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!
On Golden Pond (1981)
7.7/10
Director: Mark Rydell
Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Doug McKeon, Dabney Coleman
Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn play an aging married couple, Norman and Ethel Thayer, spending a dramatic summer in the woods. Their estranged daug... Read more
Once Were Warriors (1994)
7.9/10
Director: Lee Tamahori
Starring: Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell, Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis, Julian Arahang...
Director Lee Tamahori's stunning debut film focuses on a violent love story set against a contemporary urban backdrop. This insightful, gutsy drama fe... Read more
Once Were Warriors ( Blu-ray ) (1994)
7.9/10
Director: Lee Tamahori
Starring: Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell, Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis, Julian Arahang...
Director Lee Tamahori's stunning debut film focuses on a violent love story set against a contemporary urban backdrop. This insightful, gutsy drama fe... Read more
One True Thing (1998)
7/10
Director: Carl Franklin
Starring: William Hurt, Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger, Tom Everett Scott, Nicky Katt
An exceptional, moving drama about a tough, cynical New Yorker (Renee Zellweger) whose mother (Meryl Streep) becomes afflicted with a serious illness.... Read more
Ordinary People (1980)
7.8/10
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton
An intense examination of a family being torn apart by tragedy and tension, 'Ordinary People' won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Direc... Read more
Orphans (1997)
7.1/10
Director: Peter Mullan
Starring: Rosemarie Stevenson, Stephen McCole, Gary Lewis, Douglas Henshall
Three brothers and their handicapped sister convene in their hometown of Glasgow for their mothers funeral. The siblings later seperate to each deal w... Read more
Outrageous Fortune: Series 1 (2005)
8.5/10
Director: Various
Starring: Robyn Malcolm, Grant Bowler, Antony Starr, Antonia Prebble, Siobhan Marshall, Fr...
The Wests are a trashy crime-loving family trying to go straight after patriarch Wolfgang is locked up, yet again. Cheryl (Robyn Malcolm), determined... Read more
Outrageous Fortune: Series 2 (2006)
6.1/10
Director: Various
Starring: Robyn Malcolm, Grant Bowler, Antony Starr, Antonia Prebble, Siobhan Marshall, Fr...
The popular kiwi crime family continue their exploits in Season 2. Wolf is out on home detention, and he has no intention of sticking to Cheryl's new... Read more
Passed Away (1992)
5.9/10
Director: Charlie Peters
Starring: Bob Hoskins, William Petersen, Jack Warden, Blair Brown, Tim Curry, Frances McDo...
A darkly humorous account of how an offbeat family deals with the death and funeral of the clan patriarch. Bob Hoskins, William Petersen and Blair Bro... Read more
Pat and Margaret (1994)
Director: Gavin Millar
Starring: Victoria Wood, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Thora Hird
Written by, and starring British comic Victoria Wood, with her and Julie Walters as sisters who have lived very different lives and become estranged.... Read more