If you want fiction about dysfunctional families, then the world of TV is probably the best place to turn. If a sitcom is about a family, they’re almost guaranteed to have some level of dysfunction (see The Simpsons, Arrested Development, and Malcolm in the Middle), and then dramas with a focus on family tend to get in on the dysfunctional action too, as seen in the likes of Six Feet Under and The Sopranos.
But on the big screen? Yeah, there are absolutely some legendarily dysfunctional families from cinema history. The following are some of the most noteworthy and chaotic, starting with some families that have major problems that do ultimately (for the most part) get worked around, and ending with some families that are beyond doomed (extra points given here for families where every member adds to the overall dysfunction).
10
‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ (2001)
The Tenenbaum family has its problems, in The Royal Tenenbaums, but they’re also all humanized in a way that makes many characters here as sympathetic as they are flawed. They’re not all bad people, but they’re all a bit out of step with one another. Also, they’re quite well-off and accomplished, compared to some other dysfunctional families out there in the world of fiction, but the movie is ultimately about how exceptional intelligence can’t solve everything.
That’s something Wes Anderson also explored in the slightly more intimate Rushmore, and he does it here with a whole family (and a great ensemble cast) quite well. You do end up rooting for most of the key characters in The Royal Tenenbaums, and it strikes a rather delicate balance between feeling funny and heartbreaking at different points.
9
‘Little Miss Sunshine’ (2006)
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Speaking of movies that are funny and sad while revolving around a family with some problems they all have to work through, here’s Little Miss Sunshine, which is more of an underdog sort of thing, compared to The Royal Tenenbaums. It’s about the Hoover family, and their experiences when they embark on an ambitious road trip to California, to get the youngest of their clan to a beauty pageant she wants to take part in.
Like any road trip movie, you could say the journey is more important than the destination and all that, which is true in a physical sense, but not an emotional one. That’s because Little Miss Sunshine is eventually about certain problems and tensions being overcome, and there’s a great deal of catharsis there, and it feels earned, too. You don’t get the sense that everything is going to be perfect from then on, but there is an improvement; steps taken in a positive direction, but also not in a way that feels corny.
8
‘The Incredibles’ (2004)
Though it’s animated, and most iconic superhero movies are live action, The Incredibles does still deserve to be considered among the best, certainly when it comes to superhero movies not based on pre-existing comic book characters. And, no, this isn’t a take on The Fantastic Four, nor a rip-off, but there is some inspiration there, with those Marvel characters famously being a family in more ways than one, and The Incredibles also revolving around a family.
It treats them like a real family, too, and they have to deal with problems both mundane and fantastical (all the while existing in a world where they have to keep their superpowers secret). Beyond the family drama and the comedy, The Incredibles is also surprisingly satisfying as an action movie, and it is ultimately one of the more optimistic movies about a dysfunctional family, considering how many issues are worked on and ironed out by the film’s end.
7
‘The Shining’ (1980)
There are a couple of things that hold The Shining back from being higher here. One is the size of the family central to this film, with only three all up, and bigger families do inevitably lead to more dysfunction, or opportunities for chaos and conflict. Also, you could read into the film version of The Shining being more about one man who makes his family dysfunctional because of his emotional instability, with all that worsening due to isolation – and possible supernatural occurrences – inside a hotel he’s being a caretaker for during the off-season.
Things are a bit more complicated in the source material, for better or worse (or just for different), but this is still a family with a strained and difficult dynamic, and things fall apart more as the movie goes on. So, The Shining is still worth being mentioned here, even if it might be more of a one bad apple kind of thing, and also, there are only three apples.
6
‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (1980)
Usually, if a movie series was about a dysfunctional family, you’d want to highlight the first film in that series, but with Star Wars, the idea that it’s actually something of a family drama set in space doesn’t get revealed until The Empire Strikes Back. But that big old twist that everyone now knows is one of the things that made The Empire Strikes Back even better than Star Wars (1977), revealing there was even more to the whole thing than just a broad battle between good and evil.
