The Eternal Daughter is the film to watch first with parents who value quiet company and a little reflection afterwards.
It is a slow, well-made ghost story about a mother and daughter who still struggle to speak plainly to one another. Hogg places them in a single house and lets the silences do the work; the result is sadder and more pointed once you know her earlier films about the same pair. Watch it at home with the lights low and the phone elsewhere, then ring your mother if you still can 1.
My Father's Shadow takes a gentler route into family memory. A first-time director lingers on the small waits and ordinary days of a remembered childhood, and the film has more feeling than most of its kind. It runs 93 minutes and carries a 12A, so it suits an evening when everyone is content to sit still 2.
The Fabelmans gives the same territory a larger canvas. Spielberg looks back at his own parents with honesty and generosity, and the performances from Williams and Dano keep the household recognisable. At 151 minutes it asks for more time, but the domestic detail rewards it 3.
After these, avoid The Son. It returns to parents and children yet leaves the child with little life beyond the crisis, and the evening feels thinner for it 4.
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