s how it plays out. The crucial moment in the climax though, makes it all worth the while. Mom is quite literally a thrill-a-minute ride. Its scenes are powerful and the best part is, the effort put in by the actors. Director Ravi Udyawar crafts an intense, taut and gratifying thriller. It’s a must watch.

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

The “movie star,” that mysterious creature whose blinding charisma pulls everyone into its irresistible orbit, is becoming an endangered species. That makes Jennifer Lopez —a movie star par excellence —the onscreen equivalent of a majestic snow leopard. Lopez can easily carry a film on her own, and her latest project, “The Mother,” is lucky to have her. 

That’s not to say that the latest film from director Niki Caro (“Mulan”) and a screenwriting team led by “Underground” creator Misha Green would totally sink without its star. Like most Netflix movies, “The Mother” would be a perfectly serviceable thing to have on in the background while you tidied the living room or answered emails on your phone. The spy-movie setup is generic enough to follow while doing something else, and the villains’ motivations are only as specific as the plot needs them to be, which is to say, not very specific at all. 

“The Mother” was screened for critics in theaters, where the immersive setup makes the paint-by-numbers portions of the plot really stick out. A handful of odd stylistic choices also attract attention in this format: A recurring visual motif of wide-angle shots with blurred edges; odd, jumpy edits seem to compensate for a lack of coverage on set. 

But the big screen also provides a bigger canvas for the film’s picturesque locations, like wild Tlingit Bay, Alaska, the sweltering streets of Havana—and, uh, Cincinnati, Ohio. (Every spy needs a place to hide out.) More importantly, it’s also more real estate for Lopez’s face.

For the most part, that billion-dollar mug is set into an expression of grim determination in “The Mother,” which opens with an unnamed FBI informant (Lopez) and her handler Cruise ( Omari Hardwick ) barely escaping from a bloody attack on an FBI safe house in suburban Indiana. The informant soon becomes The Mother, as the pregnant ex-spy gives birth to a baby girl while in the hospital recovering from her wounds. She has two options: Either escape with the infant and stay on the run forever or sign over her parental rights so her daughter can have a normal life. She chooses the latter.

She never signs away her emotional commitment, however. And she continues to watch expectantly from the sidelines, waiting for the day when her past will also shape young Zoe’s ( Lucy Paez ) life. And indeed, just after Zoe’s 12th birthday, The Mother’s friend and confidant, Jons ( Paul Raci ), comes by her isolated Alaskan lakeside cabin with a message: Zoe is in danger. It’s go time. 

As with her celebrated turn as a pole dancer in “ Hustlers ,” much of the excitement in “The Mother” is watching Lopez in motion. She swings a knife in hand-to-hand combat. She jumps across the roofs of cars in an urban foot chase. Even the subtle movement of loading and cocking a sniper rifle while lying belly-down on a rooftop is thrilling when she does it. Lopez translates her background as a dancer into gritty action choreography with the ease of a seasoned professional. 

The film shifts gears about halfway in, as Zoe and her mother retreat to Mom’s cabin for a hybrid bonding session and wilderness survival course leading up to the fiery action finale. “The Mother” is arguably too long at 115 minutes, but it’s difficult to say which scenes, in particular, could have been cut; in its quieter moments, both Lopez and her young co-star Paez give convincing performances as the gruff mentor and pouty student.

If anything, the film could have used more of these moments, which feel real and tangible compared to the cardboard cut-out bad guys played by Joseph Fiennes and Gael Garcia Bernal. Either of these men, we’re told, could be Zoe’s father, and it’s their obsession with The Mother that drives the rest of the narrative. Get in line, fellas. 

On Netflix now.

Katie Rife is a freelance writer and critic based in Chicago with a speciality in genre cinema. She worked as the News Editor of  The A.V. Club  from 2014-2019, and as Senior Editor of that site from 2019-2022. She currently writes about film for outlets like  Vulture, Rolling Stone, Indiewire, Polygon , and  RogerEbert.com.

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The Mother (2023)

Rated R for violence, some language and brief drug use.

115 minutes

Jennifer Lopez as Mother

Joseph Fiennes as Adrian

Omari Hardwick as Cruise

Gael García Bernal as Hector

Paul Raci as Jons

Lucy Paez as Zoe

Writer (story)

• Misha Green
• Andrea Berloff
• Peter Craig

Cinematographer

• Ben Seresin
• David Coulson
• Germaine Franco

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• K-Drama Review

K-Movie Review: “The Call” Rings An Enthralling Narrative That Keeps Your Attention From Start To Finish

It’s amazing how the call plugs a virtual connection the moment you hit “play” on your netflix screen.

