Film

The Fundamentals of Caring

A grieving, failed novelist takes a job caring for a sharp-tongued teenager with muscular dystrophy, and the two end up on a shambling road trip toward a giant hole in the ground. It's a two-hander built on banter and slow-earned trust — funny before it's sad, sad before it lets you off easy. Good for anyone who wants their tearjerker to have jokes in it first.

TMDb rating3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like road movies where two wounded people bicker their way toward each other, with dry humor that sits beside real grief and never jokes at the expense of the pain.

Skip it if you need a brisk plot with a firm destination, since this one wanders from stop to stop, lingering over small detours and quiet stretches between jokes.

What it asks of you: It asks for patience with a gentle, rambling shape across ninety-seven minutes, and for letting sadness and laughter share the same scene without rushing either.

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The Peanut Butter Falcon2019

Another odd-couple road trip with a disabled lead cast with real warmth instead of pity, this one swaps grief for a Mark Twain-ish adventure and a genuinely sweet friendship at its centre.

But It leans folksy and sentimental in a way some viewers find a touch too gentle or storybook.

The Peanut Butter Falcon poster

Little Miss Sunshine2006

The blueprint for the dysfunctional-family-in-a-vehicle comedy: bickering, breakdowns, a broken-down van, and a finale that earns its joy the hard way.

But Some of its quirks now feel very 2006 indie, and the ensemble's misery can tip into shtick.

Little Miss Sunshine poster

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl2015

Same trick as Fundamentals — deflect real grief with jokes and homemade film parodies until the deflecting stops working. Funny, then it isn't.

But Its stylised, hyperactive visual gags won't land for everyone, and some find its narrator hard to warm to.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Fundamentals of Caring

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Harold and Maude1971

Same engine as Fundamentals — grief disguised as comedy, resolved by an odd-couple friendship neither party wanted — but from a much older, stranger, funnier era.

A death-obsessed young man and a septuagenarian free spirit form the most unlikely friendship in American cinema — pitch-black comedy that turns out to be about how to actually live.

But Its comic tone around death and a controversial age-gap romance will not sit easily with every viewer, even fifty years on.

Harold and Maude poster
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Rain Man1988

The granddaddy of the disability road trip: two mismatched men, one journey, one slowly cracking heart. Hoffman and Cruise are both doing career-best work.

But Dated in its handling of autism by today's standards, and the pacing is more classical Hollywood than modern indie.

Rain Man poster

The Sessions2012

John Hawkes plays a man in an iron lung seeking physical intimacy through a sex surrogate — tender, funny, and far less grim than the premise suggests.

But The subject matter is frank about sex and disability, which some viewers may find uncomfortable or too intimate.

The Sessions poster

Sideways2004

A wine-country road trip about two men failing at life in different ways, dry and melancholy with a lot of laughs hiding the sadness underneath.

But Its protagonist is a genuinely difficult, self-pitying character, and the humour is bone-dry rather than warm.

Sideways poster

Garden State2004

A numbed young man returns home and slowly thaws through a string of odd encounters — same emotional shape as Ben's arc, just with more shoegaze.

But Its whimsical indie soundtrack-forward style has aged into a punchline for some audiences.

Garden State poster

Adventureland2009

Paul Rudd again, this time as a theme park manager in a funnier, lower-stakes coming-of-age story about drifting adults figuring out what comes next.

But It's slighter and less emotionally ambitious than Fundamentals — a hangout movie, not a tearjerker.

Adventureland poster

Beginners2011

A quietly devastating comedy about grief, dogs, and reluctant new relationships, told with the same droll, undersold tenderness Ben's story goes for.

But Its nonlinear structure and hushed tone make it feel slower and more withholding than a typical dramedy.

Beginners poster

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution2020

Where Fundamentals gives you one fictional teenager's wit and frustration, this gives you dozens of real ones — the joke-cracking, rule-breaking humanity behind the caregiving premise, unscripted.

A documentary about a 1970s summer camp for disabled teens that quietly launched the disability rights movement — funny, rowdy, and full of the same defiant humour Trevor has.

But It's a documentary with real archival footage and political history, a different rhythm than a scripted road trip comedy.

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution poster

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly2007

Strips away the comedy and the road trip to leave the bare question Fundamentals is actually asking — what's left of a person, and a caregiver's duty, when the body fails completely.

A French film shot almost entirely from inside the mind of a fully paralysed man, blinking out his memoir one letter at a time — formally daring and unexpectedly full of life.

But It's slow, subtitled, and far more meditative and sorrowful than anything comic — a serious art film, not a crowd-pleaser.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly poster

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