The 10 Best Family Drama Movies of All Time, Ranked
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There’s a lot of drama within quite a few families, it’s safe to say, both when it comes to real life and in fiction. And if a drama movie has quite a bit of that drama explored concerning a family unit, or at least several members of a family, then it’s being counted as a family drama for present purposes. What you won’t necessarily find below are family-friendly movies (sometimes called family movies and all) that happen to have some dramatic elements in them.
These are more dramas about families, and then a few cross over into some other genres, too, with a couple being comedic and at least one being both a family drama and a crime epic. In any event, and regardless of some of those other genres, these are the best family drama movies ever made, with older/established essentials alongside some newer/modern classics.
10 'Little Women' (2019)
2019’s Little Women is by no means the only film adaptation of the novel of the same name, and like, maybe it’s not the very best in the eyes of everyone, but it is a great adaptation regardless. It’s also very much a family drama while functioning as a coming-of-age film centered on four sisters, and then there’s some time spent on the other members as everyone grapples with life in the U.S. during and then immediately after the Civil War.
Even a not great adaptation of source material so strong is likely going to have something to offer, but then when a movie like Little Women (2019) is largely strong as well, then it’s obviously all the better. There is a lot to like here, even if you're the kind of person who might think it sounds a bit slow and/or not up your alley… it is still very much worth giving a shot.
9 'Still Walking' (2008)
The title being Still Walking does sufficiently prepare you, even if only subconsciously, for the pacing and overall feel of this film ahead of time. It is slow, but still, walking does always get you somewhere eventually and stuff. And Still Walking does get to where it wants to go, and where it needs to go, so if you're okay with that walking (rather than running, driving, or flying) kind of speed/pacing, it’s ultimately worth sticking with.
Because of all that, there’s not much that can be said without giving too much away, but basically, Still Walking is about members of a family getting together for something… and you do slowly learn what that is, and gain an understanding about their dynamics a little better. It’s all very moving (again, eventually) in a low-key way that’s ultimately very admirable, even if it’s hard to put into words quite how it all inevitably feels.
8 'Little Miss Sunshine' (2006)
Alongside one other soon-to-be-mentioned movie from 2022, Little Miss Sunshine is perhaps more accurately describable as a family dramedy, since you do get a fair bit of humor here with some of the family’s dysfunctional elements. That being said, Little Miss Sunshine does quite seamlessly jump back and forth between comedy and drama, with a lot of it being very sad.
That sadness might well be sadder because it contrasts against the humor and all, but further, Little Miss Sunshine isn't a total downer, ultimately ending up quite bittersweet and emotionally well-balanced overall. It’s not a huge odyssey of a road trip movie, at least in terms of distance covered, but it has its characters go through a lot together and emotionally, and that makes it all exceptionally rewarding to tag along for that ride, as a viewer.
7 'Bicycle Thieves' (1948)
The focus here isn't on a ton of family members, admittedly, but all the drama in Bicycle Thieves does concern a man trying to provide for his family in post-war Italy, and his bike being stolen is what prevents him from being able to work. So, he sets off trying to find his bike, and takes his young son with him during the whole endeavor.
Praising it while it’s so simple might sound pretentious or insincere, but it really is that good, and it does prove exceptionally timeless, too.
That is not a lot by way of plot, admittedly, but that’s all you need with Bicycle Thieves, as the film finds plenty of ways to be unusually tense and ultimately very moving. It’s one of those great humanist films, and sure, praising it while it’s so simple might sound pretentious or insincere, but it really is that good, and it does prove exceptionally timeless, too, despite the historical context also being very relevant to the premise and overall feel here.
6 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022)
Everything Everywhere All at Once has the most by way of unexpected genres it belongs to, compared to all the other movies here, but at its core, it’s still very much about a dysfunctional family and some of the problems they're going through. It’s just that all that grounded conflict ends up playing out against a whole lot of wild stuff, because they get involved in a battle for the fate of the multiverse.
