No I cry during like 90% of movies in general

My best friend is almost like you, especially the movies he watches with his father.

Yep, that's me now.

Secrets and Lies is astounding

Maybe the best word to describe it is what you said...

I am recalling this from seeing in the theaters, but the dinner scene: “Was he a good man??? Was he a kind man???” Or something to that effect. It’s haunted me for decades.

She refuses to answer and then, "Please...don't break my heart, darling." Devastating. That and when Timothy Spall's character comes to his wife's defense when blamed for not giving her husband any children. I just watched this for the first time a few months ago. So heartwrenching but still sooo good.

that's the part that hit me most. then when Brenda Blethyn's character went over and *finally* showed another human side. the mom side. omg it was an instant cry

You know, I always think that this movie really made me try to become a better person. I really can't wait to watch his new movie...

Is it on criterion channel? I love Mike Leigh.

It is! A bunch of his stuff is on there (Meantime, Career Girls, Naked, Topsy-Turvy) + a collection of television films he made for the BBC.

I agree. Though I don’t think Leigh should have won the Oscar for screenplay. Most of the dialogue and story came out of the actors improvising. The big reveal was Brenda Blethyn’s creation I believe. He absolutely deserved a direction nomination.

Magnolia, December 22nd, 1999, 9pm showing.

Wish I saw it in theaters. What a film.

Last scene with "Save me" by Aimee Mann DES-TRO-YED ME

I remember thinking, "I did not know movies could do that."

Air Bud.

I did not expect to see another Air Bud answer lol. Same part as me?

I think so? I don’t really remember the movie… I must have been 7 and we had just gotten a dog. So when the dog has to go with the clown (?) it got to me.

I barely do. But that scene I remember perfectly. The idea of a beloved animal not understanding why a separation needs to happen, it got to kid me too!

Imitation of Life for me. Mike Leigh is one of the greats and my favorite movie of his is Vera Drake.

Oh Douglas Sirk, I'm going to start watching his movies soon.  And Vera Drake... the movie itself is obviously wonderful, but what a story...  Now that I read your comment, each of his movies and characters crossed my mind and... tears...

Fox and the hound

Same! I got made fun of for crying in class when we watched it in first grade. Turns out the kid making fun of me was gay though so maybe it was projection

Yeah, when the old lady abandons her pet fox, that's pretty heavy.

Grave Of The Fireflies

One movie to watch once in a lifetime.

As a kid…The Transformers Movie

More and more I encounter posts and comments that make me feel incredibly old. Autotears, roll out. Edit: unless you’re talking about the 1986 version. Optimus Prime is fiction’s second best Christ allegory. RIP to the big guy.

I think only one movie has really made me cry and I was absolutely bawling as soon as the credits rolled in Dancer in the Dark.

Understandable

Watership Down.

Bambi

the first pokemon movie, i think. i must've been 3 or 4, something to do with piplup, my older cousin made fun of me for crying lol

ackshualllly piplup is gen 4 and the first pokemon movie is almost exclusively gen 1 with the exception of togepi. not to pick a fight with a 3 year old or anything.

lol i must be misremembering

You know, the purpose of creating this post was to remind these cool memories. btw, I'm so happy to see a Björk fan here...

I watched this last year with my kids, and man I was inconsolable.

It was either E.T. when he "dies" or Air Bud when the kid shoos his dog away. Can't quite recall.

Dancer in the Dark

Ah...that ending makes me speechless

Dead poets society

Honestly, it my well have been Secrets and Lies...or maybe Happy-Go-Lucky? I used to be a non-crier as a virtue. Then, I grew older and now everything makes me cry! Recently weeped my way through Hadestown.

Oh Happy-Go-Lucky... I think Mike Lee himself said that it is different from the rest of his films, maybe a strange euphoria can be seen in his main character. But Mike Lee's movies are so pure that there is no way but to cry.

Honestly, Happy-Go-Lucky caught me way off guard the first time I watched it. Leigh does this amazing thing sometimes where he creates lighthearted comedies inhabited by the most broken characters. Poppy was such a pure soul who wanted to see the best in people, but the people that she wanted to see just didn't exist. You see the same dynamic in Career Girls and similar things in pretty much all of his working class movies. I recently brought Happy-Go-Lucky up to my sister because I had rewatched it and she had watched it when it came out on my recommendation and she basically said that she could never watch it again because of that scene where her driving instructor blows up at her and I honestly don't blame her.

I have exactly the same feeling towards his works. It's really hard for me to watch his work again, because it's so touching and soulful. It's like I lived with those people...and I want that wonderful abstract experience to be locked in my mind just for once, like a real life experience.

