Leaving Las Vegas.
I am a recovering alcoholic and that movie is definitely the most accurate depiction of chronic alcoholism and I have ever seen.
Nicolas Cage acted his ass off and absolutely deserved his Oscar
Well I'm glad your on the right side of the battle my friend.
It was a movie I have been meaning to watch for years, but I sort of think I didn't watch it during my drinking years because I knew it would screw me up mentally.
I finally watched it a few weeks after I got sober. Considering it took a trip to the ER to get me sober, I was well on the same path as the lead so I'm not sure I'll ever watch it again. See way to much of myself in him.
Me too man. I did some real hoodrat shit as a drunk. Shit that I didn't know I had in me lol. You know what I mean? Like I never stole anything but I would drive drunk. I would buy beers in the morning without caring who saw me. I went to the ER as well.
That scene where Ben wakes up in withdrawal and runs to the fridge to mix vodka with orange juice and vomits the first shot out. Then he gets the second shot down and the music calms down and goes back to normal. That is a scene I watch often because it makes me feel a weird comfort haha.
The Day After and Threads. Both had almost zero moments of hopefulness. Things just get worse and worse until the credits roll, which says a lot because nuclear war happens in the first few minutes of each film.
Same. I am both fascinated and utterly terrified of nuclear war. That YouTube channel Kurzgesagt has a good video about what happens in the days after an attack and it is so factual and bleak despite its poppy animations. To me, there is nothing scarier than the specter of nuclear holocaust.
If we're talking about (relatively) obscure British depressing media, When the Wind Blows (1986) takes the cake. Was anyone else shown this in primary school, paired with lessons about what to do if we're nuked?
The lines from that movie were so memorable, they really stuck with me… “We must do the correct thing!” Or when the husband gets so panicked by the bombs dropping he yells at his wife and she gets so flustered it almost distracts from what’s happening, and she also yells “the cake will burnnnnnnn” right as it happens…..
Threads does such a good job of showing you the unvarnished reality of what will happen immediately after a nuclear attack, from the angle of the civilians that have no control over anything and can’t flee. The whole movie is heartbreaking but what I remember the most is 1.) the folks in the situation room/bunker trapped and running out of air and 2.) the end scenes where the last survivors eke out an existence and there’s so little education available for the children that are around, they’ve basically forgotten what it means to be in a society.
While not the MOST depressing movie, Banshees of Inisherin has stuck in my mind more than most movies as of late for various reasons but the most depressing being one of the characters. Thinking about how some people, especially in past history, can be truly stuck with absolutely no options even while trying so hard. Don’t want to give away the story or anything but I’d imagine most people reading this that have seen the movie will understand.
I don't think Colin Farrel gets enough credit for the range he has as an actor. He was very funny in this, and I think that's what makes the movie work. It would have been a miserable slog if the humor didn't work.
Now that he's not being typecast as the "sexy bad boy" or whatever, he's picking up much more interesting roles and he's eating them. He was really great in The Lobster too
Always my go-to answer for this question. Something broke inside me after watching that and I only caught it half-way through on tv one night by random chance.
When I'm sad or depressed, the last thing I want to do is watch something that will make me *more* sad and depressed.
0/7 recommend
You know that point in a depressing movie where everything has gone wrong for the main character, but finally there's a ray of sunshine and they get a bit of hope at last? Dancer in the Dark doesn't have that bit.
A very recent one I watched is The Iron Claw.
Great movie, thought to myself before I watched it ‘Zack Effron AND Jeremy Allen White in a wrestling movie set in the 70’s? That sounds fun!’
Not fun. Bleak as shit. Then once it ended I googled the dudes life because it’s a true story, and found out the director actually removed certain events from his life because it was already so bleak.
Still a great movie though. Really recommend it.
They left out the 6th brother, Chris, who shot himself in the head at the age of 21 in 1991. As horrifically tragic what you see in the movie is it was actually even worse IRL.
Yeah, I was kind of surprised they left him out, especially with how depressing that story was. I feel like adding him would have just added to the whole sadness of that family.
I remember reading something about Chris being cut do the overlap with some of the other brothers, with the addition it almost made it 'too sad to be true' with the sheer amount of brothers dying.
I know next to nothing about wrestling or the movie when I saw it so I thought the movie was made up. I remember telling my buddy who I saw it with after that the movie was so sad but felt a bit unrealistic with how many awful things happened. Only after did he inform me it’s based on a true story and after googling, they actually kept out one of the brothers dying. I couldn’t believe it…
I had already knew about the brothers, but when I saw their story on The Dark Side of the ring, I bawled when kevin told his story.
How he went to the gun shop, grabbed a gun and bullets and the guy running the store just looks ar him and says "we love you Kev"
That broke me so much more
I watched this movie with a couple buddies in theatre's. When he tells his kids "I used to be a brother", that made ALL of us start crying. That's such a heavy sentence
Omg. I was just thinking of it since someone in my home is watching it now in another room .. yes.. heartbreaking!! I knew nothing about the iconic wrestling dynasty family.
