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10 Movies Guaranteed to Make You Cry

Because tearjerkers are cheaper than therapy.

best tearjerker movies to make you cry

By Claudia-Wolff (Unsplash)

News of mass shootings, threats of nuclear war, and political and cultural unrest are inescapable these days.

The human brain isn't meant to take in such a constant stream of bad news. As a result, many Americans have become numb and pessimistic, hardly blinking an eye when we hear about the latest tragedy. It's not that we don't care—it's that letting every heartbreaking thing actually break our hearts is just too much to handle.

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movies to make you cry

Film Features

How A24 is Saving Movies

How the Small Distribution Company is Giving a Much Needed Voice to First-Time Directors

Set

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

My first proper date with my first ever girlfriend was to see Spring Breakers, the weirdest movie granted a wide theatrical release in 2013.

Directed by the mostly-underground Harmony Korrine, the film became notorious for James Franco's performance as Alien, an off-beat, very colorful gangster with a head covered in dreadlocks and an accent somewhere between a Tallahassee truck driver and Marcellus Wallace. I saw that movie in theatres. I didn't know it at the time, but the A24 Productions logo that kickstarted the experience would go on to become one of the most important symbols you could pin to a movie in the 2010's. It's since become a mark of excellence. Now, in 2020, you see a movie distributed by A24, and you know one thing: that movie will certainly be awesome, but might even be visionary, too. A24 is very quietly saving movies, and they're doing it by going against the most time-held and obvious of box office rules: They invest in uncertainties.

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MUSIC

Johnnyswim Shines Bright on New Album "Moonlight"

The duo perfects and reinvents their signature sound on their third studio album

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash

The husband-and-wife duo, Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudaro, better known as their collective moniker, Johnnyswim, just released their third studio album Moonlight, and it is spellbinding.

The 12-song album is a result of writing and recording sessions that spanned much of 2018. Alongside Grammy Award-winning producer-songwriter, Malay (renowned for his work with Sam Smith and Frank Ocean), Johnnyswim provides a smooth and timeless blend of pop, indie, and folk, with subtle hints of R&B on this project. Moonlight marks the group's first release under Britannia Row Recordings/BMG, and longtime fans of the duo will hear just enough of the Johnnyswim they are familiar with while also discovering exciting new dimensions to their evolving sound.

In some ways, Moonlight sounds like the album that Johnnyswim has been aiming for since their 2014 full-length debut, Diamonds. A seamless blend of pulsating, upbeat pop-rock fun and dreamy, heart-on-sleeve ballads are exactly what fans have come to love and expect from the band. Moonlight revels in this characteristically cohesive juxtaposition of sounds but it also takes this sound a few steps further, branching out into some more sonically daring and complex territories than ever before. Part of this is almost certainly due to Malay's production and influence, which is audible on many of the songs. But another factor is that Ramirez and Sudaro have clearly matured as songwriters, providing a more nuanced, layered, and eclectically-influenced musicality to Moonlight that sets it apart from the rest of their discography.

If you've never heard Johnnyswim before, Moonlight will be the perfect introduction to the band. This album proves that careful, brave, and honest songwriting (along with some pristine production) is a surefire recipe for musical achievement.

Moonlight

Dustin DiPaulo is a writer and musician from Rochester, New York. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Florida Atlantic University and can most likely be found at a local concert, dive bar, or comedy club (if he's not getting lost somewhere in the woods).

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Collective Unconscious or Conscious Appropriation: Did Mac DeMarco Steal Mitski's Cowboy Archetype?

Mitski's cowboy was a meaningful subversion of patriarchal norms. What is Mac's cowboy trying to say?

Mitski has repeatedly announced that she doesn't care that fellow indie rocker Mac DeMarco just released a single called "Nobody," off his forthcoming new album, Here Comes the Cowboy. Of course, this news is coming about a year after the release of Mitski's fifth album, Be the Cowboy—which also happened to feature a lead single called "Nobody."

MAC DEMARCO - NOBODYwww.youtube.com

On social media, Mitski has been persistently laughing the whole thing off, writing that "I'm 100% sure Mac and I just went fishing in the same part of the collective unconscious… Idk you Mac and you clearly didn't know me lol but thanks for the laugh."

— (@)

Still, it's hard to understand why no one—no producer, songwriter, or marketing agent—mentioned the similarities. To compound the strangeness, Mitski and DeMarco also both have the same PR person, whom Mitski apparently talks to every day. "What's wild is we have the same PR, so I LOVE my personal conspiracy theory that she heard the album and track titles but kept quiet thinking maybe some Mac fans will mistakenly find me," Mitski added.

After all, both musicians occupy comparable levels of recognition in a similar sector of indie rock. Plus Mitski's Be the Cowboy was one of 2018's best reviewed and most highly ranked albums; Mac and his team would've had to ignore every end-of-year list to have never heard of her.

