No Use In Crying: On The Fault In Our Stars and 9 Other Movies That Always Bring Us to Tears
Vivre Sa Vie
There are many points beside the tragic denouement that left me in tears during this Godard film. Hell, even the way Anna Karina spells out her name for the police is enough to break your heart. But there is maybe no scene more affecting in all of film (maybe) than the one in which Karina cries while watching Jeanne D’Arc suffer and be martyred for her faith. It’s not easy to be a believer. It’s also not easy not to believe in anything. Nothing’s easy. Pass the tissues.
Fruitvale Station
All the more tragic for being based on a true story, the terrible and terrifying conclusion of this film’s impact is felt strongly despite being widely known. Michael B. Jordan is profoundly affecting as Oscar Grant, a young, unarmed man who was shot and killed by a BART policeman in San Francisco. The final scene, in which Grant’s young daughter asks where her father is, will stay with you for a long time.
Dancer In the Dark
Yeah, I’d say any movie that ends in the hanging death of a nearly blind Bjork, who sings her way to the gallows is going to be a downer. But it’s the roller coaster-like journey that Lars von Trier takes viewers on that leaves your emotions a wreck as you feel whiplashed from the descent into sadness and loss. It’s a masterful look at what it means to be a woman and a parent and a stranger and a human and it will never leave you once you’ve seen it.
Boys Don’t Cry
This film remains as important and relevant now as it was when it was made, and Hillary Swank’s performance is as powerful as any ever captured on film. But while Brandon Teena’s death will undoubtedly bring any feeling person to tears, perhaps even more moving is his nascent relationship with Lana Tisdel (Chlöe Sevigny), which is touching in its simple beauty and tragic for its inevitable ending.
Magnolia
There aren’t many films that I’m comfortable calling epic, but this sprawling 3-hour masterpiece by Paul Thomas Anderson is one of them. It’s got everything—cancer, frogs, Tom Cruise repeatedly saying the word “cock,” a perfect Aimee Mann soundtrack. But perhaps most affecting is the performance by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as empathetic nurse Phil Parma. It’s perfection, and watching him now will make you cry more than ever. Absence is sometimes more real if only because of its permanence, than anything else. That’s why it’s important to watch films like this, so you don’t feel alone. Nothing, after all, is more universal in the end than loss.
Follow Kristin Iversen on twitter @kmiversen