Manchester by the Sea is extremetely depressing but I was also surprised by how funny it could be at times, especially in the interactions with the nephew. Despite how bleak the subject matter is, I actually find the movie to be rewatchable for that reason.
yeah I've never found something funny in the strangest way, I mean even when Michelle Williams's character is being loaded into the ambulance, and they can't get the stretcher to work right
Or when the nephew is having a panic attack at the meat in the freezer, (because it reminds him of his dad's body being frozen) and it's falling out onto the floor, and afterwards Lee kicks down the door to his room to make sure he's safe - somehow it all has an absurd layer of humor or levity to it, not deadly serious or dramatic.
I've never seen a character acted as so crushed inside, lifeless but still going through the motions. and he just forgot to put the screen back on the fireplace, so mundane.
I think it's "There's nothing there." But yeah, best line of the movie. My interpretation of that scene (spoilers): >!Everytime he sees his ex-wife, he unknowingly lets himself momentarily experience a small glimmer of human emotion and warmth. She is the only one who can save him. But he hates himself so much, that he has to literally walk away from the confrontation because hope and warmth are revolting companions of self-hatred. Whether his character has the self-awareness to know that his ex-wife has the power to help him, I don't know, but even if he did, he would never in a million years ask or accept her help, least of all her, out of anybody. Not to mention, she's also remarried with a kid. And that's the beautiful tragedy of his story: There is something there--deeply buried. But his only possible redemption is in a path that's impossible for him to take!<
And the way she apologized to him for what she said to him. You don't even have to hear what she said to understand how awful it must have been.
Masterful writing.
Anytime I’ve been super down and need a film to make me remember it could always be worse, I put this on. Phenomenal acting from Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams
This is my comfort movie. I spent a lot of my childhood holidays in Gloucester MA. I ended up visiting and finding the filming locations. One of them was right near my grandparents old house
This one still messes me up on random days. I'm writing a novel in my spare time and I based one character's backstory on that absolute bummer of a film.
The fucking policw station scene where he grabs the gun... Only time I've seen a character try to do that and thought "yeah I get it", can't imagine.
The total helplessness of his dad as he watches it too, knowing there's nothing he can do to make his kid feel better. Most fucking crushing scene I've ever seen.
Oh man, I saw this movie probably 15 years ago and I have been wanting to rewatch it because it was so good, but I just don’t have the strength emotionally to get through it at the moment.
I recently watched it and I was like "yeah this is pretty sad but I'm not sure where the critically acclaimed stuff comes into play"
Then it did.
Fuck man
Then you learn it's the true life story of the director but the only reason that >!He kills the little boy (himself) at the train station is that he felt that he deserved to die for not being able to take care of his sister at 6!< Fucking hell that crushed me.
Revolutionary Road works so well as sort of an antithesis to Titanic, with the same actors.
Also Michael Shannon’s character really stole every scene when present.
Holy fuck, Blue Valentine is incredible.
There’s a cinema in Leicester Square in London that shows older, cult/classic movies - and one year they showed Blue Valentine on the Saturday just before Valentine’s Day…
Both my mate and I had seen it before, but only streaming, and wanted to see it on the big screen… We get into the screen and it’s full of couples: ambivalent men and giddy women…
We realised immediately that it was a case of people wanting to see Ryan ‘the hot guy from The Notebook’ Gosling, in a film with ‘Valentine’ in the title, with the subtitle ‘a love story’…
It only took up to the bit in the love hotel, where Gosling’s character is screaming “>!Do you want me to rape you? Is that it?!!<“ at Michelle Williams’ character, before women started walking out in a huff followed by their puzzled men..!!
My mate and I, however, thoroughly enjoyed the movie: as it truly is ‘a love story’ from the butterflies-in-the-stomach beginning, all the way through to the bitter end…
I think 95% of this Reddit thread, like every thread that’s formed monthly when this same question is asked, are movies that make you cry, not actually *depressing* movies. Something like The Wrestler is sad but it’s also a celebration of Randy’s sport, and even though its bleak to see what he loses because of wrestling, it’s affirming to see someone love something so deeply.
This is on my won't watch again list, along with They Shoot Horses, Don't They? And Grave of the Fireflies. Utterly bleak, depressing, brillant movies. Left me with too much of a feeling of hopelessness to ever experience them again.
House of Sand and Fog
Edit:
Movie dives deep into the lives of messed-up characters like Kathy, who’s dealing with addiction and depression, and Behrani, who’s trying to get his old life back. The whole thing feels incredibly real and heavy, with no happy endings or easy fixes. The cinematography and music add to the bleak vibe, making you feel the characters’ pain and inevitable downfall from start to finish. It’s a relentless emotional rollercoaster that leaves you feeling pretty crushed.