Their music's also relatively similar, in that they both favor ambient guitars, world-weary lyrics, and dreamy imagery (just listen to DeMarco's "Moonlight on the River" next to Mitski's "Pink in the Night" for comparably psychedelic, mournful, lonely-in-the-dark sentiments)—though their takes on "Nobody" couldn't be more different. Mitski's is a frenetic pop-disco scream that touches on global warming and loneliness, whereas Mac's is a typically low-key, abstract musing that may be about television's ruinous effects on humanity.

Pink in the Nightwww.youtube.com

Moonlight on the Riverwww.youtube.com

Although Mitski might be cool with the presence of more than one cowboy in this town, her fans have not been as accepting. Today, Mitski implored enraged fans not to leap to her defense, tweeting, "while the mob is still in there fighting on my behalf. You may turn against me for saying this, I accept that, I just have to admit it's terrifying to have a big group of strangers acting on my behalf in ways I'd never act myself, and I don't even seem to matter in the equation."

— (@)

So, to borrow a phrase from a review she wrote about Harry Styles, if Mitski reads this, she'll probably hate it. In that review, Mitski discussed the way that One Direction functions as an idealized projection screen for fans in need of pretty-boy icons to worship. In a very similar way, although Mitski may not have wanted this to happen, her music has become a projection screen for fans treasuring the opportunity to see their identities and emotions represented in an articulate and nuanced way.

After all, Mitski's utilization of cowboy imagery was a purposefully subversive reclamation of an archetypically masculine, colonialist trope. The cowboy—like the kings and demigods that preceded him—is usually a man, violently in charge, and always getting what he wants. Mitski's cowboy turned that trope on its head.

In an interview with The Outline, Mitski explained her album's title, saying that it "kind of came from the fact that I would always kind of jokingly say to myself, "Be the cowboy you wish to see the world," whenever I was in a situation where maybe I was acting too much like my identity, which is wanting everyone to be happy, not thinking I'm worthy, being submissive, and not asking for more. Every time I would find myself doing exactly what the world expects of me as an Asian woman, I would turn around and tell myself 'Well, what would a cowboy do?'"

Mac DeMarco's explanation was a bit different. "Cowboy is a term of endearment to me, I use it often when referring to people in my life. Where I grew up, there are many people that sincerely wear cowboy hats and do cowboy activities. These aren't the people I'm referring to," he said.

Looking at these descriptions side by side, it's easy to see that while Mitski herself might not be angry, some of her fans—many of whom don't often get to see much powerful, successful representation of their identities, mostly due to oppressive hegemonies of white power—might be taking offense. Mitski has grappled before with the implications of her music being taken as something far more symbolic and political than she intended. In response to suggestions that her "Your Best American Girl" was a fuck-you to white male-led music culture, she stated that the song was only about how she personally felt while processing her identity as a Japanese American woman in a relationship with a white man.

But one of Mitski's greatest talents is her ability to make microscopic views of her experience feel universal, and many fans have leaned into this, understanding her music as a touchstone of power, a nuanced and subversive center of solidarity and truth in a white supremacist-run world.

Mitski - Your Best American Girl (Official Video)www.youtube.com

Maybe this all was nothing more than a coincidence. But if Mitski and Mac DeMarco were truly fishing in the "same part of the collective unconscious," what corner of the mind was this, exactly? Maybe the cowboy represents a universal desire for a real hero in an era that seems to desperately need one, or something similarly loaded. But in all likelihood, DeMarco was probably just incredibly stoned, heard Be the Cowboy, and later became wholly convinced he'd dreamt it up himself.

Regardless, Be the Cowboyis available for streaming everywhere, and Here Comes the Cowboy will be coming for us all on May 10th.

Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York City. Follow her on Twitter at @edenarielmusic.

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Mipso's "Moonlight" Is Perfect for A Summer Chill Session

Mipso recently released the official music video for their hit song "Moonlight" along with new summer tour dates.

Mipso

If you aren't a fan already, you must check out the tasty twang and soft palpable poetry of North Carolina's hottest indie-americana band, Mipso.

You know the sort of music that takes you back to sweet youthful summers and warms your heart with the echo of the past? Yet still, you recognize that its only an echo and that those times are over. Mipso's "Moonlight" does exactly that. North Carolina's indie-Americana darlings Mipso have released the official video for their track " Moonlight," from their critically acclaimed new album Edges Run.

The video illustrates the familiar and all-too-human emotion of feeling alone, even while surrounded by those you love the most. Songwriter Joseph Terrell explains, "I wrote 'Moonlight' after a breakup while I drove all day back to North Carolina from where I'd been living in Boston. I was sitting in summer traffic on the worst highway in America in a rented minivan full of all my stuff, and I kind of just had to laugh. There's that voice in your head that wants to tell the world, 'I'm totally fine!' when you're anything but."

The video release accompanies the band's announcement of a run of additional summer tour dates this August. Venturing to the Western mountain states, Mipso bring their captivating live show to Montana, Colorado, and Utah.

