25 Best Movies about Families

Less the "coming home" story that many of these movies follow, this is about finding a home among both people and places.

This movie is about lots of things, but the part that relates to family has to do with growing up to see parents as people, and how to reconcile the mythic characters of childhood with the mortals they really are.

Steve Carell stars as the widowed father of three daughters who is also a family advice columnist. They go to a family reunion/get-together in Rhode Island for a long weekend.

Family comes home for their father's funeral.

There are some grating scenes involving the romantic subplots, but I don't think I've seen another movie whose ensemble cast so convincingly portrays a real family.

Though ostensibly a wedding movie, at its heart, this movie is about the relationship between a daughter and her family as she moves from engagement to marriage, specifically between her and her father. A sweet movie, and I hear the 1950 original is worth seeing as well, if not more so.

Unlike most of these, focuses on the adult inter-sibling relationships not under the structure of parents at the apex of the family.

Unsurprisingly, a fair number of these movies are about Christmastime, which is a seasonal homecoming for many. This one is a less jolly version.

Ostensibly a movie about "modern families", really this family is pretty much just like any other family.

A surprisingly resonant dysfunctional family movie. The Culkin brothers are especially notable.

A more farcical version of this kind of movie, but nonetheless resonant with recognizable features.

Dysfunctional families = ordinary families is the basis of this movie, another forerunner of a now-popular trope.

The 80s version of dysfunctional family-hood, specifically related to how children of one family parent their children.

A dysfunctional sister immersed in an otherwise mostly functional family at home for her older sister's wedding.

While family is far from the only subject of this nostalgic movie, extended family dynamics (specifically in a Jewish context) are a major part.

Two brothers in Montana and their minister father.

This movie is like a story featuring J.D. Salinger's Glass family, except that we see what happens for a short while after his story would have ended.

A real dysfunctional family movie that examines and analyzes the dysfunction rather than laughing at it or eschewing it. Dysfunction among the literary, specifically.

Two grown sisters who haven't quite grown up in their own ways, and their Dad who maybe never has, either.

Wrapped around a sentimental romantic comedy are some touching moments about trying to accept yourself, your past, and your family.

A smart young girl with a stubborn younger brother and an alcoholic father growing up in Brooklyn. It's sort of a coming-of-age movie as well, but focuses on the growing up as a member of your family more than as an individual.

I was pretty skeptical about this movie at first, but it's not half bad. An abused mother leaves her husband and seeks shelter with his rancher father for herself and her daughter.

A mother and her daughters dealing with the leaving of their father.

Taking care of each other in a small, eccentric yet anytown-esque Iowa town, the Grape family grapples with changes and changing.

An eccentric family waxes philosophical about the meaning of life compared with a banker's son.