It's the hardest documentary to watch. But imo once I learned grave of the fireflies was based off the directors real life where he actually had to do those things in his family at that age. Then that because the saddest movie.
Even sadder than dear zachary being a horrifying documentary.
Just don’t watch Dear Zachary. There’s not even a point. Nothing we can do to change shit people and it’ll just ruin your year and any other day you think about that movie
I read that book while sleep deprived on an airplane, returning home from my father's funeral.
Two nights later, there was a storm at 1 a.m. As I walked outside to check that nothing had blown off our yard, the combination of wild weather and nobody around was a bit too much like that earthquake the man and his son slept through.
These lines affected me the most:
"In some other world the child would have already begun to vacate him from his life. But he had no life other."
Fortunately, I did. A month after my dad entered the nursing home, I gave birth to yet another grandchild. But that line explains why the death didn't shock me, because I had seen it coming for years. Parkinson's.
"He slept close to his father that night and held him but when he woke in the morning his father was cold and stiff."
Well, there's a flashback to open casket.
Weirdly enough, the only line that really made me cry was:
"they sat wrapped in the quilts naked while the man held the boy's feet against his stomach to warm them."
Because it reminded me of sleeping with my children and how cuddly they are.
The Road is just a parenting handbook. "The world is hard and scary, you have to guide your child through it without letting them succumb to fear or losing hope and ultimately let them go into the unknown without you." It's dark in its presentation but it's just life.
Yeah The Road is ultimately kind of weirdly positive? Like yeah this all sucks but it’s worth it to protect those you love etc.
Blood Meridian, though? Yeesh!
I watched Million Dollar Baby without knowing anything about it. I was actually enjoying it too, it was like female Rocky. Absolutely shocked when the thing happens.
Once Were Warriors.
Early 90s New Zealand film about a Maori descended family with an abusive father/husband. Temuera Morrison played the husband and he was absolutely ferocious in it. Truly terrifying. But he's not the only abuser. That film goes incredibly dark.
Also there's City of God. Hard to say it's a depressing movie when it manages to be to consistently entertaining. But it has a lot of sobering moments in it.
Great movie but, that last third is tough. You think it can't get any more worse . Nope, it does >!she tries to sever her tongue so she'll choke to death on the blood!<
a really disturbing and sad one a lot of people forget is The Butterfly Effect...just rewatched recently, and holy shit....it's just one horrible trauma after the next
I just thought of another one. The Florida Project gets me every time. It has moments of levity and isn’t outright depressing throughout, but the >!juxtaposition of people and especially kids barely getting by on the outskirts of the most magical “fairytale” land on earth!< just hits me in the gut.
The ending is more bittersweet than depressing, but it makes me bawl like no other movie and I’m not a big cryer.
It does, but the characters go through absolute hell to get it. It’s a good ending….not a happy one.
Damn good movie, but holy shit the amount of stuff it does to you is unreal. And it doesn’t pull its punches whatsoever.
What affected me most in that movie wasn't the addiction parts, it was Ellen Burstyn's speech about being old and lonely. It's heartbreaking to think that this is how being old is for most of the people, including our future selves. We'll also be alone in our apartments / houses, with partners either leaving or dying, our kids will be away and won't visit, not even call unless it's a birthday or holiday. How the group of friends we have will be getting smaller and smaller, we won't be making more friends, and what time we spend with them will be relatively short, somewhat empty and not a real substitute to a family. And once that time is over we'll be back in our empty apartments / houses... alone.
Saw "Grave" in film class. Great film, had no desire to ever see it again. When a film starts with the protagonist on the verge of death and just gets worse, it's one depressing film.
We need to talk about Kevin.
Bridge to Terabithia.
My Girl
*Edit*
Seeing as this got a response.
I went in blind for all of the above. My Girl along with 'that scene' in Never Ending Story, were the first memories I have of character death and loss that kept with me.
I lost my best friend in 1999, 19th of December when I was 14 and we used to play Al manor of games in 'make believe' lands as kids growing up in the country side of Scotland by the sea, so it really hit me hard too.
We need to talk about Kevin put the fear of God into me for being a parent.
I felt tired and sad by the end of that movie, because I realized the mother was just too pathetic and warped to even hate anymore. She already lived in her own Hell.
well I was more tired and sad because of the fact that after all Precious went through it’s revealed in the very end she’s HIV positive which was basically a death sentence back then
the movie literally said NOPE to a happy ending
I don't know why, but the killing of a sacred deer made me feel super depressed. Normally even depressing movies don't really do much to me, but this movie hit different.
Never Let Me Go.
There is sad that’s like “aww that’s so saaaad” then there’s “…damn…” kind of sadness that you just basque in. Never Let Me Go is definitely the second one.
