A great movie allows us to slip into different feelings for a bit, kind of like putting on an old, reliable coat. Sometimes, we seek something whimsical and romantic. Other times, we want a thrill that’ll give us goosebumps. Still other days, all we crave is the embrace of the warm and fuzzy. But, occasionally, you just want to slide into the sad — slipping into a tearjerker for the sopping, snot-sleeved comfort they can provide.
A good cry can be good for you. So, when you’re looking to let loose with sobs, we’ve got the perfect selection of movies for your queue.
Grab a box of tissues and check out the 20 saddest movies now streaming on Netflix.
1. Dear John
Nicholas Sparks’s stories are basically the tear-jerking version of the scene in A Clockwork Orange where Malcolm McDowell has his eyes pried open and he’s brainwashed with images of sex and violence — they’re ruthlessly efficient in pressing every button on hand in order to wring from their audience the maximum amount of tears possible.
And this love story, told through the love letters between a soldier (Channing Tatum) and the girl (Amanda Seyfried) he left behind when he went off to war, is relentless. There’s a dying father, a dying husband, a break-up, war injuries, autistic children, Habitat For Humanity, horse stables, 9/11. It pulls out all the stops on its way to Weeps-ville. Thankfully, Tatum and Seyfried are able to convey an easy low-key decency, mitigating the soap-opera plotting with their genuine chemistry and warmth. — Jason Adams, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Dear John is now streaming on Netflix.
2. Stand By Me
Screenwriters Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans took Stephen King’s novella The Body — a coming-of-age tale about four friends who go hunting for a dead teenager while evading the local bullies — and squeezed out every drop of the story’s poignancy and humor. It’s a tear-inducing snapshot of the anxieties, friendships, highs, and lows of childhood. The novella packed a powerful punch of nostalgia, and Rob Reiner’s direction channels this in its own way, placing the boys’ friendships front and center, then considering them through a thoughtful adult lens. “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12,” the grown-up narrator (Richard Dreyfuss) writes at one point. “Jesus, does anyone?”
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Keep an eye out for a young Kiefer Sutherland as the brilliantly unpleasant Ace Merrill, Wil Wheaton as budding writer Gordie Lachance, Corey Feldman as the bold Teddy Duchamp, a young Jerry O’Connell as the sweet Vern Tessio, and of course, the exceptional River Phoenix as Gordie’s best friend Chris Chambers. Their performances, like the movie itself, have a well-deserved place in cinematic history.* — Sam Haysom, Deputy UK Editor
How to watch: Stand By Me is now streaming on Netflix.
3. The Zookeeper’s Wife
If a historical war drama is your go-to avenue for emotional catharsis but you’re tired of seeing the same stories told again and again, Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife will be a welcome discovery. The 2017 film tells the true story of Jan Żabiński and Antonina Żabińska, a Polish couple who used their Warsaw zoo to rescue and hide 300 Jews during World War II. Soon after war breaks out in 1939, Jessica Chastain’s Antonina and her husband Jan (Johan Heldenbergh) are forced to cooperate with a Nazi zoologist (Daniel Brühl). Little does he know, the couple has begun sneaking in local Polish Jews to live in the tunnels under the zoo. It’s an emotional story about a lesser-known piece of Holocaust history, and while it drifts into sentimentality at times, both Chastain and Brühl’s performances ground the film in sincerity.* — Oliver Whitney, Contributing Writer
How to watch: The Zookeeper’s Wife is now streaming on Netflix.
4. Living
Remaking an Akira Kurosawa masterpiece is not an endeavor that should be generally encouraged, but director Oliver Hermanus managed to beat those impossible odds with his masterful 2022 re-do of Kurosawa’s 1952 tearjerker Ikiru. Perhaps having a script written by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro is the only way to manage it. Giving the legendary character actor Bill Nighy his career-greatest role certainly didn’t hurt either.
Playing an all-business government worker who gets a death sentence from his doctor and decides to spend his last few months making a difference in the world, Nighy wrings a torrent of emotion out of repression, allowing us to see the sweetness long hidden beneath a hardened man’s shell. If you can make it through his rendition of “The Rowan Tree” without shattering into a million pieces, you’re made of stronger stuff than I. — J.A.
How to watch: Living is now streaming on Netflix.
5. A Monster Calls
Credit: Apaches Entertainment / Kobal / Shutterstock
A Monster Calls is a modern fable about loss, suffering, and childhood. In it, a young boy (Lewis MacDougall) copes with the prospect of losing his mother by befriending a tree monster (voiced by Liam Neeson) that tells him three illuminating stories in exchange for one story from the boy. The movie is based on the fantasy novel by Patrick Ness, who wrote the story based on an idea from Siobhan Dowd, a writer who died of cancer before writing the book herself. — Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: A Monster Calls is now streaming on Netflix.
6. Paddleton
Credit: Netflix
Paddleton may be a movie about cancer — the classic tearjerker subject — but it’s also one of the best. That’s partly because it takes an anti-melodramatic approach to a topic cinema loves to exploit for tears. But it’s also because Paddleton is really about friendship and embracing the moments we have together rather than being consumed by the fear of them ending.
