25 Films Every Dad Loves

Looking over my Letterboxd account, someone recently remarked to me “You have extremely dad taste in movies.”

At first I was insulted. I love nearly wordless satires about life in Paris in the late 1960s! I love broad comedies about women on vacation in Vista Del Mar! I love thinly veiled biopics about powerful businessmen who hate themselves and adore sleds! I love movies about elite men’s gymnasts who become secret agents for the CIA in order to win bizarre athletic competitions in made-up Eastern Europe countries so the United States government can then launch a satellite into orbit to spy on the Soviet Union. I contain multitudes!

Then I thought about it some more. I am a dad. That much is undeniable. And looking over things I recently logged on Letterboxd … I could not deny that there were a fair number of titles that would seem to have a certain dadly appeal.

Which got me thinking: What is extremely dad taste in movies? There is dad music and dad jokes and dad bods. What defines a dad movie? Could I create a canon of dad movies?

I could certainly try. Below, I selected 25 films across the history of cinema I believe are guaranteed to please every dad out there. They run the gamut from war films to sports movies to silly comedies and even a couple of devastating weepies. They are all dad tested and dad approved. (At least by one dad who contains multitudes.)

Does father really know best? I guess we’re about to find out once and for all…

READ MORE: Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best