ISO heartwarming tear jerkers
August 11, 2020 5:18 PM Subscribe
I'm stressed and depressed about current events, and stressed and anxious about things in my life. I can feel myself needing to cry, but I'm having a hard time opening up to it. So I'm looking for heartwarming tear jerkers. A great example is this self-written obituary. I like that it's philosophical, whimsical, human, life affirming. What else might fit the bill?
I couldn't but need to cry a few weeks ago. A viewing of Steel Magnolias took care of that. (Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.)
posted by cyndigo at 5:33 PM on August 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by cyndigo at 5:33 PM on August 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
Troop Zero did this for me a few months ago. I won't spoil what scene made me start sobbing and holding my hands to my chest while simultaneously laughing, but I can assure you that I have never wept happy tears over seeing someone doing that before.
posted by queensissy at 5:47 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by queensissy at 5:47 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
The movie Strictly Ballroom is my go-to for this kind of thing.
posted by Lexica at 6:15 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Lexica at 6:15 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
Coco!
https://movies.disney.com/coco
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:20 PM on August 11, 2020 [7 favorites]
https://movies.disney.com/coco
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:20 PM on August 11, 2020 [7 favorites]
Have you ever seen that youtube video about the guys who raised a lion then released it to the wild then went and found it? Works like a charm. Don’t care if it is somehow fake or problematic. Works every time.
posted by less of course at 6:24 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by less of course at 6:24 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
I was weeping like a baby watching Casablanca a couple nights ago. I'm not sure it's all told that great a work of art, but it sure jerked the tears outta me.
posted by bertran at 6:46 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by bertran at 6:46 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
I cried my eyes out during the first 3 seasons of Grey's Anatomy. I also sobbed on an airplane while reading The Fault in Our Stars. Weetzie Bat and the sequels always get me in the feels.
posted by fairlynearlyready at 7:04 PM on August 11, 2020
posted by fairlynearlyready at 7:04 PM on August 11, 2020
The Travelling Cat Chronicles. It's a really lovely, heartwarming story about friendship and loss and it made most of my book club sniffle.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:22 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by betweenthebars at 7:22 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
this book is amazing and made me sob like nobody's business.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:02 PM on August 11, 2020
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:02 PM on August 11, 2020
Have you seen Queer Eye? Every episode is a "heartwarming tearjerker".
posted by bearette at 8:18 PM on August 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by bearette at 8:18 PM on August 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
I needed this in my 20s for reasons and my go-to was the Nancy Savoca movie Dogfight from 1991, with River Phoenix and Lili Taylor.
posted by vunder at 9:19 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by vunder at 9:19 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
The film Stand by Me, and youtube videos of returning US soldiers being reunited with their dogs.
posted by runincircles at 9:49 PM on August 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by runincircles at 9:49 PM on August 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
I find reading about/observing acts of kindness makes me cry.
What is the kindest thing a stranger has done for you?
This compilation of Russian drivers doing acts of kindness
gets me every time. Seriously, I just watched the first few seconds of it to make sure it was the right one and I started tearing up immediately.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:06 AM on August 12, 2020 [3 favorites]
What is the kindest thing a stranger has done for you?
This compilation of Russian drivers doing acts of kindness
gets me every time. Seriously, I just watched the first few seconds of it to make sure it was the right one and I started tearing up immediately.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:06 AM on August 12, 2020 [3 favorites]
The 1993 movie "Homeward Bound" is cute and fun, but it has a part near the end that gets me every time. Like, I'm tearing up thinking about it right now, and I don't cry very easily.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:23 AM on August 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:23 AM on August 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
The end of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights does this for me so reliably that I can now induce tears just by thinking of it.
posted by maddieD at 8:14 AM on August 12, 2020
posted by maddieD at 8:14 AM on August 12, 2020
Seconding Queer Eye, which is a balm for the soul, but also, it seems so obvious you might roll your eyes, but Up by Pixar?
I mean... it's the gold standard, for me. That first ten minutes of action... is like... they honed their craft in Finding Nemo, at which my eyes misted when the dad finds all his babies are gone. And in Toy Story, oof, a tug at the heart strings. And then they just... unload all the big guns in Up. Oh, we've figured your shit out now. Try resisting this.
When I saw it in the cinema, my then boyfriend asked me if I needed to leave because I was heaving with sobs and weeping so hard. The second and third times I saw it I thought, sure, I know what's going to happen so it can't get me again. WRONG.
I am literally tearing up now just from thinking about it.
posted by greenish at 9:34 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
I mean... it's the gold standard, for me. That first ten minutes of action... is like... they honed their craft in Finding Nemo, at which my eyes misted when the dad finds all his babies are gone. And in Toy Story, oof, a tug at the heart strings. And then they just... unload all the big guns in Up. Oh, we've figured your shit out now. Try resisting this.
When I saw it in the cinema, my then boyfriend asked me if I needed to leave because I was heaving with sobs and weeping so hard. The second and third times I saw it I thought, sure, I know what's going to happen so it can't get me again. WRONG.
I am literally tearing up now just from thinking about it.
posted by greenish at 9:34 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
I don't know why I even finished with Up! The end of Wall-E. The end of Coco. Ooooooooffff.
At the end of "Coco", my partner and I looked at each other both outright weeping and almost in perfect unison said "fuck you, Pixar".
posted by greenish at 9:35 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
At the end of "Coco", my partner and I looked at each other both outright weeping and almost in perfect unison said "fuck you, Pixar".
posted by greenish at 9:35 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
A Man Called Ove, the book (Swedish but has been translated well into English and many other languages) and/or the movie (Swedish, with subtitles).
It's about a lonely widowed (and, CW: suicidal) curmudgeon who gets a new lease on life when a noisy family moves into his neighborhood.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:58 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's about a lonely widowed (and, CW: suicidal) curmudgeon who gets a new lease on life when a noisy family moves into his neighborhood.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:58 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Another suggestion: the short story Toad Words by T. Kingfisher (the pen name Ursula Vernon uses for her non-children's books) makes me sob every time I read it. I've got tears in my eyes right now just from loading the page to copy the link.
posted by Lexica at 10:09 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Lexica at 10:09 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
The 1993 movie "Homeward Bound" is cute and fun, but it has a part near the end that gets me every time. Like, I'm tearing up thinking about it right now, and I don't cry very easily.
I know the exact part you mean, and it so brought on the waterworks when I originally saw the film back whenever, and I'm getting watery now just thinking about it.
The 1937 Barbara Stanwyck film Stella Dallas is a guaranteed three-hanky tear-jerker.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:14 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
I know the exact part you mean, and it so brought on the waterworks when I originally saw the film back whenever, and I'm getting watery now just thinking about it.
The 1937 Barbara Stanwyck film Stella Dallas is a guaranteed three-hanky tear-jerker.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:14 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
For quick hits, you can go onto YouTube and look up videos where a baby hears their mother's voice for the first time. You'll get happy cry-inducing videos of babies and toddlers with hearing difficulties right after receiving a device that allows them to finally hear. And when they hear their moms? Oh wow.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:38 PM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:38 PM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
If you don't bawl like a distressed two year old at the end of Cinema Paradiso, I don't even know what to tell you. It's a lovely movie throughout, and the ending is perfect (don't bother with the director's cut if you're given the choice, the original is better).
posted by pdb at 4:32 PM on August 12, 2020
posted by pdb at 4:32 PM on August 12, 2020
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posted by Lady Li at 5:29 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]