Michael (Mark Duplass) and his neighbor Andy (Ray Romano, in a standout dramatic performance) are best friends, and the only people in each other’s lives. That makes it especially difficult for Andy when he learns Michael has decided to end his life through assisted suicide after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. But much like co-writer/director Alex Lehmann’s previous collaboration with Duplass, Blue Jay, Paddleton takes a very naturalistic approach to such dramatic material by focusing on the day-to-day moments of the men’s sweet platonic relationship. The two spend Michael’s final days watching kung fu movies, playing a sport of their own invention, and taking a road trip. It’s hard to think of a recent film that made me openly cry as hard as Paddleton did, and one that truly earned it through genuine storytelling and heartfelt performances.* — O.W.
How to watch: Paddleton is now streaming on Netflix.
7. Marriage Story
Credit: Netflix
Writer-director Noah Baumbach’s tense tale of a couple ending their marriage divided audiences, with some viewers reporting they were surprised by whose “side” they ended up on. But critical reception for Marriage Story was almost universal in its praise of the story’s execution and impact. Leads Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver were singled out for their magnetic scene work. This artful depiction of intimacy remains a triumph of romantic storytelling, venturing far beyond the happily-ever-after audiences know so well. — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Marriage Story is now streaming on Netflix.
8. Other People
Molly Shannon and Jesse Plemons star as mother and son in this semi-autobiographical movie from writer/director Chris Kelly about a young gay man who returns to his childhood home to help take care of his dying mother. Other People finds the humor and beauty in the moments that lead up to experiencing loss and features one of Plemons’ best performances. — A.N.
How to watch: Other People is now streaming on Netflix.
9. Pieces of a Woman
Credit: Netflix
The Crown‘s Vanessa Kirby stars in this heartbreaking movie about a woman whose life is changed forever when her child, delivered at home, dies shortly after birth. Pieces of a Woman explores the emotional complexity of grief, marriage, and blame while telling a devastatingly real story of loss. — A.N.
How to watch: Pieces of a Woman is now streaming on Netflix.
10. The Sky is Pink
The Sky Is Pink is told from the perspective of Aisha “Aishi” Chaudhary (Zaira Wasim), a girl who dies young and narrates the story of her parents’ lives from the afterlife. It’s based on a true story. So yeah, it’s pretty sad. This Hindi language film is one of many Indian gems on Netflix and is a sure tearjerker starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Farhan Akhtar. — A.N.
How to watch: The Sky is Pink is now streaming on Netflix.
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11. Call Me By Your Name
Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute
The greatest tearjerkers often only need a single act to realize their full sobbing potential – both Terms of Endearment and Steel Magnolias are basically sweet mother-daughter dramas for three-quarters of their runtime, until sickness barges into their final acts with sudden, heart-stomping brutality. And so it goes with Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 coming-of-age masterpiece, which is a sexy Italian summer hang-out movie for its majority as we watch 17-year-old Elio (breakout star Timothée Chalamet) and 25-year-old Oliver (Armie Hammer) fall for one another in slow, furtive steps, under the watchful eyes of Elio’s parents (Amira Casar and Michael Stuhlbarg) and those equally watchful peach trees.
And yet, as the last-act train approaches, the film effortlessly channels a palpable feeling of time being lost, of summer vanishing between our fingers, and of romance suddenly, inescapably obliterated, all before we’re anywhere near prepared. The film’s final scenes become an all-out, can-you-top-this symphony of heartbreak — Elio and Oliver say their final goodbye! Elio’s father gives his for-the-ages speech about embracing the moment! All until Elio stares into the fireplace and grabs us by the heart and squeezes every last drop we have left inside of us for good measure. — J.A.
How to watch: Call Me By Your Name is now streaming on Netflix.
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12. Boy Erased
A film that’s a little smothered by the very well-meaning intentions of its makers, this 2018 drama about a Baptist preacher’s gay son (Lucas Hedges) who gets sent to conversion therapy by his misguided parents (Joel Edgerton and Nicole Kidman) is very effective at what it sets out to do, which is to speak directly to LGBTQ people’s parents and tell them to get their shit together and stop traumatizing their kids.
And everyone’s excellent here – Hedges and Kidman especially will definitely make you and/or your parents cry profuse buckets. (Edgerton co-wrote and directed the film, as well as co-starring in it.) It’s just that some of us believe the perfect conversion therapy movie already exists in Jamie Babbit’s cotton-candy-colored black comedy But I’m a Cheerleader, since pointing and mocking the hetero-terrorists is the preferred method to take on this subject. But if you want a serious and straight (pun intended) take on the subject, this is your movie. — J.A.
How to watch: Boy Erased is now streaming on Netflix.
13. All the Bright Places
Credit: Walter Thomson / Netflix
Fans of The Fault in Our Stars will like All the Bright Places, another tearjerker about teens who find love through their personal sufferings. Elle Fanning and Justice Smith deliver heartbreaking performances from a screenplay co-written by Jennifer Niven, who also wrote the novel upon which the movie is based. — A.N.