Technically, their multiple selves across the multiverse are all wrapped up in that conflict, which leads to a good deal of action, broad comedy, science fiction elements, and even a bit by way of fantasy and horror stuff. Everything Everywhere All at Once does it all, and crams everything into one movie, and all without ever losing track of the unusually relatable family drama at its core.
5 'Eat Drink Man Woman' (1994)
Ang Lee is most well-known for the movies he’s directed from, say, 2000 onwards, because that stage of his filmmaking career has heavy-hitters like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain alongside some undeniably interesting misses like Hulk (2003). His earlier films tend to get a bit overlooked, though, and honestly, there’s an argument to be made that one of those somewhat underrated movies, Eat Drink Man Woman, is his overall masterpiece.
Basically, this movie is about three young women who are all sisters, and their personal struggles alongside covering – you guessed it – drama of a family nature, mostly concerning their widowed father. It’s very different in terms of setting and tone, but some of Eat Drink Man Woman scratches the same itch as Little Women, for what that might be worth. It’s also filled with emotional highs and lows, having some comedic and romantic elements, even if it’s the dramatic parts that strike hardest and stick in one’s mind most of all once it’s over.
4 'Marriage Story' (2019)
Of all the movies about divorce, Marriage Story might well be the best. Actually, there aren’t a ton of movies about it, but there are at least a couple of other heavy-hitters. Kramer vs. Kramer should probably be acknowledged, even if it doesn’t hold up perfectly, but then you’ve also got A Separation, which is stronger overall, and also very much a family drama about, you know, separating.
So, those are at least worthy of honorable mentions, but there is something extra moving about parts of Marriage Story, while a few other stretches of the film (mostly early on) feel like they might be straining a little hard. Still, the final act of this movie is incredible, and the performances are all pretty hard to fault, with Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, as the couple going through the divorce and all, both turning in career-best performances.
3 'Tokyo Story' (1953)
Another “Story” movie, Tokyo Story is a bit of a broader family drama than Marriage Story, with a few more generations and therefore more characters, rather than Marriage Story, where the family was really just a previously married couple and their one child. In Tokyo Story, you’ve got a pair of grandparents who visit their younger relatives, and there are lots of them, but none seem to have much time for their elders.
It’s sad from the premise alone, and then there are other things that happen very gradually throughout Tokyo Story that make it even more of an undeniable tearjerker, but not in a sentimental or in any way clichéd way. It’s pretty brutal on an emotional front, honestly, and then it’s got a ton of honesty to it as well, inevitably standing as another very old family drama that’s pretty much timeless.
2 'The Godfather' (1972)
Kicking off a saga about a crime family and also a regular family, The Godfather does a bit of both and does so effortlessly, too. It was based on the book of the same name, and while that book was acclaimed, the movie was something else altogether, as was The Godfather Part II, which had quite a lot by way of new material not originally found in the novel.
The Godfather Part II could go here alongside The Godfather, really. Like, there is probably more tragedy and genuinely harrowing drama involving the Corleone family in The Godfather Part II, but there is more of a family unit in The Godfather, and you also can’t really have the devastation of the second movie without the drama (and, indeed, devastation) already found/developed in the first movie.
1 'Yi Yi' (2000)
Yeah, yeah, Yi Yi is not as well-known as The Godfather, but it should be. The Godfather and some of the other movies here are pretty much perfect, and so is Yi Yi, and you're not likely to find many people who've seen it that would disagree with the notion that it’s a masterpiece, or at least close to it. The problem is that you're probably not as likely to run into people who have seen it all that often, because it does look a bit daunting and all.
It’s nearly three hours long, and it is a full-on family drama, without the crime/gangster element that might draw people toward the similarly lengthy The Godfather. Still, Yi Yi is never boring, despite being slow and not all that jam-packed with story in the conventional sense, and it really does stand as one of the most beautiful-looking and uniquely moving films about family ever made.
Yi Yi
- Release Date
- September 20, 2000
- Runtime
- 173 minutes
- Director
- Edward Yang
- Producers
- Shin'ya Kawai
-
Issey Ogata
Mr. Ota
-
Wu Nien-jen
N.J.
-
Elaine Jin
Min-Min
-
Kelly Lee
Ting-Ting
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