🏷 Discover The Best Disheartening Movies & TV Shows To Watch Today

33 titles with this tag

Exploring the Depths of Disheartening: Uncovering the Best Movies and TV Shows

Delve into the world of disheartening cinema and television, where the lines between reality and despair are blurred. From poignant dramas to thought-provoking documentaries, this curated selection of movies and TV shows will leave you questioning the human condition. Join us as we uncover the best of the disheartening genre.

Cast

Matt Smith

Emma D'Arcy

Olivia Cooke

James Norton

House of the Dragon (2022) TV Show

8.4 6.6K votes

Genre: Action, Drama, Science Fiction

Country: United States of America

Seasons: 3

Episodes: 26

Audience: TV-MA

Story: The Targaryen dynasty is at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins when King Viserys breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm.

Style: melancholy, absurd

Plot: based on novel or book, kingdom, prequel, dysfunctional family, knight, dragon, king, blunt, ...

Cast

Ingrid Thulin

Gunnar Bju00f6rnstrand

Gunnel Lindblom

Max von Sydow

Winter Light (1963)

7.9 506 votes

Genre: Drama

Country: Sweden

Duration: 80 min.

Story: A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

Plot: suicide, winter, faith, pastor, priest, meaningless existence, meditative, reflective, ...

Cast

Gene Hackman

Willem Dafoe

Frances McDormand

Brad Dourif

Mississippi Burning (1988)

7.7 2.0K votes

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery

Country: United States of America

Duration: 128 min.

Audience: R

Story: Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his partner, a former sheriff.

Plot: suicide, sheriff, police, funeral, ku klux klan, mississippi river, shotgun, fbi, ...

Cast

Ralph Fiennes

Kate Winslet

David Kross

Lena Olin

The Reader (2008)

7.5 3.4K votes

Genre: Drama, Romance

Country: Germany, United States of America

Duration: 124 min.

Audience: R

Story: The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

Style: cynical

Plot: based on novel or book, war crimes, women's prison, trial, female prisoner, reading aloud, love affair, law student, ...

Time: world war ii

Place: germany

Cast

👤

Warren Jeffs

Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (2022) TV Show

7.5 133 votes

Genre: Crime, Documentary

Country: United States of America

Seasons: 1

Episodes: 4

Audience: TV-MA

Story: In interviews and rare home video footage, ex-FLDS members share the truth about their isolated community — and the events that pushed them to leave.

Plot: pedophilia, investigation, cult, polygamy, miniseries, statutory rape, pedophile, religious fundamentalism, ...

Cast

William Shatner

Leonard Nimoy

Ricardo Montalban

DeForest Kelley

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

7.4 2.2K votes

Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction

Country: United States of America

Duration: 113 min.

Audience: PG

Story: The starship Enterprise and its crew is pulled back into action when old nemesis, Khan, steals a top secret device called Project Genesis.

Style: cynical

Plot: spacecraft, life and death, genetics, asteroid, self sacrifice, teleportation, genesis, midlife crisis, ...

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Cast

John Krasinski

James Badge Dale

Dominic Fumusa

Max Martini

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)

7.3 4.0K votes

Genre: Drama, History, War

Country: United States of America

Duration: 144 min.

Audience: R

Story: An American Ambassador is killed during an attack at a U.S. compound in Libya as a security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos.

Style: provocative, tense

Plot: central intelligence agency (cia), based on novel or book, libya, assault rifle, grave, mercenary, heroism, biography, ...

Cast

Sebastian Stan

Christopher Plummer

William Hurt

Ed Harris

The Last Full Measure (2020)

7.3 501 votes

Genre: Action, Drama, War

Country: United States of America

Duration: 110 min.

Audience: R

Story: The incredible true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger, a U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen medic who personally saved over sixty men. Thirty-two years later, Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman investigates a Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pitsenbarger and uncovers a high-level conspiracy behind the decades-long denial of the medal, prompting Huffman to put his own career on the line to seek justice for the fallen airman.

Style: provocative

Plot: affectation, based on true story, grim, inspirational, adoring, appreciative, compassionate, dignified, ...

Time: vietnam war

Cast

Scott Adkins

Teodora Duhovnikova

Alon Aboutboul

Julian Vergov

Boyka: Undisputed IV (2016)

7.2 1.5K votes

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Country: Bulgaria, United States of America

Duration: 87 min.

Audience: R

Story: In the fourth installment of the fighting franchise, Boyka is shooting for the big leagues when an accidental death in the ring makes him question everything he stands for. When he finds out the wife of the man he accidentally killed is in trouble, Boyka offers to fight in a series of impossible battles to free her from a life of servitude.

Style: intense

Plot: prison, martial arts, sports, wife, affectation, sequel, accidental death, fighting, ...

Marley & Me (2008)

7.2 4.8K votes

Genre: Comedy, Family

Country: United States of America

Duration: 115 min.

Audience: PG

Story: A newly married couple, in the process of starting a family, learn many of life's important lessons from their trouble-loving retriever, Marley. Packed with plenty of laughs to lighten the load, the film explores the highs and lows of marriage, maturity and confronting one's own mortality, as seen through the lens of family life with a dog.

Style: melancholy, nostalgic

Plot: journalist, based on novel or book, puppy, love, dog, duringcreditsstinger, pets, columnist, ...

