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Monday Movie Meme – Cry Me a River
Monday, January 5, 2015 at 6:41PM 
(l-r): Charles Parnell, Kim Wayans and Sahra Mellesse in "Pariah."Here’s hoping everyone brought the New Year in on a high note…’cause this week’s Monday Movie Meme is about to get emotional!
We’re kicking off the first blog post of 2015 with a theme focused on movies that moved you to tears: Cry Me a River.
Share on your blog or in the comments section, some of the most memorable tearjerkers you ever watched. This includes films with heartbreaking scenes, underdog movies that have moments of victory or those unexpected flicks showing a turn of events that just made you cry (or want to cry).
Here are my selections for this week’s theme about tearjerkers.
Pariah
This Sundance hit drama starring Kim Wayans tells the story of a teenager struggling with identity issues while coming to grips with her sexuality. Now that I finally got around to watching “Pariah” during the holidays, it’s one of those films that has me starting to think there are times when a movie soundtrack is a huge factor in whether viewers start tearing up or not; especially during certain scenes. It's as if the producers, directors and/or editors orchestrated moments to induce tears on cue. Either way, this movie is effective in tugging at one's heart strings.
The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete
This dramatic movie starring Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon and Jennifer Hudson is about two boys who have to survive after their mothers are arrested. I went to a screening of “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete” and had to catch myself during a scene in the third act that caught me off guard.
Fruitvale Station
This biographical drama starring Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer is about the encounters Oscar Grant III had before being shot on New Year’s Eve. You know that Isley Brothers song about not being able to hold back tears? Well, I succeeded with well intentions when I went to see this movie in theaters, but it was damn hard.
Revolutionary Road
OMG...horrific is one of the only ways I can describe the turn of events in this sad, sad romantic drama starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie is about a young married couple who move out to the suburbs and start a family with plans to live the life they dreamed of until realizing that circumstances have other things in store for them.
Blue Valentine
This romantic drama starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams is right up there with “Revolutionary Road” on my tearjerker scale. It has Love, Babies, Marriage, Broken dreams, Drunken arguments in the middle of the street, Drunken arguments in a cheesy hotel room and Fistfights in the workplace. However, it also has a dude serenading his future wife, on the sidewalk and and loading her up on mix CDs. That’s cute. Yeah, it’s one big ol’ rollercoaster ride of feel-good scenes and not-so-fun scenes and the latter can just be too much to handle if you let yourself get wrapped up in it all…which I did.
Set It Off
Although this is an action movie about female bank robbers starring Queen Latifah and John C. McGinley (gotta love this dude from the NBC comedy show “SCRUBS” tho!) that I've seen more than one dozen times, it's STILL hard to watch that heart-pounding car scene were a tough janitor faces the LAPD head on. If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. Even Dr. Dre had to look away from the screen!
What movies made YOU cry or tear up?
Reader Comments (3)
The Color Purple - I have watched this movie so many times I can pretty much do each scene myself. The cast is fantastic. The scenes are raw and emotional and no matter the number of times I'ved watched, I tear up every single time.
Haven't heard of most of these films. Only saw Revolutionary Road and now I don't remember it much.
I'm a sucker for tear-jerkers and it's not unusual for me to get misty eyed over a film. Off hand I can't recall any specific ones. The musicals Carousel and The King and I kind of did that as I recall. Recently I saw the film About Time and the touching ending made my eyes kind of teary not because the ending was sad, but because there were beautiful concepts to which I could relate.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Angela,
Yeah the cast in The Color Purple definitely do their thing! That's one of those timeless movies where the story and acting never cease to impact even those of us who know what's going to happen scene by scene. Although I remember some funny parts of the movie, there are a few scenes in it that are very heavy on the heart. In fact, just picturing one in particular (that's I'd rather not mention...because it's just really bothersome) gets to me without even watching it. Kudos to you for an EXCELLENT pick to fit this week's tearjerker theme! As always, thanks for commenting.
Lee,
Your mention of musicals reminds me I still need to watch "Chicago." I don't think I'm familiar with Carousel but wanted to see "About Time" when it came out and just forgot about it and it's probably sitting somewhere in my Netflix queue. Sounds like you enjoyed the movie and I'm glad it moved you in some way. Better to tear up over beautiful concepts than sadness. Thanks for your comment! :)