Julianne Moore

Woody Harrelson

Laura Dern

Trevor Morgan

Kelly and Evelyn Ryan live in Defiance, Ohio with their 10 children. At first glance their life seems idyllic; they call each other "Mother" and "Father" and seem to dote on the kids. But Kelly was a garage-band crooner whose voice was ruined in an auto accident. He's resigned to a dead-end factory job that barely pays the bills, and is given to fits of alcohol-induced rage. Evelyn, a stay-at-home wife and mother, deals with this abuse by appealing to her priest, who is no help at all. She deals with their poverty by entering the jingle contests that were the rage in the 50's and early 60's, even sending in multiple entries in the names of the children. She is very clever at it, winning more than her share of prizes, but her successes aren't enough to keep the wolf from the door. Further, they trigger Kelly's insecurities and he retreats deeper into the bottle, using food and mortgage money to support the habit. Can the loving, optimistic Evelyn hold the family together? Is she justified in placing her faith in the deeply-flawed Kelly? How will the children turn out? This underrated film provides an inspirational answer to these questions.—Joe Jurca

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)

Carla Gugino

Mae Whitman

Faith Prince

When a young woman's niece and nephew are threatened with foster care after her sister is hospitalized following yet another overdose, she flees with them until they land in the sleepy town of Bethlehem just before Christmas, and a series of kindnesses and coincidences gives the trio a chance at happiness.—Anonymous

A Season for Miracles

A Season for Miracles (1999)

George Clooney

Charlie Sheen

Timothy Spall

All hell breaks loose when a giant Grizzly, reacting to the slaughter of Grizzlies by poachers, attacks at a massive big-band rock concert in the National Park.

Grizzly II: Revenge

Grizzly II: Revenge (2020)

Scott Porter

Taylor Kitsch

Rex Linn

The compelling, heart-wrenching story of high school football star Chris Carnales, who's life was dramatically altered when he broke his neck in a football game leaving him paralyzed. Chris soon learned of others who suffered similar injuries and, with the help of his father, he overcame tremendous physical and emotional pain to start an organization with one goal in mind: get immediate help to other victims and their families. He called it Gridiron heroes.—AML

The Hill Chris Climbed: The Gridiron Heroes Story

The Hill Chris Climbed: The Gridiron Heroes Story (2012)

John Hurt

Kevin Spacey

Bruce McGill

In this dramatization of the 2000 Presidential election, Al Gore concedes the Presidency to George W. Bush, but recants when he learns of irregularities in the Florida vote count. Democratic strategists Ronald Klain and Michael Whouley race to Florida to uncover the truth, as do Republicans under James Baker III. Between faulty voting equipment and the vagaries of Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a thirty-six-day stalemate ensues.—Jwelch5742

Recount

Recount (2008)

Alicia Witt

Burt Reynolds

Kelly Preston

Ruth Stoops is a poor indigent drug-user (a huffer - inhaling glue and paint for a high) whose down and out existence is complicated once more by becoming pregnant (she has had and lost four children already). When a judge orders that she gets an abortion or face a felony charge, she is befriended by Gail Stoney, a pro-lifer whose husband is president of the local "Babysavers" group. Suddenly Ruth is thrust into the middle of the pro-choice/pro-life struggle, with each side wanting her to take their side as a "message" to others - and the situation escalates...—Gary Dickerson

Citizen Ruth

Citizen Ruth (1996)

Jack O'Connell

McKinley Belcher III

Chris Coy

The film takes place in Texas. Cameron Todd Willingham is accused of triple killing of his children killed in a fire. The man denies his guilt and claims that he loved his daughters more than life. However, the court sentenced him to death. For eight long years, Cameron has been on death row, and soon he will be executed.—Tango Papa

Trial by Fire

Trial by Fire (2018)

Jodie Foster

Martin Scorsese

Harvey Keitel

Despite admitting that she was scared of him in her never-ending quest to please him, 35-yearold housewife and mother Alice Hyatt is devastated when her husband Donald is killed in an accident. With few job skills except that as a singer, Alice, along with her precocious 11-year-old son Tommy, decides to move from their current home in Socorro, New Mexico to her hometown of Monterey, California, the only place she has ever felt happy. She plans on getting singing gigs along the way to earn money to get back to Monterey by the end of the summer and the start of Tommy's school year. Alice's quest for a job at each stop leaves Tommy often to fend for himself. His behavior is fostered by Alice, as their relationship is often more as trouble-making friends than mother and son. Alice's plans often do not end up as she envisions, especially as she is forced to take a waitressing job at Mel and Ruby's Diner in Tucson, Arizona, which entails working with a disparate group, including Mel, the establishment's gruff owner/short-order cook, and her fellow waitresses, the wisecracking, foul-mouthed Flo, and the naive and shy Vera. Alice also falls into old habits, namely relying on men to make her feel fulfilled, specifically the much younger Ben, and farmer David. Those relationships may also provide her with a better perspective on her life and her bad choice of Donald as a husband.—Huggo

