Send me your Inspire-Cry media recommendations - pretty please.
November 6, 2016 9:38 AM   Subscribe

Election stress plus personal life stress is getting to me. I need a good cry out (probably pretty easy to achieve at this point), but with happy + inspirational ending, not a depressing, humans are evil, what's the point of living ending. Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, podcasts, or other internet recommendations?

This morning, a friend posted this inspiring, girl-power video, which made me tear up. And it felt amazing!

I need an outlet for the stress. I'm looking for media that's inspirational & empowering, that might tug on my heartstrings, and activate tear ducts. But not something that will leave me more stressed out or depressed afterwards. I want to release stress & feel better about life.

Diet & exercise just isn't cutting it. I need something like the feeling I get when Vanessa Redgrave finishes off every episode of Call the Midwife, for example. Or Brene Brown or Andrew Solomon's TedTalks.

A few days ago there was a similar question asking for happy, delightful recommendations, which is lovely, but not really what I need right now.

Videos (Netflix, Amazon, Youtube), movies, series, music videos, ted talks, or even non-videos like Podcasts (series or specific episodes), articles, short stories, etc.

I need a good cry out and have hope for the world.

Thanks in advance.
posted by Neekee to Media & Arts (22 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: There's a secret Facebook group for Hillary supporters. Close to 1 million strong, well-moderated so that it focuses on personal stories and the positive, and incredibly inspiring. PM me if you'd like the name.
posted by MsMolly at 9:52 AM on November 6, 2016 [10 favorites]


And if you like Call the Midwife I can suggest some other period stuff about awesome women in hard times that features good personal stories:

Land Girls women on the home front in britain working to support the war effort
Anzac Girls (Australian and NZ nurses on the front during WWI)

the absolutely gorgeous
Bye Bye Blues -- about a Canadian woman on the prairies, waiting for news of her husband (missing in the war) and her work as a singer to make ends meet. Complicated, woman centered, strong female lead. In case that is hard to find where you are, here is a clip with one of the songs, which perhaps just suits your mood.
posted by chapps at 10:19 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


The Secret Garden (90's version) is on Amazon--it was a childhood favorite of mine that I recently revisited. So lush and beautiful with tons of emotion; it was definitely one that had me crying several times throughout but does, ultimately, have a happy outcome. Shawshank Redemption (though male-centric) is another one that comes to mind as bringing out the waterworks but has a uplifting "hell yes!" ending.
posted by lovableiago at 10:30 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Dead Poets Society is your classic weeper with inspiring ending.
posted by praemunire at 10:48 AM on November 6, 2016


I always wind up happy-sobbing at the end of Strictly Ballroom.
posted by Lexica at 11:03 AM on November 6, 2016 [4 favorites]


Cloud Atlas has something like a 3 hour run time, and I started crying at about the 6 minute mark and didn't stop. I was literally a ball of snot by the end.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
posted by jbenben at 11:08 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


i prefer crying until i'm exhausted and it has to be true, but i find the BBC magazine longreads section to be perfect for melancholy, crying and sympathising (my favourite form of provoking crying) (isn't the internet where all the things you did in secret you thought made you a mentally ill weirdo turn out to be done by everyone else too? If you're over 40, of course!) There's no direct URL, annoyingly, you have to go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine
and then fish out the long reads from the video, short reads and fact-checkers, and use the suggestions at end & side. Also the longreads include philosophy and stuff. But they have a unique tone, melancholy, hopeful, often sad or desperate but involved.
posted by maiamaia at 11:15 AM on November 6, 2016


good examples:
The doctor who has met 250,000 migrants

American student recycles soap for Cambodian children

big investigation into use of the internet to blackmail men and women in sexually conservative (read, arabic mainly) countries - some material, eg on straight men, is a first, i think - landing page looks image-based but stories are normal newspaper webpage format
posted by maiamaia at 11:21 AM on November 6, 2016


Humans Of New York on tumblr and facebook - short, you think, but you can't stop reading
posted by maiamaia at 11:24 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


a classic: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ?
posted by bluedora at 11:27 AM on November 6, 2016


I watched the documentary Dark Horse recently, and I think it might be what you're looking for. You don't have to be a horse person to enjoy it!

(I teared up again just watching the trailer.)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:12 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ponette is a heartbreaking story of a young toddler trying to understand the death of her mother.

Just watching the trailer makes my eyes watery - but the movie does end on an uplifting note.

Sadly, it doesn't appear to be available for streaming, but maybe a local library has a copy.
posted by invisible ink at 12:36 PM on November 6, 2016


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLTT8ogRf50

This documentary about Cai Guo-Qiang's artwork made me weep like a lil baby at the end due to a particular moment of triumph he experiences and shares with his family. It's a beautiful movie and it's on Netflix. Enjoy :)
posted by zdravo at 1:21 PM on November 6, 2016


Best answer: Pixar's Inside Out.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 2:40 PM on November 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


It's a cheesy, forced, and fault-ridden movie but the "people coming together" ending of Pay It Forward might push that button.
posted by ElDiabloConQueso at 3:15 PM on November 6, 2016


Hector and the Search for Happiness!!! It's a movie on netflix, with an absolutely lovely happy-crying, cathartic release at the end. cannot recommend enough.


(also in this category: love actually, the secret life of walter mitty)
posted by carlypennylane at 4:44 PM on November 6, 2016


Have you listened to the Broadway Cast Recording of Hamilton? If you haven't, or you haven't listened to it from start to finish, I recommend that. Almost the entire thing is on the recording, so you get the full story. It takes you on an intense emotional journey, especially if you just listen to it with no other distractions.

The second half of the second act gets really sad, and I absolutely sobbed the first time I listened, but then it leaves you with a really great sense of emotional resolution.
posted by lunasol at 5:38 PM on November 6, 2016 [3 favorites]


Billy Elliot!
posted by Vaike at 6:54 PM on November 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


Smoke Signals has some very funny moments and also had the theater full of people I saw it in sobbing. It still has this effect on me.
posted by rtha at 8:49 PM on November 6, 2016


Black Mirror season 3 just came out (available on Netflix), and the episode "San Junipero" is exactly this.

"The Song of the Sea" as well. Uh, I guess I cry pretty easily.

On a slightly darker note, I didn't actually cry at the end of The Lives of Others but I think a lot of people did, and it's that kind of movie. Although it may not be what you're looking for as it's got more of a downbeat tone than the above two (I mean, it's awfully uplifting and heartwarming for a movie about the Stasi, but it's still about the Stasi...)
posted by phoenixy at 9:41 PM on November 6, 2016


Dear Zachary (available on Netflix, but I'm not linking because you shouldn't read anything about it before watching) is what you want. Seriously.
posted by guster4lovers at 9:59 PM on November 6, 2016


Wild (movie)
I blubbered like a baby at the end of The Kite Runner (the book)
Beaches

+1 for Hector ISO Happiness, Inside Out

also How Do YOU Define Yourself Lizzie Velasquez at TEDxAustinWomen

Harold & Maude
posted by OlivesAndTurkishCoffee at 10:35 AM on November 8, 2016


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