Highest-Rated Movies about 'Abusive Stepfather'

Fanny and Alexander (1982), Barry Lyndon (1975), Boyhood (2014), October Sky (1999), David Copperfield (1935), Transamerica (2005), Sweet Sixteen (2002), This Boy's Life (1993) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Abusive Stepfather movies.

#1. Fanny and Alexander (1982)

Storyline: It's the early twentieth century Sweden. Adolescent siblings Alexander and Fanny Ekdahl lead a relatively joyous and exuberant life with their well-off extended paternal family, led by the family matriarch, their grandmother, Helena Ekdahl. The openness of the family culture is exemplified by Helena's now deceased husband ending up becoming best friends with one of her lovers, a Jewish puppet maker named Isak Jacobi, and their Uncle Gustav Adolf's open liaison with one of the family maids, Maj, who everyone in the family adores, even Gustav Adolf's wife, Alma. Between the siblings, Alexander in particular has inherited the family's love of storytelling, his parents and his grandmother who are actors and who manage their own theater. Things change for Alexander and Fanny when their father, Oscar, dies shortly after Christmas 1907. Although she truly does believe she loves him, the children's mother, Emilie, decides to marry Bishop Edvard Vergérus, who she first met as the officiate at ...

Plot Keywords: domestic violence, grief, marriage of convenience, abusive stepfather, brother brother relationship, domestic servant, family gathering ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#2. Barry Lyndon (1975)

Storyline: In the eighteenth century, in a small village in Ireland, Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) is a young farm boy in love with his cousin Nora Brady (Gay Hamilton). When Nora gets engaged to British Captain John Quin (Leonard Rossiter), Barry challenges him to a duel of pistols. He wins and escapes to Dublin, but is robbed on the road. Without an alternative, Barry joins the British Army to fight in the Seven Years War. He deserts and is forced to join the Prussian Army, where he saves the life of his Captain and becomes his protégé and spy of Irish gambler Chevalier de Balibari (Patrick Magee). He helps Chevalier and becomes his associate until he decides to marry the wealthy Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson). They move to England and Barry, in his obsession of nobility, dissipates her fortune and makes a dangerous and revengeful enemy.

Plot Keywords: rise and fall, amputation, cheating at cards, fencing, card playing, social climber, wedding ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#3. Boyhood (2014)

Storyline: Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay's Yellow to Arcade Fire's Deep Blue. BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.

Plot Keywords: coming of age, domestic abuse, abusive husband, divorced parents, parenting, growing up, abusive father ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#4. October Sky (1999)

Storyline: In a 1950's mining town called Coalwood, Homer Hickam is a kid with only one future in sight, to work in the local coal mine like his father. However in October 1957, everything changes when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik goes into orbit. With that event, Homer becomes inspired to learn how to build rockets. With his friends and the local nerd, Homer sets to do just that by trial and a lot of error. Unfortunately, most of the town and especially Homer's father thinks that they are wasting their time. Only one teacher in the high school understands their efforts and lets them know that they could become contenders in the national science fair with college scholarships being the prize. Now the gang must learn to perfect their craft and overcome the many problems facing them as they shoot for the stars.

Plot Keywords: scientist, geek, drunkenness, death, marching band, football coach, coach ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#5. David Copperfield (1935)

Storyline: When David's father dies, his mother remarries. His new stepfather Murdstone has a mean and cruel view on how to raise a child. When David's mother dies from grief, Murdstone sends David to London to work for a living. When David escapes to his aunt Betsey his life starts to get better.—Mattias Thuresson

Plot Keywords: desertion, debt, death, childbirth, blackmail, alcoholic, writing ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#6. Transamerica (2005)

Storyline: Southern Californian Bree Osbourne, formerly Stanley Chupak, has finally received the news for which she has been waiting: she has been approved for male-to-female sexual reassignment surgery. But before Margaret, her therapist, will allow her to go through with the surgery scheduled in a week's time, Bree has to deal with an unresolved problem from her past. Bree gets a telephone call from a seventeen year old man named Toby Wilkins, who is looking for Stanley, his biological father. Toby is in a New York jail, having been supporting himself by petty crime and hustling. Stanley/Bree knew nothing about Toby before the telephone call. Toby apparently is all alone in the world, with his mother having committed suicide and being estranged from his stepfather in Tennessee. Masquerading as a Christian social worker, Bree, not telling him either of her true identity or her transgender status, bails Toby out of jail and tells him she will take him to Los Angeles, where Toby has aspirations ...

Plot Keywords: road movie, hotel room, female full frontal nudity, swimming pool, gay kiss, waitress, senior citizen ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#7. Sweet Sixteen (2002)

Storyline: Liam is a young, restless teen struggling to realize his dream in the gritty and dismal streets of Greenock, where unemployment is rampant and little hope is available to the city's youth. He is waiting for the release of his mother, Jean, from prison where she is completing a prison term for a crime that her boyfriend actually committed. Her boyfriend, Stan, is a crude and obnoxious drug pusher is partnered by Liam's equally rough and foul-mouthed, mean-spirited grandfather. Liam is determined to rescue his mother from both of them, which means creating a safe haven beyond their reach. But first he's got to raise the cash--no small feat for a young man. It's not long before Liam and his pals' crazy schemes lead them into all sorts of trouble. Finding himself dangerously out of his depth, Liam knows he should walk away. Only this time, he just can't let go.