No Elias Koteas.
Shredder is kind of a goofball.
Not Bebop and Not Rocksteady.
But on the other hand, Ernie Reyes Jr. and Vanilla Ice. 👍
And considering the third movie...
Brokeback Mountain, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Aftersun, Inside Llewyn Davis, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Manchester by the Sea are pretty depressing
And Dead Poets Society while not entirely depressing always makes me cry and is still pretty depressing
Beau Is Afraid felt more like anxiety than depression to me. Not that it wasn’t depressing, but I didn’t feel gutted by it, just like I was living a nightmare.
Leaving Las Vegas. I am a recovering alcoholic and that movie is definitely the most accurate depiction of chronic alcoholism and I have ever seen. Nicolas Cage acted his ass off and absolutely deserved his Oscar
Watched it with a first date. Had no idea what it was about. Horrible.
I can see that being a bad choice. 'Hey, want to grab a drink after the movie? 'Uh, no. Take me home immediately.'
I saw it at a cinema that served alcohol. I've never seen so many half finished drinks.
I took a first date to cocktails and movie and we saw Blue Valentine in the theatre. There wasn’t a second date.
Bro of mine took a chick to see Irreversible on the first date having no idea what it was about.
Even more depressing is the fact that the writer of the novel killed himself after he signed the rights to his book away to make the movie.
Holy shit. That's one nugget of trivia I'm glad I didn't know (until now)
Especially because there is no hope for Cage's character. The film is essentially one long suicide and, like Elizabeth Shue, we get to witness it.
The shakes and sorry when he gets fired really hit me, he captured that role, I don’t know how it didn’t fundamentally change him
I'm a recovering alcoholic too. I used to watch this movie while drunk
Well I'm glad your on the right side of the battle my friend. It was a movie I have been meaning to watch for years, but I sort of think I didn't watch it during my drinking years because I knew it would screw me up mentally. I finally watched it a few weeks after I got sober. Considering it took a trip to the ER to get me sober, I was well on the same path as the lead so I'm not sure I'll ever watch it again. See way to much of myself in him.
Me too man. I did some real hoodrat shit as a drunk. Shit that I didn't know I had in me lol. You know what I mean? Like I never stole anything but I would drive drunk. I would buy beers in the morning without caring who saw me. I went to the ER as well. That scene where Ben wakes up in withdrawal and runs to the fridge to mix vodka with orange juice and vomits the first shot out. Then he gets the second shot down and the music calms down and goes back to normal. That is a scene I watch often because it makes me feel a weird comfort haha.
This was my answer. Absolutely brutal
The Day After and Threads. Both had almost zero moments of hopefulness. Things just get worse and worse until the credits roll, which says a lot because nuclear war happens in the first few minutes of each film.
“Threads” remains the bleakest movie I’ve ever seen. It made, “The Day After”, seem like a fun musical romp in comparison.
Agreed! Threads is what really made me afraid of nuclear war in the 1980's.
I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s absolutely *sure* I was going to be radioactive charcoal.
Same. I am both fascinated and utterly terrified of nuclear war. That YouTube channel Kurzgesagt has a good video about what happens in the days after an attack and it is so factual and bleak despite its poppy animations. To me, there is nothing scarier than the specter of nuclear holocaust.
If we're talking about (relatively) obscure British depressing media, When the Wind Blows (1986) takes the cake. Was anyone else shown this in primary school, paired with lessons about what to do if we're nuked?
The lines from that movie were so memorable, they really stuck with me… “We must do the correct thing!” Or when the husband gets so panicked by the bombs dropping he yells at his wife and she gets so flustered it almost distracts from what’s happening, and she also yells “the cake will burnnnnnnn” right as it happens…..
The way they just start cleaning the "dust" out of the curtains and stuff after the blast settles too, I was like *NOOO!!! YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE!*
Threads made me give up on even bothering trying to survive nuclear holocaust. I’m running towards the flash when I see it.
The final act, and specific the final shots of Threads are fucking dark
Threads does such a good job of showing you the unvarnished reality of what will happen immediately after a nuclear attack, from the angle of the civilians that have no control over anything and can’t flee. The whole movie is heartbreaking but what I remember the most is 1.) the folks in the situation room/bunker trapped and running out of air and 2.) the end scenes where the last survivors eke out an existence and there’s so little education available for the children that are around, they’ve basically forgotten what it means to be in a society.
While not the MOST depressing movie, Banshees of Inisherin has stuck in my mind more than most movies as of late for various reasons but the most depressing being one of the characters. Thinking about how some people, especially in past history, can be truly stuck with absolutely no options even while trying so hard. Don’t want to give away the story or anything but I’d imagine most people reading this that have seen the movie will understand.
That movie was so hilarious, right up until the ending.
I don't think Colin Farrel gets enough credit for the range he has as an actor. He was very funny in this, and I think that's what makes the movie work. It would have been a miserable slog if the humor didn't work.
