Best movies that show the darkness and reality of life?

Most recently, watch “Train Dreams”. It’s got life’s harsh realities but some nice perspective too.

Trainspotting (1996) launched the careers of Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor. Following the lives of a group of Scottish heroin addicts, It's just about the most un-Hollywood movie you can imagine, in a good way. Nothing about these characters is aspirational or inspiring, and yet they're interesting in the same way a car crash is. The movie works because it pulls no punches in showing just how dirty, dangerous, and degrading this way of life is.

THE FLORIDA PROJECT. NOMADLAND. Both are pretty devastating.

No Country for Old Men has no heroes, no justice, no redemption. Just violence and randomness winning in the end

Requiem for a Dream will mess you up for weeks, that movie doesn't hold back at all

Fish Tank The Florida Project KIDS Manchester by the Sea Short Term 12 Welcome to the Rileys EDIT: Rachel Getting Married

City of God for sure, it just feels raw the whole way through, and Requiem for a Dream if you want something that actually leaves you a little messed up after.

My first reaction was Grizzly Man. It’s a documentary about a man who regularly camped illegally in unsafe areas in Alaska so that he could document his efforts to protect the bears. He thought that he had an understanding with the bears and they knew that he was there to help them so he would be safe.

Menace II Society, especially as a movie that shows the harsh realities of growing up in ghetto and the consequences of being stuck in the cycle of gang violence there

Dunno if this is what you are looking for but a lot of British ‘Kitchen Sink’ style dramas do this. E.g. Naked, Tyrannosaur, This Is England and Fish Tank 

Leaving Las Vegas

*If I Had Legs I'd Kick You* is as real as it gets.

SLC Punk!

Welcome to the Dollhouse.

In no particular order: The Road The Proposition No Country for Old Men Revolutionary Road A Serious Man Cache There Will Be Blood Bergman’s faith trilogy: Through a Glass Darkly / Winter Light / The Silence These differ in tone, style, and subject matter but are alike in presenting an unsparing portrait of the human condition.

Ordinary people

The Worst Person In The World. Norwegian film, it’s very realistic in a modern sense. A woman can’t quite decide what she wants to do with her life, so flits between things, ends relationships with partners because they aren’t X enough and then struggles with their next partner because they’re too X. It really struck me how well it gets at the nagging sense I think a lot of people have that you just aren’t ‘adulting’ very well.

Inside Llewyn Davis, not really gritty realism, but it's realistic in its depiction of relationships, failure and how often things don't really work out ever.

The Road, starring Vigo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee

Civil War is pretty good.

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Try Nightcrawler. The protagonist is a complete sociopath. The people around him aid and abet him to further their own ambitions. And the main character gets away with it all. Great acting by Jake Gyllenhaal but you will despise the character he plays.

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Threads UK movie

Blue Valentine was so tough to watch, it was like watching a real couple fall completely out of love. Not in a dramatic Hollywood way, but in a very real, terribly sad way.

No Country for Old Men

Little Children (2006) Revolutionary Road (2008) Mysterious Skin (2004) City of God (2002)

Lilya 4-ever or Come and See.

Revolutionary Road

Haven't seen Magnolia mentioned yet. Just watched it again last weekend. I think it fits the bill for OP.

Manchester by the sea Made the mistake of watching it on an airplane

Au Hasard Balthazar

Nebraska American Movie

Once were Warriors

Schindler's list.

21 Grams

Marriage Story

Midnight Cowboy

Sicario

Kids Detachment Falling Down Don't Look Up The Big Short

I, Daniel Blake. Not some Hollywood struggle of life movie. This pain feels real.

About Schmidt.

Nil by Mouth (1997). Grim

The Life of David Gale. The ending left me speechless.

Child of Man

Gummo

Close (2022) So heartbreaking and very relatable for men who once had a close friendship with a boy when they were a boy

Biutiful

Midnight Express (1978) I had recorded it when TCM played it during their 31 Days of Oscar event and just got around to watching it today. Brutal!

Blue Ruin is a revenge thriller that emphasizes realism. Without spoiling anything, it depicts what it would actually look like if a regular person with no experience attempted to enact a plot for revenge and subverts all cathartic expectations.

Haneke’s The Seventh Continent… this one is all sorts of fd up. And supposedly based on a news article the director read. If you’re still in the mood - Von Trier’s Dogville or Melancholia.

Vittorio De Sica's **Bicycle Thieves**.

Tennessee Williams is great, with A Streetcar Named Desire keeping a lot of the darkness from the original play. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is great for this if you've ever been stuck in a toxic long term relationship. One of my favorite movies is La Dolce Vita, a great movie about the pointlessness of life. It's my favorite review by Roger Ebert ever.

La Haine

Happiness. I don't know what's darker than that.

Marriage Story (2019) is one I haven't seen mentioned yet. I think it perfectly shows the way relationships crumble - no one is perfect, no one wins, it's just heartbreak and devastation that you're just expected to somehow make it through.

