The movie that spawned a thousand memes of Adam Driver punching a wall, Marriage Story is also writer-director Noah Baumbach at his best and simultaneously most personal. Meredith LoftusĬast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Azhy Robertson, Laura Dern, Ray Liotta Nominated for eight Academy Awards, Les Misérables brings down the house into a puddle of tears. By having the actors singing on set, they’re able to emote the melancholy and loss that follows each of these characters across time and circumstance. She is later taken into the care of Jean Valjean. This somber musical also follows the tragedy of Fantine ( Anne Hathaway), who’s unable to support her young daughter, played as an adult by Amanda Seyfried.
Based on the famous Victor Hugo novel-turned-musical, Tom Hooper directs the adaptation of the story of a man on the run ( Hugh Jackman) during a turbulent time in France. With a title that’s translated as “The Miserables," you know you’re in for a sad movie with very few moments of levity. Writer: William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Herbert KretzmerĬast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen
Writer-director Gavin O'Connor ensures every emotion is felt with complete sincerity, making the end scene and its use of the absolutely perfect song by The National one that shatters you to pieces. The more you learn about each character in the fractured family, the more your heart breaks for all of them. Even as it is a film that is about men pummeling each other, it is also a story that lives and breathes in its quiet moments. Both actors are simply outstanding, especially when they share scenes with their father, Nick Nolte’s gruff Paddy. It centers on two brothers, Tom Hardy's Tommy and Joel Edgerton's Brendan, who both find themselves competing in the same fighting tournament in order to better their lives. RELATED: The Best Romantic Movies on Netflix Right NowĬast: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank GrilloĪ story that starts out as being about mixed martial arts before becoming so much more, Warrior is a film that is sure to leave you tearing up in its final moments. These are the best sad movies on Netflix right now.Įditor's note: This article was updated May 2022 to include To the Bone, Big Fish, Pieces of a Woman, Soul Surfer, Saving Private Ryan, and Les Misérables. So get those tissues ready and convince yourself that you’re not crying you just have something in both of your eyes. Heartbreak is shared across the spectrum of the human condition in such a way that total strangers having endured a similar pain, or having survived the same horrific event, oft bond like the best of friends. And yet, they might remind us of our own lives, of the one that got away, of a lost family member. They connect with a part of us that wants to feel something more than mere entertainment when we sit back and tune out the rest of the world. Why seek out a pulse-pounding action film or a knee-slapping comedy when you can get the waterworks going? Sad movies resonate longer and more deeply than do others.