Tag Archives: dysfunctional family

The Weather Man

IMDB Rating: 7.00
16094 votes

from $1.99

Storyline
Clever and insightful movie on the subject of growing-up in upper middle class America. Dave Spritz, a weatherman without meteorological qualifications in Chicago, is confronted with his own rage that life hasn't proceeded as he had planned. A talented man who finds it difficult to see his own talent because he compares himself with his Pulitzer winning, distant father is at a low ebb. Not to mention that "fans" delight in recognizing him on the street and throwing food at him. The other problems in his life, an angry ex-wife, a daughter bullied at school and a son just leaving rehab don't help. And Spritz would really rather just think about sex. Through finding a hobby, connecting with his dying father and standing by his kids we see the character grow and become a hero.
Actors
David SpritzNicolas Cage
Robert SpritzelMichael Caine
NoreenHope Davis

The Family Stone

IMDB Rating: 6.30
12580 votes

from $1.99

Storyline
The Stone family unites in common cause when their favorite son brings his uptight girlfriend home for the Christmas holiday, with plans of proposing. Overwhelmed by the hostile reception, she begs her sister to join her for emotional support, triggering further complications.
Actors
Julie MortonClaire Danes
Sybil StoneDiane Keaton
Amy StoneRachel McAdams

The Squid and the Whale

IMDB Rating: 7.70
10777 votes

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Storyline
The patriarch (Jeff Daniels) of an eccentric Brooklyn family claims to once have been a great novelist, but he has settled into a teaching job. When his wife (Laura Linney) discovers a writing talent of her own, jealousy divides the family, leaving two teenage sons to forge new relationships with their parents. Linney's character begins dating her younger son's tennis coach. Meanwhile, Daniels' character has an affair with the student his older son is pursuing.
Actors
Frank BerkmanOwen Kline
Bernard BerkmanJeff Daniels
Joan BerkmanLaura Linney

Bee Season

IMDB Rating: 5.50
1879 votes

from $1.99

Storyline
11-year-old Eliza Naumann comes from an odd family; they all divert their emotional frustrations into secret channels. When Eliza unexpectedly begins winning spelling bees, what had been a stable dynamic within the family becomes disrupted; long held secrets emerge, and a latent spiritual yearning is awakened in her withdrawn father Saul and compulsive mother Miriam. As Eliza moves closer and closer to the national spelling bee, the Naumann family finds itself in a spiral of surprising discovery and jarring uncertainty...
Actors
SaulRichard Gere
MiriamJuliette Binoche
ElizaFlora Cross

The Upside of Anger

IMDB Rating: 7.10
7330 votes

from $1.99

Storyline
A sharp-witted suburban wife, Terry Wolfmeyer, is left to raise her four headstrong daughters when her husband unexpectedly disappears. Things get even more hectic when she falls for her neighbor Denny, a once-great baseball star turned radio d.j. This leaves her daughters out on a limb. They are forced to juggle their mom's romantic dilemmas as well as their own.
Actors
Terry Ann WolfmeyerJoan Allen
Denny DaviesKevin Costner
Andy WolfmeyerErika Christensen

American Splendor

IMDB Rating: 7.70
14326 votes

from $1.99

Storyline
Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey's true soul mate as they experience the bizarre byproducts of Harvey's cult celebrity stature.
Actors
SupermanChris Ambrose
BatmanJoey Krajcar
RobinJosh Hutcherson

All or Nothing

IMDB Rating: 7.50
2497 votes

from $1.99

Storyline
Penny's love for her partner, taxi-driver Phil, has run dry. He is a gentle, philosophical guy, and she works on the checkout at a supermarket. Their daughter Rachel cleans in a home for elderly people, and their son Rory is unemployed and aggressive. The joy has gone out of Phil's and Penny's life, but when an unexpected tragedy occurs, they are brought together to rediscover their love. All or Nothing is set on a London working-class housing estate over a long weekend, and also tells the stories of a range of Phil and Penny's neighbors, some of whom become involved in the family's lives, and all of whom experience an emotional journey.
Actors
PhilTimothy Spall
PennyLesley Manville
RachelAlison Garland

Igby Goes Down

IMDB Rating: 7.10
12240 votes

from $1.99

Storyline
Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sarcastic seventeen year-old boy, is at war with the oppressive world of his East Coast "old money" family. With a schizophrenic father, a self-absorbed, distant mother, and a shark-like young Republican big brother, Igby figures there must be a better life out there, and he sets out to find it. After happily flunking out of several Prep Schools, Igby escapes into the bohemian underworld of Manhattan. His darkly comic trip—shared by a deviant cast of characters, including his terminally bored, part-time lover Sookie, his Godfather's trophy mistress Rachel, and smack-dealing performance artists Russel—veers from bizarre to tragic in Igby's ultimately noble attempt to keep himself from "going down."
Actors
Jason 'Igby' Slocumb, Jr.Kieran Culkin
Sookie SappersteinClaire Danes
D.H. BanesJeff Goldblum

Sweet Home Alabama

IMDB Rating: 5.80
11999 votes

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Storyline
New York fashion designer Melanie Carmichael suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. But Melanie's past holds many secrets, including Jake, the redneck husband she married in high school, who refuses to divorce her. Bound and determined to end their contentious relationship once and for all, Melanie sneaks back home to Alabama to confront her past, only to discover that you can take the girl out of the South, but you can never take the South out of the girl.
Actors
Melanie Smooter/CarmichaelReese Witherspoon
Jake PerryJosh Lucas
Andrew HenningsPatrick Dempsey

Ken Park

IMDB Rating: 6.00
6521 votes

from $1.99

Storyline
Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim. But they spend precious little time together and none of them seems to know much about one another's family lives. This bizarre dichotomy underscores their alienation # the result of suburban ennui, a teenager's inherent sense of melodrama, and the disturbing nature of their home environments.
Actors
Ken ParkAdam Chubbuck
ShawnJames Bullard
Shawn's brotherSeth Gray