**Precious** Raw, absolutely unfiltered depiction of the effects of child abuse **Secrets and Lies** Mike Leigh's entire filmography could be on here, but this one is my favorite for its unflinching depiction of a young woman trying to reconnect with her mother who gave her up for adoption. **All or Nothing** Another Mike Leigh, another heartbreaking look at the pain people cause each other without even meaning to. **Tangerine** A trans prostitute and her friend strut the concrete wilderness looking for her pimp to confront him over his infidelity, while a lonely taxi driver searches for relief. **Train Dreams** Heartfelt, ocassionally beautiful, often heart-rending, a look at one man's life in the wilderness and his personal but very poignant grief and loneliness. **The Zone of Interest** An ordinary-looking German family live a tranquil life while the husband directs the mass slaughter of thousands of Jews just the other side of their garden wall. **I Saw the TV Glow** Using sci-fi and magical realism, this is perhaps the most terrifying look at the pain and loneliness of suppressing one's own identity. **Beau is Afraid** Surrealism and magical realism are used to depict one man's constant deep-rooted anxiety, as he goes on a journey to attend his mother's funeral.

Grave of the Fireflies

Fresh (1994)

Roma

I think this would fit what you are looking for : A guide to recognizing your saints (2006) With Robert Downey Jr, Rosario Dawson, Channing Tatum and Shia Lebeouf I love this movie and i barely see anyone speak about it.

Saturday night and Sunday morning. ( 1960 ) Old but real.

The misfortunates 2009 from Belgium

I don't disagree at all with the other fine suggestions, but here's a more obscure gem. It's all non-actors, but it's fiction, not a documentary. Lionel Rogosin's On the Bowery (1956). The tone is like American Neorealism: [https://youtu.be/CHuYXEwCk\_U?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/CHuYXEwCk_U?feature=shared)

Training day and Elephant.

Boyz in the Hood

Blue Ruin

The sound of metal, Manchester by the sea, elephant .

A lot of Sean Baker films show pretty grim realities. The Florida Project specially follows a little girl who lives in motels with her sex worker mom a stone's throw from Disney World. It's a pretty dark concept and even more upsetting when you realize how many children live similar lives because their parents' are stuck in poverty/trauma cycles. The scene when her life is juxtaposed with happy kids at Disney World breaks me just thinking about it.

Threads (1984) If you want proper depression, here you go! It’s even on YouTube so it’s [right there right now!](https://youtu.be/IUmUz8ol9Ow?is=kUQhmqk6e9Lq3ICf)

Manchester by the Sea

Koyaanisqatsi

Dancer in the Dark

Winters Bone. Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes in a great film about a family struggling to stay together while involved in drugs in the Ozarks. Teardrop played by Hawkes is a great character.

George Washington (2000) directed by David Gordon Green

They Shoot Horses Don't They?

Nil By Mouth

The Road.

Check out a movie from the 90s called Nil By Mouth. It was directed by Gary Oldman and is a kitchen sink on steroids drama about a dysfunctional working class family in London.

Atonement

Sophie's Choice

I, Daniel Blake

Children of Men Magnolia

If you're okay with a documentary, The Act of Killing is something that changes your life to see. Theres like a sequel that makes it worse, The Look of Silence. This is quite literally exactly what you're looking for.

The Whale

Angela's Ashes, about growing up in intense poverty in 1930s Ireland

Once we're warriors

Synecdoche, New York

Elephant Sitting Still (2017), director Hu Bo. 234 minutes. A bleak movie about modern life in China from perspective of 4 folks who are seen as discarded and useless by society. All they want to do is to escape to see a mythical elephant located in a northern town which does nothing but sit there. There’s also the dark cinematography shot with virtually no sunlight and permanent overcast sky. For 4 hours. No glorified placement shots, no bravado of any sort of pride, no hope. It’s even more bleak that the young director committed suicide soon after the film’s completion.

Into the Wild. Based on the true story of Chris McCandless and also the book Into the Wild by John Krakauer

One flew over the cuckoos nest

jeff who loves at home is a fav. don't know if it's what you're looking for but it helped me

Umberto D really did me in

Aniara. Who we are when there is no motivation to be better for the next generation.

Gone Baby Gone

“Blue valentine” and “The road”

House of Sand and Fog

Parasite. It's a Korean film and when I watched it, it took way too long because the subtitles were so tiny but it was worth it.

Beasts of No Nation a horrifying yet accurate depiction of war. 

The Cove (documentary) Broken Circle Breakdown 😢😢😢😢

Gia, Basketball Diaries, Life is Beautiful.

Angela’s Ashes

The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky

Sorry we missed you

Sorry We Missed You. I, Daniel Blake. The Great Silence.

Mike Leigh’s *Naked*.

21 grams

I'd recommend watching some Mike Leigh movies, a slice of life style director making movies in the UK. Full of real people and messy humanity.

Don't know if it's a good fit but Richard Linklater's Slacker has a docu/realism feel to it and a take on life that's quite reflective and refreshing. But it's not bleak. Same with Before Sunset/Sunrise.  I remember watching a movie a few years ago called Lilya 4-ever that was quite dark.

Schindler's List and Life is Beautiful

definitely check out "Requiem for a Dream" if you haven't seen it yet. it hits hard with its raw portrayal of addiction and shattered dreams. also, "Schindler's List" is brutally honest about the horrors of war and humanity's darkest moments.

The Killing Fields, Come and See, Hotel Rwanda

Junebug (2005) Just pure family coming home vibes. No gimmick punchlines. Masterclass performances too. One random scene has stuck with me for 15 years from this movie when >!Amy Adams’ boyfriend is trying to do something nice and record a show about some animal I can’t even remember. He knows she likes the animal and he’s trying to do something nice for her even though he’s largely a fuckup. Then the VCR isn’t working and he’s struggling so hard to do this good thing and failing and he’s pissed about it and ends up being pissy with her over it. Idk, that scene just felt so much like real life to me!<.

Gone Baby Gone

Pelle the Conqueror

It’s a Wonderful Life