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!
Big Love: Season 5 (2011)
7.6/10
Starring: Bill Paxton, Chloe Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Mary Kay Place, Grace Zabriskie,...
The final season. On election night, new state senator Bill Henrickson shook Utah to its core by announcing he was a polygamist. Now, instead of being... Read more
Big Love: Season 4 (2010)
7.6/10
Starring: Bill Paxton, Chloe Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Grace Zabriskie, Melora Walters,...
For years, Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) wished for a world free from the corrupt "Prophet" of Juniper Creek, Roman Grant. Now that Roman appears to b... Read more
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
Death at a Funeral (2010)
5.7/10
Director: Neil LaBute
Starring: Chris Rock, Danny Glover, Keith David, Loretta Devine, Luke Wilson, Martin Lawre...
Funny remake of the 2007 Frank Oz comedy follows the offbeat members of an African-American family as they gather for the funeral of their patriarch.... Read more
Happy Tears (2009)
5.2/10
Director: Mitchell Lichtenstein
Starring: Demi Moore, Ellen Barkin, Parker Posey, Rip Torn
Jayne (Parker Posey) and Laura (Demi Moore) are about to take on the first man they just might not be able to handle: their ailing father, Joe (Rip To... Read more
City Island (2009)
7.4/10
Director: Raymond De Felitta
Starring: Alan Arkin, Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Emily Mortimer, Ezra Miller, Domini...
Vince Rizzi (Andy Garcia) is an upstanding family man who works as a corrections officer, but secretly longs to be an actor. Ashamed to admit his aspi... Read more
Leaves of Grass (2009)
6.5/10
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Starring: Edward Norton, Melanie Lynskey, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Tim Blake Nels...
A comic thriller seen through the dual perspectives of identical twins Bill and Brady Kincaid (both played by Edward Norton). Bill, a classics profess... Read more
The Vicious Kind (2009)
7/10
Director: Lee Toland Krieger
Starring: J K Simmons, Adam Scott, Brittany Snow, Alex Frost
There's nothing like a first love to bring family tensions to a boil in this riveting dark comedy! In a startling performance, Adam Scott stars as Cal... Read more
I Am Love (2009)
7/10
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Marisa Berenson, Tilda Swinton, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Gabriele Ferzetti, Pippo D...
The Recchi family are a well-bred and well-moneyed family of Milan whose lives are grand and cold as a museum - but all that's about to change. Eduard... Read more
Everybody's Fine (2009)
7.1/10
Director: Kirk Jones
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Robert De Niro, Sam Rockwell
When recently retired widower Robert De Niro's grown children cancel a family reunion, he decides to take an impromptu cross-country journey to reconn... Read more