The best melancholic movies
by spriteaddict | created - 05 Feb 2011 | updated - 04 Mar 2018 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Benny & Joon (1993)
PG | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik | Stars: Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn, Julianne Moore
Votes: 62,111 | Gross: $23.20M
Don't miss it.
2. Arizona Dream (1993)
R | 142 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A young New Yorker goes to Arizona where he finds freedom to both love and dream.
Director: Emir Kusturica | Stars: Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Lili Taylor
Votes: 45,677 | Gross: $0.11M
3. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
PG-13 | 118 min | Drama
A young man in a small Midwestern town struggles to care for his mentally-disabled younger brother and morbidly obese mother while attempting to pursue his own happiness.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen
Votes: 254,223 | Gross: $9.17M
4. High Fidelity (2000)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Jack Black
Votes: 189,844 | Gross: $27.29M
5. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A delusional young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.
Director: Craig Gillespie | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, R.D. Reid
Votes: 155,503 | Gross: $5.97M
6. Paper Man (2009)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A washed-up writer forms an unlikely friendship with a teenager from Long Island.
Directors: Kieran Mulroney, Michele Mulroney | Stars: Jeff Daniels, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Lisa Kudrow
Votes: 20,174 | Gross: $0.02M
7. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris | Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 518,414 | Gross: $59.89M
8. Garden State (2004)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.
Director: Zach Braff | Stars: Zach Braff, Peter Sarsgaard, Natalie Portman, Ian Holm
Votes: 223,244 | Gross: $26.78M
9. Run Fatboy Run (2007)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport
Five years after jilting his pregnant fiancée on their wedding day, out-of-shape Dennis decides to run a marathon to win her back.
Director: David Schwimmer | Stars: Simon Pegg, Thandiwe Newton, Hank Azaria, Dylan Moran
Votes: 69,864 | Gross: $6.00M
10. Knocked Up (2007)
R | 129 min | Comedy, Romance
For fun-loving party animal Ben Stone, the last thing he ever expected was for his one-night stand to show up on his doorstep eight weeks later to tell him she's pregnant with his child.
Director: Judd Apatow | Stars: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann
Votes: 384,832 | Gross: $148.73M
11. Ghost World (2001)
R | 111 min | Comedy, Drama
Two eccentric best friends graduate high school and respond to a man's romance-seeking newspaper ad as a gag, only to find their lives becoming increasingly complicated.
Director: Terry Zwigoff | Stars: Steve Buscemi, Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Renfro
Votes: 126,885 | Gross: $6.22M
12. Keeping Mum (2005)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Crime
A pastor preoccupied with writing the perfect sermon fails to realize that his wife is having an affair, and his children are up to no good.
Director: Niall Johnson | Stars: Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Patrick Swayze
Votes: 35,939 | Gross: $1.62M
13. Lost in Translation (2003)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama
A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.
Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris
Votes: 489,559 | Gross: $44.59M
14. Broken Flowers (2005)
R | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
As the extremely withdrawn Don Johnston is dumped by his latest woman, he receives an anonymous letter from a former lover informing him that he has a son who may be looking for him. A freelance sleuth neighbor moves Don to embark on a cross-country search for his old flames in search of answers.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Bill Murray, Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, Julie Delpy
Votes: 106,851 | Gross: $13.74M
15. My Louisiana Sky (2001 TV Movie)
98 min | Drama
A 12-year-old girl re-evaluates her relationship with her developmentally disabled parents.
Director: Adam Arkin | Stars: Juliette Lewis, Kelsey Keel, Shirley Knight, Amelia Campbell
Votes: 984
16. Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)
PG-13 | 132 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A single mother, with dreams of becoming a writer, has a son at the age of 15 in 1965, and goes through a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father.
Director: Penny Marshall | Stars: Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Adam Garcia, Brittany Murphy
Votes: 30,564 | Gross: $30.17M
17. Paris, I Love You (2006)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Through the neighborhoods of Paris, love is veiled, revealed, imitated, sucked dry, reinvented, and awakened.
Directors: Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Gérard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Bruno Podalydès, Walter Salles, Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Daniela Thomas, Tom Tykwer, Gus Van Sant | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Leonor Watling, Ludivine Sagnier, Fanny Ardant
Votes: 74,566 | Gross: $4.86M
18. New York, I Love You (2008)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Eleven love stories set in one of the most loved and hated cities of the world, New York City.
Directors: Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Randall Balsmeyer, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner | Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, Hayden Christensen
Votes: 47,863 | Gross: $1.59M
19. Night on Earth (1991)
R | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
An anthology of 5 different cab drivers in 5 American and European cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Lisanne Falk, Alan Randolph Scott
Votes: 66,045 | Gross: $2.02M
20. Paper Heart (2009)
PG-13 | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Charlyne Yi embarks on a quest across America to make a documentary about the one subject she doesn't fully understand: Love.
