Some movies prioritize escapism over anything else, particularly those that can be slotted into high-intensity and extra stimulating genres likeaction, horror, adventure, thriller, or some combination of one or more of the above. And movies that give you something out of the ordinary can be a great deal of fun, though sometimes, you might be in the mood to check out something a bit more serious.
Well, it would be an understatement to call the following films merely a “bit” more serious.They all deal with one of the heaviest and most troubling emotions there is, grief, and do so in ways that feel realistic and heartbreaking, yet sometimes potentially cathartic. These movies confront loss and make their characters reckon with such difficult feelings, with the more idealistic ones suggesting how one can heal and come out the other end, and the more cynical ones showing how grief can sometimes be, regrettably, all-consuming.
10’Still Walking' (2008)
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Hirokazu Kore-edaspecializes in making films where theremight not be a ton happening narrativelyor on the surface, but the experience is ultimately rewarding because of the emotions and characters explored.Still Walkingexemplifies this well, being one of the filmmaker’s very best films and playing out in a way that feels somewhat vague and maybe even seemingly purposeless, at least initially.
As things progress,Still Walkingreveals itself to be about members of a family coming together because of a tragic event that they’re still in the process of grieving, very gradually. It’s a realistic approach to depicting how a healing process, if it happens at all, certainly takes time, and this is reflected through the film’s patient pace and lack of in-your-face drama.Still Walkingdelicately puts you in the minds of some of its key characters,inevitably paying off emotionally as a bittersweet ending approaches.
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9’Don’t Look Now' (1973)
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Grief is obviously linked to sadness and other serious emotions, and so you’re going to inevitably find more drama films tackling such a topic over any other genre. However, going through the process of grieving can also be unnerving or even scary in its own strange way, and so, drama aside,it might well be the horror genre that would be the most effective to utilize for the purposes of exploring grief.
Indeed,Don’t Look Now, which is agut-wrenching drama and a quietly unnerving horror movie, demonstrates this pretty well, being about a married couple struggling to come to terms with the loss of a child. It moves slowly and features somehauntingly realistic performances from bothJulie ChristieandDonald Sutherland. It also doesn’t scare too frequently, but when it wants to double down on the horror, it is brutally efficient at causing a feeling of terror.
Don’t Look Now
8’Ordinary People' (1980)
Director: Robert Redford
Ordinary Peoplewould make for a grim but impactful double feature withDon’t Look Now,as both star Donald Sutherland as a parentdealing with the loss of a child. He plays one half of a married couple, alongsideMary Tyler Moore, who are struggling to achieve anything approaching a normal life after the unthinkable happens, with their remaining child, played byTimothy Hutton, also impacted heavily.
It’s a full-on drama through and through, and promises to be grounded and everyday, owing to its title.AndRobert Redford’s direction, alongside the great performances, ensures thatOrdinary Peopleis undeniably powerful in a way that lacks flash or bombast, outside some passionate performances that nonetheless still retain a realistic feel. It’s not an easy movie to watch, but it is one of the best and most honest relatively mainstream films about grief out there.
Ordinary People
7’Up' (2009)
Director: Pete Docter
Even thoughUpis a family-friendly Pixar movie, it still tackles the topic of grief in a grounded and relatable way, all the while not being too traumatic or thematically heavy for younger viewers. Essentially, the ups and downs of a married couple are shown in the film’s opening montage, with the woman eventually passing away, leaving the man alone in the world and without his life companion.
The first 10 minutes ofUpgive it its reputation for beinga particularly potent animated tearjerker, butthe rest of the movie – though lighter – does ultimately become about dealing with feelings of grief, and finding connection, eventually, with others. That it also does this while being a colorful and oftentimes funny adventure movie is whatensuresUpis something of a modern classic.
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6’The Sweet Hereafter' (1997)
Director: Atom Egoyan
A grim and unapologetically heavy drama,The Sweet Hereafteris about the impact a particularly large-scale and devastating tragedy has had on a small community ofpeople living in rural Canada. Though it’s unconventionally structured, it does ultimately reveal itself to be centered around how people struggle with the grief of a bus accident that left over a dozen children dead.
