Julianne Moore Shines In The Delightfully Low-Key Gloria Bell

Though she has an upbeat attitude, Gloria Bell (Julianne Moore), the titular lead character of Gloria Bell, is not a person whose life is devoid of turmoil. Both her life and the movie she stars in have darkness hiding in the margins, whether it's the deeply troubled upstairs neighbor that keeps Gloria up at night, her struggles to keep herself fully immersed in the lives of her now grown-up kids or all kinds of angst at her job. But Gloria still keeps on facing each new day with a touch of optimism and a car radio blaring upbeat disco-era tunes and both of those attributes help her out immensely. After all, there are plenty of things to be cheerful about, like a new man, Arnold (John Turturro), Gloria has started seeing.

John Turturro, The Coen Brothers And Especially John Goodman Are All In Top-Notch Form In Barton Fink

One of the most realistic depictions I've ever seen of being a writer came from, of all places, a SpongeBob SquarePants episode entitled Procrastination depicting the shows titular lead character trying to get an essay about red lights done for his boating class. What constantly gets in his way is his own inability to concentrate, SpongeBob keeps on finding new reasons for him to delay doing his essay, whether it's doing stretches or cleaning his kitchen until it's all shiny and chrome. It's a brilliantly funny episode in and of itself (so many of those classic SpongeBob episodes are) but it especially resonates with me as an accurate depiction of how hard it can be to focus on actually getting writing done.

Miller's Crossing Is Another Early Coen Brothers Winner

For their third directorial effort, The Coen Brothers (though only Joel Coen is credited as a director) returned to the crime genre that has served them well so many times in their expansive careers. For this particular take on the crime movie formula, they decided to go in the direction of a period piece, setting the tale in the 1920's specifically. Despite being set in the era where the sale of alcohol was banned, the film, entitled Miller's Crossing, was actually taking more cues in its tone and style from 1940's noir features, particularly ones like The Big Sleep involving a single lead character trying to use their wits to make a whole bunch of other peoples agendas work in his favor.

Jenny Slate And Director Gillian Robespierri Reunite To Answer The Call Of Landline

Back in the bygone year of 1995, the Jacobs family is undergoing tons of familiar strife from all of its individual members. There's wife-to-be Dana Jacobs (Jenny Slate) whose impending marriage is giving her plenty of anxiety and leading her to cheat on her husband while her younger sister Ali Jacobs (Abby Quinn) is a rebellious 18-year-old who has turned to drugs and shirking school. These sisters have entirely different personalities, with Dana being more anxious while Jacobs is a foul-mouthed whirlwind of rebellion, but they're both trying to put on an exterior built on a facade to conceal their internal woes and that helps them connect even in the most turbulent of times.

Hop Aboard The Thrilling And Well-Crafted Tony Scott Feature The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3

It starts out like any other normal day. The trains are whizzing by, they stop, people get on, other people get off. Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) shows up to his station as a Subway dispatcher as he helps all the various trains in the subway system of New York City run smoothly. Most days, they do just that. But today, something's gone wrong. The train Pelham 1 2 3 has stopped suddenly in the middle of the rails and nobody in charge of Pelham 1 2 3 with Garber over the established communication channels. Confusion ensues until a voice is heard speaking to Garber, with the voice belonging to a man who has taken control of the train with the help of some other gun-toting men.

Do The Right Thing And Watch Spike Lee's 1989 Masterpiece

One of the biggest takeaways I have about Do The Right Thing is that its entire climax (which hinges on an unarmed African-American man being killed by a police officer via a chokehold) feels chillingly relevant today. My other big takeaway is that Spike Lee's 1989 film Do The Right Thing is an extraordinary piece of cinema, a motion picture that fleshes out the array of inhabitants in one neighborhood and makes the location feel like an entire world. This wasn't the first Spike Lee directed movie to really take off (the guy had even hosted SNL prior to this), but it's so easy to see why Do The Right Thing took Lee to the next level of stardom.