Director: Nicholas Jasenovec | Stars: Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, Jake Johnson, Gill Summers
Votes: 8,592 | Gross: $1.27M
21. The Science of Sleep (2006)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is love-struck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.
Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou-Miou, Alain Chabat
Votes: 70,904 | Gross: $4.66M
22. Don Juan DeMarco (1994)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A psychiatrist must cure a young patient who presents himself as Don Juan, the world's greatest lover.
Director: Jeremy Leven | Stars: Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway, Géraldine Pailhas
Votes: 53,334 | Gross: $22.15M
23. Amélie (2001)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Romance
Despite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Stars: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta
Votes: 794,611 | Gross: $33.23M
24. The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
PG-13 | 80 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters--an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire--to rescue him.
Director: Sylvain Chomet | Stars: Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda, Michel Robin, Monica Viegas
Votes: 57,097 | Gross: $7.00M
25. Mary and Max (2009)
Not Rated | 92 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
In 1976 Melbourne, a lonely 8-year-old girl strikes up a correspondence with an unlikely pen pal: a severely obese 44-year-old New Yorker with Asperger's syndrome.
Director: Adam Elliot | Stars: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, Barry Humphries
Votes: 186,883
26. Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999)
R | 95 min | Comedy
Harold Smith (Sir Tom Courtenay), a quiet middle-aged Englishman becomes an instant celebrity when he suddenly starts exhibiting psychic and telekinetic powers. After he is arrested for ... See full summary »
Director: Peter Hewitt | Stars: Tom Courtenay, Michael Legge, Laura Fraser, Stephen Fry
Votes: 1,272
27. Wonder Boys (2000)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama
An English Professor tries to deal with his wife leaving him, the arrival of his editor who has been waiting for his book for seven years, and the various problems that his friends and associates involve him in.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jr.
Votes: 66,618 | Gross: $19.39M
28. Into the Wild (2007)
R | 148 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden
Votes: 658,502 | Gross: $18.35M
29. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
After being mistaken for an actor, a New York thief is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress into a murder mystery.
Director: Shane Black | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen
Votes: 237,514 | Gross: $4.24M
30. La Vie En Rose (2007)
PG-13 | 140 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Biopic of the iconic French singer Édith Piaf. Raised by her grandmother in a brothel, she was discovered while singing on a street corner at the age of 19. Despite her success, Piaf's life was filled with tragedy.
Director: Olivier Dahan | Stars: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner
Votes: 90,773 | Gross: $10.30M
31. Up (2009)
PG | 96 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
78-year-old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his house equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.
Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson | Stars: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 1,125,825 | Gross: $293.00M
32. Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
PG | 101 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
Yearning for escape and adventure, a young boy runs away from home and sails to an island filled with creatures that take him in as their king.
Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Max Records, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Pepita Emmerichs
Votes: 108,550 | Gross: $77.23M
33. My Blueberry Nights (2007)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama, Romance
A young lonely woman takes a soul-searching journey across America to resolve her questions about love while encountering a series of off-beat characters along the way.
Director: Kar-Wai Wong | Stars: Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Chad R. Davis
Votes: 56,565 | Gross: $0.87M
34. Half Nelson (2006)
R | 106 min | Drama
An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret.
Director: Ryan Fleck | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Shareeka Epps, Jeff Lima
Votes: 91,992 | Gross: $2.69M
35. The United States of Leland (2003)
R | 108 min | Drama
A young man's experience in a juvenile detention center that touches on the tumultuous changes that befall his family and the community in which he lives.
Director: Matthew Ryan Hoge | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Don Cheadle, Kevin Spacey, Chris Klein
Votes: 24,281 | Gross: $0.34M
36. It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A clinically-depressed teenager gets a new start after he checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward.
Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck | Stars: Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Dana DeVestern
Votes: 148,270 | Gross: $6.35M
37. The Vicious Kind (2009)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Drama
A man tries to warn his brother away from the new girlfriend he brings home during Thanksgiving, but ends up becoming infatuated with her in the process.
Director: Lee Toland Krieger | Stars: Adam Scott, Brittany Snow, Alex Frost, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 8,090
38. Blue Valentine (2010)
R | 112 min | Drama, Romance
The relationship of a contemporary married couple, charting their evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods.
Director: Derek Cianfrance | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, John Doman, Faith Wladyka
Votes: 211,455 | Gross: $9.74M
39. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After being dumped by the girl he believes to be his soulmate, hopeless romantic Tom Hansen reflects on their relationship to try and figure out where things went wrong and how he can win her back.
Director: Marc Webb | Stars: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Geoffrey Arend, Chloë Grace Moretz
Votes: 558,470 | Gross: $32.39M
40. Cashback (2006)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild.
Director: Sean Ellis | Stars: Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Michelle Ryan, Erica Ellis
Votes: 90,810 | Gross: $0.02M
41. Eastern Plays (2009)
83 min | Drama
Through Georgi (a juvenile) and Itso (an adult), we take a quick glance (about one and a half hour quick) at what happens in post cold-war Bulgaria.