The Empire Strikes Back complicates things morally and also makes the already existing conflict a whole lot more personal. It’s done in a really seamless way, too, and beyond this movie, both the prequel and sequel trilogy would also go on to explore an overall Skywalker saga. And the Skywalkers have some problems, to say the least.
5
‘Hereditary’ (2018)
Like The Shining, Hereditary is about an already dysfunctional family being pulled apart further by horrors of both the psychological and supernatural kind, but Hereditary pushes such difficult things a little further. Also, as the title implies, there are horrors involved with the main family here that pre-date anything seen in the movie, and the sense that so much bad stuff that happens here was predetermined is exceptionally unsettling.
The whole movie is exceptionally unsettling, really. Hereditary is one of the best horror movies of its era for sure, but it’s also a very difficult watch, and it’s understandable why some people might want to stay away from the whole thing. It’s frightening in ways you’d expect, but then the drama side of things, the exploration of grief, and the troubling family-related issues looked at… all that stuff arguably hits even harder.
4
‘The Godfather’ (1972)
Like with The Empire Strikes Back, it’s The Godfather Part II that really shows a particularly high level of dysfunction among the main family of the series, the Corleones, but The Godfather still has quite a bit to go around. It’s a family that’s sort of held in line by the patriarch, Vito Corleone, but he’s aging and has to consider whether any of his children will be able to run the family empire the way he has, once he passes away.
Both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are absolute classics, though; that’s the main takeaway. And while the Corleone family might have some redeeming qualities, with some upholding quite a bit by way of moral codes, by criminal standards, the first movie reveals cracks that are already starting to show. By the end of the first movie, things are clearly broken, and then in The Godfather Part II, basically everything shatters. And The Godfather Part III exists, too.
3
‘Ran’ (1985)
While Ran is a despairing and eventually very violent family drama, it is at least frequently beautiful to look at and take in. Even when there’s death and destruction happening, Akira Kurosawa manages to make it look visually striking. And you know that’s the direction things are going in, the whole time, given this is a spin on King Lear and involves one of those always divisive battles over succession.
The family conflict in Ran brings out the worst in the main characters, and they all ultimately contribute to the collapse of everything their name had apparently once stood for.
You get some understanding of how the warlord at the center of Ran, and his family, were always at least a bit dysfunctional, but the family conflict brings out the worst in all of them, and they all ultimately contribute to the collapse of everything their name had apparently once stood for. Again, beautifully done and admirably ambitious, with the whole tragic nature of it meaning that misery is an inevitability, but still, watching things fall apart – and knowing that it all makes sense why those things fall apart to such an extent – makes Ran a pretty harrowing watch.
2
‘The Lion in Winter’ (1968)
Though it was an adaptation of a play, and that play was about a real-life (royal) family, it still feels worth highlighting The Lion in Winter as a film about a memorably dysfunctional family. Henry II is the patriarch of said family, ruling over England as King in 1183, and the story’s conflict here largely concerns him trying to work out which of his sons will succeed him as king one day.
It’s a little like Game of Thrones, but without all the action and also quite a bit funnier, and it’s that darkly comedic streak (plus some genuinely heavy moments) that might well make the whole thing feel a bit more reminiscent of the more recent Succession. Whatever the case, if you like great actors getting amazing dialogue to chew on, and tend to favor insult-heavy dialogue in particular (hell, let’s compare it to Veep too, while we’re at it), then The Lion in Winter is an essential watch.
1
‘Dogtooth’ (2009)
Of all the Yorgos Lanthimos movies, Dogtooth might well be the most uncompromising and harrowing, and that’s definitely saying something. It’s hard to describe what this movie is about without venturing beyond PG territory, since this is about as far from PG as films can get, but the movie essentially concerns parents who keep their three teenage kids entirely isolated from society, and…
Yeah. That’s as far as it can go. The premise is initially eyebrow-raising and then certain things become clear, and Dogtooth goes from feeling a bit weird to being absolutely despairing and one of those “I wish I could unsee all that” kind of movies. So, tread carefully. It’s a film that proves willing to go to some very dark places in its exploration of a supremely alarming family in, regrettably, more ways than one.
Dogtooth
- Release Date
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June 1, 2009
- Runtime
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94 minutes