Park Shin Hye and Jeon Jeong Seo take the viewers to a roller-coaster ride into their worlds happening instantaneously from different timelines in The Call .

The film threads on the story of Seo-yeon (Park Shin Hye), who after moving to an old family home, receives a call from a stranger named Young-sook (Jeon Jong Seo). She learns Young-sook lived in the same house she currently lives 20 years ago, and they become friends. As they call each other, they make risky choices that change each other’s lives drastically.

The Call Highlights *Spoiler Alert

A thrilling narrative.

Met through a series of strange phone calls, Seo-yeon and Young-sook develop a bond that change their lives forever. Discovering their actions can change and implicate their existence in the different timelines they live, they start a friendship that unfortunately becomes awry.

Young-sook saving Seo-yeon’s father has been a dream came true for the latter. However, with her new life reimagined, she has slowly provided lesser time to Young-sook who has been receiving maltreatment from her step-mother.

From Seo-yeon’s tip of how she will die in the hands of her step-mom, Young-sook was able to save herself by killing her step-mom in the process. Enjoying her new-found freedom, the ominous warning of her step-mother about her causing life losses is proving to be true. After mutilating her step-mom and the poor strawberry farm owner, she learned from Seo-yeon that she will rot in jail for the killing she committed.

From there, their outwitting games begin; both of them waging their lives come hell or high water. Seo-yeon uses the details she can get from the investigation notes of the local police. Meanwhile, Young-sook creates a trusted ally – her future self.

Impressively keeping the thrill running while simultaneously connecting the lives of the main characters in the story makes The Call set a bait that reels the viewer to finish the film in one sitting. Aside from its enthralling run, its easy-to-follow narration is also noteworthy.

A Well-Decked Conflict & Climax

Funneled to the conflict of Seo-yeon’s quest to undo her connection to Young-sook; The Call grips attention with its smartly-pocketed pace. Establishing the friendship of the main characters, down to the favors they both gave each other; the film rivetingly culminates to ill intention harbored by Young-sook and Seo-yeon’s determination to protect herself and loved ones.

Accordingly, the movie’s conflict and climax go well convincingly. In the frames highlighting the parallel events happening in Seo-yeon and Young-sook’s present, past and future lives. It pushes any viewer to be at the edge of his seat at the sight of Seo-yeon’s helpless situation and feel scared of Young-sook’s menacing nature.

Superb heroine-villainess Showdown

Young-sook’s mind, though convoluted was such a good match to the quick-witted Seo-yeon who can rationalize things. An ability that her tortured friend-turned-enemy from 1999 does not have. However, Young-sook makes it up with determination that knows not how to compromise, that include wielding atrocities without regret.

Featuring women in a psychopath chase story was interestingly made more absorbing by Park Shin Hye and Jeon Jeong Seo. The heroine has a grit of her own to match the villainess who is twice dangerous owing to her mercurial temperament.

In an interview with Park Shin Hye, she mentioned initially turning down the movie. I’m glad she reconsidered because she powered a distinct role quite different from what her regular fans have seen so far on small and big screens.

Jeon Jeong Seo on the other hand easily suited to her role with utmost conviction. Her intricate characterization assures an impeccable recall for people who will know her for the first time in this film.

Individually, the two actresses colored their roles efficiently. Together, they match their characters mettle to an outsmarting game that inevitably stakes all they have to win.

The Call Movie Afterthoughts *Spoiler Alert

I was also surprised that I was held on my seat watching The Call in one sitting. Evidently, its thrilling ride piqued my interest that its hard not to watch its end game. Plus the fact that the female leads did not take the usual annoying girlish route.

Its fascinating narrative inescapably made me want to root for Seo-yeon, who got a glimpse of the dream life she wanted, only to be sent to a nightmare because of a phone call.

Understanding the events that brought about Young-sook’s wickedness can be traced to the disheartening life she suffered in the hands of her step-mom. Obviously, the step-mom who combines psychopath tendencies and shaman beliefs greatly influenced Young-sook’s nefarious nature.

