I remember this movie (but not much about it). I think I saw it in 1972 when it came out. It’s playing as part of the BAMcinematek Paul Newman series on Mon, Dec 8 at 6:50pm

Directed by Paul Newman
With Joanne Woodward

(1972) 100min

“Newman
has gotten it all together here as a director, letting the story and
the players unfold with simplicity, restraint and discernment.” —Variety

Newman
helmed this adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Paul
Zindel about a dysfunctional family struggling to get by on the bottom
rung of society. Joanne Woodward (Newman’s wife) plays Beatrice, a
self-destructive and abusive mother bent on destroying any chances her
two daughters might have to succeed. Despite this, the imaginative and
spirited Tillie, determined to overcome her mother’s tyranny, doggedly
pursues a love of science and stakes out her own identity