The long-awaited 2020 Sundance winner and A24 success Threatening was finally released in theaters last week, and while it won’t hit video-on-demand until later this month, some audiences are already sighing for more. Threatening. The 1980s family drama about a Korean family moving to Arkansas to start a farm is based on the life of filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung and features standout performances by Steven Yeun, Alan S. Kim, and Yuh-Jung Youn.
Threatening It may be a generationally unique movie filled with emotion and struggle, but there are still plenty of other heartfelt dramas made in recent years that will bring audiences to tears and tug at the heartstrings.
10 Baby teeth
This 2020 Australian film follows a dying teenager, Milla, as she falls in love with a petty drug dealer who has been evicted from her home.
Heartwarming performances by Eliza Scanlen and Toby Wallace give this movie its heart, while Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis bring a comedic edge as Milla’s parents. The Australian suburbs of Baby teeth They are a long way from the farmlands of rural America, but both films carry the message of “family first.”
9 Captain Fantastic
This 2016 title might sound like a superhero movie, but it’s actually a drama about an offbeat family living off-grid in the Pacific Northwest. The father of the family and his six children are forced to return to civilization when their matriarch dies and their world is turned upside down.
While preaching a “stick it to the man” mantra, Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) must adapt to raising six children on his own in a more “normal” way. It’s as silly as it is comforting.
8 Honey boy
Honey boy is a snapshot of writer and star Shia LaBeouf’s abusive childhood relationship with his father, the rodeo clown. This little indie film stars LaBeouf as his father James, Noah Jupe as a childhood Shiite, and Lucas Hedges as a mid-career Shiite who writes the screenplay for Honey boy while in rehab.
Though it takes place almost entirely in a Los Angeles motel, the confined setting only serves to heighten the tension between father and son until it reaches its tearful end.
7 Tiger tail
Tiger tail is a recent Netflix drama that follows a Taiwanese family for three generations, following their journey from Taiwan to California.
Written and directed by Alan Yang, former writer of Parks and recreation Y Master of nobody, Tiger tail it’s a surprising departure from Yang’s comic career. It’s slow and sentimental and features a captivating lead performance by Tzi Ma. And for fans of Twin peaks, Joan Chen returns to their lives with a great cameo as a lost love interest.
6 Colon
Kogonada’s directorial debut is less of a movie and more of a walking tour of Columbus, Indiana, highlighting the city’s famous Modernist architecture. Colon follows Casey, a recent high school graduate (Haley Lu Richardson), as she offers a literal tour of Columbus to international businessman Jin Lee (John Cho).
Just as Casey is trapped in Columbus before going to college, Jin Lee is also trapped there while his father dies at the local hospital. This is a movie about the beauty of where you are, and it does so in an incredibly picturesque way.
5 The farewell
Very similar Threatening, this A24 drama centers on an Asian-American family living with a sick grandmother. With a spectacular performance by Awkwafina, along with Tzi Ma’s steady hand, The farewell was graced with rave reviews and awards in 2019.
It takes a rare talent to balance comedy and tears, something filmmaker Lulu Wang is familiar with. Because of that talent, audiences are already eager to see what he will do next.
4 Our friend
Gabriela Cowperthwaite has taken a few years Our friend to finally hit theaters. After debuting in 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film is finally available to the public in 2021.
Starring Casey Affleck, Jason Segel, and Dakota Johnson, Our friend tells the true story of a man who moves in with his best friends, a married couple struggling to balance a cancer diagnosis with raising their two young daughters. They are not a conventional family, but through their struggles, they are united as one, and Our friend it tells the true story beautifully.
3 First cow
This article from the A24 period about a cook and an immigrant who started a cookie business in 1800’s Oregon by stealing milk from a city cow has been praised as one of, if not the, best film of 2020.
It’s a slow-burning drama that sneaks into audiences’ hearts and delights them with empathy. Very similar Threatening, the plot of First cow it is secondary to the human emotion painted on the screen. For First cow, the feeling comes above all.
two Fire
For viewers of Threatening who are curious to know Steven Yeun’s whereabouts since his departure from The Walking Dead and his award-winning performance in Threatening, they don’t need to look past the 2018 Korean movie, Fire.
This brain drama, based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, follows a young man who believes his crush has been murdered by a wealthy bachelor who claims to “set fire to greenhouses.” It’s one of the smartest movies of recent times and features one of Steven Yeun’s best performances to date. I like it Threatening, Fire it is a must see in Steven Yeun’s syllabus.
1 Roadways
Thinking that two such similar movies came out 12 months apart may seem unlikely, and yet Roadways it was released last May. This heartfelt Andrew Ahn film follows a single mother of a lonely son, as they travel to an upstate New York suburb to clean up her recently deceased sister’s house.
While Mama Kathy cleans her sister’s house, her son Kody befriends an elderly neighbor, Del (who is played by Brian Dennehy in one of his last performances). While Threatening gets a well deserved spotlight for being a heartwarming family drama that makes you laugh and cry, Roadways He is the film’s forgotten cousin, a hidden gem of equal value.
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