10 Movies To Watch If You Love Six Feet Under

One of HBO’s most enduring dramas, Six Feet Under is a psychological, emotional look at the lives of a Los Angeles family in charge of a funeral home. The Fishers, their dreams, and their nightmares are put on full display for five poignant seasons. The result is an intense series driven by extensive character studies.

Six Feet Under is also a show obsessed with dying and grieving. Every episode opens with the death of a person whose burial service is held at the Fishers’ funeral home. Those who miss this compelling psychodrama will be happy to know there are quite a few films that deal with similar subject matter. These films, like the series, range in tone from darkly comedic to incredibly serious.

10 August: Osage County (2013)

A big-screen adaptation of Tracy Letts’ award-winning play, August: Osage County is an ensemble drama about a dysfunctional family dealing with a major crisis. Meryl Streep stars as Violet Weston, a cancer patient who asks her family for help when her alcoholic husband, played by Sam Shepard, goes missing.

Among the supporting cast is Julia Roberts, Margo Martindale, Juliette Lewis, Ewan McGregor, and Chris Cooper. As the spread-out family comes together at their Oklahoma home, decades’ worth of trauma and resentment bubble to the surface.

9 Taste Of Cherry (1997)

Poetic and minimalistic, Taste of Cherry is an Iranian gem from renowned director Abbas Kiarostami. The film follows a depressed man as he drives around Tehran in search of someone who will assist him with taking his own life.

When Mr. Badii finally finds someone who seems willing to help him, his new passenger tries to convince him that life is worth living. With its long shots and extended periods of silence, Taste of Cherry is an important cinematic rumination on nature, trauma, and acceptance.

8 Death At A Funeral (2007)

A black comedy to its core, Death at a Funeral is exactly what its title suggests: a film about a calamitous funeral that ends with another death. This British feature includes memorable performances from Succession‘s Matthew Macfadyen, Peter Dinklage, Rupert Graves, and Alan Tudyk.

Macfadyen and Graves play brothers whose father dies, forcing them to entertain their odd extended family and relatives during their patriarch’s memorial service. In 2010, Death at a Funeral was remade for American audiences with a cast including Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, and Danny Glover.

7 The Farewell (2019)

Comedian Awkwafina flexes her dramatic muscles with The Farewell, written and directed by Lulu Wang. In the film, Awkwafina plays Billi, a New Yorker who learns her grandmother in China is dying from cancer.

Billi’s family wants to keep the diagnosis from their matriarch, Nai Nai, and instead plan one final family gathering before Nai Nai’s cancer overtakes her. Billi doesn’t agree with this decision, but she reluctantly goes along with it, clashing with her loved ones along the way.

6 Ordinary People (1980)

Robert Redford’s directorial debut, Ordinary People hinges on a harrowing performance from a young Timothy Hutton. Hutton plays Conrad Jarrett, who suffers from survivor’s guilt after his brother dies in a freak sailing accident.

Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore co-star as Conrad’s parents, and Judd Hirsh plays a psychiatrist who tries to guide Conrad through his pain and suffering. Ordinary People won numerous awards and accolades upon its release, including Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

5 Wild Strawberries (1957)

Beloved Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman is responsible for this masterpiece about aging. Wild Strawberries stars Victor Sjöström as an elderly man reminiscing about his past through dreams, memories, and encounters with hitchhikers as he travels to assist in the delivery of his grandchild.

What ensues is a lyrical film that pays tribute to the small moments that make life worth living. Bittersweet and visually surreal at times, Wild Strawberries refuses to take a gloomy outlook toward the passage of time.

4 In The Bedroom (2001)

Few films are as intimate and impactful as In the Bedroom, whose narrative is fueled by insanely raw performances from its cast. Set in Maine, Nick Stahl plays Frank, the son of Matt and Ruth Fowler (Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek).

Frank falls in love with Natalie (Marisa Tomei), a mother who is estranged from her abusive husband. As Natalie’s ex continues to taunt her, a cycle of violence reaches new heights with an unspeakable tragedy.

3 Babyteeth (2019)

This quirky Australian comedy-drama from Shannon Murphy stars Eliza Scanlen as a terminally ill teen named Milla who develops a relationship with an older drug dealer — despite the disapproval of her parents. Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis play Milla’s parents, who struggle between letting Milla live her life and wanting to protect their daughter.

Babyteeth proves to be a refreshing, updated coming-of-age story about how to find love and beauty in the midst of even the most dispiriting circumstances. Newcomer Toby Wallace stands out as Milla’s love interest, Moses.

2 Amour (2012)

An emotionally evocative and at times disturbing French-language love story, Amour tackles a taboo topic: end-of-life care. Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva play an 80-something couple named Georges and Anne, whose dynamic shifts when Anne suffers a major stroke that leaves her partially paralyzed.

Georges keeps the promise he made to his wife and refuses to admit Anne into a long-term care facility. As their daughter, played by Isabelle Huppert, actively contests her father’s choices, Georges continues to care for his ailing wife on the terms they decided upon as a couple.

1 Ikiru (1952)

Ikiru is a meditation on impending death from one of Japan’s most beloved filmmakers, Akira Kurosawa. The film stars Takashi Shimura as Kanji, a middle-aged bureaucrat who learns he has been diagnosed with cancer.

Grumpy and dissatisfied Kanji is a widow with only superficial connections to his son and daughter-in-law. Instead of wallowing in his fate, the dying man finds a way to add a bit of meaning and significance to his final days.

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