Originally published at: From Million Dollar Baby to Requiem for a Dream: the most depressing mainstream films - Boing Boing
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I’m surprised there’s only one movie where the dog dies listed here.
Though I guess Million Dollar Baby at least references one…
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I would put Oldboy on that list. Certainly the ending.
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The Mist
Chinatown
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale
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Man of Steel; what a depressing waste of talent and money.
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How about Sophie’s Choice? At least Shindler’s List has a comparitively uplifting ending.
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Meloncholia? Maybe not ‘mainstream’?
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This is why I don’t read pet memoirs or watch films based on same. They all have the same depressing ending.
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Mary and Max.
The trailer makes it look like a fun little claymation comedy but the central themes are about loneliness, depression, alcoholism, suicidal thoughts and other such light-hearted fare.
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Grave of the fireflies. Is it a mainstream movie? I think it is in Japan.
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Wow! The second reddit-lifted listicle post from E.Toohey today. An abundance of riches.
One probably very little-known (outside UK, and even then, obscure) depressing but probably disqualified for a sort of uplifting ending is Nowhere Special.
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Empire Of The Sun always made me tear up a bit.
Especially the scene toward the end where he is reunited with his parents.
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One of my fave films What Dreams May Come is kind of depressing due to some themes of mental health issues, kids dying, and suicide. But it being a Robin Williams film and knowing he took his life really doubles down on the themes of the movie for me. I love the movie but after his death i just don’t know if i could make it through the movie without crying.
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If you think about it in the sense that your sincere and heartfelt creative endeavor may actually be an appalling product worthy only of derision beyond the confines of your mind, then “The Room” is uniquely depressing. But I guess it’s very easy not to think about it that way.
Oh! And let’s not forget Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist” (2010). Not at all like his much more whimsical “Triplets of Belleville”.
You may also “enjoy” the director’s new film, “Memoir of a Snail”. Not sure which one’s more depressing, but it lacks the Penguin Cafe Orchestra score, so maybe it gets the nod.
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Life Is Beautiful.
Sure seemed to be mainstream/popular enough.
"Life Is Beautiful was commercially successful, making $48.7 million in Italy. It was the highest-grossing Italian film in its native country until 2011, when surpassed by Checco Zalone’s What a Beautiful Day.
The film was also successful in the rest of the world, grossing $57.6 million in the United States and Canada and $123.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $230.1 million."
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Hotaru no haka - GoTFF - I can’t even think about it without having my gut in a knot, goosebumps and tears coming to my eyes.
Followed by Requiem for a Dream.
I did not find Manchester by the Sea especially depressing, sad yes, but not “my soul is permanently scared” sad like the two above.
Notwithstanding the horror of the shoah in Schindler’s List, I think it’s overall a movie of hope.
So Mary and Max has got a PCO score? I’m sold. I’ll watch it. I love their music and had the luck to see them live in Rome in probably one of their last shows.
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It’s not much music, and it’s not original, but it’s used to good effect. Also, it seems to be streaming for free on Hoopla, if you have access to that.
Both “Mary and Max” and “Memoir of a Snail” are pretty similar to the Oscar-winning short film, “Harvie Krumpet”, but they each add their unique little twists.
I hope I one day have the opportunity to hear some kind of a live cover.
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Maybe not mainstream (outside of the U.K.), but a very good choice.
Aronofsky does depressing films very well.
Some other films that come to mind:
Beaches (even thinking of this film fills me with sadness)
Terms of Endearment (see also: Beaches)
Kids (from the very beginning you just know things won’t end well, and they don’t)
Foxes (see also: Kids)
Saturday Night Fever (if all you know about it is that it’s “that disco movie”, you have no idea how dark and depressing most of the film is)
My Girl (the marketing team should have been sued for misleading advertising)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (you already know how it’s going to end, and it gets there in about the most awful way possible)
Das Boot (hours of tension and depression, and just when you think there’s a light, it gets worse)
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