Plot Keywords: prison, coming of age, stolen car, scottish accent, drug dealer, glasgow scotland, smuggling ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#8. This Boy's Life (1993)

Storyline: In 1957, a son and mother flee the East and an abusive boyfriend to find a new life, and end up in Seattle, where the mother meets a polite garage mechanic. The boy continually gets into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. The mom marries the mechanic, but they soon find out that he's an abusive and unreasoning alcoholic, and they struggle to maintain hope in an impossible situation as the boy grows up with plans to escape the small town by any means possible. Based on a true story by Tobias Wolff.

Plot Keywords: marital abuse, anal rape, pearl, compassion, domestic violence, homosexual, melancholy ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#9. RocknRolla (2008)

Storyline: Lenny Cole, a London mob boss, puts the bite on all local real estate transactions. For substantial fees, he's helping Uri Omovich, a Russian developer. As a sign of good faith, Omovich loans Cole a valuable painting, promptly stolen off Cole's wall. While Cole's men, led by the dependable Archie, look for the canvas, three local petty criminals, the Wild Bunch, steal money from the Russian using inside information from his accountant, the lovely Stella. Meanwhile, a local drug-addled rocker, Johnny Quid, is reported drowned, and his connection to Cole is the key to unraveling the deceits and double crosses of life in the underworld.

Plot Keywords: gangster, homosexual, robbery, corruption, theft, faked death, coming out ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#10. Radio Flyer (1992)

Storyline: A father reminisces about his childhood when he and his younger brother moved to a new town with their mother, her new husband and their dog, Shane. When the younger brother is subjected to physical abuse at the hands of their brutal stepfather, Mike decides to convert their toy trolley, the "Radio Flyer", into a plane to fly him to safety.

Plot Keywords: physical abuse, stepfather stepson relationship, told in flashback, mother son relationship, child abuse, brother brother relationship, 1960s ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#11. All the Little Animals (1998)

Storyline: Bobby Platt is a mentally slow young man who escapes an abusive, hateful stepfather who has killed his pets one by one. To save himself, Bobby runs away and meets a strange old man who wanders the highways to bury roadkill animals. Bobby becomes the old man's apprentice and learns to see the world of nature in a strange idyllic way. But soon the shadow of his stepfather catches up to him and Bobby's world explodes into a grotesque nightmare.—Harrison <cbale@interlog.com>

Plot Keywords: pet, nature, escape, based on novel, castle, caterpillar, cemetery ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#12. The Book of Henry (2017)

Storyline: Juggling a job as a waitress and raising two boys on her own--little Peter, and the 11-year-old child prodigy, Henry--the single mother, Susan Carpenter, has a somewhat chaotic life, depending on Henry to manage the household's finances. However, things will take an unexpected turn, when Henry's innocent crush on the beautiful girl next door and hopeful ballet dancer, Christina, unveils a cruel and shocking revelation, dragging Susan in the middle of a dark conspiracy. Will the Carpenters take the law into their own hands; moreover, what's written inside Henry's little red book?

Plot Keywords: small town, child abuse, suicide, police siren, new york state, rifle, polaroid ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#13. Siblings (2004)

Storyline: Joe (Alex Campbell) and his siblings have a couple of problems. First off, their stepparents are despicably evil. Secondly, they seemed to have killed them. Now this mixed up mess of half-sisters and step-brothers have to figure out how to dispose of the bodies, cover up the murders, collect their grandfather's inheritance and somehow stick together as a family -- all without getting caught. Not to mention Joe's incessant need to keep tabs on his promiscuous sister, an eye on the precocious little ones and a lustful watch on the girl next-door. Growing up has its complications. Murder's just one of them.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: death of father, masturbation, voyeur, christmas, corpse, one word title, child protagonist ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#14. The Voices (2014)

Storyline: Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is that chipper guy clocking the nine-to-five at a bathtub factory, with the offbeat charm of anyone who could use a few friends. With the help of his court-appointed psychiatrist, he pursues his office crush (Gemma Arterton). However, the relationship takes a sudden, murderous turn after she stands him up for a date. Guided by his evil talking cat and benevolent talking dog, Jerry must decide whether to keep striving for normalcy, or indulge in a much more sinister path.

Plot Keywords: psychiatrist, talking dog, talking cat, hearing voices, psychopath as protagonist, schizophrenic, date ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#15. Maps to the Stars (2014)

Storyline: The Weiss family is the archetypical Hollywood dynasty: father Stafford is an analyst and coach, who has made a fortune with his self-help manuals; mother Cristina mostly looks after the career of their son Benjie, 13, a child star. One of Stafford's clients, Havana, is an actress who dreams of shooting a remake of the movie that made her mother, Clarice, a star in the 60s. Clarice is dead now and visions of her come to haunt Havana at night... Adding to the toxic mix, Benjie has just come off a rehab program he joined when he was 9 and his sister, Agatha, has recently been released from a sanatorium where she was treated for criminal pyromania and befriended a limo driver Jerome who is also an aspiring actor.

Plot Keywords: male frontal nudity, male full frontal nudity, aspiring actor, male nudity, dysfunctional family, sex, lesbian sex ...

Movie Details Click Here!