The Call concludes with Seo-yeon surviving the attack from present-day Young-sook, who materialized after her old self destroyed the evidence that change the course of her prison-bound life.

Her life presented in grandiose flair of full blown psychopath killer displayed an array of refrigerators storing her kills. A successful nod to how she escalated from her awkward, but already dangerous murderer beginning, when she mutilated her step-mom and stored her inside the kitchen fridge.

For this film, it is important to note that the actions of Seo-yeon and Young-sook affect their lives, albeit living in different timelines. However, it pushed confounding moments with the placement of epilogue scenes.

The baffling ending

After the climactic and heroic sacrifice of Seo-yeon’s mom, it showed Seo-yeon surviving and running to find her mother. Her bittersweet reunion with her mother appears to be a false reality to console her weary heart, which regrets failing to grant her mom’s request of being buried beside her husband.

The scene where they walk together and her mom vanishing in the picture proved the prophetic claim of how lives will be killed because of Young-sook. It was another epilogue snippet concurring to the evil step-mom’s warning.

Then, we see Seo-yeon trapped and imprisoned somewhere, suggesting she might have not been killed, but was just held hostage by Young-sook. Something that may connect to the tip from present-day Young-sook given to her 1999 counterpart to hold on to the phone no matter what for them to survive. It also agrees to the scene of Young-sook opening her eyes amidst a pool of blood her head lays on from falling together with Seo-yeon’s mother.

Hence, the ending is really confusing if Seo-yeon solely survived; or both she and Young-sook managed to stay alive. This is the only thing I can’t help but nit-pick on, because it was easy to close the story neatly right there and then. Young-sook dying because of Seo-yeon’s mom’s sacrifice is a satisfying way to seal the conclusion landing on a good prevails evil note.

Film Takeaways + Recommendation

As I usually take away the relevant messages when I review films and dramas. I can only arrive at two lessons. First, to cherish our parents wishes, especially if it’s not hard to begin with. Because hey, we might not get another chance to dote on things that they specifically request.

Second, to be always wary of creating friendship. Seo-yeon and Young-sook clicked on so fast, until they start devaluing each other because of owed favors, they demand to be returned. Never estimate someone’s friendship value based on what they have done for you.

Even now, I can’t reconcile what the ending of The Call was trying to achieve when it was easy to close the story neatly following its deftly limned story. Nonetheless, it is still a good watch for me. The puzzling closure does not demerit the scintillating drive of its narrative.

• “The Call” Starring Park Shin Hye & Jeon Jong Seo Tells An Intriguing Thriller Story Not To Be Missed

Photos/Videos: Netflix

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Review: k-movie “the call” is a chilling and suspenseful murder mystery.

Park Shin-hye and Jeon Jong-seo star in Korean thriller “The Call,” which now streams on Netflix.

By Anthony Kao , 1 Dec 20 07:27 GMT

How do you stop a killing in the past? That’s the central challenge of The Call , Netflix’s latest Korean film acquisition. Featuring leading starlet Park Shin-hye and rising actress Jeon Jong-seo, this thriller depicts two women who become connected across time periods through a mysterious landline telephone. When the woman of the past starts on a serial killing spree, the woman of the present must take action before it’s too late.

Even if it doesn’t aspire to push filmmaking boundaries or provide philosophical musings, the movie is a solid piece of entertainment that doesn’t feel trite, even with the preponderance of time travel murder mysteries . Through effective world-building and acting, The Call creates a distinctively chilling and suspenseful vibe that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats until its very last moments.

[ Read: The 13 Best Korean Horror Movies ]

Telephone Time Travel

The Call begins with a young woman named Kim Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) getting dropped off at an ornate countryside house with creepy gothic vibes. After getting situated, Seo-yeon hears the rings of a clunky landline telephone. She picks it up, and hears the pleading cries of another young woman named Oh Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), who insists that her shaman mother is trying to kill her. Seo-yeon soon realizes that Oh Young-sook lived in the same house two decades ago, and the landline somehow allows the two women to connect across time.

In spite of Young-sook’s abusive shaman mother, Seo-yeon and Young-sook begin to form a bond. However, when a warning from Seo-yeon leads Young-sook to kill her mother and embark on a murder spree, Seo-yeon realizes that she may have opened a time-traversing Pandora’s Box with bloody—and personal—consequences.

