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.
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.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
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.

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.

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.

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.

More like this (8)
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

People
Cast
Paul RuddBen Benjamin
Craig RobertsTrevor Conklin
Selena GomezDot
Jennifer EhleElsa Conklin
Megan FergusonPeaches
Frederick WellerBob Richardson
Julia DentonJanet
Alex HuffJodi Benjamin
Samantha HuskeyKaitlin
Bill MurpheyMike
Alan BoellCourier
Robert Walker BranchaudBurly Mover
Directing
- Rob BurnettDirector
Writing
- Jonathan EvisonNovel
- Rob BurnettScreenplay
Production
- Andrea CravenCasting
- Jamal DanielExecutive Producer
- Renee WittExecutive Producer
- Donna GigliottiProducer
- James SpiesProducer
- Rob BurnettProducer
Recommended by
Little Man Tate, Wonder, Speechless, Jack, The Sessions, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Paddleton, Vice Versa, Instant Family, Away We Go, Virgin Tales, Simple Simon, Mozart and the Whale, Please Stand By, Extraordinary Measures, The Road Within, Like Father, Religulous, Goats, Adult Life Skills, The Bélier Family, The Grand Seduction, The Butterfly Circus, Rise, X+Y, The Black Balloon, Flock of Dudes, The Birthday Gift, Wish I Was Here