Top dysfunctional Family Films...
by MovieBuff1922 | created - 02 May 2013 | updated - 02 May 2013 | PublicMy personal "dysfunctional family" favorites from genres ranging from drama, thriller, horror, to comedy.
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1. 12 and Holding (2005)
R | 94 min | Drama
After his twin brother is accidentally killed by vengeful bullies, a 12-year old boy and his friends face the harsh realities of death, teenage hormones, and family dysfunction.
Director: Michael Cuesta | Stars: Conor Donovan, Jesse Camacho, Zoe Weizenbaum, Annabella Sciorra
Votes: 7,120 | Gross: $0.10M
2. White Oleander (2002)
PG-13 | 109 min | Drama
A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.
Director: Peter Kosminsky | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Renée Zellweger, Robin Wright, Alison Lohman
Votes: 34,071 | Gross: $16.35M
3. Precious (II) (2009)
R | 110 min | Drama
In New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that she can re-route her life in a better direction.
Director: Lee Daniels | Stars: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey
Votes: 116,220 | Gross: $47.57M
4. Fireflies in the Garden (2008)
R | 99 min | Drama
The Taylor family is devastated by an accident that takes place on the day their matriarch is due to graduate from college -- decades after leaving to raise her children.
Director: Dennis Lee | Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie-Anne Moss
Votes: 13,601 | Gross: $3.39M
5. American Beauty (1999)
R | 122 min | Drama
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
Votes: 1,210,562 | Gross: $130.10M
6. I Am Sam (2001)
PG-13 | 132 min | Drama
An intellectually disabled man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family.
Director: Jessie Nelson | Stars: Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning, Dianne Wiest
Votes: 155,284 | Gross: $40.31M
7. Juno (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Drama
Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes a selfless decision regarding the unborn child.
Director: Jason Reitman | Stars: Elliot Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman
Votes: 549,083 | Gross: $143.50M
8. The Poker House (2008)
R | 93 min | Drama
A dramatization of Lori Petty's teenage years spent in small town Iowa.
Director: Lori Petty | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Javon Johnson, Sophi Bairley, Bokeem Woodbine
Votes: 5,885
9. Elizabethtown (2005)
PG-13 | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
During a hometown memorial for his Kentucky-born father, a young man begins an unexpected romance with a too-good-to-be-true stewardess.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin
Votes: 72,680 | Gross: $26.84M
10. Meet the Fockers (2004)
PG-13 | 115 min | Comedy, Romance
All hell breaks loose when the Byrnes family meets the Focker family for the first time.
Director: Jay Roach | Stars: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo
Votes: 286,461 | Gross: $279.26M
11. Garden State (2004)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.
Director: Zach Braff | Stars: Zach Braff, Peter Sarsgaard, Natalie Portman, Ian Holm
Votes: 223,178 | Gross: $26.78M
12. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
PG-13 | 116 min | Drama
After years of mother-daughter tension, Siddalee receives a scrapbook detailing the wild adventures of the "Ya-Yas", her mother's girlhood friends.
Director: Callie Khouri | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan, James Garner
Votes: 20,948 | Gross: $69.60M
13. Fish Tank (2009)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama
Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
Director: Andrea Arnold | Stars: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Rebecca Griffiths
Votes: 65,030 | Gross: $0.37M
14. Girl in Progress (2012)
PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy, Drama
As single mom Grace juggles work, bills, and her affair with a married doctor, her daughter, Ansiedad, plots a shortcut to adulthood after finding inspiration in the coming-of-age stories she's reading for school.
Director: Patricia Riggen | Stars: Eva Mendes, Cierra Ramirez, Patricia Arquette, Matthew Modine
Votes: 7,025 | Gross: $2.59M
15. LOL (2012)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
As a new year at school begins, Lola's heart is broken by her boyfriend, though soon she's surprised by her best friend, promising musician Kyle, who reveals his feelings for her.
Director: Lisa Azuelos | Stars: Miley Cyrus, Douglas Booth, Ashley Greene, Demi Moore
Votes: 58,131 | Gross: $0.05M
16. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris | Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 517,897 | Gross: $59.89M
17. An American Crime (2007)
R | 98 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.
Director: Tommy O'Haver | Stars: Elliot Page, Hayley McFarland, Nick Searcy, Romy Rosemont
Votes: 36,968
18. Phoebe in Wonderland (2008)
PG-13 | 96 min | Drama
Confounded by her clashes with the seemingly rule-obsessed world, a troubled young girl seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher.
Director: Daniel Barnz | Stars: Elle Fanning, Patricia Clarkson, Felicity Huffman, Bill Pullman
Votes: 8,078 | Gross: $0.07M
19. This Is 40 (2012)
R | 134 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Pete and Debbie are both about to turn 40, their kids hate each other, both of their businesses are failing, they're on the verge of losing their house, and their relationship is threatening to fall apart.