[ Read: The 11 Best Korean Dramas on Netflix ]

Gothic Shamanistic Vibes

Time-travel murder mysteries aren’t exactly novel. The Call is actually adapted from a Puerto Rican-British film named The Caller ; Hollywood makes many instances of the subgenre. Superfans of Korean media might also feel that The Call evokes hit K-drama Signal , which featured a walkie talkie that allowed a detective in 1985 to communicate with a criminal profiler in 2015.

Despite this, The Call avoids feeling formulaic—especially for global audiences—by building a chilling world that blends reliable horror elements with Korean tradition. The house that much of the film takes place in looks a lot like your classic Western haunted house, with gothic architectural elements like hood moulds and a creepy basement to boot. As expected for a horror-tinged thriller, dark colors dominate the movie’s palette, and much of the action takes place using artificial lighting or in low light.

However, The Call goes beyond those standard horror expectations by bringing in a distinctive Korean flair. For example, one scene has Young-sook stuff a clump of tendrily seaweed into her mouth and gnaw like a deranged cthulhu . This chilling use of Korean cuisine certainly wouldn’t occur in a Hollywood horror film. Furthermore, Young-sook’s mother performs exorcisms that draw from traditional Korean shamanism—which has been enjoying a renaissance in the 21st century and influenced numerous Korean movies . Reminiscent of Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden , The Call blends “Western” visuals with distinctive Korean context to create a distinctively foreboding vibe.

[ Read: Korean Movie “The Shaman Sorceress” Explores Clashes Between Competing Faiths ]

Acting and Suspense

Beyond worldbuilding, The Call also features an outstanding performance from Jeon Jong-seo. This is particularly notable given Jeon’s only prior acting role was as Hae-mi, the female lead of Lee Chang-dong’s critically acclaimed film Burning .

Jeon plays Young-sook with a degree of intense unhingedness that not only contributes to The Call ’s chilling vibes, but keeps audiences guessing about what she might do next. Young-sook toggles seamlessly between victim and manipulator, crying to Seo-yeon on the phone in one moment and incapacitating victims with fire extinguisher blasts in the next. The fact that Young-sook is such a contrast from the rather carefree Hae-mi of Burning speaks positively to Jeon’s range as an actress.  Coupled with a well-crafted narrative that incorporates ample twists, Jeon’s acting gives The Call a constant current of electrifying suspense that lasts even into its post-credit scenes.

While The Call may not have the same philosophical aura as other Korean thrillers like I Saw the Devil , that probably wasn’t the film’s intent. When judged as a blockbuster, The Call is a solid piece of work. Its chilling visuals, suspenseful plot, and compelling acting should please anybody with a thirst for thrilling murder mysteries.

The Call (Korean: 콜) – South Korea. Dialog in Korean. Directed by Lee Chung-hyun. Running time 1hr 52min. First released November 27, 2020. Starring Park Shin-hye, Jeon Jong-seo. 

The Call is available for streaming on Netflix worldwide .

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Moms on Call book review by a sleep expert.

The Moms on Call book is written by 2 pediatric nurses. The book was written to provide advice about many aspects of parenting from birth to 6 months of age, from preparing for the baby to feeding, sleeping, and common illnesses. For the purpose of this Moms on Call book review, I will be concentrating on the information provided in regards to baby sleep, which can be found in Section Four and Five.

The Moms on Call book was great about emphasizing bedtime routines and putting your baby down drowsy but awake. Not only do bedtime routines act as a cue to sleep for babies, but they have also been shown to reduce sleep issues like night wakings. My only concern is that the bedtime routine outlined is very prescribed, and tells parents exactly what routine to follow. In my experience a set bedtime routine that happens the same way every night is important but the routine can be made up of whatever components work for an individual family.

We also know how important putting your baby down drowsy but awake is for teaching them how to self soothe to sleep. If a baby can do this when they are put down at the start of a nap or at bedtime, then they will learn to self soothe back to sleep when transitioning through sleep cycles.

The Moms on Call authors are very pro-swaddle , which certainly isn’t a bad thing. Newborn babies definitely respond well to swaddling and it is especially useful when the Moro Reflex (startle reflex) is still present (up to about 3 – 4 months). However, they seem to be partially advocating for swaddling in order to sell their specific swaddle. At least suggest parents could make their own too.

