Sometimes we need the sweet relief of a good cry. And when swimming through the muck of your own emotional state is too complicated to get the tears flowing, a movie can help you connect with some of the core emotional truths that bring us all to tears. “Sad” is a bit of an umbrella term that can describe a vast range of tangled emotions, and these films represent that feeling in all of its complexity. Whether through tragedy, nostalgia, heartbreak, violence, or the power of love, these 24 movies, all streaming on Netflix, will have your eyes welling up and your nose running in no time. Let’s get cathartic!
1. Roma (2018)
Alfonso Cuarón’s beautiful Oscar-winning film, based on his own childhood, follows a year in the life of Cleo, a live-in maid for a family with four children in 1970s Mexico City. When the patriarch of the family absconds with his mistress and Cleo finds herself pregnant, she and the rest of the family set off on a trip and attempt to adapt to their new lives.
2. The Last Letter From Your Lover (2021)
This tragic story has it all: a historical setting, a forbidden romance, passionate handwritten missives, an abusive husband, and a tragic accident resulting in amnesia. And it’s a frame narrative told by an empathetic modern-day journalist that culminates in a tearful reunion. Did I just spoil the whole movie for you? Maybe, but you’ll have a good long cry anyway, so who cares? Also, Dua Lipa’s boyfriend stars!
3. The Wonder (2022)
Florence Pugh stars in this somber film as Lib Wright, an English nurse who’s been sent to a famine-ravaged Ireland to supervise a 9-year-old girl, Anna, played by Kila Lord Cassidy, who claims not to have eaten for the last four months, surviving purely on heavenly manna. It’s a movie about faith and skepticism, but it’s also a movie about grief — the grief Lib carries with her alongside the growing horror she experiences watching a child slowly wither away.
4. Marriage Story (2019)
Noah Baumbach’s Oscar-nominated film tells the close-up, messy story of divorce through the eyes of each of the parties. Get ready for a lot of screaming, a lot of crying, and a little bit of singing.
5. The After (2023)
This Oscar-nominated short film packs a whole lot of tragedy into its 18-minute run time, but still earns its emotional impact. A taxi driver grieving the loss of his wife and daughter is forced to confront his grief when he picks up a family that reminds him of his own.
6. Farha (2021)
Set in Palestine in 1948 and based on true events, Farha tells the story of the Nakba from the perspective of its titular character, a 14-year-old girl who spends most of the film hidden in a locked cupboard for her own safety. The heartbreaking emotional impact of the film is only increased by knowledge of the continuing tragedy that has unfolded since.
7. Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow (2022)
Okay, so this isn’t exactly intended to be a movie that makes you cry — but if you’re the kind of person who waxes nostalgic about the power of PBS Kids and tears up when you witness loving interactions at the airport, it absolutely will. The story of how LeVar Burton made books exciting for millions of children, inspiring a lifelong love of reading in many, is my kind of tearjerker. How often do you get to cry out of a pure appreciation for human goodness?
8. Tigertail (2020)
Those of us with immigrant parents will be particularly affected by this tale, but it’s a tearjerker for just about anyone. Walking us through the early life of a father, Pin-Jui (played by Tzi Ma), and the present-day estrangement between him and his daughter, Angela (played by Christine Ko), the film treats them both with deep care. Angela has been hurt by her father’s stoicism all her life; Pin-Jui has experienced his own life as a series of crushed dreams, loving sacrifices, and disappointments. Trust me, you’ll cry.
9. May December (2023)
Yes, May December was praised for its ability to tell a dark story with moments of levity and comedy — but it never makes light of its characters’ terrible circumstances. The best movies are the ones that make you laugh and cry. You can trust that this tale of abuse, inspired by the real-life relationship between ex-teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and her former student, Vili Fualaau, who was 12 years old when their sexual relationship began, will leave you sobbing.
10. Atlantics (2019)
Set in a suburb of Dakar, this film’s slow pacing and quiet tone allow space for viewers to sit with the horror it depicts. It starts with a forbidden love between Ada and Souleiman, a construction worker who, along with his colleagues, hasn’t been paid in months for work on a high-rise building. When the workers decide to sail for Spain and drown in the Atlantic, their spirits come back to haunt the community they left behind.
11. Love Again (2023)
Sometimes you just need to ugly cry to the vocal stylings of Céline Dion, and Love Again is ultimately a vehicle for you to do exactly that. It involves finding love again after grief with a cute but bordering-on-creepy You’ve Got Mail–style texting exchange. But honestly, props to the film’s writers for figuring out how to make that work in the social-media era. More to the point: Dion is not just soundtracking this movie, she’s in it (playing a fictionalized version of herself, of course).