Director: Judd Apatow | Stars: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow
Votes: 150,402 | Gross: $67.54M
20. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
PG | 96 min | Comedy
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
Director: Jared Hess | Stars: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell
Votes: 237,703 | Gross: $44.54M
21. Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004)
R | 94 min | Drama
An adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help novel, chronicling a woman's struggle to come to terms with her legacy of abuse, addiction and poverty.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Kimberly Elise, T.D. Jakes, Michael Boatman, Loretta Devine
Votes: 1,041 | Gross: $6.88M
22. Skin (I) (2008)
PG-13 | 107 min | Biography, Drama
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Director: Anthony Fabian | Stars: Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill, Alice Krige, Tony Kgoroge
Votes: 3,714
23. Rabbit Hole (2010)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Director: John Cameron Mitchell | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Miles Teller
Votes: 51,116 | Gross: $2.23M
24. 21 Grams (2003)
R | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts, Danny Huston
Votes: 245,834 | Gross: $16.29M
25. Strange Circus (2005)
Unrated | 108 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
The erotic novelist Taeko is writing a morbid story of a family destroyed by incest, murder and abuse. Her assistant, Yuji, sets on a mission to uncover the reality of this story, but the reality might be too much to bear.
Director: Sion Sono | Stars: Masumi Miyazaki, Issei Ishida, Rie Kuwana, Seiko Iwaidô
Votes: 6,255
*Watch with caution*---this was the strangest movie I think I've ever seen in any genre.
26. The Life Before Her Eyes (2007)
R | 90 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A woman's survivor's guilt from a Columbine-like event 15 years ago causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.
Director: Vadim Perelman | Stars: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Gabrielle Brennan
Votes: 14,889 | Gross: $0.30M
27. Our Song (2000)
R | 95 min | Drama
Focusing on the bonding between three girls in Brooklyn's "Jackie Robinson Steppers Marching Band" and the choices the girls face once their high school closes down for asbestos removal.
Director: Jim McKay | Stars: Kerry Washington, Anna Simpson, Melissa Martinez, The Jackie Robinson Steppers Marching Band
Votes: 852 | Gross: $0.25M
28. Welcome to the Rileys (2010)
R | 110 min | Drama
On a business trip to New Orleans, a damaged man seeks salvation by caring for a wayward young woman.
Director: Jake Scott | Stars: James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, Melissa Leo, David Jensen
Votes: 25,270 | Gross: $0.15M
29. Mother and Child (2009)
R | 125 min | Drama, Romance
A drama centered around three women: A fifty-year-old woman, the daughter she gave up for adoption thirty-five years ago, and a woman looking to adopt a child of her own.
Director: Rodrigo García | Stars: Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Kerry Washington, Alexandria M. Salling
Votes: 12,781 | Gross: $1.11M
30. One Hour Photo (2002)
R | 96 min | Drama, Thriller
A mentally unstable photo developer targets an upper middle-class family after his obsession with them becomes more sick and disturbing than any of them could imagine.
Director: Mark Romanek | Stars: Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Dylan Smith
Votes: 131,701 | Gross: $31.60M
31. Nine Lives (2005)
R | 115 min | Drama
Captives of the very relationships that define and sustain them, nine women resiliently meet the travails and disappointments of life.
Director: Rodrigo García | Stars: Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Glenn Close, LisaGay Hamilton
Votes: 7,134 | Gross: $0.48M
32. Happiness Runs (2010)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama
A young man named Victor (Mark L. Young) realizes the shortcomings of the Utopian ideals on the hippie commune where he was raised. Victor's mother (Andie MacDowell) is funding the commune ... See full summary »
Director: Adam Sherman | Stars: Joni Barth, Kirsten Berman, Mark Boone Junior, Joseph Castanon
Votes: 715 | Gross: $0.01M
33. Melancholia (2011)
R | 135 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård
Votes: 195,824 | Gross: $3.03M
34. Money Matters (I) (2011)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama
Monique "Money" Matters caught at the brink of adolescence. Her relationship with her mother, is far from stable and depicts the struggle between a young mother and daughter who both come of age.
Director: Ryan Richmond | Stars: Terri Abney, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, James Whalen, Victoria Wallace
Votes: 142
35. The Unloved (2009 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama
A film that gives a child's eye view of the U.K.'s government-run care system for orphans and children in danger.
Director: Samantha Morton | Stars: Molly Windsor, Robert Carlyle, Susan Lynch, Craig Parkinson
Votes: 1,264
36. The Lake Effect (2010)
93 min | Comedy, Drama
Rob Lawson's perpetual quest for success is interrupted when his estranged daughter shows up pregnant, challenging him to be a father before he becomes a grandfather.
Director: Tara Miele | Stars: Kay Panabaker, Tara Summers, Ross Partridge, Michelle Chamuel
Votes: 180
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