The Not So Good

The authors suggest babies sleep in a crib in their own room. Now, it is always a parent’s choice on where their baby sleeps, the AAP recommends that baby’s sleep in their parent’s rooms for the first 6 months of life. This means that the Moms on Call authors are not making recommendations in line with current recommendations for SIDS safety.

The book offers schedules for feeding and sleeping for babies at different stages from 0 to 6 months (e.g. 2-4 weeks, 4-8 weeks, 8-16 weeks and 4 -6 months). I found that the amount of sleep suggested and the strict schedule that they were suggesting in the first months of life seemed a little bit too rigid. For the first few months of a baby’s life, their sleep patterns are very irregular, and this wasn’t taken into consideration and may have parents worrying if their baby doesn’t fall into the Moms on Call routine.

Babies from 4 months old tend to start to fall into a pattern of having regular morning and midday naps. The Mom’s on Call authors reflected this in their suggested routine, they had the midday nap starting anywhere from 12:30 – 1:30 pm and gave parents the choice on where in that range the nap time would start. I have nothing wrong with the earlier side of that time slot but for the parents who chose the latter end, I would worry that it would be too late for their baby. The book also suggested a too late catnap as well and a bedtime that starts on the later side than I would typically suggest for that age. While a bedtime on the later side may work for some babies, the more sensitive sleepers may struggle with this and become overtired or find it harder to fall asleep at night if put down too late for their little bodies.

The book provided advice on how to get into, what they consider, a good feeding and sleep routine, but didn’t provide a lot of information on how sleep works for babies, about when they develop their circadian rhythm or about troubleshooting potential sleep problems that arise (like night wakings or early risings). This information is incredibly important for new parents so that they can really be on the road to sleep success.

I hope you found my thoughts on the Moms On Call book useful.  I have some concerns about the content, though I’m sure there have been parents out there that have had success using the book.  There are further Moms on Call books for 6 – 15 months and for toddlers. I may review those books as well later on down the track but next week I will be reviewing Gina Ford’s The New Contented Baby Book.

If you need help with solving your child’s sleep problems, please feel free to  contact  Mylee at  Little Big Dreamers  today.

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'Ghostbusters' review: 'Frozen Empire' doubles down on heroes and horror, but lacks magic

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” returns the 1980s paranormal comedy franchise to familiar haunts, albeit with way more human personalities than spooky ones.

Directed by Gil Kenan (“Monster House”), the latest installment (★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday) overcomes the growing pains of 2021’s frustrating “ Ghostbusters: Afterlife .” And a move to New York City harks back to the early days of Bill Murray , Dan Aykroyd , Ernie Hudson and the late Harold Ramis in heroic flight suits. Alongside familiar faces and newcomers, “Frozen Empire” rolls out a new supernatural big bad and more horror than the series has done in the past, yet it still often struggles to find freshness and recapture old magic.

“Afterlife,” directed by “Frozen Empire” co-writer Jason Reitman, was a “requel” that introduced Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace), the awkward genius granddaughter of Ramis’ Egon. With mom Callie (Carrie Coon), brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and schoolteacher Gary (Paul Rudd), Phoebe got an assist from the old Ghostbusters in the "Afterlife" finale to defeat archenemy Gozer in Oklahoma. Since then, the Spengler family has relocated, taking over the iconic New York firehouse headquarters where Grandpa collected spores, molds and fungus.

'The spirits are still there': Old 'Ghostbusters' gang is back together in 'Frozen Empire'

As “Empire” begins, they’re tooling around in the Ecto-1 and taking on phantom beasts like the Hell’s Kitchen Sewer Dragon. But they’re also a public-relations nightmare clad in nuclear-powered proton packs: A bit of city destruction puts them on the radar of Walter Peck (William Atherton), the OG Ghostbusters’ bureaucratic nemesis who’s now mayor. He calls out Phoebe being only 15 and vows to shut them all down, a threat that winds up benching the quirky youngster.

They’ll soon need all hands on deck. When the firehouse's ghost containment unit gets dangerously full, the Spenglers team up with a paranormal research center founded by another original hero, Winston Zeddemore (Hudson). Meanwhile, a slacker dude named Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani) rolls into the occult book store of Ray Stantz (Aykroyd) with an orb owned by his late grandma. The evil force imprisoned in this artifact accidentally gets loose, with designs on raising an undead army against humanity and bringing a big chill to the Ghostbusters’ doorstep.

