Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keywords "adoption", "dysfunctional-family"
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1. Arrested Development (2003–2019)
TV-14 | 22 min | Comedy
Level-headed son Michael Bluth takes over family affairs after his father is imprisoned. But the rest of his spoiled, dysfunctional family are making his job unbearable.
Stars: Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett
Votes: 324,105
2. Matilda (1996)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A girl gifted with a keen intellect and psychic powers uses both to get even with her callous family and free her kindly schoolteacher from the tyrannical grip of a sadistic headmistress.
Director: Danny DeVito | Stars: Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Mara Wilson, Embeth Davidtz
Votes: 174,515 | Gross: $33.08M
3. Thirteen (2003)
R | 100 min | Drama
A thirteen-year-old girl's relationship with her mother is put to the test as she discovers drugs, sex, and petty crime in the company of her cool but troubled best friend.
Director: Catherine Hardwicke | Stars: Evan Rachel Wood, Holly Hunter, Nikki Reed, Vanessa Hudgens
Votes: 97,981 | Gross: $4.60M
4. Hook (1991)
PG | 142 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
When Captain James Hook kidnaps his children, an adult Peter Pan must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins
Votes: 273,183 | Gross: $119.65M
5. Lilo & Stitch (2002)
PG | 85 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A young and parentless girl adopts a 'dog' from the local pound, completely unaware that it's supposedly a dangerous scientific experiment that's taken refuge on Earth and is now hiding from its creator and those who see it as a menace.
Directors: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders | Stars: Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers
Votes: 211,547 | Gross: $145.79M
6. Shazam! (2019)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A newly fostered young boy in search of his mother instead finds unexpected super powers and soon gains a powerful enemy.
Director: David F. Sandberg | Stars: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer
Votes: 384,816 | Gross: $140.37M
7. The Brothers Grimsby (2016)
R | 83 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A new assignment forces a top spy to team up with his football hooligan brother.
Director: Louis Leterrier | Stars: Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson, Freddie Crowder
Votes: 111,285 | Gross: $6.86M
8. Mommie Dearest (1981)
R | 129 min | Biography, Drama
The abusive and traumatic adoptive upbringing of Christina Crawford at the hands of her mother, screen queen Joan Crawford, is depicted.
Director: Frank Perry | Stars: Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 18,330 | Gross: $19.03M
9. Secrets & Lies (1996)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Votes: 47,174 | Gross: $13.42M
10. The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
PG-13 | 114 min | Drama
In 1964, a teenage girl in search of the truth about her mother runs away to a small town in South Carolina and finds a family of independent women who can connect her to her past.
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood | Stars: Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys
Votes: 27,935 | Gross: $37.77M
11. The Family Stone (2005)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An uptight, liberal businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life.
Director: Thomas Bezucha | Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Diane Keaton
Votes: 75,208 | Gross: $60.06M
12. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 74,959
13. Pollyanna (1960)
Approved | 134 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A young girl comes to an embittered town and confronts its attitude with her determination to see the best in life.
Director: David Swift | Stars: Jane Wyman, Hayley Mills, Richard Egan, Karl Malden
Votes: 11,336
14. Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
Unrated | 111 min | Comedy, Family
A widower with ten children falls for a widow with eight, and they must decide about forming a huge, unconventional family.
Director: Melville Shavelson | Stars: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson, Louise Troy
Votes: 9,793 | Gross: $25.91M
15. American Splendor (2003)
R | 101 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.
Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini | Stars: Paul Giamatti, Shari Springer Berman, Harvey Pekar, Chris Ambrose
Votes: 52,345 | Gross: $6.00M
16. Igby Goes Down (2002)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama
A young man's peculiar upbringing renders him unable to competently cope with the struggle of growing up.
Director: Burr Steers | Stars: Kieran Culkin, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, Claire Danes
Votes: 35,216 | Gross: $4.68M
17. North (1994)
PG | 87 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Sick of the neglect he receives from his mom and dad, a young boy leaves home and travels the world in search of new parents.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Votes: 14,758 | Gross: $7.14M
18. Grand Canyon (1991)
R | 134 min | Crime, Drama
The fates of several people are randomly intertwining. Their sympathy of each other faces multiple differences in their lifestyles.
Director: Lawrence Kasdan | Stars: Danny Glover, Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell
Votes: 16,703 | Gross: $33.24M
19. The Big Wedding (2013)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A long-divorced couple fakes being married as their family unites for a wedding.
Director: Justin Zackham | Stars: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried
Votes: 51,889 | Gross: $21.78M
20. You, Me and the Apocalypse (2015–2022)
TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
When a group of ordinary people learn that an eight-mile-wide comet is on a collision course with Earth, they hunker beneath the town of Slough to watch the end of the world on television.
Stars: Mathew Baynton, Jenna Fischer, Joel Fry, Gaia Scodellaro
Votes: 8,011
21. Flirting with Disaster (1996)
R | 92 min | Comedy
A young man, his wife, and his incompetent case worker travel across country to find his birth parents.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore
Votes: 19,989 | Gross: $14.89M
22. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After her much older husband forces a move to a suburban retirement community, Pippa Lee engages in a period of reflection and finds herself heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown.
