10 films to watch with your dad on Father’s Day

What do you get the dad who has everything? Dad will just tell you to save your money anyways. This Father’s Day, don’t spend a dime—instead, spend some quality time with dear old dad and stream one of these fatherhood favorites on Kanopy. It’s free from your library (dad approves). 

Whether dad likes goofball comedies, informative documentaries, or action-packed antics, there’s a movie every father figure will love. And most of all, you'll both appreciate time to bond and binge-watch on the couch.

Treasure
2023 | 1hr 51min
Featuring Lena Dunham, Stephen Fry & Zbigniew Zamachowski

American journalist Ruth travels to Poland with her father, Edek, to visit his childhood places. But Edek, a Holocaust survivor, resists reliving his trauma and sabotages the trip, creating unintentionally funny situations.

Fathers’ Day
1997 | 1hr 39min
Featuring Robin Williams & Billy Crystal

One son… two fathers? Robin Williams and Billy Crystal star as prospective dads in search of the same runaway boy that each thinks may be his child. Dale Putley and Jack Lawrence never met, yet they both share something in common: ex-girlfriend Colette (Nastassja Kinski). To enlist their aid in tracking down her missing son, Colette tells each of her dumbfounded ex-lovers that he fathered the child to which she gave birth 16 years ago. Inadvertently trapped on the road together, these two strangers grow even stranger as they engage in the hilarious hijinks that can only happen when it's Fathers' Day.

Captain Fantastic 
2016 | 1hr 59min
Featuring Viggo Mortensen, George MacKay & Samantha Isler

Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, isolated from society, a devoted father dedicates his life to transforming his six young children into extraordinary adults. But when a tragedy strikes the family, they are forced to leave this self-created paradise and begin a journey into the outside world that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent and brings into question everything he's taught them.

Fences
2016 | 2hr 18min
Featuring Denzel Washington & Viola Davis

Set in 1950s Pittsburgh, the film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play takes a passionate look at former baseball player Troy Maxson as he fights to provide for those he loves in a world that threatens to push him down.

The Road
2008 | 1hr 51min
Featuring Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron & Kodi Smit-McPhee

In the years following a world-shattering apocalyptic event, a father and son travel on foot through the charred remains of North America, struggling to survive on a quest to reach the ocean.

Also be sure to check out the novel by Cormac McCarthy that inspired the movie.

Low Down 
2014 | 1hr 54min
Featuring Elle Fanning, John Hawkes & Glenn Close

Based on the memoir by Amy-Jo Albany, Low Down is a compassionate, tender look at the complex relationship between Amy-Jo and her father Joe, a man torn between his musical ambition, his devotion to his teenage daughter, and his suffocating heroin addiction. Set against a sensuously textured 1970s Hollywood, the film beautifully evokes a colorful, seedy world of struggling musicians, artists, and vagabonds, in which Joe and Amy-Jo strive to live the lives they want against seemingly insurmountable odds.

The Other F Word: Punk Rock Fathers
2011 | 1hr 39min
Featuring Flea, Mark Hoppus & Tim McIlrath

What happens when a generation's ultimate anti-authoritarians (punk rockers) become society's ultimate authorities—dads? With a large chorus of Punk Rock's leading men—Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, Rise Against's Tim McIlrath—The Other F Word follows Jim Lindberg, 20-year veteran of skate punk band Pennywise, on his hysterical and moving journey to embracing his ultimately pivotal authoritarian role in mid-life... fatherhood. 

Daddy Don’t Go: The Everyday Struggles of Disadvantaged Fathers
2015 | 1hr 27min

This documentary captures two years in the lives of four disadvantaged fathers in New York City as they fight to defy the odds against them. Alex is a single father who lives with his toddler son in a decaying Harlem shelter. Nelson is a former Latin King gang member and full-time daddy to his young son and his partner Rebecca’s two daughters. Roy is an ex-offender who won full custody of his son when the boy’s mother succumbed to drug addiction. Omar won full-custody of his three children but struggles to manage his daughter's mental health issues. By allowing the viewer extraordinary access into the lives of its subjects, this film removes the negative lens through which underprivileged fathers are currently viewed and shatters the “deadbeat dad” stereotype.

Ozzy and Jack’s World Detour
2016 | 7hr 1 min
The heavy-metal legend and self-proclaimed history nerd Ozzy Osbourne hits the road with his son, Jack, to tackle a bucket list of iconic and historically significant spots.

Acidman
2023 | 1hr 25min
Featuring Thomas Haden Church, Dianna Agron & Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris

Maggie tracks down her estranged father Lloyd, now living in the Oregon wilderness obsessed with UFOs; together they attempt to make first contact.

*Access to films may vary. 

RELATED READ: Moms in the movies: 10 films that capture the many sides of motherhood