15. This Is 40 (2012)
Most people suffer a midlife crisis some time between the ages of 30 and 50. It’s often a hazy and divergent time—some have kids, some have established careers, some are off traveling the world.
And some have none of the above. Once our chaotic 20s are over, we’re officially an adult… and that comes with scary responsibilities: mortgages, businesses, parenthood, etc.
For Debbie (played by Leslie Mann) and Pete (played by Paul Rudd), it’s all of the above. The couple needs to sort their life out between financial problems, a fractured marriage, and terrible teens. It’s all made worse by the fact that their 40th birthdays are approaching.
This Is 40is set five years afterKnocked Up, with it being a sequel-but-not-really by director Judd Apatow.
Related:The Best Paul Rudd Movies of All Time, Ranked
14. Eat Pray Love (2010)
When people go off to “find themselves,” they rarely go searching in banks or office buildings. They travel the world, practice spiritual rituals, and marinade in new cultures… not start a business and a marriage.
Liz (played by Julia Roberts) has this revelation eight years too late, when she realizes she’s now stuck with a husband she doesn’t want.
However, being “stuck” is just a state of mind. Once Liz gets through the turmoil of divorce and affairs, she embarks on a three-point journey of self-discovery: Italy, India, and Bali.
Across the globe, Liz learns what life is all about: eating well, cultivating her soul, and loving everyone she meets. Liz shows us how a midlife crisis should be done—exploring Bali is just a cherry on top.
Related:The Best Movies About Self-Discovery and Finding Yourself
13. Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
As they say, opposites attract. That’s great for Harry (played by Jack Nicholson) and Erica (played by Diane Keaton), who couldn’t be more opposite.
Harry is a rich New York businessman who only dates young models. Erica is a playwright who’s more his age than her daughter (played by Amanda Peet) is. The thing is, Harry is currently dating said daughter.
When the three are forced to live together for a few days, things go from awkward to hostile to friendly. A littletoofriendly.
Harry and Erica initially clash, but that friction turns into an unexpected connection. It’s too bad that Harry is too commitment-phobic to make things official.
Something’s Gotta Giveis a solid rom-com that’ll please all fans of the genre. It’s smart, funny, not too heavy, not too cheesy. Nicholson and Keaton both play versions of themselves—or, at least, their public personas—which makes the film feel authentic.
Related:The Best Movies About Family Vacations, Ranked
12. Office Space (1999)
The tedious office job never looked quite so dull as in Mike Judge’s darkly comicOffice Space. A satire of working life in the 90s,Office Spacefollows Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons, a software engineer who hates his soul-sucking job.
His micromanaging boss speaks in fluent catchphrases (“I’m gonna go ahead and need you to…") and his girlfriend wants him to try hypnotherapy. Unfortunately, his therapist dies mid-trance, leaving Peter to carry on living in a hypnotic state.
Refusing overtime to play video games, Peter swans through life with a newfound ease, later triggering a revenge plot against the management. ThoughOffice Spacewas a box office flop, it went on to become a highly memeable cult classic.
Related:The Best Movies About Jobs and Working in an Office
11. The Incredibles (2004)
You might be surprised to see this Pixar family classic on this list, but hear us out:The Incrediblesdoesn’t take place when Mr. and Mrs. Parr become superheroes—it’s when theyre-become superheroes.
The animation begins with some old video footage of Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl being interviewed in their prime days. Fast-forward 15 years and the public has turned on heroes, leaving Bob “Incredible” Parr stuck in a dead-end insurance job.
Have you seen a more monotonous, life-draining depiction of white-collar work than inThe Incredibles? Brad Bird superbly encapsulates the insipidness of the corporate world, which spurs Mr. Incredible on to reclaim his former glory.
When a new villain arrives on scene, Bob whips out the old spandex and gets the whole family involved in his midlife crisis heroics.
Related:The Best Female Pixar Characters, Ranked
10. Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)
Steve Carell gets a new life coach inCrazy, Stupid, Love, and that life coach is played fabulously by Ryan Gosling. Who wouldn’t want a handsome and chiseled coach like Gosling?
Cal (played by Steve Carell) is crushed to find out his wife has been having an affair—but as an awkward middle-aged man, he struggles to pick up any new women himself.
Taking pity on him, Jacob (played by Ryan Gosling) decides to teach him the art of womanizing, turning Cal’s life around with fitted clothes and effective chat-up lines.
While Cal rediscovers his waning masculinity, Jacob takes a bullet to his ego when a girl he fancies rejects him. In effect, Cal is getting over his midlife crisis as Jacob approaches one of his own.
Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa,Crazy, Stupid, Loveis a lighthearted comedy for when you fancy a good, easy laugh.
Related:The Best Movies About Divorce and Breakups, Ranked
9. Falling Down (1993)
InFalling Down, William Foster doesn’t have a midlife crisis so much as a full on midlife breakdown. Played by Michael Douglas, the former engineer is divorced, unemployed, and looking for trouble.
Trying to reach his daughter’s birthday party in time, William is met with an array of tediously trivial obstacles that turn out to be the final straw that breaks his back.
When the banality of everyday problems trigger a crisis within William, he acts out violently by trashing stores with a baseball bat and firing a gun in a fast food restaurant. Michael Douglas is the perfect fit for this wound-up, hyperbolic everyman.
The bleak existential storyline is masked as a comedy, all while commenting on the emptiness of the American Dream. Joel Schumacher directs the film we all wish we could live, thrashing out our everyday woes without a second thought to the consequences.
Related:The Best Movies Where Protagonists Have Mental Breakdowns
8. City Slickers (1991)
City dwellers often take weekends off in the countryside to get away from traffic, phone calls, and board meetings. For Mitch, Ed, and Phil, they find their break in the San Fermín festival in Spain.
