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!
Capharnaum / Capernaum (2018)
Director: Nadine Labaki
Starring: Zain Al Rafeea, Nadine Labaki
After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-ol... Read more
Careful, He Might Hear You (1983)
7.1/10
Director: Carl Schultz
Starring: Wendy Hughes, Robyn Nevin, Nicholas Gledhill
Critically acclaimed at home in Australia and in the U.S., this powerful drama concerns the fight between two sisters over the custody of their six ye... Read more
Christmas (2003)
7.2/10
Director: Gregory King
Starring: David Hornblow, Darien Takle, Helen Pearse-Otene, Tony Waerea
Broke, jobless and chronically depressed, eldest son Keri returns to the family home for Christmas, where he must face the emotional train-wreck that... Read more
City by the Sea (2002)
6.1/10
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Starring: George Dzundza, James Franco, Frances McDormand, Robert De Niro, Eliza Dushku, W...
Veteran Manhattan homicide detective Robert De Niro must confront a tortured family history when the prime suspect in a drug dealer's murder turns out... 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
Clubland (2007)
5.4/10
Director: Cherie Nowlan
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Khan Chittenden, Richard Wilson, Rebecca Gibney, Russell Dykstra...
Moving to Australia after separating from her husband, Jeannie Dwight (Brenda Blethyn) pursues her dream of becoming a successful comedienne. Meanwhil... Read more
CRAZY (2005)
3.7/10
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Starring: Michel Cote, Marc-Andre Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Emile Vallee, Pierre-Luc Brill...
Zac Beaulieu was born on Christmas Day in 1960 and lives with his parents and four brothers in Quebec. He grows up longing for acceptance from his ho... Read more
Crimes of the Heart (1986)
6.4/10
Director: Bruce Beresford
Starring: Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Tess Harper
Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek and Diane Keaton star as flaky Southern sisters who are uneasily reunited when Spacek is arrested for shooting her politic... Read more
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
7/10
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, Liu Ye, Dahong Ni, Junjie Qin, Man Li
Zhang Yimou's characteristically lush historical melodrama, set near the end of theTang Dynasty, with Chow Yun-Fat as the Emperor whose wife (Gong Li)... Read more
Custody (Jusqu'à la garde) (2017)
7.6/10
Director: Xavier Legrand
Starring: Lea Drucker, Denis Menochet, Thomas Gioria
Miriam and Antoine Besson have divorced, and Miriam is seeking sole custody of their son Julien to protect him from a father she claims is violent. An... Read more