It doesn't get much more intense than a grieving superhero. The delicate, complex handling of grief in WandaVision makes this Disney+ miniseries stand out from other MCU projects. Elizabeth Olsen's Avenger Wanda Maximoff mourns not only the demise of her love Vision but remains devastated by the murder of her twin brother Pietro, aka Quicksilver, at the hands of Ultron and, before that, the bombing that ended her parents' lives.
WandaVision explores the range of emotions anyone, even Avengers, experiences after a great trauma or loss. Wanda goes to extreme lengths to develop a coping mechanism for herself, but she's far from the only character in cinematic history to do this. In fact, Wanda contributes to a long line of film and TV characters living with insurmountable loss. Whether it's in an LGBTQ+ coming-of-age drama, an animated Pixar film, or a horror anthology series, the best on-screen portrayals of grief expose the anger, sadness, and regret that mourners must contend with before they are able to go on with their lives.
Big Fish (2003)
Grieving is central to Tim Burton's ensemble Southern Gothic drama Big Fish. Billy Crudup narrates as Will Bloom, whose tense relationship with his father Edward, played by both Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney, is predicated on Edward's propensity for telling fantastical and unbelievable stories about his life.
Encouraged by his mother Sandra (Jessica Lange), Will attempts to reconnect with Edward after the older Bloom receives a cancer diagnosis. Big Fish is a testament to how a child comes to terms with a dying parent and also how individuals like Edward grapple with their own mortality.
The Haunting Of Hill House (2018)
Mike Flanagan's films and TV series navigate intergenerational traumas and loss through horror; few are as perfectly pitched and terrifying as his Netflix miniseries The Haunting of Hill House. Loosely based on Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name, the series focuses on a large family, the Crains, whose lives were forever altered by a tragedy 26 years earlier.
With its large, talented cast and supernatural plot developments, The Haunting of Hill House digs deep into the damaged psyches of its characters. While it's full of ghosts, the most insidious facet of what the Crains experience is the enduring nature of grief.
His House (2020)
Considered one of the best horror films of 2020, His House is many things: a story about grieving parents, a refugee saga, and a haunted house thriller. In the Netflix film, Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku play Sudanese refugees Bol and Rial; they manage to arrive safely in England, yet they are devastated by the loss of their daughter during their tortuous journey.
Between bouts of sadness, survivor's guilt, and frustration, Bol and Rial strive to create a fresh start for themselves. Unfortunately, an evil entity known as an apeth has followed the couple into their new home, and it has no plans to let them move on from their horrific ordeal.
Six Feet Under (2001 - 2005)
Every episode of Six Feet Under deals with grief — literally. Alan Ball's award-winning HBO series about a Los Angeles family, the Fishers, who own and operate a busy funeral home, starts every episode with the death of a person whose service is held at Fisher & Sons Funeral Home.
The losses the Fishers manage professionally bleeds over in the losses they deal with individually. Six Feet Under cuts to the core of how trauma affects people by showcasing its characters' dreams, fantasies, and worst nightmares — as well as their strident efforts to work through the turmoil that comes along with seeing so much death.
Up (2009)
Carl is the consummate grumpy old man in Pixar's gorgeously computer-animated Up. Yet, the cause for Carl's world-weariness is evident from the start of the film: he's heartbroken over the death of his wife, Ellie, the love of his life he has known since he was a child.
In order to keep Ellie's memory going strong, Carl decides to fulfill the promise they made together in their youth: visiting Paradise Falls in South America. How does the widower make this dream a reality? He decides to tie thousands of balloons to his house, turning it into a haphazard aircraft that takes Carl and a young Wilderness Explorer named Russell on an epic trek.
Widows (2018)
Widows is far from a typical action-packed heist movie. This Steve McQueen thriller stars Viola Davis as a grieving widow whose husband (Liam Neeson) and his associates are killed in a large-scale robbery during their getaway.
Along with the bereaved wives of her husband's fellow professional thieves, Davis' character hatches a plot to pay back the crime boss who was the target of the heist — a plot that involves robbing a local politician. McQueen draws raw, layered performances out of his titular widows, who transform their collective loss for their complicated spouses into an actionable plan they hope will ensure their future survival in the volatile world they're living in.
BoJack Horseman (2014 - 2020)
Former sitcom star BoJack Horseman's efforts to revive his career may consume a lot of the animated Netflix series' plot, but underneath these probes into celebrity culture is lots and lots of grief. In the show's present, BoJack is a washed-up alcoholic actor who cannot sustain any healthy relationships, be they romantic or platonic.
As the show progresses, flashbacks into BoJack's past reveal just why the eponymous, anthropomorphic horse is so troubled: he's reeling from grief, brought on by both the deaths of those close to him and the loss of his own sense of self. BoJack doesn't want to repeat the patterns of abuse and harm inflicted upon him from a young age by his parents, but that's easier said than done, especially for someone insulated by Hollywood.
Moonlight (2016)
Barry Jenkins' poetic, LGBTQ+ coming-of-age drama Moonlight moves through the stages of one boy's development into adulthood, and each stage in Chiron's evolution is rife with both trauma and moments of relief. Chiron, whose single mother lives with drug addiction and mental health issues, spends much of his childhood fending for himself on the streets of Miami.
Chiron, played brilliantly by three different actors over the course of the film, endeavors to love himself and feel comfortable in his own skin while navigating a world pitted against him. Moonlight shows that grief doesn't only result from the deaths of others; it can also surface when people like Chiron lack the continued support and encouragement they need to be themselves.
WandaVision (2020)
Wanda doesn't understand the full extent of her unbelievable powers in WandaVision, but it's clear they are made all the more potent by the deep pain she feels after the death of Vision. Wanda is so overcome with grief that her chaos magic overwhelms her physical form, and it manifests itself into the fake, conditional town of Westview, New Jersey, where Wanda can live out the sitcom life she should have been granted with her love if he hadn't perished.
This theme of grief resonates throughout all nine episodes of WandaVision, and Wanda finds a kindred spirit in a woman who is supposed to be her enemy: S.W.O.R.D. captain Monica Rambeau, who also experienced loss after the death of her mother Maria and is learning to manage her own special powers. Wanda's ability to maintain the fantasy starts to falter, and as outside forces penetrate her surrogate world, Wanda must face the grief she's spent most of the series avoiding and become accountable for the choices she made in her distress.
Inception (2010)
Christopher Nolan builds a mind-boggling world of illusions, dream-like configurations, and phantasmagorical architecture in Inception. For professional extractor Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who enters the subconscious minds of different targets in order to steal their secrets, grief looms around every corner after the loss of his wife Mal, a fellow extractor who died during a mission.
When Dom gets the chance to implant a thought in a person's mind, he and his colleagues gear up to take on the project. As invasive thoughts and projections of Mal begin to interfere with the expedition, Dom's own trauma begins to put his entire team at risk.