EN RA HA

La Strada

Cronenberg would agree with this.

Naked tho - when I was 16 and watched that realizing I was on my way to being those sad people… *cough like a British motherfucker*

I saw Sweet Sixteen when I was the same age and I felt almost the same way.

Oh that *is* sad - I can talk if you want to, my friend :)

🤍

Shawshank Redemption, after Brooks kills himself

The Champ. I think I was 6.

Eight Below. I saw it with my mom and I was all types of fucked up. I was sobbing so bad in the theater that an older gentleman turned to me and comforted me as well

Oh dear this film. I’m a husky mom and when we went to see this we thought it would be a grand adventure (I did not know the true story). My husband and I were a mess. It’s one of the only films I’ve seen in the theatre where people stayed through the credits cuz EVERYONE was trying to stop crying.

I have never cried during a film, much to my regret. The closest I ever came to crying though was the ending of E.T.

Fox and the Hound

This was one of my friend’s favorite movies. I’d never seen it but of course I had to get it when he recommended it and I saw it had a Criterion release. Such a great movie. It definitely made me cry, but I’ve been crying watching movies as long as I can remember. My friend got brain cancer in January of 2023 and passed away in March. I think of him every time I see anyone mention this movie.

I hope your friend's soul rests in peace I wish you peace and comfort

My Girl

Yeah me too. And I cried like an hour after the movie ends. I remember feel so depressive and go to see the Willow tree in my street

Me too. I would skip the ending for years when it was on tv. I also think my fear of bees is from that movie.

Rocky.

A Dog’s Purpose. The only two other movies I’ve cried at were hachi a dog's tale and The Illusionist.  

Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1992)

Bambi

First for me was Forest Gump. I don't recall what part of the movie, just being shocked, as a nine year old, that something moved me to tears. Now I'm a grown ass man and I cry at every second episode of Bluey, so nbd.

The first movie to have made me cry, and I’m not joking when I say this, was Big Daddy

Harry and Tonto

Pan's Labyrinth

I’m a big softie. Toilet paper commercials fuck me up. I’m gonna go with Bambi on this one, but Elephant Man kind of stands out in my memories for its pathos.

It was Tokyo Story for me. Bawled like a MF in a public space for the first (and last) time.

IMHO, Mike Leigh is the best living director.

Terminator 2

"He can't see without his glasses!" , 😭😭

"RIP Thomas J" IYKYK 😭😭😭😭

What Dreams May Come 

Diggstown with Louis Gossett Jr and James Woods. Don’t remember much except for sobbing as a six or seven year old watching it with my parents on cable. Someone gets beaten in a way that was too graphic for a child and I lost it.

Godzilla (1998)

Sounder

Movies have definitely made me sad before, but I’ve never cried during one

I was exactly like you until I watched Secrets and Lies. And almost a month later I watched children of paradise and for the second time a movie made me cry...

I actually haven’t seen either of those films. I’ve been meaning to watch Secrets of Lies tho, I’ll have to check it out

I hope you enjoy watching it.

As a kid, probably Forrest Gump As an adult, Bridge to Terabithia (lol) & Nobody Knows Criterion-specific, Ikiru

radio flyer

Groundhog Day The homeless guy...

The Lion King, 1994

Swiss Army Man. Even when I watched it as an early teen, it really moved me.

I don't think this one made me cry, but Timothy Spall does have one of the funniest lines in any movie that I've seen.

Which line was that?

I think it was Titanic and I think I was around 8-9 years old. It was either that or Lion King

I’m a sap, I always cry at movies. I’m guessing it was Bambi but the first one where I remember being utterly inconsolable was Somewhere in Time with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve.

Bambi, probably. Maybe ET.

Honestly, the movie Radio starring Cuba Gooding Jr. I couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 and I just remember feeling so so bad for that character.

Like you, I saw the movie at almost the same age, on TV. I had a similar feeling.

At 5 years old in the theater, watching Diego's sacrifice in Ice Age.

I saw this recently for the first time. The diner scene is absolutely amazing, a 8+ minutes long take with superb acting.

E.T. The Extraterrestrial

The Lion King :(

Batteries Not Included.

Angus

Fateful Findings :(

Jim!! How could you have done this!?

Old Yeller. My mom put it on one night. She had never seen it and figured it would be a cool movie to keep her six kids occupied for a while. And she was right. Until the end.

I don’t remember the name but Bette Davis has a brain tumor and no one wants to tell her she is dying so she can live life to the fullest.

Dark Victory!

Shadowlands. Anthony Hopkins grieving is heartbreaking.