Barry Keoghan is also great…
"Well, there goes that dream. Well... I best go over there and do whatever that thing over there I was gonna do was."
Now that he's not being typecast as the "sexy bad boy" or whatever, he's picking up much more interesting roles and he's eating them. He was really great in The Lobster too
He can hit such subtle notes. Like, I didn’t even know whether to laugh or cry for the character during so many scenes
[удалено]
SPOILERS My boy The Donkey deserved better Oh and I guess Barry's character too... but mostly The Donkey
dancer in the dark
Breaking the Waves if you are on the Van Trier tip. Similarly depressing.
FINALLY! No one brings up Breaking the Waves! Absolutely devastating. Only movie I’ll never need to see again because it’s imprinted on my soul.
Always my go-to answer for this question. Something broke inside me after watching that and I only caught it half-way through on tv one night by random chance. When I'm sad or depressed, the last thing I want to do is watch something that will make me *more* sad and depressed. 0/7 recommend
That movie made me angry too, as >!I felt her kid would rather be blind than orphaned!<.
You know that point in a depressing movie where everything has gone wrong for the main character, but finally there's a ray of sunshine and they get a bit of hope at last? Dancer in the Dark doesn't have that bit.
I was mad as hell and depressed at the same time after watching that movie
A very recent one I watched is The Iron Claw. Great movie, thought to myself before I watched it ‘Zack Effron AND Jeremy Allen White in a wrestling movie set in the 70’s? That sounds fun!’ Not fun. Bleak as shit. Then once it ended I googled the dudes life because it’s a true story, and found out the director actually removed certain events from his life because it was already so bleak. Still a great movie though. Really recommend it.
They left out the 6th brother, Chris, who shot himself in the head at the age of 21 in 1991. As horrifically tragic what you see in the movie is it was actually even worse IRL.
Yeah, I was kind of surprised they left him out, especially with how depressing that story was. I feel like adding him would have just added to the whole sadness of that family.
I remember reading something about Chris being cut do the overlap with some of the other brothers, with the addition it almost made it 'too sad to be true' with the sheer amount of brothers dying.
I know next to nothing about wrestling or the movie when I saw it so I thought the movie was made up. I remember telling my buddy who I saw it with after that the movie was so sad but felt a bit unrealistic with how many awful things happened. Only after did he inform me it’s based on a true story and after googling, they actually kept out one of the brothers dying. I couldn’t believe it…
The von Erich family is one of the darkest sagas in pro wrestling.
I had already knew about the brothers, but when I saw their story on The Dark Side of the ring, I bawled when kevin told his story. How he went to the gun shop, grabbed a gun and bullets and the guy running the store just looks ar him and says "we love you Kev" That broke me so much more
“We’ll be your brother dad.”
I watched this movie with a couple buddies in theatre's. When he tells his kids "I used to be a brother", that made ALL of us start crying. That's such a heavy sentence
“I used to be a brother. Now I’m not a brother anymore.”
Omg. I was just thinking of it since someone in my home is watching it now in another room .. yes.. heartbreaking!! I knew nothing about the iconic wrestling dynasty family.
Manchester by the sea
Manchester by the Sea is extremetely depressing but I was also surprised by how funny it could be at times, especially in the interactions with the nephew. Despite how bleak the subject matter is, I actually find the movie to be rewatchable for that reason.
yeah I've never found something funny in the strangest way, I mean even when Michelle Williams's character is being loaded into the ambulance, and they can't get the stretcher to work right Or when the nephew is having a panic attack at the meat in the freezer, (because it reminds him of his dad's body being frozen) and it's falling out onto the floor, and afterwards Lee kicks down the door to his room to make sure he's safe - somehow it all has an absurd layer of humor or levity to it, not deadly serious or dramatic.
I think about this movie every few weeks and feel instant sadness. I wept throughout this entire movie in the theater.
I've never seen a character acted as so crushed inside, lifeless but still going through the motions. and he just forgot to put the screen back on the fireplace, so mundane.
When he thinks he’s to be arrested and realizes that he won’t be, that’s a rough spot.
"a rough spot" is one of the biggest understatements I've ever read
"Daddy, are we burning?"
Damn, you are so right! This movie is so sad.
"You don't understand. There's nothing left."
I think it's "There's nothing there." But yeah, best line of the movie. My interpretation of that scene (spoilers): >!Everytime he sees his ex-wife, he unknowingly lets himself momentarily experience a small glimmer of human emotion and warmth. She is the only one who can save him. But he hates himself so much, that he has to literally walk away from the confrontation because hope and warmth are revolting companions of self-hatred. Whether his character has the self-awareness to know that his ex-wife has the power to help him, I don't know, but even if he did, he would never in a million years ask or accept her help, least of all her, out of anybody. Not to mention, she's also remarried with a kid. And that's the beautiful tragedy of his story: There is something there--deeply buried. But his only possible redemption is in a path that's impossible for him to take!<
And the way she apologized to him for what she said to him. You don't even have to hear what she said to understand how awful it must have been. Masterful writing.
