No family is perfect, and sometimes home is what you make it. Beneath the thin veneer of a harmonious family is often a healthy amount of dysfunction that plays out behind the scenes. In film, it’s no different. After all, nobody wants to stand around the water cooler at the office and brag about how they’ve been emotionally distant to their partner, or that their son was arrested at school for getting in a fight with the gym teacher. Oftentimes, dysfunction comes with the territory, and it’s how families process and overcome the dysfunction that gets them through the day. This short list is just a few of many films that highlight problematic premises on the familial front.
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6 Palindromes (2004)
Genius Entertainment
Palindromes follows the protagonist, 13-year-old Aviva (whose name is also a palindrome) and her desire to have a child. After conceiving a child with a family friend, Judah, her parents demand that she have an abortion. Complications from the procedure tell the viewer, but not an unconscious Aviva, that she’ll never be able to conceive again. Not knowing this, Aviva runs away from home and goes on a painful journey of self-discovery as she forms a sexual relationship with a trucker named Bob, before being taken in by the Sunshine Family. Aviva’s foster father is revealed to be an assassin who kills abortion doctors. It all comes full circle when her foster father’s next target is the doctor that facilitated her abortion, and the hired hit man is Bob the trucker.
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Palindromes is most known for the artistic decision to have eight different women of different size, race, and age portray Aviva throughout the film. In each segment of the film, Aviva has a different delivery, which somehow makes this film less uncomfortable than it should be. On one hand, we’re watching a 13-year-old’s uncomfortable sexual odyssey play out. On the other hand, the viewer is being removed from the story in a way that allows them to suspend a healthy amount of disbelief and let the segments play out.
5 Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Searchlight Pictures
Little Miss Sunshine is a perfect family disaster film. The family dynamic is the stuff of nightmares, but that’s where the comedy comes from in this tragicomedy. The plot revolves around the family’s daughter, Olive, who qualified for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, and is being coached by her heroin-addicted Grandfather, Edwin. Older brother Dwane is a practicing nihilist who aspires to be a fighter pilot, and often confides in his uncle Frank, who is living with their family after a failed suicide attempt. Frank (portrayed by Steve Carell), is often the voice of reason, and mediator between Sheryl, an overworked mother, and Richard, an aspiring motivational speaker and life coach who has not had his big break yet.
The plot kicks into full gear when the entire family packs into a Volkswagen van to drive from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Redondo Beach, California, to enter Olive into the pageant on time. Needless to say, the events that transpire on the way to the pageant involve accidental death, smuggling a body out of the hospital, and personal revelations that test and nearly break the family apart. A happy ending doesn’t seem possible in Little Miss Sunshine, but the power of family ultimately prevails, and shows the audience an unbreakable bond even under the most out-of-left-field circumstances.
4 The Cat in the Hat (2003)
Universal Pictures
2003’s Cat in the Hat was not only rife with problematic premises; it was received so poorly that Dr. Seuss’s Widow, Audrey Geisel sued Universal Pictures to make sure another live action adaptation would never be produced again, and she won. Having been told by Seuss herself that it was her duty to protect his legacy after his passing, she did not take this mission lightly. And she’s not wrong. The film is filled with crude potty humor, an emotionally absent mother; an alcoholic Alec Baldwin who likes to gaslight children, and just enough child abduction to completely miss the mark on what made the original rhyming story seem more like an anthropomorphic nightmare than a children’s story. What was conceptualized as a nostalgic romp through a fun childhood story of getting into some playful mayhem when mom’s at work, ended up becoming a nauseating fever dream of regret for all parties involved.
3 Kicking & Screaming (2005)
Kicking & Screaming at its heart is a lighthearted story about sibling rivalry that anybody with an older brother knows all too well. Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) is a mild-mannered middle-aged man who finds himself becoming overly competitive and domineering as he coaches his son’s soccer team, the Tigers. His brother Buck is the coach of the dominating team of the season, the Gladiators, and Phil doesn’t want to go down without a fight. Phil starts out with good intentions, but quickly becomes blinded by his own selfish agenda to destroy his brother’s team on the playing field, but only ends up hurting his family– he benches his own son for the entire semi-final game, which opens up old wounds because it makes him remember when his own father would not allow him to play either. Having become the man he set out not to be, Phil has a change of heart and tells the kids on his team to do the opposite of what he taught him to become victorious during the finals.
2 The Weather Man (2005)
Paramount Pictures
Nicolas Cage plays one of his all-time greatest roles in The Weather Man, a film that gives a thoughtful nod to life after divorce. David Spritz is a man who seemingly has it all, but beneath the surface we see a man in turmoil. Recently divorced, Spritz continues to work as a relatively successful weatherman in Chicago. We quickly learn that Spritz is not well-equipped to weather the storm that is life after divorce. His daughter Shelly is flaking out in school, and acting out on the playground, and his son has a problematic relationship with a counselor who seems to be replacing him as a father figure. Spritz’s issues are only further compounded by his ex-wife Noreen starting a serious relationship with Russ, and his father’s lymphoma diagnosis being suddenly revealed to him.
While things on the home front clearly aren’t going great, Spritz often finds himself being subjected to “assault by fast food” in the street. Chicago’s residents often toss litter and milkshakes at him when he messes up the weather forecast on TV. When offered a job across the country to work for Hello America, Spritz is at odds with himself. Does he leave behind the life that’s no longer serving him in the pursuit of some personal happiness?
1 Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
Sony Pictures Releasing
While Christmas with the Kranks seems like a problematic family movie on the surface, the real problems come from Luther and Nora Krank’s neighbors when they decide to “skip Christmas” this year. Clearly depressed from an empty nest after their daughter Blair can’t be home for the holidays, Luther and Nora simply want to get out of town, go on a cruise, and skip the holiday all together.
Seems simple enough, but their neighbors absolutely will not have it. Luther takes the brunt of most of the neighborly abuse that is under the guise of “holiday spirit,” and tries to burn as many bridges as possible so he and Nora can go on vacation. After some overbearing and unrelenting harassment campaigns, and a sudden announcement from Blair that she will be home for Christmas, it’s up to Luther and Nora to reconcile with their neighbors, end the war on Christmas, and have their usual holiday party as they race the clock to deck the halls.