12. Brother (2022)
This meditative study of two brothers growing up in Scarborough, Canada, takes its time to feel every emotion — so you definitely will, too. Played by Aaron Pierre and Lamar Johnson, the brothers’ relationship is at the heart of the film as they work out their own understandings of masculinity, confront the anti-Blackness that pervades their world, and, through it all, express their love.
13. Irreplaceable You (2018)
Childhood best friends Abbie and Sam are engaged and looking forward to a life together when Abbie receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. Resolving to make sure Sam has a good life after her death, Abbie comes to terms with the impossibility of getting everything she wanted.
14. Tallulah (2016)
At the onset of Tallulah, the namesake character (Elliot Page) is a young drifter, trying to survive and link back up with an ex-boyfriend. After coming across a woman she perceives as a neglectful mother, Tallulah steals her child, resolving to act as though she is her own, and seeks help raising her from her ex-boyfriend’s mother. Tallulah is a thoughtful, sometimes dark, sometimes funny look at motherhood and what it means to be a capable parent.
15. All Together Now (2020)
Despite a somewhat melodramatic script, this movie about a teenage girl, Amber (Auliʻi Cravalho), secretly living on a school bus with her troubled mother, Becky (Justina Machado), is made both extremely watchable and genuinely heart-wrenching by the grounded performances from both Cravalho and Machado. Cravalho in particular manages to make an arguably unrealistic level of perfect goodness in her character feel honest and real. This is definitely the kind of movie that wants to make you cry, and thanks to quality performances, it ultimately succeeds.
16. If Anything Happens I Love You (2020)
When this short film made its way to Netflix in November 2020, it quickly became incredibly popular. And for good reason: Without the use of dialogue, it viscerally communicates what grief and loss can do to a once-happy marriage. Watch it and let the tears stream down.
17. Boy Erased (2017)
Boy Erased gives us Lucas Hedges in some of his best work to date, and its story — the son of a Baptist pastor being manipulated and deeply traumatized in conversion therapy, among other assaults on his autonomy — is chilling. Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe are excellent too as conservative parents whose love for their child opens the door for them to question their rigid homophobic beliefs.
18. Nyad (2023)
Wondering why this film did so well during awards season? Spoiler: It’s the incredible performances from Jodie Foster and Annette Bening as they tell the true story of Diana Nyad, who swam the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64. It’s fairly standard uplifting sports-movie fare, but have you ever not cried watching an uplifting sports movie? Exactly.
19. Joy (2019)
Named after its lead character, Joy, played by Joy Anwulika Alphonsus, this Austrian film follows two Nigerian woman who have been illegally trafficked into sex work — the more experienced Joy and the younger girl she has been tasked with supervising, Precious (played by Precious Mariam Sanusi). It’s a difficult watch that fully explores the complexity of such a relationship, and it doesn’t pull any punches.
20. Frybread Face and Me (2023)
Billy Luther’s semi-autobiographical story story centers on a San Diego city boy who gets shipped off to the rez in Arizona to live with his grandmother for the summer. With little connection to his Diné culture, Benny (Keir Tallman) finds himself connecting with his cousin, Dawn (Charley Hogan), who, like him, is a bit of an oddball and an outcast. It’s full of quiet, tender moments between the two of them, and it packs an emotional punch without needing to dive into dramatics.
21. Mutt (2023)
This film follows a day in the life of a trans man in New York City — and its heartbreak lies in the large and small ways that loved ones and strangers alike fail him so that he’s left feeling ostracized and alone. The tender moments shared with his sister, who sees him more fully than anyone else, offer a reprieve. It’s an intense, almost alienating watch, but it’s worth the emotional effort.
22. Maria (2024)
Taking place during the final weeks of legendary opera singer Maria Callas’s troubled life, this Angelina Jolie–fronted biopic is incredibly depressing and achingly beautiful. Jolie’s performance as Callas is a career highlight, and the set design and cinematography make for a true visual feast — which is needed, since the tragic events leading to the singer’s lonely death are difficult to stomach.
23. Awakenings (1990)
This is a sad enough watch just by virtue of it being an excellent Robin Williams movie — it’s hard not to think about the actor’s premature death — and the plot is almost guaranteed to make you cry. It centers on a doctor who comes up with a cure for patients who have been in a near-vegetative state for the last 30 years and his first patient who received the medication. It’s a truly original story told with deep empathy and care.
24. Let Go (2024)
This Swedish film about a couple on the brink of divorce and a family trip that changes everything for their relationship offers a tender, honest look at how family life is affected by tragedy.