10 Movies that make even man to cry

Atonement

 

Is there anything sadder than young lovers torn apart before their feelings can truly blossom? Well, besides real issues plaguing the world like war and famine, but come on, star-crossed lovers are still pretty sad. Atonement paints a vivid tale of just that (along with some war as well). After a series of misunderstandings, youthful naiveté, and false accusations drive Robbie (James McAvoy) away from Cecillia (Keira Knightley), 13-year-old Briony spends the rest of her life struggling with her mistakes as the couple longs to be reunited. It’s a tragic story, but one that works beyond the tragedy and sorrow. It won an Oscar for its original score and was nominated for Best Picture, facing off against some tough competition in No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood.

Million Dollar Baby

 

From the first melancholic notes of its score, Million Dollar Baby promises a one-two punch to the gut. And boy does it deliver. Clint Eastwood gives us a story of two fighters: one who’d do anything to protect himself (Eastwood) and one who’s just as stubborn but still keeps putting herself in harm’s way (Hillary Swank). As the latter learns how to box professionally from the former, it’s nearly impossible not to root for and empathize with the flawed pair. Morgan Freeman completes the main cast as his standard “old man with sage advice,” but the chemistry between him and Eastwood as bickering best friends is almost enough to warrant its own movie. Baby raked in the Oscar wins and noms in ’05, powered by the heart-wrenching turn in the third act and the powerful relationship between the two leads. 

The House Of Small Cubes

 

This Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short is only 12 minutes long, but that’s all it takes to pull you into its heartbreaking story. An old man’s house gets continuously submerged in ever-rising waters, so instead of moving on, he moves up. As he keeps adding levels, a dropped pipe forces the man to relive his memories as he passes each floor through the depths of his home. The wordless short builds an interesting world very quickly with a unique style of animation. The House Of Small Cubes gives but a few glimpses of this man’s life, but it’s enough to care about him and his life as it unfolds in reverse.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

 

When filmmaker Kurt Kuenne’s childhood friend Andrew Bagby is killed and his suspected killer/ex-girlfriend reveals she’s pregnant, Kurt decides to make a documentary chronicling Andrew’s life. While largely a love letter to a man who touched the lives of many for Zachary, the son he never met, Dear Zachary also tells the starkly bitter side of a broken Canadian legal system that directly endangered a baby. We follow the drawn-out custody battle between Andrew’s parents and Zachary’s mother, interspersed with loving snapshots into the Bagby family. The story sucks you in, but it’s also the at times comedic, fast-paced, and downright enraging documentary style of the film that breaks up the emotional tale. 

Milk

 

Sean Penn won his second Oscar for his portrayal of the titular character in Milk, the biopic about San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official. From his early days of civil rights activism in the ’70s to his assassination only a few months after his election, Harvey Milk’s short story is one filled with endless struggle. But the message throughout the film is endlessly hopeful and triumphant. The saddest part, though, is that the fight for LGBTQ rights still wages every day in the U.S. That’s why it’s encouraging to keep the words of leaders like Milk alive today. He didn’t start getting involved in the movement until he was around 40, and he was able to create very real change. It’s never too late to start. 

The Road

 

Certainly not the first title that comes to mind when looking for “sad movies,” but just try and watch The Road without feeling emotionally fatigued. The Cormac McCarthy adaptation takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but that’s only the backdrop for a gripping relationship between a man and his son. Once the world sorta ends — as not much time is spent on the “why” — the man struggles to keep his son alive amidst murderers, cannibals, and despair. It’s rough. It’s bleak. It’s a terrifying, dying world that sucks you in as you can almost feel the cold and taste the hunger. But it’s the little moments of hope and love in the pair’s lives that makes it all worthwhile. (You can also pretty much disregard the tone, colors, and thrilling nature of the trailer above, as this is a somber, slow tale the pretty much cuts your heart out.)

Fruitvale Station

 

If you like Michael B. Jordan (are there people who don’t?) and you can deal with some very serious subject matter, this is a great film. Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film, Fruitvale Station depicts the final day of Oscar Grant III’s life. The 22 year-old Hayward resident was detained by the Bay Area rapid transit (BART) Police at Fruitvale station on January 1, 2009 in Oakland California, where he was shot by an officer. He later died. The film begins with actual bystander footage of the Fruitvale event and then transitions into the dramatized day. Viewers have to confront that each scene marks the last time Grant will do something. It’s viscerally upsetting. 

Remembrance

 

There just can’t be enough World War II in a sad film list. Moving between a 1944 Nazi concentration camp set in Poland and New York City in 1976, this movie is based on the true story of Jerzy Bielecki and Cyla Cybulska, a pair who fell in love in the work camp but became separated during their escape, each assuming the other had perished. This movie has it all: the holocaust, lovers torn apart, and some death mixed in. It is both touching and hopeful and a soul crushing invitation for all of the sads. 

Melancholia

 

Lars von Trier’s Melancholia isn’t so much sad as it is wonderfully depressing. The artistically stunning prologue tells the whole story, but much like the looming planet for which the movie is named, it’s more about the beauty of the journey than knowing what’s gonna happen. A woman (Kirstin Dunst), who’s battling depression, and her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who’s got plenty of her own issues, struggle to cope with each other and a new planet on a collision course with Earth. There’s something oddly calming about “impending apocalypse” movies where they don’t do anything to save mankind. The world is coming to an end but there always seems to be bigger issues to deal with first. Melancholia is full of von Trier’s characteristic visual and visceral style, with Dunst giving one of the strongest performances of her career. 

Short Term 12

 

Let’s jump right into the deep end of the sad pool with some teens in a group home. Grace (Brie Larson) is the supervisor of the facility and Mason (John Gallagher, Jr) is her co-worker and long-term partner. Although the pair focus on many of the children in the facility, the film highlights two: Marcus, who is about to turn 18 and feels unready to leave, and Jayden, a recent addition with a history of self-harm. Blend in Grace’s inability to open up and the fact that she finds herself dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and you have a deeply touching, genuinely moving piece of cinema with a tremendous critical response.

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