Giphy

They can also be seen playing festivals this summer, including the Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, WI, Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival, the Calgary Folk Festival, and Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, NC this September.

MIPSO EDGES RUN ALBUM RELEASE TOUR – SUMMER 2018

6/14/18 - Blue Ox Music Festival - Eau Claire, WI

6/16/18 - Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival - Croton-On-Hudson, NY

7/13/18 - Red Wing Roots Music Festival - Mt. Solon, VA

7/14/18 - The Down Home - Johnson City, TN

7/28/18 - Calgary Folk Music Festival - Calgary, Canada

8/1/18 - Yellowstone Brewing - Billings, MT

8/2/18 - Top Hat Lounge – Missoula, MT

8/4/18 – Sweet Pea Festival – Bozeman, MT

8/5/18 – Mishawaka Amphitheatre – Bellvue, CO

8/6/18 – Chautauqua Auditorium – Boulder, CO

8/9/18 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT

8/11/18 – Lake Dillion Amphitheatre – Dillon, CO

8/16/18 - Narrows Center for the Arts - Fall River, MA

8/17/18 - Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots - Manchester,VT

9/6/18 - Hopscotch Music Festival - Raleigh, NC

9/15/18 - Whale Rock Music Festival - Templeton, CA

Mipso's fourth album, Edges Run, has received praise from critics and fans alike. The album's first two singles - "People Change" and the title track "Edges Run" have received over 5 million streams on Spotify so far, with placement on prominent Spotify Playlists.

Mipso has always been a creative democracy, and on Edges Runthe band takes this ideal to greater lengths than ever before. "We'd all seen a lot of change in a short period," says Sharp of the time between the band's recent 2016 release, Coming Down The Mountain, and Edges Run - recorded in early 2017. "Three of us moved out of the Triangle area and into other places. We had relationships end and deaths of friends and family members." Those events alone could account for the deeply introspective themes on Edges Run, recorded during the dead of winter in Eugene, Oregon. "We were beginning to feel, probably for the first time, that youth was more behind us than ahead, and so I think we were all feeling different pressures closing in," says Sharp. So the band took a step back to consider their songs-in-progress — and took a leap of faith in traveling far from their North Carolina comfort zone to record in Oregon with producer (and bassist) Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco, Andrew Bird, Anaïs Mitchell). They carried with them into the sessions a desire to stretch themselves beyond previously known roads of composition and performance. For the first time, Mipso came to the studio with sketches of songs rather than fully-fleshed arrangements and decided to co-write songs together, also a first for the band. Call it a new level of confidence or a developing collective consciousness, but with five years as a band and hundreds of nights on the road together, with the release of Edges Run Mipso retains its traditional roots while becoming thoroughly modern, intuitive musicians with the ability to transcend conventions and embrace what lies ahead. "We have a better idea of what we can do, and how we want to do it," says Sharp.

Praise for Mipso's Edges Run

"Best New Music" – American Songwriter

"Mipso defy boundaries and limitations on " Edges Run," the entrancing title-track from their forthcoming record…" - Americana Music Association

"Mipso has discovered that rare chemistry of four people coming together and uncorking bottled lightning with every tour and trip to the studio." - Cincinnati City Beat

"Catchy and radiant, moody and meditative, [the songs will] touch you on many different levels." - PopMatters

" Edges Run...pushes the boundaries...while maintaining everything Mipso do really well. It's honest and... asks you to listen closely. The instrumentation is rich, while still convincing you that it's simple"- Red Line Roots

"...showcasing the group's tight harmonies and musicianship…[and] venturing further intoalt-country…territory." - Washington Post

"[Mipso's Edges Run] balances heavy heartbreak and introspection with poppy, good-times acoustic pop. It's a good spectrum for the quartet, in that it allows for a wide sonic and emotional range." - No Depression

"Mipso's stellar use of harmony and deep layers of sound bring out a level of maturity comparable to Neil Young, Fleet Foxes and Fleetwood Mac." - Triad City Beat

"'Artist You Need To Know' The quartet's winsome Americana is as catchy and easygoing as ever." – Rolling Stone

"[Edges Run] solidifies Mipso's position in the modern folk movement." - Amplifier Magazine

"Mipso separates from the pack with an introspective, at times dark set of songs that emphasize atmosphere over monolithic strumming and draw from folk, old-school country and modern pop with equal enthusiasm. It's the sound of a band embracing adulthood and finding its sound." - Bend Bulletin

Follow Mipso on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Megan Oots is Popdust writer based in New York City. She loves the sun, cooking, and playing with dogs.

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From Your Site Articles

10 Movies Guaranteed to Make You Cry

Because tearjerkers are cheaper than therapy.

10. If Beale Street Could Talk

9. The Fault in Our Stars

8. Toy Story 3

7. Room

6. Moonlight

5. The Notebook

4. Marley & Me

3. The Last of the Mohicans

2. The Bridge to Terabithia

1. Up