Home Alone

Directed by Chris Columbus, 1990
PG; 103 minutes

“Using split-second editing, playfully choreographed violence and exaggerated responses such as the bug-eyed double take, director Chris Columbus has created a live action comedy in the style of a Warner Bros cartoon.” —Lynden Barber, Sydney Morning Herald

Secondhand Lions

Directed by Tim McCanlies, 2003
PG; 110 minutes

“Awash in nostalgia, Lions combines a gentle coming-of-age story with swashbuckling fantasy.” —Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

For 14-year-old Walter (Haley Joel Osment), his great uncles’ farm in rural Texas is the last place on earth he wants to spend the summer. Dumped off by his mother, Mae (Kyra Sedgwick), Walter is left with the eccentric Hub (Robert Duvall) and Garth (Michael Caine) McCaan, who are rumored to have a hidden fortune.

Straight Talk

Directed by Barnet Kellman, 1992
PG; 87 minutes

“The best scenes in the movie are the ones where the [Dolly] Parton character simply speaks her mind. Her advice is sound, earthy and blunt.” —Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert.com

Steel Magnolias

Directed by Herbert Ross, 1989
PG; 118 minutes

“This film is a true story and a brilliant depiction of friendship that manages to be witty, warm, uplifting, and, just when you thought you were safe, utterly heartbreaking. It’s also frequently laugh-out-loud funny.” —Sophie Zeldin-O'Neill, The Guardian

Bitter Christmas

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
R; 111 minutes

“[Almodóvar] nests one story inside another, leaps between them with breathtaking fluidity, and brings them both to a virtuosic, if abrupt, finish.” —Justin Chang, The New Yorker

After her mother’s death, advertising director Elsa buries herself in work until a panic attack forces her to stop. A restorative trip with a friend begins to intertwine memory, grief, and the screenplay of a filmmaker who tells her story years later.

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