Dysfunctional Families
Perhaps because it's something nearly all of us can relate to (apart from The Bradys), messed-up families have always been a popular subject for filmmakers in all genres. Whether you're playing it for laughs ('Arrested Development', 'Go For Zucker'), drama ('Kramer vs Kramer', 'Nil By Mouth'), or thrills ('The Quiet Family', 'Olivier, Olivier') the family dynamic is a deep well of ready-made love/hate relationships, seething resentments and hidden secrets. What more could a filmmaker, or a film-watcher, ask for!
Mommie Dearest (1981)
6.7/10
Director: Frank Perry
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Steve Forrest, Diana Scarwid, Mara Hobel
Based upon the best-selling book by the adopted daughter of film legend Joan Crawford, Christina Crawford literally blew the lid off the private life... Read more
Mommie Dearest (Blu-ray) (1981)
6.7/10
Director: Frank Perry
Starring: Diana Scarwid, Faye Dunaway, Steve Forrest, Mara Hobel
Based upon the best-selling book by the adopted daughter of film legend Joan Crawford, Christina Crawford literally blew the lid off the private life... Read more
My Favourite Season ( Ma Saison Preferee ) (1993)
Director: Andre Techine
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Marthe Villalonga, Jean-Pierre Bouvier, Carme...
When their aging mother is faced with encroaching infirmity, middle-aged brother and sister Emilie (Catherine Deneuve) and Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) ar... Read more
My Life as a Zucchini (Ma vie de Courgette) (2016)
7.8/10
Director: Claude Barras
Starring: Ellen Page, Will Forte, Nick Offerman
After his mothers sudden death, Zucchini is befriended by a police officer, Raymond, who accompanies him to his new foster home, filled with other or... Read more
My Year Without Sex (2009)
5.8/10
Director: Sarah Watt
Starring: Matt Day, Sacha Horler, Sonya Suares
A kind of love story about a family dealing with all the big questions and even more of the small ones. Set over one messy year, Ross (Matt Day) and N... Read more
Neverwas (2005)
6.7/10
Director: Joshua Michael Stern
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Ian McKellen, Brittany Murphy, Nick Nolte, William Hurt, Jessica...
Aaron Eckhart is psychiatrist Zach Riley, who gives up his academic career to work in a mental institution. It's the same place his late father once... Read more
Newcastle (2008)
6.2/10
Director: Dan Castle
Starring: Lachlan Buchanan, Xavier Samuel, Reshad Strik, Kirk Jenkins, Anthony Hayes, Shan...
Newcastle, Australia, home to a grim industrial landscape that is offset by idyllic sun-drenched beaches where teenagers hit the surf. Jesse isn't int... Read more
Nil By Mouth (1997)
7.4/10
Director: Gary Oldman
Starring: Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles
Gary Oldman draws on his own dysfunctional working-class London background for his impressive writer/director debut, which casually puts you in the mi... Read more
Nobel Son (2007)
6.4/10
Director: Randall Miller
Starring: Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Danny DeVito, Ernie Hudson, Mary Steenburgen, Ted Da...
Offbeat mix of dark comedy and crime thriller about a Ph.D. student (Bryan Greenberg) who is kidnapped just before his self-centered, philandering fat... Read more
Olivier Olivier (1993)
7.6/10
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Starring: Francois Cluzet, Brigitte Rouan, Gregoire Colin
A brooding, based-on-fact account of a country couple whose young son mysteriously disappears. Six years later he 'reappears' but is no longer the spe... Read more