How to watch: All the Bright Places is now streaming on Netflix.
14. Legends of the Fall
An old-fashioned and epic soap opera starring Brad Pitt at his tip-top peak beauty circa 1994, director Edward Zwick spins the decades-long tale of the three Ludlow brothers (Pitt, Henry Thomas, and Aidan Quinn) and their loves (Julia Ormond, Bert the Bear) with the sort of sweep we’re rarely treated to anymore. At least not with such adult subjects. We watch the first world war and Prohibition take their melodramatic toll on the Montana triad, alongside their father’s (Anthony Hopkins) tyranny and vicious stroke. Children are born, children die, and impossible romances with impossible beauties make us swoon. Oh, and Brad Pitt wrestles a bear, and we really had proper movies, once upon a time. — J.A.
How to watch: Legends of the Fall is now streaming on Netflix.
15. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Credit: David Lee / Netflix
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is based on the eponymous stage play by August Wilson. In it, Viola Davis portrays real-life blues singer Ma Rainey over the course of one day of recording for her album, during which the personal relationships between her lover, her band, and her producers spill out into a poignant examination of race, betrayal, and ownership. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom also features the late Chadwick Boseman’s final performance, for which he won a posthumous Golden Globe award. — A.N.
How to watch: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is now streaming on Netflix.
16. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Credit: Focus Features
If you’re a person who was a child at any point between the years of 1968 and 2001 (and that adds up to a whole lot of people), then Morgan Neville’s 2018 documentary on the mister named Fred Rogers and the PBS children’s series Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood that he shepherded across those decades will doubtlessly have you in a puddle by the time its closing credits roll.
A portrait of Rogers’s infallible decency and kindness that landed in the thick of the decidedly indecent and unkind Donald Trump presidency, it was hard not to weep for a world where the values Rogers embodied — curiosity and generosity and goodwill toward one’s fellow person — was starting to feel forever lost. Needless to say, those worries remain acute! But Fred Rogers showed us a better way, if we’ll only hop onto that magical trolley and make-believe it can be so again. — J.A.
How to watch: Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is now streaming on Netflix.
17. All Quiet on the Western Front
Credit: Reiner Bajo/Netflix
Director Edward Berger’s Oscar-nominated 2022 remake of the 1930 Best Picture winner is a tearjerker built for Dads a la Field of Dreams! The first German adaptation of German writer Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 book, Berger’s film is an unrelenting deluge of World War I’s myriad horrors being thrust upon one simple shell-shocked soldier, Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) and his regiment, all detailed in claustrophobic vérité. By the end of its two-hour runtime, we feel like we’ve been pummeled into shells ourselves. Bleak and utterly exhausting, it’s about as close to being on those grim battlefields full of young men being blown to bits as most of us will ever get, thankfully. It’s 10 out of 10 hankies for dads everywhere. — J.A.
How to watch: All Quiet on the Western Front is now streaming on Netflix.
18. First Match
Credit: Netflix
Elvire Emanuelle plays Mo, a Brooklyn teen who’s been raised in the foster care system since her father (a never-better Yahya Abdul Mateen of Candyman and Watchmen fame) got sent off to prison. When he gets out, Mo decides to join the boy’s wrestling team in order to prove herself to him, and cue the waterworks. Boasting a stellar cast that also includes Colman Domingo as Mo’s coach and Moonlight‘s Jharrel Jerome as her best friend, the fraught truths that First Match unearths about what are meant to be our closest relationships bypass most of the “inspirational sports story” cliches, instead revealing something far harder to hear. — J.A.
How to watch: First Match is now streaming on Netflix.
19. Roma
Credit: Netflix
There is a reason that a great big cry huddle straight out of every Golden Girls episode is the central image on the poster for Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning 2018 masterpiece — it’s a movie that demands a great big cry huddle! Telling the story of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), an indigenous maid to a wealthy family in Mexico City in 1970, Cuarón makes Cleo’s story of survival at the margins seem as enormous as the outer space he sent Sandra Bullock hurtling through in Gravity. — J.A.
How to watch: Roma is now streaming on Netflix.
20. Worth
Credit: Netflix
Director Sara Colangelo’s film is a historical drama about lawyers Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros (Michael Keaton and Amy Ryan), who were charged with running the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. It was their unimaginable job to calculate how much money would be given to the people who lost loved ones during 9/11, and how to determine who would get anything at all. And if that concept in itself doesn’t already have you tearing up, just you wait. Worth, which is based on Kenneth Feinberg’s non-fiction book What Is Life Worth?: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Fund and Its Effort to Compensate the Victims of September 11th, is perhaps so far the only fictional movie about that horrible day and its aftermath that has truly worked. It does so by giving voice to the victims and their stories, and the struggle to realize what our lives truly amount to in the end. — J.A.
How to watch: Worth is now streaming on Netflix.
Asterisks (*) indicate the entry comes from a previous Mashable list.
UPDATE: Aug. 23, 2023, 5:00 a.m. EDT Originally published on April 2, 2021, this article has been revised to reflect the current selections now streaming.