Director: Rebecca Miller | Stars: Robin Wright, Alan Arkin, Mike Binder, Winona Ryder
Votes: 14,221
23. Running with Scissors (2006)
R | 116 min | Comedy, Drama
A teenage boy comes of age in the 1970's, sent by his neurotic, pretentious mother to live with a jolly, vulgar psychiatrist and his eccentric extended family.
Director: Ryan Murphy | Stars: Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow
Votes: 23,163 | Gross: $6.75M
24. The Landlord (1970)
PG | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
At the age of 29, Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges) "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his ... See full summary »
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey
Votes: 3,086 | Gross: $0.96M
25. Mockingbird Don't Sing (2001)
Not Rated | 98 min | Biography, Drama
Based on the actual events of one of the most horrific cases of child abuse ever to be documented, this haunting drama tells the tale of a young girl that was locked in a room for over 12 years.
Director: Harry Bromley Davenport | Stars: Melissa Errico, Michael Lerner, Joe Regalbuto, Sean Young
Votes: 2,249
26. Palindromes (2004)
Not Rated | 100 min | Comedy, Drama
Aviva is thirteen, awkward and sensitive. Her mother Joyce is warm and loving, as is her father, Steve, a regular guy who does have a fierce temper from time to time. The film revolves around her family, friends and neighbors.
Director: Todd Solondz | Stars: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ellen Barkin, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Matthew Faber
Votes: 12,867 | Gross: $0.55M
27. Smart People (2008)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Into the life of a widowed professor comes a new love and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother.
Director: Noam Murro | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker, Elliot Page
Votes: 23,484 | Gross: $9.50M
28. What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
The vicissitudes of Gloria, a neurotic housewife, and her family's peculiar characters.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Carmen Maura, Gonzalo Suárez, Luis Hostalot, Ryo Hiruma
Votes: 11,128
29. The Grass Harp (1995)
PG | 107 min | Comedy, Drama
Becoming an orphan in 1935, Collin moves to his dad's cousins Verena and Dolly. Verena is a rich, bossy businesswoman. Dolly, Collin and the maid revolt, moving to a tree house.
Director: Charles Matthau | Stars: Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Edward Furlong
Votes: 19,671 | Gross: $0.49M
30. The Cheshire Murders (2013 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 118 min | Documentary, Crime
A documentary about a brutal home invasion in Cheshire, Connecticut in 2007.
Directors: Kate Davis, David Heilbroner | Stars: Jennifer Petit, Hayley Petit, William Petit Jr., Michaela Petit
Votes: 3,168
31. The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977)
PG | 85 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
An aging Sir Hector Geste (Trevor Howard) takes a young greedy wife who's after his famed Blue Water sapphire, but his sons hide the gem and join the French Foreign Legion in North Africa.
Director: Marty Feldman | Stars: Marty Feldman, Ann-Margret, Michael York, Peter Ustinov
Votes: 2,623
32. Gigantic (2008)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A mattress salesman's plan to adopt a Chinese baby is augmented by the arrival of a young woman who comes to his workplace, falls asleep on one of the beds, and upon waking starts to affect his life.
Director: Matt Aselton | Stars: Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, Edward Asner
Votes: 9,949 | Gross: $0.10M
33. Two Heads Creek (2019)
TV-MA | 85 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller
A timid butcher and his drama queen twin sister quit the hostile confines of post- Brexit Britain and adventure to Australia in search of their birth mother, but the seemingly tolerant townsfolk are hiding a dark, meaty secret.
Director: Jesse O'Brien | Stars: Kerry Armstrong, Gary Sweet, Kathryn Wilder, Stephen Hunter
Votes: 1,363
34. Fiona (1998)
85 min | Drama
Despite the fact that Fiona has lived apart from her mother, they lead parallel lives as bi-sexual prostitutes. The meeting of the two women spells tragedy for the mother and hope for the daughter.
Director: Amos Kollek | Stars: Anna Thomson, Felicia Maguire, Alyssa Mulhern, Anna Grace
Votes: 647
35. It's All Relative (2003–2004)
30 min | Comedy, Romance
So you think Romeo and Juliet had family issues? Listen to this: Bobby is a bartender and the only son of gregarious, salt-of-the-earth Irish Catholic parents from Boston. His fiancée Liz, ... See full summary »
Stars: Lenny Clarke, Harriet Sansom Harris, Reid Scott, Maggie Lawson
Votes: 334
36. Trail of Lies (2013–2014)
Comedy, Crime, Drama
Jealous of his adoptive sister, an unscrupulous man separates her from her newborn daughter, who is found and adopted by a lovable man.
Stars: Mateus Solano, Paolla Oliveira, Antônio Fagundes, Malvino Salvador
Votes: 794
37. Tarnation (2003)
Unrated | 88 min | Documentary, Biography
Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8 film, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more - culled from nineteen years of his life.
