Movies the Whole Family Can Agree On

The Princess Bride

A grandfather reads a story to his sick grandson - and the story turns out to be one of the great adventure films ever made. Swordplay, comedy, romance, a giant, a Sicilian, and one of the most quotable screenplays in cinema history. It works at every age because it operates on every level simultaneously: children follow the adventure, adults catch everything underneath it.

What makes The Princess Bride hold up is the sincerity. It's funny without being cynical, romantic without being saccharine, and exciting without ever losing the warmth underneath it all. Films that try to replicate this formula keep getting it wrong because they forget the warmth.

If there are teenagers in the room who claim they're too old for this, watch their faces during the Inigo Montoya scenes. They'll come around.

Back to the Future

Marty McFly travels back to 1955 in a time machine built from a DeLorean, and has to get his parents to fall in love without destroying his own existence in the process. The plot is airtight, the comedy is physical and sharp, and the stakes are real without anyone getting hurt. It's one of the best-constructed screenplays in Hollywood history, which is why children who haven't been born yet will still be watching it.

The sequels are fine. This one is perfect. Start here, every time.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The template for the modern adventure film, and still better than almost everything that borrowed from it. Indiana Jones is funny, capable, and fallible in exactly the right proportions - you root for him because he isn't invincible. The pacing is relentless. The set pieces are inventive and truly thrilling. And it's rated PG, which meant something different in 1981, so parents should note there is some brief intensity - but nothing that will alarm a child old enough to follow the plot.

Watch it on the biggest screen available. The sound design alone is a lesson in how to build tension.

Stand by Me

Four boys walk into the Oregon woods to find a dead body. What they find instead is what it means to be twelve. Stand by Me is the rare coming-of-age film that children and adults experience completely differently - children see the adventure and the friendship, adults see everything that's coming for those kids after the summer ends. It works brilliantly on both levels. Note: the language is rough for a family film, which is precisely what makes it feel real.

Best for families with children ten and older. The payoff is worth the conversation it might start.

The Iron Giant

A boy in 1950s Maine befriends a giant alien robot who has no memory of where he came from or what he was built for. One of the most emotionally precise animated films ever made, and one of the most misunderstood on release - it bombed, then spent the next two decades being rediscovered. The Iron Giant has a final act that will floor adults who are not expecting it. Children love the robot. Adults love what the robot means.

If you have never seen this, you are about to understand why film fans talk about it the way they do. Keep tissues within reach.

The Incredibles

A family of superheroes living in suburban anonymity is pulled back into action when a villain targets the last remaining heroes. The Incredibles operates simultaneously as a superhero film, a marriage drama, a mid-life crisis comedy, and a thriller - and it pulls off all four without dropping a single thread. The animation still holds up. The screenplay is one of the tightest Pixar has ever produced. And the villain's monologue about mediocrity hits differently once you're an adult who has worked in an office.

The sequel is fine. This one is exceptional. No contest.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Miles Morales gets bitten by a radioactive spider and is pulled into a multiverse of Spider-People. What should have been a cynical franchise extension turned out to be one of the best animated films of the decade - visually unlike anything before it, emotionally grounded in a story about identity and legacy that resonates at every age. Children love the action. Teenagers see themselves in Miles. Adults recognise the grief underneath Peter B. Parker's exhaustion. It works on every level.

Watch it twice. The visual detail in the background that you miss on first viewing is extraordinary.

Coco

A Mexican boy dreams of becoming a musician, defying his family's ban on music. On the night of Día de los Muertos, he crosses into the Land of the Dead and must find his way back - and find out who his family really is. Coco is a film about memory, legacy, and what we owe the generations before us. Children follow the adventure. Adults sit quietly and think about their own grandparents. Its final act is one of the most devastating sequences in Pixar history.

Do not start this one if anyone in the room is trying not to cry in front of other people. It will not work out for them.

Up

A widowed old man ties ten thousand balloons to his house and floats to South America, accidentally bringing a small boy scout with him. The first ten minutes of Up are among the most accomplished ten minutes in cinema - a wordless montage of an entire marriage that hits adults like a freight train. After that, it's a actually funny and exciting adventure. Children enjoy all of it. Adults spend the first act composing themselves.

Prepare young children for the opening. Prepare adults for the fact that they thought they were ready and they are not.

Moana

The daughter of a Polynesian chief sets sail across the ocean to save her island, enlisting a boastful demigod along the way. Moana is the Disney princess film that decided not to be a princess film - the love interest is the ocean, the adventure is internal, and the soundtrack (Lin-Manuel Miranda) is extraordinary. It is the easiest yes on this list for families with younger children, because it never alienates anyone in the room.

How Far I'll Go will be in your head for at least a week. Accept this and move on.

Encanto

A Colombian family, each member gifted with a magical power, holds a secret: one daughter has no gift at all, and her name is Mirabel. Encanto is about family pressure, generational trauma, and what it means to feel invisible in a family of extraordinary people. The Lin-Manuel Miranda songs are excellent. But what makes Encanto land for adults is the honesty of its central theme - which children experience as magic, and adults experience as recognition.