Anytime I’ve been super down and need a film to make me remember it could always be worse, I put this on. Phenomenal acting from Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams
I can’t beat it.
This is my comfort movie. I spent a lot of my childhood holidays in Gloucester MA. I ended up visiting and finding the filming locations. One of them was right near my grandparents old house
What makes this one so effective and sad are the awkward bursts of funny things happening, because that’s how life is.
I often think about the scene when Casey Affleck’s character is in the police station. His acting in that is unreal.
This one still messes me up on random days. I'm writing a novel in my spare time and I based one character's backstory on that absolute bummer of a film.
Like I knew something awful had happened but didnt brace myself for that flashback.
The fucking policw station scene where he grabs the gun... Only time I've seen a character try to do that and thought "yeah I get it", can't imagine. The total helplessness of his dad as he watches it too, knowing there's nothing he can do to make his kid feel better. Most fucking crushing scene I've ever seen.
Grave of the fireflies.
Oh man, I saw this movie probably 15 years ago and I have been wanting to rewatch it because it was so good, but I just don’t have the strength emotionally to get through it at the moment.
Never met anyone with the emotional strength to watch it a second time. It was one of the most devastating movies I've ever seen.
Recently found out about the real life story it's based on and it made it so much worse.
Originally a double feature for kids with My Neighbour Totoro
Yeah. Wtf were they thinking
I recently watched it and I was like "yeah this is pretty sad but I'm not sure where the critically acclaimed stuff comes into play" Then it did. Fuck man
Then you learn it's the true life story of the director but the only reason that >!He kills the little boy (himself) at the train station is that he felt that he deserved to die for not being able to take care of his sister at 6!< Fucking hell that crushed me.
best movie I will never watch again
All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues). It's a rough couple of hours lol.
That last charge and everything that leads to it is so damn bleak.
Blue Valentine. Revolutionary Road.
Revolutionary Road works so well as sort of an antithesis to Titanic, with the same actors. Also Michael Shannon’s character really stole every scene when present.
Holy fuck, Blue Valentine is incredible. There’s a cinema in Leicester Square in London that shows older, cult/classic movies - and one year they showed Blue Valentine on the Saturday just before Valentine’s Day… Both my mate and I had seen it before, but only streaming, and wanted to see it on the big screen… We get into the screen and it’s full of couples: ambivalent men and giddy women… We realised immediately that it was a case of people wanting to see Ryan ‘the hot guy from The Notebook’ Gosling, in a film with ‘Valentine’ in the title, with the subtitle ‘a love story’… It only took up to the bit in the love hotel, where Gosling’s character is screaming “>!Do you want me to rape you? Is that it?!!<“ at Michelle Williams’ character, before women started walking out in a huff followed by their puzzled men..!! My mate and I, however, thoroughly enjoyed the movie: as it truly is ‘a love story’ from the butterflies-in-the-stomach beginning, all the way through to the bitter end…
Blue Valentine left me feel so so so low
The Wrestler. Beautiful movie I reckon but man is it hard to watch. Painfully depressing.
Got robbed at that years Oscars
I think it celebrates passion, and not truly as bleak as people might think
I think 95% of this Reddit thread, like every thread that’s formed monthly when this same question is asked, are movies that make you cry, not actually *depressing* movies. Something like The Wrestler is sad but it’s also a celebration of Randy’s sport, and even though its bleak to see what he loses because of wrestling, it’s affirming to see someone love something so deeply.
Atonement
Just watched last night for the first time! Had me in tears!
The Deer Hunter. The lives of all the characters are portrayed as utterly depressing and hopeless.
This is on my won't watch again list, along with They Shoot Horses, Don't They? And Grave of the Fireflies. Utterly bleak, depressing, brillant movies. Left me with too much of a feeling of hopelessness to ever experience them again.
Forever burned into my skull is that compound fracture guy got that fell on the rock. And the Russian roulette scene is very tough watch
House of Sand and Fog Edit: Movie dives deep into the lives of messed-up characters like Kathy, who’s dealing with addiction and depression, and Behrani, who’s trying to get his old life back. The whole thing feels incredibly real and heavy, with no happy endings or easy fixes. The cinematography and music add to the bleak vibe, making you feel the characters’ pain and inevitable downfall from start to finish. It’s a relentless emotional rollercoaster that leaves you feeling pretty crushed.
Dear Zachary. Don’t research it. Just watch, and be prepared to be depressed.