Director: Jonathan Caouette | Stars: Jonathan Caouette, Renee Leblanc, Adolph Davis, Rosemary Davis
Votes: 6,710 | Gross: $0.59M
38. My Favorite Season (1993)
Not Rated | 127 min | Drama, Romance
Old woman Berthe leaves her house to live in her daugter Emilie's one. Emilie and her brother Antoine have fallen out three years ago and have not seen each other since, but Emilie invites ... See full summary »
Director: André Téchiné | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Marthe Villalonga, Jean-Pierre Bouvier
Votes: 2,231 | Gross: $0.76M
39. Half-Life (2008)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
As troubling signs of global cataclysms accelerate, a brother and sister react to their father's desertion and the powerful presence of their mother's new boyfriend.
Director: Jennifer Phang | Stars: Sanoe Lake, Julia Nickson, Leonardo Nam, Ben Redgrave
Votes: 521
40. The Tribe (2018)
TV-MA | 90 min | Comedy, Music
After he's injured in an accident, a disgraced CEO is forced to reunite- and move in with- his biological mother, a humble cleaning woman who helps him begin putting his life back together.
Director: Fernando Colomo | Stars: Paco León, Carmen Machi, Maribel del Pino, María José Sarrate
Votes: 3,026
41. Do Anjaane (1976)
Not Rated | 155 min | Drama
A man (Amitabh Bachchan) is found wounded on railway tracks and when he awakens he has no memory of who he is and doesn't remember anything about his life. Six years later he is living with... See full summary »
Director: Dulal Guha | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Prem Chopra, Pradeep Kumar
Votes: 494
42. Not Another High School Show (2007 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 30 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A parody of popular teen TV dramas such as "Beverly Hills, 90210", "Dawson's Creek", and "Laguna Beach."
Director: Joel Gallen | Stars: John Keefe, Jocelin Donahue, Rachel Specter, Jeffrey Todd
Votes: 228
43. Marion Bridge (2002)
Unrated | 90 min | Drama
Three estranged sisters reunite to care for their dying mother and old conflicts and secrets return to the surface.
Director: Wiebke von Carolsfeld | Stars: Molly Parker, Rebecca Jenkins, Stacy Smith, Marguerite McNeil
Votes: 1,428
44. 1, 2, 3, Freeze (1993)
104 min | Comedy, Drama
Surreal, dreamlike tale of girl growing up in Marseilles' slums with her alcoholic dad and her crazy mother.
Director: Bertrand Blier | Stars: Anouk Grinberg, Myriam Boyer, Olivier Martinez, Jean-Michel Noirey
Votes: 905
45. The Child I Never Was (2002)
86 min | Crime, Drama
The true-life story of 19-year-old Jürgen Bartsch, a German pedophile serial killer who murdered four boys, based on his correspondence, over the course of eight years, with German American author Paul Moor.
Director: Kai S. Pieck | Stars: Tobias Schenke, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Ulrike Bliefert, Walter Gontermann
Votes: 645
46. Next of Kin (1984)
Not Rated | 70 min | Comedy, Drama
Unhappy living with his loveless parents, a young man convinces a family of Armenian immigrants that he's their long-lost son and moves in with them, improving all of their lives in the process.
Director: Atom Egoyan | Stars: Patrick Tierney, Berj Fazlian, Sirvart Fazlian, Arsinée Khanjian
Votes: 1,044
47. Girl 27 (2007)
Not Rated | 86 min | Documentary, Biography
The reclusive Patricia Douglas comes out of hiding to discuss the 1937 MGM scandal, in which the powerful film studio tricked her and over 100 other underage girls into attending a stag party, where she was raped.
Director: David Stenn | Stars: Patricia Douglas, Baby Peggy, Richard W. Bann, Kelly Brown
Votes: 1,185
48. Prodigal Sons (2008)
Not Rated | 86 min | Documentary
Filmmaker Kimberly Reed returns home for her high school reunion, ready to reintroduce herself to the small town as a transgender woman and hoping for reconciliation with her long estranged... See full summary »
Director: Kimberly Reed | Stars: Kimberly Reed, Carol McKerrow, Marc McKerrow, Claire Jones
Votes: 759 | Gross: $0.07M
49. Iki-jigoku (2000)
R | 104 min | Horror
Yasu is a teenage wheelchair user. His grandmother and her granddaughter are truly cruel sadists, intent on subjecting trapped Yasu to the most violent treatment imaginable while the rest of his family is not around.
Director: Shugo Fujii | Stars: Hirohito Honda, Yoshiko Shiraishi, Rumi, Kazuo Yashiro
Votes: 530
50. The Overbrook Brothers (2009)
Not Rated | 92 min | Comedy, Drama
A road movie where two brothers search for their biological parents.
Director: John E. Bryant | Stars: Nathan Harlan, Mark Reeb, Laurel Whitsett, John Jones
Votes: 247