“Frozen Empire” doesn’t skimp on the throwbacks, even weaving vintage toy commercials and a Ray Parker Jr. music video into the fictional narrative. A slew of legacy characters return, including the lovable Slimer: Murray’s Peter Venkman has a couple of fun scenes, secretary Janine (Annie Potts) finally gets to be a Ghostbuster, and Ray is an important emotional anchor as both father figure and spiritual center, who nicely taps back into the franchise's penchant for weird history.

Throw in “Afterlife” supporting characters, then toss in more rookies like Nadeem and an oddball librarian played by Patton Oswalt, and the whole thing gets too busy, overshadowing what “Frozen Empire” does really well.

This might be the closest “Ghostbusters” comes to going full fright-fest: Given the directing reins, Kenan leans into chilling visuals, creepy stakes and a palpable yet still kid-friendly sense of dread. (New baddie Garraka is more conventionally freaky than demonic Jazzerciser Gozer.) And the latest film carries over the coming-of-age bent from “Afterlife” with a subplot where Phoebe, in a parents-just-don't-understand moment, bonds with teen girl ghost Melody (Emily Alyn Lind). It does something different – the Ghostbusters usually take down specters instead of befriend them – while also giving new depth to Phoebe as the franchise’s most likable asset.

Although “Frozen Empire” improves upon the previous film and there's plenty to dig especially for young fans, it falls short of the 1984 classic's high bar. (To be fair, none of the "Ghostbusters" outings since have come close.) So, bustin’ doesn’t feel as good as it once did but we’re getting there.

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Scheming and Sex in a Queer King’s Court

In the historical drama “Mary and George,” new on Starz, Julianne Moore plays an ambitious mother whose son catches the eye of King James I of England.

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By Roslyn Sulcas

Reporting from London

Standing in a shadowy archway on a bridge leading into Broughton Castle in Oxfordshire, England, sheep nibbling the grass below, Julianne Moore curtsied deeply, lowering her eyes before a splendidly gowned woman. “Your Majesty,” she began, before being drowned out by a loud “baa” from the sheep. Moore burst out laughing, as did her fellow actress, Trine Dyrholm, who was playing Queen Anne of England. “Talk to the sheep!” Moore commanded the director, Oliver Hermanus. “Tell them we’re doing a TV mini-series!”

That mini-series is the visually sumptuous, seven-part “Mary and George ,” strewn with sex scenes that look like Caravaggio paintings and riddled with all the good things: intrigue, scheming, cunning and villainy. The show, which premieres on Starz on April 5 , was inspired by Benjamin Woolley’s 2018 nonfiction book, “The King’s Assassin,” and tells the mostly true tale of Mary Villiers (Moore), a minor 17th-century aristocrat with major ambitions, and her ridiculously handsome son, George ( Nicholas Galitzine) , who she uses as a path to power and riches at the court of King James I (Tony Curran).

James likes ridiculously handsome young men. “The king,” says Mary’s new husband, Lord Compton, “is a dead-eyed, horny-handed horror who surrounds himself with many deceitful well-hung beauties.”

George’s ascent isn’t easy: Mary must get the current favorite, the Earl of Somerset (Laurie Davidson), out of the way; forge and break alliances; and murder the odd opponent. George, naïve and insecure, must learn how to deploy his beauty and charm. But over the course of the series, George becomes a powerful political figure, with Mary a formidable, frequently antagonistic, presence alongside him.

“These are people who use sex not just for intimacy and relationship building, but for power, as a transaction,” Moore said in a video interview. “The most compelling thing to me about Mary was that she was very aware of how limited her choices were. She had no autonomy, her only paths are through the men she is married to, or her sons.” George, she said, “is almost her proxy; he has access to a world she doesn’t have.”

Moore added that she was also intrigued by playing “a not particularly admirable character. There is a neediness and voraciousness in her that is kind of shocking,” she said. “She rips through life and people.” (The one exception is her uncharacteristically tender relationship with Sandie, a brothel owner played by Niamh Algar.)

George, at least at the outset, is quite different. “When we meet him, he is a very soft, fragile young man,” Galitzine said. “Then gradually, through the machinations of his mother, he turns into a coarse villain.” He and Moore didn’t discuss their characters or relationship much, he said, which fed his interpretation. “George feels very uneasy around his mother a lot of the time, he doesn’t know whether her love for him is unconditional,” he said. “In a lot of ways, their relationship is much less tender than the one he has with James.”

