‘Lost in Translation’ (2003)
A disillusioned young wife named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) travels to Japan for her husband’s job as a celebrity photographer, spending most of her days alone. Meanwhile, aging American movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is having a midlife crisis. By chance, the two meet and form a unique connection, finding understanding in their shared feelings of isolation and ennui.
Inspired by director Sofia Coppola’s own breakup from fellow filmmaker Spike Jonze, Lost in Translation is not only an emotionally felt portrait of a dissolving romance, but of how new beginnings always blossom elsewhere — be it romantic or otherwise.
‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ (2008)
The perfect feel-good family film, Fantastic Mr. Fox is director Wes Anderson’s delightful stop-motion animated adaptation of the classic Roald Dahl children’s novel. Twelve years after promising his wife he’d settle down, Mr. Fox (George Clooney) breaks that promise and raids the tantalizing farms of three grouchy men. The men crack down on Mr. Fox and his critter friends in retaliation, and Fox must use his wits to help them out of their jam.
Funny, heart-warming, and featuring classic rock earworms like The Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” and The Bobby Fuller Four’s “Let Her Dance,” Fantastic Mr. Fox is a rollicking good time for kids and adults alike. If you’re looking for something that will simply make you feel good after getting dumped, look no further than Fantastic Mr. Fox.
‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013)
Need a bit of nonstop, high-octane entertainment? Don’t mind a movie that’s over three hours long? Allow Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street to guide you on a journey of pure indulgent cinematic pleasures. Centered on the exploits of real-life con-artist Jordan Belfort, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Belfort from humble beginnings to his rise as a corrupt stockbroker, to his drug-induced fall from grace.
This crime caper may be a lengthy film, but it’s perfectly paced so you barely even notice that time has flown by. It also provides you with even more time to spend not thinking about your breakup! The Wolf of Wall Street is as funny and irreverent as it is thrilling and even dark at times, a genre hybrid that features one of DiCaprio’s best performances of his career.
‘The Worst Person in The World’ (2021)
If you’re in the mood to really wallow in the highs and lows of human existence, love, loss and the ceaseless malleability of our very selves, try the Norwegian-language film The Worst Person in the World. The narrative follows a young woman named Julie (Renate Reinsve), as she struggles to find a career path through her late twenties and falls in love with two different men. At the same time, she learns how to find herself.
The Worst Person in the World is a bittersweet celebration of life and a harrowing look at the pain and joy in experiencing love. The film is as rapturous and gleeful as it is poignant, and serves as a salient reminder that, yes, all good things come to an end, but that’s life, and it’s worth it. This one is a tear-jerker of the highest order, so keep your tissues handy.
‘Midsommar’ (2019)
Midsommar might be the ultimate film that serves as a middle finger to a bad breakup. A couple and their friends travel to Sweden to take part in a remote village’s Midsommar festivities. But what’s meant to be a relaxing getaway progressively turns unsettling and eventually violent, as the friends realize they’re in the midst of a bizarre cult ritual.
The film’s central dynamic is the one between protagonist Dani (Florence Pugh) and her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Raynor), which director Ari Aster explained was meant to mirror a bad breakup that he had experienced. Through the course of the film, Dani and Christian’s relationship slowly deteriorates and tensions mount between them. It climaxes in a conclusion of pure retaliatory catharsis, and will serve as pure vicarious release for anyone who wants to leave a bad breakup in the dust.
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