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

Scarlett Johansson

Ray Liotta

Wallace Shawn

'Marriage Story' is Academy-Award-nominated filmmaker Noah Baumbach's incisive and compassionate look at a marriage breaking up--and a family staying together. The film stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver and co-stars Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta.—Netflix

Marriage Story

Marriage Story (2019)

John Williams

Paul Newman

Ed Lauter

In real life, Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific head of the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built. General Leslie Groves was in overall command of it. This film reenacts the project with an emphasis on their relationship.—Anonymous

Fat Man and Little Boy

Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)

Kevin Costner

Clint Eastwood

After escaping from a Huntsville prison, convict Robert "Butch" Haynes (Kevin Costner) and his partner Terry Pugh (Keith Szarabajka) kidnap a young boy, Phillip Perry (T.J. Lowther), and flee across Texas. As they travel together, Butch and Phillip discover common bonds and suffer the abuses of the outside "Perfect World". In pursuit is Texas Ranger "Red" Garnett (Clint Eastwood) and Criminologist Sally Gerber (Laura Dern).—James Yu

A Perfect World

A Perfect World (1993)

Isabella Amara

Jason Ritter

Ellen Burstyn

Jennifer Fox faces a host of life-altering questions after a short story from her middle school days forces her to re-examine her first sexual relationship and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. An accomplished documentarian working in New York, Jennifer is completing her latest project, about the lives of women around the world. She receives a series of phone calls from her mother, Nettie, who has found a short story Jennifer wrote at the age of 13 for school. In it, she describes various encounters with her riding instructor Mrs. G and her running coach Bill while away at summer camp. Nettie is unnerved by the implications of her daughter's writing, but Jennifer is nonplussed. She has always looked back with fondness on the time she spent with the two charismatic adults. Egged on by Nettie and encouraged by her supportive fiancé, Jennifer yearns to know more and sets out on a journey to find the real people 30 years later - the children, now adults, who also attended the camp back then-and eventually the coaches themselves. But the more she learns, the more her memories shift and the more questions she unearths. As her frustration mounts, she finds herself turning inward to get to the truth, imagining conversations with her 13-year-old-self and even Mrs. G and Bill in an effort to understand how and why events occurred so long ago.—Happy_Evil_Dude

The Tale

The Tale (2018)

Kristen Stewart

Diane Kruger

James Jagger

Novelist Laura Albert (Dern) writes as her "avatar", a disenfranchised young gay man named J.T. LeRoy. When her debut novel becomes a best-seller and J.T. becomes the darling of the literary world, she enlists her boyfriend's androgynous sister Savannah Knoop (Stewart) to act as J.T. in the public eye. Together, they embark on a wild ride of double lives, infiltrating the Hollywood and literary elite, and discovering who they are while pretending to be someone else.

JT LeRoy

JT LeRoy (2018)

Isabella Rossellini

Brad Dourif

Kyle MacLachlan

College student Jeffrey Beaumont returns to his idyllic hometown of Lumberton to manage his father's hardware store while his father is hospitalized. Walking though a grassy meadow near the family home, Jeffrey finds a severed human ear. After an initial investigation, lead police Detective John Williams advises Jeffrey not to speak to anyone about the case as they investigate further. Detective Williams also tells Jeffrey that he cannot divulge any information about what the police know. Detective Williams' high school aged daughter, Sandy Williams, tells Jeffrey what she knows about the case from overhearing her father's private conversations on the matter: that it has to do with a nightclub singer named Dorothy Vallens, who lives in an older apartment building near the Beaumont home. His curiosity getting the better of him, Jeffrey, with Sandy's help, decides to find out more about the woman at the center of the case by breaking into Dorothy's apartment while he knows she's at work. What Jeffrey finds is a world unfamiliar to him, one that he doesn't truly understand but one that he is unable to deny the lure of despite the inherent dangers of being associated with a possible murder. Still, he is torn between this world and the prospect of a relationship with Sandy, the two who are falling for each other, despite Sandy already being in a relationship with Mike, the school's star football player.—Huggo

Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet (1986)

Sam Elliott

Marsha Warfield

Alexandra Powers

Rusty Dennis (Cher) is the mother of Rocky (Eric Stoltz), a seriously deformed, but extremely intelligent and emotionally warm teenager. Rusty is a no-nonsense mother whose wild lifestyle is often at odds with her tenderness and protectiveness towards Rocky. She is determined that Rocky be given the same chances and happiness that everyone else takes for granted.—Murray Chapman

Mask

Mask (1985)

Michelle Williams

James Jordan

Certain Women drops us into a handful of intersecting lives across Montana. A lawyer (Laura Dern) tries to defuse a hostage situation and calm her disgruntled client (Jared Harris), who feels slighted by a workers' compensation settlement. A married couple (Michelle Williams and James Le Gros) breaks ground on a new home but exposes marital fissures when they try to persuade an elderly man to sell his stockpile of sandstone. A ranch hand (Lily Gladstone) forms an attachment to a young lawyer (Kristen Stewart), who inadvertently finds herself teaching a twice-weekly adult education class, four hours from her home.—Polly_Kat