Surface of a Magic Gift will not leave your head. We Don't Talk About Bruno will not either. You have been warned.

Holes

A boy is wrongly convicted and sent to a desert camp where juvenile offenders dig holes all day. Stanley Yelnats starts digging and slowly uncovers a mystery that connects three generations, two continents, and a curse. Holes is one of the great family adventure films that nobody under the age of forty seems to remember - but it has an intricate, completely satisfying plot, real emotional stakes, and a cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, and an excellent young Shia LaBeouf before everything happened.

This one surprises everyone. Show it to people who think they know it. They don't know it.

The Karate Kid

A teenager moves to a new city, gets bullied, and is secretly trained in karate by his apartment building's maintenance man. The formula is simple. The execution is almost perfect. Mr. Miyagi is one of the great mentor figures in cinema history - Pat Morita's performance is quiet, funny, and deeply moving in ways that the original audience didn't fully appreciate. Children love the tournament. Adults love the relationship. Teenagers are quietly taking notes on the wax-on-wax-off method.

The remake with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan is good. This one is something else entirely.

Paddington 2

A small bear from Peru, living with the Brown family in London, sets out to buy a rare pop-up book for his aunt - and is framed for its theft by a narcissistic actor. Paddington 2 has a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason: it is one of the warmest, funniest, most carefully crafted family films made this century. Hugh Grant's villainous turn is a masterclass in comic timing. The film's central belief that people are mostly good, and that kindness works, is delivered without a single ounce of naivety.

If you haven't seen the first Paddington, watch that first. Both are excellent. The second is a masterpiece.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

A rebellious city kid is placed with a foster family in the New Zealand bush. When his foster mother dies suddenly, he and his grumpy foster uncle end up on the run through the wilderness together, becoming the subject of a national manhunt. Taika Waititi's film is funny in the deadpan New Zealand way, really moving in the quiet moments, and anchored by two performances - Sam Neill and Julian Dennison - that are among the best in recent family cinema. It is rated PG-13, so better suited to families with older children, but it's the kind of film teenagers will actively enjoy rather than endure.

The best film on this list that nobody in your family will have heard of. The reveal that makes it is worth everything that comes before.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Four high school students are sucked into a video game and must navigate its world as characters who look nothing like them. The joke - a teenage girl trapped in Dwayne Johnson's body, a teenage boy trapped in Kevin Hart's body - carries the entire film on the strength of committed performances. It's louder and broader than the other films on this list, but it knows exactly what it is, and for a Friday night with teenagers, it delivers exactly what you need: two hours of everyone in the room laughing at the same things.

The sequel, The Next Level, is also very good. Start here. Move straight to the sequel the same night if energy allows.

Matilda

A brilliant girl with neglectful parents and telekinetic powers finds a teacher who sees her, and sets about making life uncomfortable for the adults who deserve it. Matilda is the fantasy every child who has ever felt overlooked needs - not because it's comforting, but because it's about power. The satisfaction of watching Matilda take on Miss Trunchbull is the satisfaction of watching intelligence and courage beat cruelty. Danny DeVito directs with real affection for the Dahl source material. Adults who loved it as children will find it holds up completely.

Miss Trunchbull remains one of the great screen villains. Pam Ferris commits to that role in a way that borders on performance art.

The Truman Show

Truman Burbank has lived his entire life inside a television show without knowing it. The entire world watches him. The Truman Show works for families because it's immediately accessible - the concept hooks everyone instantly - but the questions it raises get more interesting the older you are. Children see the escape story. Teenagers see the surveillance horror. Adults see something closer to home than they'd like. Jim Carrey gives the best dramatic performance of his career and it is still underrated.

One of the best conversation-starters on this list. The "what would you do" discussion will last well past the credits.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

A legendary hotel concierge and his lobby boy are caught up in a murder, a stolen painting, a prison break, and a war. Wes Anderson's most plot-driven film is also his most accessible - the visual style delights children, the comedy works for adults, and the mystery structure keeps everyone engaged. It is rated R for brief violence and some language, so best suited to families with teenagers, but it's the kind of film that a fifteen-year-old will reference for years. Ralph Fiennes has never been funnier.

If your teenagers think they don't like Wes Anderson, this is the one to start with. The plot moves too fast to lose anyone.

Knives Out

A wealthy crime novelist is found dead the morning after his birthday party. Detective Benoit Blanc investigates. Every member of the family is a suspect. Knives Out is not a traditional family film - it is a truly great mystery that families with older children can watch together. The plot is clever and completely fair, the comedy is dry and consistent, and the cast (Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette) is clearly having the time of their lives. Rated PG-13. Best for families with children twelve and older who enjoy puzzle-solving.

The mystery is solvable before the reveal. Watching the family figure it out ahead of the film is half the fun.