Film
Ride the Eagle
A grief-comedy about a man inheriting his estranged mother's Yosemite cabin on one condition: he must complete her bucket list. It's warm and funny without shying from real loss, anchored by Susan Sarandon's spirited ghost-in-absentia and Jake Johnson's deadpan confusion. For anyone who's ever been baffled and moved by a parent at once.
If you liked this
Kodachrome2017
A father and son road trip built around unspoken resentment and gradual grace. Quieter than Ride the Eagle but mining the same vein: how we learn to love people we never quite understood.
But Deliberately slow and contemplative. If you need constant momentum or big laughs, this will feel mannered.

About Schmidt2002
Jack Nicholson as a retired man on a cross-country journey, reckoning with his marriage and mortality while the film finds comedy and pathos in equal measure. A perfect companion piece.
But The pacing is deliberate and Nicholson's vulnerability can read as annoying if you go in wanting him to be funny.

Paterson2016
A bus driver-poet living a quiet, repetitive life in New Jersey. Jim Jarmusch finds profound beauty in small routines and acceptance. Gentle and deeply moving.
But Nothing much happens. If you're watching for plot momentum or resolution, you'll find it frustrating.

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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Schitt's Creek2015
Both are about estranged family members forced into proximity and discovering the person they never bothered to understand. Both find humor in that gap without making it cruel.
Six seasons of a rich family losing everything and learning to love each other in a small town. Starts as broad comedy but becomes genuinely moving without ever losing warmth or humor. The mother-son relationships especially will resonate.
But The first season is broad and sometimes cringe-comedic. You have to trust the show for a few episodes before it finds its real tone.

More like this (7)
The Mule2018
Clint Eastwood playing an aging man learning to connect with his estranged family while caught in crime. Funny, sad, and interested in what we owe the people we've neglected.
But Eastwood's politics occasionally seep in. It's also a Clint Eastwood film, so mileage varies on tone.

Thelma & Louise1991
Susan Sarandon in her element: defiant, funny, alive, making terrible decisions that feel like freedom. The spiritual ancestor of Honey's energy.
But Darker and more violent than Ride the Eagle. A different animal entirely, though the throughline on female autonomy connects.

Moonlight2016
Three chapters of a life shaped by the people who try to reach us and the ones who don't. About presence and absence, love and loss, in gorgeous, painterly fragments.
But Deliberately oblique. It doesn't explain itself. If you need clear storytelling and resolution, this will feel incomplete.

Garden State2004
An actor returns to his New Jersey hometown and reconnects with the place and people he abandoned. Funny and strange, genuinely interested in how we become who we are.
But The film is deeply earnest in ways that can feel dated. The quirk-adjacent soundtrack dates it further.

C'mon C'mon2021
Black-and-white, shot like a documentary: a man and his nephew traveling between his brother's crises. Achingly real about family, time, and what we can and cannot fix for each other.
But Formally experimental and plotless. The emotional core is there but it doesn't wrap up or resolve in satisfying ways.

The Mosquito Coast2021
Both center on a parent's legacy—intended or otherwise—and a child trying to understand whether they should honor or reject it. One's a love letter, one's an indictment. Both are true.
A idealistic, charismatic American flees the country with his family to build a better world in the jungle. It's a slow-burn family drama that examines how love and control become indistinguishable. Dark, tense, and hypnotic.
But It's genuinely bleak and features a parent whose flaws damage everyone around them. Not warm or comedic. The opposite register entirely.

Three Colors: Red1994
Both are about inheritance and what the dead leave behind—not money, but influence, pattern, and the question of whether we're living our lives or living someone else's. Ride the Eagle asks it warmly; Red asks it in silence.
A woman accidentally calls a retired judge and enters his life. It's about connection, chance, and the invisible threads linking strangers. Exquisitely shot, metaphysical, and strange in the best way. Pure cinema.
But Wordless for long stretches, plot-minimal, and entirely driven by mood and visual poetry. If you need dialogue or narrative clarity, this will feel impenetrable.

People
Cast
Jake JohnsonLeif
Susan SarandonHoney
D'Arcy CardenAudrey
J.K. SimmonsCarl
Luis Fernandez-GilGorka
Cleo KingMissy
Eric EdelsteinOfficer Mike Nilson
Billy BungerothHiker
Directing
- Trent O'DonnellDirector
Writing
- Jake JohnsonScreenplay
- Trent O'DonnellScreenplay
Production
- Emily DuboviAssociate Producer
- Billy BungerothCo-Producer
- Daniel HaworthCo-Producer
- Judd OvertonCo-Producer
- Pete WilliamsCo-Producer
- D'Arcy CardenProducer
- Huey M. ParkProducer
- Jake JohnsonProducer
- Joe HardestyProducer
- Trent O'DonnellProducer
- Joe HardestyUnit Production Manager