Certain Women

Certain Women (2016)

Judy Greer

Harrelson stars as Wilson, a lonely, neurotic and hilariously honest middle-aged misanthrope who reunites with his estranged wife (Laura Dern) and gets a shot at happiness when he learns he has a teenage daughter (Isabella Amara) he has never met. In his uniquely outrageous and slightly twisted way, he sets out to connect with her.—Fox Searchlight Pictures

Wilson

Wilson (2017)

Linda Cardellini

Patrick Wilson

Michael Keaton

1954. Having worked as a salesman most of his adult life, Ray Kroc has been a hustler in most senses of the word. That hustling has made him the target of derision among certain circles for peddling what have ended up being more novelty or faddish than useful products, but it has also placed more than a comfortable roof in Arlington Heights, Illinois over his and his wife Ethel's heads. Ethel, however, wishes that he placed as much effort into being at home with her as he does in selling; his current job of peddling five-spindle milkshake makers for Prince Castle which has him constantly on the road going from one drive-in restaurant to another. It is because of the beefs he has with the whole drive-in experience (bad food, bad service) in constantly eating at such establishments while on the road that he becomes enthralled with the concept of McDonald's Restaurant in San Bernardino, California, owned and operated by brothers Richard McDonald and Maurice McDonald - Dick and Mac. Unlike most of Ray's customers who will only require one five-spindle milkshake maker at any given time, the McDonald brothers end up purchasing eight machines for their single restaurant. Primarily on Dick's initiative, the brothers have redesigned the whole concept of the drive-in restaurant to focus on quality food through a smaller menu of only the most popular items (hamburgers, fries, sodas), consistency in product so that customers know what to expect from time to time, change in the target market from lounging teenagers to families, and perhaps most importantly speed in having any order ready within seconds, many of these goals achievable through assembly line styled production. They had tried franchising previously, but failed in that they lost control over many of those aspects which made their San Bernardino restaurant successful. Despite believing Ray a bit off kilter (in other words, crazy), the McDonald brothers somewhat hesitantly enter into a contract with him to be their head of franchising. Ray's experience in the job is not without its problems, especially as his franchisees seem to be making more money than he is, he who is only breaking even. He is not averse to advancing ideas provided to him to get ahead - original ideas which are not his forte - he seeing the brothers as his biggest problem in they thinking small. These differences lead to a standoff between Ray and the brothers, the former who has a different goal for "his" business in profit and stoking his own ego seemingly his main priorities.—Huggo

The Founder

The Founder (2016)

Andrew Garfield

Clancy Brown

Michael Shannon

Around the world everyone knows that honest hard work gets you nowhere. In sunny Orlando, Florida, construction worker Dennis Nash learns this the hard way when he is evicted from his home by a charismatic, gun-toting real-estate broker, Rick Carver. Humiliated and homeless, Nash has no choice but to move his mom and nine-year old son into a shabby, dangerous motel. All is lost. Until an unexpected opportunity arises for Nash to strike a deal with the devil - he begins working for Carver in a desperate attempt to get his home back. Carver seduces Nash into a risky world of scamming and stealing from the banks and the government; he teaches Nash how the rich get richer. Living a double life, Nash hides his new boss and job from his family. He rises fast and makes real money; he dreams bigger. But there is a cost. On Carver's orders, Nash must evict honest families from their homes - just as it happened to him. Nash's conscience starts tearing him apart... but his son needs a home. In a dramatic high stakes climax, with a 1,000 home deal on the line, Nash will have to choose between destroying an honest man for the ultimate win or risking it all by going against Carver and finding redemption.

99 Homes

99 Homes (2014)

William Ragsdale

Elizabeth Berridge

Treat Williams

Free-spirited 15-year-old Connie Wyatt is too young to drive, but not too young to drive the boys crazy. She also wants to escape the boredom of family farm life. Her suspicious mother wants to keep her safely at home, but she wants to while away the languid summer days hanging out with her friends and flirting with boys at the local burger stand. But when she flirts with a mysterious, handsome stranger named Arnold Friend, she finds herself in danger and must prepare herself for the frightening, traumatic consequences. Based on the short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates.—MGM/UA Home Video

Smooth Talk

Smooth Talk (1985)

7.2 / 10

Action
Biography

7.6 / 10

Action
Drama

2.7 / 10

Action
Horror

8.1 / 10

Action
Biography

7.3 / 10

Action
Drama

7 / 10

Action
Comedy

7.1 / 10

Action
Biography

7.3 / 10

Action
Drama

7.9 / 10

Action
Comedy

6.5 / 10

Action
Biography

7.5 / 10

Action
Crime

7.2 / 10

Action
Biography

5.5 / 10

Action
Biography

7.7 / 10

Action
Crime

7.2 / 10

Action
Biography

6.4 / 10

Drama

5.8 / 10

Action
Comedy

7.2 / 10

Action
Biography

7.1 / 10

Action
Crime

6.5 / 10

Drama
Romance