Director: Kamen Kalev | Stars: Christo Christov, Ovanes Torosian, Saadet Aksoy, Nikolina Iancheva
Votes: 3,190
42. Melancholia (2011)
R | 135 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård
Votes: 196,039 | Gross: $3.03M
43. Eagle vs Shark (2007)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
The tale of two socially-awkward misfits and the strange ways they try to find love: through revenge on high-school bullies, burgers, and video games.
Director: Taika Waititi | Stars: Loren Taylor, Jemaine Clement, Craig Hall, Joel Tobeck
Votes: 26,269 | Gross: $0.22M
44. 50/50 (2011)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.
Director: Jonathan Levine | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 343,007 | Gross: $35.01M
45. My First Mister (2001)
R | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A 17-year-old girl has a troubled relationship with a 49-year-old man.
Director: Christine Lahti | Stars: Albert Brooks, Leelee Sobieski, Rutanya Alda, Natasha Braisewell
Votes: 5,908 | Gross: $0.62M
46. A Serious Man (2009)
R | 106 min | Comedy, Drama
Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed
Votes: 149,992 | Gross: $9.19M
47. Daydream Nation (2010)
R | 98 min | Drama, Romance
A city girl who moves to a small town and becomes entangled in a love triangle between her high school teacher and a stoner classmate.
Director: Michael Goldbach | Stars: Kat Dennings, Reece Thompson, Andie MacDowell, Josh Lucas
Votes: 13,056
48. Hideaways (2011)
88 min | Fantasy, Thriller
James Furlong, motherless, discovered an extraordinary gift by accident which caused the death of his father and his grandmother.
Director: Agnès Merlet | Stars: Rachel Hurd-Wood, Harry Treadaway, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Susan Lynch
Votes: 2,858
49. Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Captures a generational moment - young people on the cusp of truly growing up, tiring of their reflexive cynicism, each in their own ways struggling to connect and define what it means to love and be loved.
Director: Josh Radnor | Stars: Josh Radnor, Malin Akerman, Zoe Kazan, Michael Algieri
Votes: 30,515 | Gross: $0.22M
50. The Kings of Summer (2013)
R | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Three teenage friends, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land.
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts | Stars: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman
Votes: 84,411 | Gross: $1.29M
51. The Skeleton Twins (2014)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Having both coincidentally cheated death on the same day, estranged twins reunite with the possibility of mending their relationship.
Director: Craig Johnson | Stars: Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell
Votes: 44,879 | Gross: $5.28M
52. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
PG-13 | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon | Stars: Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman
Votes: 138,361 | Gross: $6.74M
53. Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A film set in a strange afterlife way station that has been reserved for people who have committed suicide.
Director: Goran Dukic | Stars: Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, Tom Waits, Will Arnett
Votes: 57,730 | Gross: $0.32M
54. Almost Famous (2000)
R | 122 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand
Votes: 293,596 | Gross: $32.53M
55. The Boat That Rocked (2009)
R | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that wanted classical music, and nothing else, on the airwaves.
Director: Richard Curtis | Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Michael Hadley
Votes: 116,093 | Gross: $7.99M
56. CBGB (2013)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A look at the New York City punk-rock scene and the venerable nightclub, CBGB.
Director: Randall Miller | Stars: Alan Rickman, Malin Akerman, Justin Bartha, Richard de Klerk
Votes: 11,230 | Gross: $0.04M
57. Jack (2004 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 104 min | Drama
Jack (Anton Yelchin) is busy with adolescence when he realizes his parents are divorcing and even worse, his dad is gay. After some bittersweet experiences, Jack learns no family is perfect, but his own is more caring, supportive, and stronger than he knew.
Director: Lee Rose | Stars: Stockard Channing, Ron Silver, Anton Yelchin, Erich Anderson
Votes: 585
58. Happy Together (1989)
PG-13 | 102 min | Comedy, Romance
Serious wannabe writer Chris starts college at UCLA and shares a room with Alex, who turns out to be a cute party girl. He wants to move--at first.
Director: Mel Damski | Stars: Patrick Dempsey, Helen Slater, Dan Schneider, Kevin Hardesty
Votes: 2,136
59. Boyhood (I) (2014)
R | 165 min | Drama
The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Elijah Smith
Votes: 367,272 | Gross: $25.38M
60. Big Fish (2003)
PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange
Votes: 459,070 | Gross: $66.26M
61. La La Land (2016)
PG-13 | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 672,272 | Gross: $151.10M
62. Demolition (2015)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
A successful investment banker struggles after losing his wife in a tragic car crash. With the help of a customer service rep and her young son, he starts to rebuild, beginning with the demolition of the life he once knew.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, Judah Lewis
Votes: 112,307 | Gross: $1.98M
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