The king was a fascinating, complex character to play, Curran said, and much less well-known than his Tudor predecessors. “Julianne was the only American in the show, and said she didn’t know much about King James. Then she got to England and realized that no one there knew much about him either,” he said. “But he was an influential monarch: a king who did not go to war, a misunderstood king, a queer king, a Scottish king on an English throne.”

Although James’s sexuality drives the story, Curran said that surviving letters between George and the king suggest a deep relationship. “Nick and I talked about that a lot,” he said. “How their relationship grew, whether James was in love with George, and if it was reciprocated.”

Our current era tends to see history through a Victorian lens, said the producer Liza Marshall, who developed the show after being intrigued when she heard about a lecture on James’s sexuality. “We think we invented modern sexuality, but I think people accepted the king, who was married with nine children, liked handsome young men, and didn’t judge that.”

The show’s writer, D.C. Moore (“Killing Eve”), said he knew immediately that the characters’ language “had to have a wit and a verve and a drive, and be front-footed and unashamed.” He added that, although he wove in phrases from George and James’s letters and other historical sources, he had been “free and fresh with the dialogue, because I wanted people to understand this era.”

Hermanus, the show’s lead director — who had never worked in TV before, and whose movies have mostly been set in modern-day South Africa — said that when he read the first three episodes, he laughed out loud. “It was so funny and brave and daring and mad,” he said. “I thought, I’d love to try that, because I had never worked in that tone before.”

He developed an “animalistic and cutthroat” aesthetic, showing the production team and cast collages of “animals being torn apart, pheasants being attacked by dogs, swans being assaulted. It felt like the right reference: Eat, or be eaten.”

The director added that he had used a lot of slow motion to enhance the painterly settings. “You have time to absorb the details and create drama,” he said. “People staring at each other: Who is looking at who, who is plotting against who?”

Hermanus, who directed the first three episodes (Alex Winckler and Florian Cossen were the other directors) said that he had been emphatic about wanting the sex scenes to be specific. “We had a great intimacy coordinator, and it was really great to be adventurous about how we choreographed those scenes,” he said.

Moore said that she had loved the vitality and urgency of the show, and the awareness that “this history could be told through a female lens, a queer lens. Oliver always said it felt very punk, very active and modern.” She laughed. “It’s not a historical drama that is relaxing!”

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Call of Duty: Mobile Team Says Removed Maps Will Return, More New Content on the Way

"call of duty: mobile will continue to get new content every season...".

Developer TiMi Studio Group and publisher Activision are promising that Call of Duty: Mobile isn’t going anywhere yet after its Shoot House and Alcatraz maps were removed.

The title’s official X/Twitter account calmed fans with a message today , revealing that both fan-favorite locations will be back “later this year.” It’s a much-needed update on the game’s status, as fans were quick to worry that the spinoff would soon stop receiving new content in the wake of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile’s launch later this month.

“We wanted to let you know that Shoot House and Alcatraz will soon be leaving Call of Duty: Mobile,” the post says. “This is not permanent, both will be returning later this year, rotating in and out each season like other playlists in the game.”

In a follow-up post, the team assured players that fresh content is still on track to arrive in future seasons. No information on some of the upcoming content was revealed, with fans only told to “stay tuned” for any updates.

Call of Duty®: Mobile will continue to get new content every season and there are no plans to change the breadth of content we bring to COD:M players. Stay tuned for more info on exciting new content we have coming this year! — Call of Duty: Mobile (@PlayCODMobile) March 12, 2024

Fans have worried that Call of Duty: Mobile and its more traditional multiplayer options would be shuttered when Warzone Mobile eventually came to iOS and Android devices. The on-the-go experience will allow players to partake in mobile versions of iconic battle royale maps like Verdansk and Rebirth Island.

The latter is actually a reimagining of the Alcatraz map, which is especially notable considering Shoot House will also make an appearance in Warzone Mobile. With both maps coming to the new game and leaving the old, fans got worried, and rumors ran rampant.

Though Call of Duty: Mobile will share some similarities with Activision’s next mobile release, there are no signs that it is going anywhere. Warzone Mobile, meanwhile, will make its proper debut on iOS and Android devices worldwide on March 21, 2024 . For more on Activision's upcoming release, be sure to read our preview , where we went over how it manages to pack massive game modes on tiny devices.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

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