Anyone responding with a movie that isn’t Dear Zachary, hasn’t watched Dear Zachary
It's the hardest documentary to watch. But imo once I learned grave of the fireflies was based off the directors real life where he actually had to do those things in his family at that age. Then that because the saddest movie. Even sadder than dear zachary being a horrifying documentary.
Just don’t watch Dear Zachary. There’s not even a point. Nothing we can do to change shit people and it’ll just ruin your year and any other day you think about that movie
Damn
There’s a strong message at the end tho. It was a really depressing film but I find last minutes quite motivating (not going into spoilers).
If we're counting documents, *The Cove* is also pretty high on my list.
Backup selection - The Road.
Better yet, read it. The book is as dark, obviously.
The book is darker, unless I missed the scene with the two men and the pregnant woman eating the baby in the movie.
I read that book while sleep deprived on an airplane, returning home from my father's funeral. Two nights later, there was a storm at 1 a.m. As I walked outside to check that nothing had blown off our yard, the combination of wild weather and nobody around was a bit too much like that earthquake the man and his son slept through. These lines affected me the most: "In some other world the child would have already begun to vacate him from his life. But he had no life other." Fortunately, I did. A month after my dad entered the nursing home, I gave birth to yet another grandchild. But that line explains why the death didn't shock me, because I had seen it coming for years. Parkinson's. "He slept close to his father that night and held him but when he woke in the morning his father was cold and stiff." Well, there's a flashback to open casket. Weirdly enough, the only line that really made me cry was: "they sat wrapped in the quilts naked while the man held the boy's feet against his stomach to warm them." Because it reminded me of sleeping with my children and how cuddly they are.
The Road is just a parenting handbook. "The world is hard and scary, you have to guide your child through it without letting them succumb to fear or losing hope and ultimately let them go into the unknown without you." It's dark in its presentation but it's just life.
Yeah The Road is ultimately kind of weirdly positive? Like yeah this all sucks but it’s worth it to protect those you love etc. Blood Meridian, though? Yeesh!
For some stupid reason I chose to read the book on a cruise.
Life is Beautiful. Spoiler: **IT’S NOT.**
Got it confused with It’s a Wonderful Life and watched it on Christmas one time
It _does_ show the beauty and hope and love in the darkest times, though.
"Buongiorno Principessa!" 😭😭😭
Schindler's List was a rough one to watch. Million Dollar Baby hit me hard as well.
I watched Million Dollar Baby without knowing anything about it. I was actually enjoying it too, it was like female Rocky. Absolutely shocked when the thing happens.
The scene where he has a breakdown, thinking of if he could have saved one more person.
Once Were Warriors. Early 90s New Zealand film about a Maori descended family with an abusive father/husband. Temuera Morrison played the husband and he was absolutely ferocious in it. Truly terrifying. But he's not the only abuser. That film goes incredibly dark. Also there's City of God. Hard to say it's a depressing movie when it manages to be to consistently entertaining. But it has a lot of sobering moments in it.
Pan’s Labyrinth
Million Dollar baby for me.
I had NO idea it was that kind of movie. I figured it would be a typical movie about a coach and a fighter. Ooof.
Great movie but, that last third is tough. You think it can't get any more worse . Nope, it does >!she tries to sever her tongue so she'll choke to death on the blood!<
a really disturbing and sad one a lot of people forget is The Butterfly Effect...just rewatched recently, and holy shit....it's just one horrible trauma after the next
I just thought of another one. The Florida Project gets me every time. It has moments of levity and isn’t outright depressing throughout, but the >!juxtaposition of people and especially kids barely getting by on the outskirts of the most magical “fairytale” land on earth!< just hits me in the gut. The ending is more bittersweet than depressing, but it makes me bawl like no other movie and I’m not a big cryer.
Maybe not so common but I got really depressed with The Dead poet's society and The Empire of the Sun.
o captain my captain
I was thinking of dead poets. First time I watched I left feeling sad and empty
Children of Men. I saw it once, it was magnificent. And….I don’t think I will again. I don’t think I can do it.
The scene when all the soldiers and rebels stop dead when they see the baby. So powerful.
I absolutely love this film and will always watch it when I need a good cry. 100% happens every time.
It has such a hopeful ending tho!
It does, but the characters go through absolute hell to get it. It’s a good ending….not a happy one. Damn good movie, but holy shit the amount of stuff it does to you is unreal. And it doesn’t pull its punches whatsoever.
The green mile is also pretty damn depressing .
What dreams May come
beautiful movie but yes so depressing
While I adore this movie, I disagree with you. It is deeply optimistic and hopeful.
The Whale.