The three realize that they’ve been trying to escape their New York lives for years. Now, finally, they decide enough is enough—that a cattle drive across the South should do them good.
It’s not the first adventure the three have taken together, but of course this one doesn’t go so smoothly.
Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, and Bruno Kirby star in Ron Underwood’s Western-infused comedy, which was followed by the sequelCity Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Goldin 1994.
Related:The Best Road Movies of All Time, Ranked
7. The Big Chill (1983)
Nothing sparks a midlife crisis as strongly as a school reunion. InThe Big Chill, a group of friends from the University of Michigan reunite 15 years after the death of their friend, forcing them to reflect on their lives.
Some are married, some are writers, some are addicts. Some are even veterans, actors, and executives. None of them are what they seem on the surface—and they have wild stories to exchange.
The Big Chillwas nominated for three Oscars and features an ensemble cast (Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, and JoBeth Williams) to fit every kind of character and their varied backstories.
Related:The Best Chill Movies That Feel Like a Hangout
6.Thelma & Louise (1991)
When someone says the words “midlife crisis,” we tend to think of middle-aged men with receding hairlines buying flashy new cars with money they don’t have.
But that isn’t the only way to have a crisis. InThelma & Louise, Ridley Scott shows us how two average American women can break free and challenge the status quo at any minute.
When the meek housewife Thelma (played by Geena Davis) joins her bestie Louise (played by Susan Sarandon) on a spontaneous road trip, all hell breaks loose.
Tired of their suburban lives in Arkansas, Thelma and Louise take a vacation and end up robbing stores and committing murder.
A clear reference to the infamous Bonnie and Clyde duo,Thelma & Louiseis a feisty feminist take on the buddy-road-trip movie. It even won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, alongside five more nominations.
Related:The Best Movie Buddies and Character Duos, Ranked
5. Birdman (2014)
In Alejandro González Iñárritu’sBirdman, dwindling star Riggan Thomson (played by Michael Keaton) desperately clings to his iconic 90s role as the superhero Birdman.
Older, grayer, and no longer relevant, Riggan goes through that all-too-familiar celebrity crisis of fading from the public image. To fight against it, Riggan decides to write, direct, and star in a Broadway show that isn’t exactly a success.
Starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, and Emma Stone,Birdmanwon four Oscars, including Best Cinematography.
Of course, we can’t referenceBirdmanwithout mentioning the fact it was filmed all in one take—or, at least, manipulated to look like it was.
Related:Great Movies With the Best Cinematography, Ranked
4. A Serious Man (2009)
The Coen brothers are known for their oddball style of filmmaking. The auteurs have made many zany cult movies, including the infamousFargoandThe Big Lebowski.
One lesser-known (but still awesome) Coen brothers flick isA Serious Man, starring Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a Jewish physics professor who becomes disillusioned with his life. His wife is leaving him and Larry’s tenure is, for some reason, being sabotaged.
As Larry’s faith dwindles, he asks multiple rabbis for help but they are never available.A Serious Mantouches on universal topics of atheism, discontentment, and philosophy. It sounds pretty heavy, but don’t worry—the Coens were sure to stuff some laughs in.
Related:The Best Black Comedy Movies With Darkly Morbid Humor
3. Lost in Translation (2003)
An atypical love story imbued with the dreamy aesthetics of Sofia Coppola,Lost in Translationis a striking piece of cinema.
Bill Murray plays a darkly funny middle-aged movie star who’s shooting a commercial in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson is lounging about her hotel room while her husband is off on photoshoots.
The two restless, bored, and lonely travelers form an unlikely friendship that weaves through the bustling backdrop of an alien city.
Lost in Translationis one of those slow, melancholic movies that glides and lingers through its vague plotline—and it’s exactly this vagueness that Coppola wants to tap into.
Like the two protagonists, we’re somewhat dissociated withLost in Translation’sworld, eloquently exploring feelings of dissatisfaction and loneliness that come with a midlife (or mid-twenties) crisis.
Related:The Best Slice-of-Life Movies
2. American Beauty (1999)
After having an out-of-body experience, magazine executive Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey) becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter’s friend Angela (played by Mena Suvari).
Because of this, Lester’s life inside the suburban American Dream is suddenly brought to a halt. Lester decides to ditch the materialism, quit his job, and start working out in the garage. Though happier than he’s ever been, his neurotic wife and moody daughter aren’t too pleased.
American Beautyuses the standard midlife crisis setup to probe deep into themes of capitalism, identity, liberation, and sexuality.American Beautybegan as a stage play, but found itself as a cynical script that would go on to win multiple Oscars.
Sam Mendes won Best Director for his directorial debut, carefully balancing the film’s dark themes with bouts of comedy.
Related:The Best Movies About Marriage of All Time, Ranked
1. Another Round (2020)
Another Round(orDruk, which is Danish for “binge drinking”) somehow manages to be chaotic yet somber, funny yet poetic.
Mads Mikkelsen stars as the teacher Martin who decides to drink alcohol every day as part of an experiment. At first, Martin blissfully sails through his new, tipsy life. But, of course, alcoholism looms on the horizon.
Don’t get the wrong idea:Another Roundisn’t just about binge drinking. This Oscar-winning movie was highly praised for its “soul,” derived from the director’s own daughter Ida.
After urging him to make the film, Ida sadly passed away during production; as a result, the script was reworked to be more uplifting and life-affirming.
Thomas Vinterberg directed this black-comedy just a year ago, and it’s already getting an American remake. Which usually wouldn’t be something we celebrate, but given that it’ll be starring Leonardo DiCaprio, you can count us in!
Read next:The Best Movies About Teachers and Students, Ranked
