10 Movies to Watch at Home on Father’s Day

Celebrate dads near and far with these memorable comedies and dramas

Chris Nashawaty,

AARP

Comments

En español

Published June 16, 2020

/ Updated June 11, 2024

Salvatore Corsitto speaking into Marlon Brando's ear in the film The Godfather

(Left to right) Salvatore Corsitto and Marlon Brando in "The Godfather."

Courtesy Everett Collection

I can’t even begin to count the number of times that my father and I sat down together to watch The Godfather when I was a kid. And while we managed to steer clear of organized crime as a family business, movies remain one of our common languages to this day — a way to bond without, you know, talking about how we were bonding. Which is why I can think of no better way to celebrate Father’s Day (June 16) than by streaming a dad-forward film. In addition to my personal favorite, The Godfather, here are the 10 best dad movies streaming on your favorite platforms.

Moneyball (PG-13, 2011)

If your dad is a baseball fan, he’s probably made you sit through Field of Dreams and The Natural already. Why not try something different? Brad Pitt is sensational as Billy Beane, the GM of the perennial basement-dwelling Oakland A’s who rethinks the game’s conventional wisdom by signing a team of low-priced, overlooked players instead of expensive free agents. He knows he can’t compete with big spenders like the Yankees, so he and a young stats wiz (Jonah Hill) think outside the box and end up winning against all odds. Based on Michael Lewis’ 2003 bestseller, Moneyball is a classic David-vs.-Goliath story but with pine tar and math. It’s also an emotional home run.

Watch it: Moneyball on Netflix, Prime Video

National Lampoon’s Vacation (PG-13, 1983)

Chevy Chase, 80, has rarely been better than he is as the confidently clueless Clark Griswold in this Gen-X staple. Along with his put-upon wife (Beverly D’Angelo, 72) and two smart-ass kids (Anthony Michael Hall, 56, and Dana Barron, 58), Clark loads up the Wagon Queen Family Truckster and drives cross-country to a fabled California theme park called Walley World, while dealing with their yokel cousins (Randy Quaid, 73, stealing the show as Cousin Eddie), the aromatic Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) and a Ferrari-driving bombshell (Christie Brinkley, 70). By the end, you may find yourself whistling “Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah” out of your … well, you get the idea.

Watch it: National Lampoon’s Vacation on Prime Video

Minari (PG-13, 2020)

It’s easy to see why Steven Yeun was nominated for a best actor Oscar in Lee Isaac Chung’s modest and gentle indie comedy about a Korean American family that moves from California to a small Arkansas farm in search of the elusive American dream. The Walking Dead actor’s performance is sincere, bittersweet and full of heart. As financial worries and marital tension weigh on him, Yeun’s Jacob struggles to find small moments of joy amidst the hardship and share them with his family.

Watch it: Minari on Max, Prime Video

Sr. (2022)

All too often, sons don’t get the chance to share how much their fathers have meant to them until it’s too late. In this wonderfully poignant and often hilarious love letter of a documentary, actor Robert Downey Jr., 59, turns the camera on his iconoclastic father, the late pioneering experimental filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., to examine their battles in Hollywood, their unusual bond and how close the apple wound up falling from the tree.

Watch it: Sr. on Netflix

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Has there ever been a wiser, kinder and more morally upright on-screen father than Gregory Peck’s small-town Southern lawyer Atticus Finch? Never mind that this film (adapted from Harper Lee’s novel) is a masterpiece regardless when you watch it, Peck’s openhearted love for his two pint-size kids, Scout and Jem, is a timeless primer for doing the right thing and a blueprint for parenting through deeds rather than words.

Watch it: To Kill a Mockingbird on Prime Video

Father of the Bride (1950)

The 1991 Steve Martin remake is excellent, but if forced to choose, we’ll tilt toward the Spencer Tracy original about an overwhelmed, overextended and overprotective father wrestling with the emotional and financial anxiety of planning the wedding of his young daughter (Elizabeth Taylor). It’s a comedy — and a darn good one — but Tracy makes his character’s sense of loss both bittersweet and palpable.

Watch it: Father of the Bride on Apple TV, Prime Video

Parenthood (PG-13, 1989)

Ron Howard’s multigenerational dysfunctional family comedy is very much an ensemble movie. But the more you watch it (or, as a father, the more I watch it), the more I can’t take my eyes off the performance of Steve Martin, 78, as an overwhelmed father of three (soon to be four) who constantly doubts his abilities as a dad. Afraid of repeating the mistakes of his own distant father, Martin’s Gil steals the movie (and my heart) after a cowboy performer fails to show up at his son’s birthday party and he turns a bath mat into a pair of chaps and improvises a Wild West routine to wow the kids and save the day.

Watch it: Parenthood on Apple TV, Prime Video

Paper Moon (1973)

Real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, 60, costar in director Peter Bogdanovich’s charmingly barbed black-and-white road movie about a pair of con artists who banter and bicker while fleecing unsuspecting bumpkins in Depression-era Kansas. As you might expect, the pair’s feisty chemistry is a delight, especially when their love for one another manages to peek through. Still, it’s the sassy, sour-faced 9-year-old Tatum who steals the show, nabbing a best supporting actress Oscar for the role.

Watch it: Paper Moon on Prime Video

Mrs. Doubtfire (PG-13, 1993)

A story about the lengths that loving fathers will go to stay connected to their children, director Chris Columbus’ suspend-your-disbelief comedy stars Robin Williams as a divorced dad who hatches an elaborate plan to disguise himself as an elderly British woman and get hired by his ex (Sally Field, 77) to be his children’s nanny. Think of it as Mary Poppins meets Tootsie. The movie is crammed with hilarious slapstick, but by the end, you’ll be choking back tears as Williams learns how to be a better dad.

Watch it: Mrs. Doubtfire on Apple TV, Prime Video

The Pursuit of Happyness (PG-13, 2006)

It’s rare to see Will Smith, 55, play a character who isn’t cool, confident and completely in charge. Maybe that’s why The Pursuit of Happyness isn’t better known. Well, it deserves to be. Smith plays a single father who, with his young son (played by Smith’s real-life son Jaden), is evicted from his apartment and has nowhere to go. Living in a shelter and unable to make ends meet after taking a job as an intern at a financial firm, Smith’s Chris Gardner is proof that there is no sacrifice too big for a father to make to provide a better life for his child. Be warned: Have a box of Kleenex nearby.

Watch it: The Pursuit of Happyness on Apple TV, Prime Video

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Chris Nashawaty, former film critic for Entertainment Weekly, is the author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and a contributor to Esquire, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.