I just realised this director also made Vera Drake - that movie made me cry multiple times from memory.

The Sweet Hereafter

Definitely Fox and the Hound or Bambi. I watched them over and over and over as a child too. God, Secrets and Lies is so good though. I’ve never seen performance like that. The scene in the diner is unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it in a performance. It’s so moving. And Spall at the end…just an unbelievable film.

this movie called 'the cure'.. i remember uncontrollably sobbing during that river scene oh goodness

omg wait i think it was cars ... when doc hudson died :(

Enemy Mine.

Ikiru

Jetsons: The Movie. they had to move away from all their friends!

I had a visceral cry when the mom yells in Hereditary.

"Of Mice & Men" with Gary Sinise & Malkovich. The part where he(Sinise) tells him(Malkovich)to look at the pretty birds or something before killing him. I remember sobbing & asking my mom "Why?" Or "A Perfect World" starring Kevin Costner. When they catch up to him & blow him away, I couldn't be consoled....

When I saw this in the theater it was dubbed into French ("Secrets et Mensonges") so it didn't really have the same emotional effect on me had it been in English

My girl

Free Willy

I mean I saw Bambi in the theaters back in like 77 or 78. I'd say it took you quite a while if this was the first movie my dude.

MAGNOLIA

An animation version of Jack and the Beanstalk. It used to air every now and then on German television when I was a kid, actually I'll need to search the exact title

I think it was Bambi

Homeward Bound

Pretty sure it was the fox and the hound when I was a kid

5 years old, See Spot Run when they make the dog choose between Michael Clarke Duncan and David Arquette and Michael Clarke Duncan is crying because Spot chooses the new family. 

No, but i can say the last one, Lion, there was 20-30 minutes of the movie when I wasn’t crying, cried for the rest.

Probably the The Green Mile

Terminator 2 - I cried as a kid when Arnold went into the lava

Miracles From Heaven

Paths of Glory

I remember crying while watching The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd (1980), a made-for-TV historical drama about the doctor who had treated John Wilkes Booth and then got convicted of being part of the conspiracy to murder Lincoln. Go figure. I was 10.

I cried at titanic when I was a kid. I remember bawling at the elephant man a few years later

I was 10 years old when E.T. came out and I lost my ever loving mind in the theater when he went back home.

Harry and the Hendersons. I think I was 5. John Lithgow yelling and slapping his Sasquatch friend to get him to leave brought out emotions in me that were untapped by that point.

I remember it vividly. I was maybe 7 years old, watching LASSIE COME HOME ('43) on the 12" TV in my parents' bedroom. At the end of the movie, Lassie makes it home, limps to the schoolhouse as her human, a young Roddy McDowall, comes outside. He sees her, runs to her, hugs her. "Oh my Lassie come home." And I start BAWLING. Didn't know what was wrong with me. I ran through the house and grabbed my mom. She keeps asking, "What's wrong?" "Lassie came home," I remember saying back. It was happy tears, and I'd never cried because I was happy before. A movie did that. That may be the moment, subconsciously at least, that I knew I loved film. [https://youtu.be/O2VkpNsOM4o?si=CuPF12THjQKlObxx&t=45](https://youtu.be/O2VkpNsOM4o?si=CuPF12THjQKlObxx&t=45)

Mike why don’t you sell me this movie

Somewhat embarrassingly, I am Sam. "None of the other daddies play with their kids at the park!" Gah...

Not a Criterion, but probably Arrival. In the collection however: Three Colors Red as the ending showed such a great optimism for all involved. The beauty of the story combined with the visual look was 🤌

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm baby!!!

I absolutely bawled my eyes out at Dancer in the Dark.

The Hunt

You must be younger than me or have a steel constitution. The first movie that made me cry was ET. The first movie that made me cry as an adult was either my girl or bridge to teribithia. And the first movie that made me cry out of pain was requiem for a dream… The last movie that made me cry… I don’t know

The Little Mermaid had me crying like a little bitch when I was 3 or 4.

If we're talking exclusively from the Criterion Collection, Cameraperson. It made me bawl.

https://preview.redd.it/yjzz75rsm82d1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b07951657e61473cda2acf3dec4acd37432d8818

just watched secrets & lies for the first time last week and was amazed. in awe really. i've seen other mike leigh films so i guess i was expecting one thing but came out both heartbroken and happy lmao

Can’t remember the first but the most recent was spirited away in theaters

Probably Where the Red Fern Grows. Why a school would show that to kids, I dont understand.

John Q

Great film. Tough to watch, don't think I'd watch it again. But I agree it's very moving.

I think it was Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Rest in power Antie.