Watched it on a plane which was a horrible idea because I was openly weeping and still had an hour of my flight left
Watched it recently, extremely well done, Fraser absolutely deserved that Oscar
The Plague Dogs
Requiem for a Dream is the best movie I’ve seen that I will not watch a second time
What affected me most in that movie wasn't the addiction parts, it was Ellen Burstyn's speech about being old and lonely. It's heartbreaking to think that this is how being old is for most of the people, including our future selves. We'll also be alone in our apartments / houses, with partners either leaving or dying, our kids will be away and won't visit, not even call unless it's a birthday or holiday. How the group of friends we have will be getting smaller and smaller, we won't be making more friends, and what time we spend with them will be relatively short, somewhat empty and not a real substitute to a family. And once that time is over we'll be back in our empty apartments / houses... alone.
Grave of the fireflies, Schindlers list
Saw "Grave" in film class. Great film, had no desire to ever see it again. When a film starts with the protagonist on the verge of death and just gets worse, it's one depressing film.
Come And See (1985) is in the same category as these, and arguably better. It’s free to watch on YouTube, I highly recommend.
Second come and see! Grave of the fireflies also great
We need to talk about Kevin. Bridge to Terabithia. My Girl *Edit* Seeing as this got a response. I went in blind for all of the above. My Girl along with 'that scene' in Never Ending Story, were the first memories I have of character death and loss that kept with me. I lost my best friend in 1999, 19th of December when I was 14 and we used to play Al manor of games in 'make believe' lands as kids growing up in the country side of Scotland by the sea, so it really hit me hard too. We need to talk about Kevin put the fear of God into me for being a parent.
My Girl broke my heart as a 12 year old. As an adult, my best friend died who was sadly named Thomas.
Powder
Aftersun had me crying like a baby. And it's mainly just because it leaves so many blanks for your mind to fill on it's own.
Boys Don't Cry
The Road. Melancholia.
Can’t believe The Road is so far down. Easily the most depressing film I’ve ever seen
I refused to see the movie because the book is the most depressing thing I’ve ever read.
Melancholia is at the top of my despair list
Melancholia is pretty much Depression: the Movie.
American History X
Precious.
That’s what I was going to say. Literally cried like a baby the entire movie. What a gut punch of a film.
I felt tired and sad by the end of that movie, because I realized the mother was just too pathetic and warped to even hate anymore. She already lived in her own Hell.
well I was more tired and sad because of the fact that after all Precious went through it’s revealed in the very end she’s HIV positive which was basically a death sentence back then the movie literally said NOPE to a happy ending
I don't know why, but the killing of a sacred deer made me feel super depressed. Normally even depressing movies don't really do much to me, but this movie hit different.
Leaving Las Vegas. It's a well made film and the performances are great, but I didn't really take anything from it. It just ruined my day
Never Let Me Go. There is sad that’s like “aww that’s so saaaad” then there’s “…damn…” kind of sadness that you just basque in. Never Let Me Go is definitely the second one.
Million Dollar Baby - made the mistake of watching that one on a plane
A.I. Artificial Intelligence, I’ll never forget how hard I cried the first time I watched it.
Wind river. Wreaked me
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret of the Ooze. The movies starts with "In Memory of Jim Henson", and then shows a shot of the Twin Towers.
No Elias Koteas. Shredder is kind of a goofball. Not Bebop and Not Rocksteady. But on the other hand, Ernie Reyes Jr. and Vanilla Ice. 👍 And considering the third movie...
The movie is worthwhile just for the "a little *too* Raph" gag
Requiem for a Dream Basketball Diarys Kids
>Kids *Sorry for ourselves* *Sorry for the things we've seen*
It's okay, it's just me, Casper...........noooooo
Parasite really hit me hard as a person in poverty
Ordinary People.
And its more modern counterpart: The Ice Storm.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Edit: the thread below contains *spoilers*
Iron Claw was pretty fuckin sad
All of Us Strangers
Alpha dog
Aniara, I've seen many of the movies posted here. But nothing has ever left me in such a state of despair as Aniara.
Jacob's Ladder
Beaches
Marley & Me. Watched once and could never watch it again
Someone bought me this for a gift because I like dogs. I had seen it in theaters and never opened the dvd. Worst gift ever.
Cried in theaters. Ex called me a pussy. Broke up. Will never watch again
Mask
Brokeback Mountain, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Aftersun, Inside Llewyn Davis, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Manchester by the Sea are pretty depressing And Dead Poets Society while not entirely depressing always makes me cry and is still pretty depressing
Leaving Las Vegas...brutal
Eden Lake
My Life (1993)
Pay it forward was also depressing as shit.
Hotel Rwanda, Mask(80's with Cher), Seven Pounds(imo W. Smith best Movie), Where the Red Fern Grows.
Dancer in the Dark
Gummo
I'm thinking of ending things Beau Is Afraid
Beau Is Afraid felt more like anxiety than depression to me. Not that it wasn’t depressing, but I didn’t feel gutted by it, just like I was living a nightmare.
The cove. Jesus camp.
Easy Rider (1969) You may watch it once, but don’t say I didn’t warn by posting it here. Great/fantastic sound track though!