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!
Peep World (2010)
5.6/10
Director: Barry W Blaustein
Starring: Alicia Witt, Lesley Ann Warren, Stephen Tobolowsky, Kate Mara, Michael C Hall, S...
What happens to a rich, neurotic family when one of their own writes a tell-all book, exposing all of their dirty secrets? Three siblings find themsel... Read more
Pieces of April (2003)
7.1/10
Director: Peter Hedges
Starring: Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Derek Luke, Oliver Platt, Sean Hayes
This intelligent and touching independent comedy stars Katie Holmes as a young woman who attempts to reconcile with her dysfunctional family by making... Read more
Postcards From The Edge (1990)
6.7/10
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid
Based on Carrie Fisher's best selling autobiographical novel and revolving around the caustic relationship between a mother and daughter and satirisin... Read more
Proof (2005)
6.8/10
Director: John Madden
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis
Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her West End stage role as Catherine, the daughter of math genius, Anthony Hopkins. Before her father died he began to slip... Read more
Provoked (2006)
6.6/10
Director: Jag Mundhra
Starring: Miranda Richardson, Naveen Andrews, Rebecca Pidgeon, Robbie Coltrane, Nandita Da...
Based on the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjabi housewife living in London who killed her husband after ten years of domestic abuse. The Lon... Read more
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
7.3/10
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luis Guzman
This change of pace for Adam Sandler stars the comic actor as a bathroom supplies salesman who has a problem with his anger and is obsessed with winni... Read more
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
6.7/10
Director: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Tunde Adebimpe, Debra Winger, Mathe...
Alternately heartbreaking and acidic dysfunctional family drama stars Anne Hathaway as Kym, a recovering drug addict who has checked out of rehab and... Read more
Rachel Getting Married (Blu-ray) (2008)
6.7/10
Director: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Tunde Adebimpe, Debra Winger, Mathe...
Alternately heartbreaking and acidic dysfunctional family drama stars Anne Hathaway as Kym, a recovering drug addict who has checked out of rehab and... Read more
Rain (2001)
7/10
Director: Christine Jeffs
Starring: Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki, Sarah Peirse, Marton Csokas, Alistair Browning
This impressive feature debut by director Christine Jeffs, adapted from Kirsty Gunn's novella, is set in an idyllic beachside community in the summer... Read more
Red Doors (2005)
6.6/10
Director: Georgia Lee
Starring: Tzi Ma, Jacqueline Kim, Freda Foh Shen, Kathy Shao-Lin Lee, Mia Riverton, Jayce...
The Wongs are a kooky Chinese-American family living in the New York suburbs. Dad is about to retire and is seriously contemplating retiring from lif... Read more