It isn’t exploitative and does have empathy for its characters, butThe Sweet Hereafterbeing about the deaths of so many young people does instantly make it harrowing and quite challenging to sit through.It’s thorough and covers a decent number of characters of varying ages and occupations throughout, and isa brutally effective exploration of grief; perhaps achingly so to the point where some might well want to avoid it altogether.
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5’Hereditary' (2018)
Director: Ari Aster
Ari Asterdoesn’t shy away fromexploring taboo and/or difficult subjects in his movies, and this is conveyed pretty succinctly by his feature film debut,Hereditary. Without giving away too much, it centers on a family that’s either unlucky or potentially cursed; possibly even a bit of both. They deal with hardships that begin sad, but spiral out of control and eventually become both tragic and horrific.
It’s another drama that works well as a horror movie at the same time, being the best of both worlds… or maybe the worst of both worlds, if you’re after something fun and/or easy to watch.Hereditaryremains one ofthe most noteworthy and acclaimed A24 films, and is a must-watch for anyone who’s okay with diving into something both heavy and unafraid to be pretty screwed up.
Hereditary
4’Three Colours: Blue' (1993)
Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski
TheThree Colourstrilogy is,collectively, a staple of arthouse cinema. Each movie deals with a different color visually speaking, and each color represents different moods and genres explored in each film. Additionally, all three movies –Blue,White, andRed– center on different protagonists, though certain significant characters from one movie can and do show up in cameo appearances in others.
Anyway, that’s all to say thatThree Colours: Blueis the most downbeat of the three, owing to the color blue sometimes representing depression and sadness, more broadly. It follows a woman dealing with the aftermath of a great tragedy, delving uncomfortably deep into her psyche and being a challenging, patiently paced, and oddly absorbing watch. It’s raw and potentially cathartic, though, and isone of the starkest – yet almost most impressionistic – cinematic meditations on grief ever made.
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3’Manchester by the Sea' (2016)
Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Some might call it a tearjerker, while others might feel too numb by the whole thing to find themselves wanting to cry. Either way, it’s easy enough to agree thatManchester by the Seais intense and unwaveringly heavy throughout, following a troubled man dealing with one tragic event, only for the film to continually hint at his past and eventually reveal that there’s so much more troubling him.
Casey Affleckdisappears into the lead roleinManchester by the Sea, and his performance was understandably acclaimed, as he captures various difficult emotions and is persistently intense throughout. Elsewhere,Lucas HedgesandMichelle Williamsare both great, withthe whole cast being more than up to handling the undeniably heavy material at hand. LikeThe Sweet Hereafter, it’s oppressively heavy and also quite slow pacing-wise, but it will reward viewers who are willing to be patient.
Manchester By the Sea
2’Fanny and Alexander' (1982)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Standing as undoubtedly one ofthe greatest international films of all time,Fanny and AlexandersawIngmar Bergmanexploring various intense emotional themes, as usual, but on an impressive scale.It’s something of an epic, though it’s also very intimate, running for over three hours in its theatrical cut and centering on two children and their mother dealing with the sudden passing of the family’s father/husband/patriarch.
Fanny and Alexandergetsheavy at times, butit’s not oppressively dark; there’s hope here, and a surprising amount of light at the end of the tunnel by Bergman’s standards. It’s long but flies by surprisingly fast, being excellently paced for a movie of its length and genre, not to mention balancing various emotional highs and lows well while also being indisputably gorgeous to look at from start to finish.
Fanny and Alexander
1’Tokyo Story' (1953)
Director: Yasujirō Ozu
Tokyo Storyis a great entry point for anyone interested inwatching older films that qualify as arthouse. It has elements that might make it a little challenging, but it’s not oppressively so. After all, it is a family drama with characters of various ages/generations, and stories surrounding family do have a certain universal (or at least near-universal) appeal, regardless of when you grew up or which country you grew up in.
ThoughTokyo Storyis obviously set in Japan,what it has to say about older members of families, grief, and the inevitability of death still holds true and feels resonant, even for those watching it 70 years later and/or without ever having been to Japan. It’s pretty muchperfect for the kind of drama it is, and few movies released either before or since can claim to be quite as effective when it comes to exploring difficult emotions like grief.
