20 Movies That Definitely Made You Sob in 2017

Timothée Chalamet gives a tender performance in the coming-of-age film Call Me By Your Name, in which he plays a precocious, intelligent teenager who falls for his father's graduate student, an older man. The film is produced and adapted by James Ivory, who has had a great track record with emotional classics like The Remains of the Day and A Room with a View.

The Big Sick is based on the real-life love story of Kumail Nanjiani, who also stars in the film. In the romantic comedy, an aspiring Pakistani comedian, contrary to his family's wishes, falls in love with a white woman. His girlfriend becomes sick with a strange illness, and he frequents the hospital where she resides and ends up befriending her parents, who are played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano. As funny as its leads are, this movie will make you pull out some tissues during its sadder moments.

Pairing beautiful animation with a breathtaking soundtrack, Coco tells the story of a young Mexican boy named Miguel whose family of shoemakers forbids him from pursuing his love for music. On the Day of the Dead, Miguel finds himself in the Land of the Dead, where he learns about his real family secrets. We dare you not to cry when you listen to that final reprise of "Remember Me."

Directed by Steve Chbosky, the writer behind The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Wonder brings to the big screen a story about a young boy with facial differences that has prevented him from going to a normal elementary school until now. It's a well-acted, family-friendly drama with sentimental performances from Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts, and Owen Wilson.

Greta Gerwig's directorial debut Lady Bird is a coming-of-age movie about a young woman who has a difficult but loving relationship with her mother. In addition to a family life that's not always perfect, she also has to navigate typical teenage things like boys, cliques, and college applications. Laurie Metcalf and Saoirse Ronan brilliantly play the mother and daughter, and they're guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, and probably call your mom.

Wakefield has a terribly depressing premise that's executed with strong performances from Jennifer Garner and Bryan Cranston. A successful man named Howard Wakefield simply decides to vanish from his own life and observes how his family acts without him there. Everyone assumes that he's missing, except he isn't — he's staying in their garage attic and watching his loved ones in secret as the days roll by.

As a writer, director, and actor in Dean, Demetri Martin weaves understated humor into an otherwise somber storyline about a man dealing with the loss of his mother and a failed relationship.

Released by A24, the renowned production company behind Moonlight, The Lovers is a film about an unhappy husband and wife who both have long-term affairs. Just as they're about to cut the cord on their relationship, both partners find themselves falling in love again.

A touching anime film, Your Name, reached US theaters for a limited run in 2017. In it, two young strangers, a boy from rural Japan and a girl from Tokyo, find that their bodies have been swapped. They learn how to lead each other's lives and communicate with one another through written notes and phone memos. The film delivers a beautiful message about memory, fate, and empathy.

Though popularly recognized as a superhero action movie, Wonder Woman carries an incredible amount of emotional depth and drama. There's something quite tragic about Diana Prince's character; she leaves behind her beloved home and mother to fight for justice. By the end of the movie, she fights the bad guy not out of vengeance or ego but in the light of her strong moral values and in the memory of someone she loves.

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This slice-of-life film centers around an 80-year-old man who embarks on a 3,000-mile road trip to Oregon with his family in order to be euthanized. It's a simultaneously warm and sad family drama with a star-studded cast, including Frank Langella, Billy Crudup, and Christina Applegate.

Based on a true story, The Zookeeper's Wife stars Jessica Chastain as Antonina Zabinska, the wife of a zookeeper named Jan. The couple saves hundreds of people and animals during a Nazi invasion in Warsaw, Poland. The film demonstrates the possibility of warmth and compassion even in one of the most horrific events in history.

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Graduation is a Romanian drama that explores the relationship between a middle-aged physician and his daughter, who is on the brink of graduating from high school. The daughter is attacked right before her exams, rendering her traumatized and unable to focus on her studies, which her father sees as her ticket out of Romania. Incisive and emotionally perceptive, the film explores the tug between familial and social expectation.

Kristen Stewart delivers one of her most profound performances yet in Personal Shopper, a story about a young American woman named Maureen who loses her twin brother Lewis while they are both staying in France. On top of mourning her brother's loss, she's stuck in a lukewarm relationship and a job that she resents. She doesn't leave France just yet, since she's waiting for a sign from her late brother. The film, part drama and part thriller, poignantly depicts the grieving process.

In our society, death is frequently regarded with solemn hushes and quiet consolations. The job of obituary writers is to succinctly and tactfully sum up a person's life so that it reaches the stands in newsprint, where it becomes an artifact of our modern culture. There's something magical about this work, captured so eloquently in Obit, to transform loss and tragedy into a compelling narrative that celebrates life.

The Lego Batman Movie does not, at first, strike one as a sad movie. It's clever, funny, and full of colorful toys. But we have to remember that the movie is based on the tragic character of Bruce Wayne. The movie is about a man, or to be more precise, a Lego figurine, who refuses to let his guard down. When Bruce Wayne is at home alone, he chows down on microwaved lobster and watches sappy movies by himself. He talks morosely to a framed picture of his deceased parents. While foiling the Joker's sinister plans, Batman also slowly opens himself to his new friends Robin and Batgirl.

The teen blockbuster Everything, Everything will leave your heart in a glass case of emotions. Eighteen-year-old Maddy, played by Amandla Stenberg, is afflicted with a disease that has prevented her from going outside her entire life. But even the illness can't stop love when she begins to fall for her neighbor. Everything, Everything captures the power of young love, the impetuousness of youth, and the prevailing force of a free spirit.

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As Nazareth crooned, love hurts. After endless spats, spouses Anna and Ben try to restore the love in their marriage by starting a band. Band Aid is an honest and heartfelt film about love that includes some fun rock-n-roll and performances from prime-time comedy favorites like Zoe Lister-Jones, Adam Pally, Hannah Simone, and Retta.

Emily Dickinson published less than a dozen poems in her lifetime but went down in history as one of the most celebrated American poets. Terence Davies's biopic fleshes out the nuanced life of this prolific poet with a poignant performance from Cynthia Nixon as Dickinson. She undergoes social persecution for her independent mind, experiences loss, and as fate would have it, eventually falls prey to illness.

Family dramas have a knack for strumming the heart. Gifted tells the story of a bright young girl named Mary. She's a 7-year-old math prodigy who is raised by her salt-of-the-earth Uncle Frank after her mother commits suicide. While his estranged mother — her grandmother — wants Mary to pursue her mathematical gifts, Frank wants to honor his sister's wish for Mary to lead a normal life in public school, and so a bitter custody battle ensues.