Cast

Kirsten Dunst

Josh Hartnett

James Woods

Kathleen Turner

The Virgin Suicides (2000)

7.1 3.6K votes

Genre: Drama, Romance

Country: United States of America

Duration: 97 min.

Audience: R

Story: A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

Plot: suicide, based on novel or book, michigan, suicide attempt, coming of age, suburb, lust, family, ...

Time: 1970s

Cast

Kelly Macdonald

Emma Thompson

Billy Connolly

Julie Walters

Brave (2012)

7.0 14.3K votes

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family

Country: United States of America

Duration: 93 min.

Audience: PG

Story: In the mystical Scottish Highlands, Merida is the princess of a kingdom ruled by King Fergus and Queen Elinor. An unruly daughter and an accomplished archer, Merida one day defies a sacred custom of the land and inadvertently brings turmoil to the kingdom. In an attempt to set things right, Merida seeks out an eccentric old Wise Woman and is granted an ill-fated wish. Also figuring into Merida's quest — and serving as comic relief — are the kingdom's three lords: the enormous Lord MacGuffin, the surly Lord Macintosh, and the disagreeable Lord Dingwall.

Style: irreverent, absurd, whimsical

Plot: witch, kingdom, rebel, bravery, villain, wish, archer, bear, ...

Place: scotland

Cast

Mark Fischbach

Caroline Kaplan

Troy Baker

Elsie Lovelock

Iron Lung (2026)

7.0 333 votes

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction

Country: United States of America

Duration: 125 min.

Audience: R

Story: In a post-apocalyptic future where an event known as "The Quiet Rapture" caused all known stars and habitable planets in the universe to disappear, a convict is sent to search an ocean of blood discovered on a desolate moon, using a small submarine nicknamed the "Iron Lung".

Style: claustrophobic, slow burn, intimate, suspenseful, tense, ...

Plot: moon, submarine, expedition, post-apocalyptic future, hallucination, gore, space, underwater, ...

Time: future

Cast

Steve Buscemi

Simon Russell Beale

Jeffrey Tambor

Jason Isaacs

The Death of Stalin (2017)

7.0 2.2K votes

Genre: Comedy, Drama, History

Country: Belgium, Canada

Duration: 107 min.

Audience: R

Story: When dictator Joseph Stalin dies, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to become the next Soviet leader. As they bumble, brawl and back-stab their way to the top, the question remains — just who is running the government?

Plot: chaos, dictator, socialism, dark comedy, satire, biography, based on true story, joseph stalin, ...

Time: 1950s

Cast

Ivan Massaguu00e9

Antonia San Juan

Zorion Eguileor

Emilio Buale

The Platform (2019)

7.0 7.9K votes

Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller

Country: Spain

Duration: 95 min.

Audience: R

Story: A slab of food descends down a vertical facility. The residents above eat heartily, leaving those below starving and desperate. A rebellion is imminent.

Plot: capitalism, survival, anarchism, secret prison, food shortage, social experiment, cautionary, ambiguous, ...

Cast

Sandra Bullock

Trevante Rhodes

John Malkovich

Sarah Paulson

Bird Box (2018)

6.8 10.7K votes

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 124 min.

Audience: R

Story: Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a survivor and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.

Plot: based on novel or book, post-apocalyptic future, blindfold, doomsday, survival horror, woman director, white water rafting, depressing, ...

Cast

Sylvia Sidney

William Collier Jr.

Estelle Taylor

Beulah Bondi

Street Scene (1931)

6.8 42 votes

Genre: Drama, Romance

Country: United States of America

Duration: 78 min.

Audience: NR

Story: The setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as representatives of the not-very-idealized American melting pot. There is idle chitchat, gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery, and suddenly but not unexpectedly, a murder.

Plot: infidelity, new york city, neighbor, summer, tenement, gossip, apartment building, pre-code, ...

Cast

Rachel Sennott

Olga Petsa

Jason Jones

Sabrina Jalees

I Used to Be Funny (2024)

6.7 64 votes

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Country: Canada

Duration: 106 min.

Audience: NR

Story: Sam, an aspiring stand-up comedian and au pair struggling with PTSD, weighs whether to join the search for Brooke, a missing teenage girl she used to nanny. As she fights to recover from her trauma and return to the stage, memories of her deep bond with Brooke rush back—making it impossible to ignore her disappearance.

Style: melancholy, intimate

Plot: post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), toronto, canada, nanny, comedian, female protagonist, woman director, sexual assault, ...

Cast

Triptii Dimri

Swastika Mukherjee

Babil Khan

Amit Sial

Qala (2022)

6.7 41 votes

Genre: Drama, Music

Country: India

Duration: 119 min.

Story: Haunted by her past, a talented singer with a rising career copes with the pressure of success, a mother's disdain and the voices of doubt within her.

Plot: understated, disheartening

Cast

Mario Casas

Mariela Garriga

Luis Zahera

Nora Navas

Agent Zeta (2026)

6.6 166 votes

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Country: Spain

Duration: 133 min.

Story: Four Spanish ex-intelligence officers are assassinated simultaneously worldwide. The CNI discovers all participated in the covert "Operation Ciénaga" decades ago in Colombia. Zeta, the CNI's best operative, must hunt and protect the sole survivor, facing his deadliest global mission yet. Top Colombian agent Alfa will join Zeta, seemingly knowing more about "Ciénaga"'s secrets than him.

Plot: spy thriller, disheartening

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