Home Before Dark

1997

With a severely depressed mother and a father struggling to keep the family afloat and intact, 12-year-old Nora James (Stephanie Castellarin) has a heavy load to bear. And her lot only worsens when her mother is institutionalized and Nora is sent to live with a controlling aunt (Katharine Ross). There, she's thrust into the adult world, suddenly forced to put aside childhood ways. Maureen Foley directs this sensitive drama of a youth denied.

3.2 Average Rating

I Hate Valentine's Day

2009

After falling in love onscreen in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos and John Corbett reteam for a romantic comedy about a florist (Vardalos) who persuades a restaurateur (Corbett) to take a gamble on a no-strings-attached relationship. Vardalos, who also penned the screenplay, makes her directorial debut with this Valentine's Day-themed love story that crams the action into a single day: February 14.

3.2 Average Rating

The Safety of Objects

2001

Four intersecting tales shed light on the difficult lives of suburbanites. Esther (Glenn Close) nurses her comatose son (Joshua Jackson) while ignoring the rest of the family, and workaholic attorney Jim (Dermot Mulroney) overlooks his wife (Moira Kelly), losing control when he doesn't get an expected promotion. Meanwhile, Annette (Patricia Clarkson) and her family struggle to survive her divorce, and Helen (Mary Kay Place) seeks excitement.

3.2 Average Rating

Toe to Toe

2009

Out on the lacrosse pitch, wealthy but troubled Jesse (Louisa Krause) and poor but driven Tosha (Sonequa Martin) form an easy and deep bond, but their relationship is threatened once they enter the hallways of an elite prep school they attend in Washington, D.C. There, they must work to overcome racial and other tensions in their classmates, and in themselves, if they hope to keep their friendship alive. Emily Abt directs.

3.2 Average Rating

She Gets What She Wants

2002

Melanie Mayron ("Thirtysomething") directs this irreverent teen movie in which a new girl arrives in a small-town Texas high school and throws off everybody's understanding of who's who in the popular crowd. Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) stars as Genevieve, the French foreign-exchange student who threatens to usurp the position of the school's most popular girl, cheerleader Starla Grady (Jane McGregor).

3.2 Average Rating

Never Forever

2007

Vera Farmiga stars in this heartbreaking drama (a 2006 Sundance Film Festival entry) as Sophie, a woman who's utterly devoted to her husband but finds she's unable to get pregnant. When Sophie makes an odd but decisive choice to bring a Korean immigrant (Jung-woo Ha) into their marriage, her fateful decision soon threatens to tear the couple apart -- and drive Sophie to the brink of total despair.

3.2 Average Rating

Oyster Farmer

2005

Down-on-his-luck drifter Jack Flange (Alex O'Loughlin) heads to a secluded oyster-farming community to wait for a parcel of stolen cash that he's mailed to himself. But the package never arrives, and Jack suspects a beautiful postal worker named (what else?) Pearl (Diana Glenn) may be responsible for its disappearance. Anna Reeves directs this quirky but charming romance set along Australia's Hawkesbury River.

3.2 Average Rating

Little Fugitive

2005

Left in the care of his older brother Lenny for the weekend, 7-year-old Joey takes the first opportunity to flout his sibling's authority. But when a joke goes awry and Joey thinks he's killed his brother, he runs off to Coney Island to escape. Now, Lenny must track his brother down before he comes to harm. Joanna Lipper directs and Nicolas Martí Salgado and David Castro star in this remake of the 1953 film of the same name

3.2 Average Rating

Lou

2010

This poignant drama follows Lou, an 11-year-old Australian coping with having been abandoned by her father when her estranged grandfather, Doyle, comes to live with the family. Much to Lou's surprise, she develops a deep bond with the ailing Doyle.

3.2 Average Rating

Lost in Translation

2003

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

3.2 Average Rating

The Boys Next Door

1985

On the eve of their high school graduation, two young men (Maxwell Caulfield and Charlie Sheen) head for Los Angeles -- along the way they embark on a violent murder spree that shocks the nation. They're not maniacs, nor are they hardened criminals; they're just the "typical" boys next door. This crime drama from director Penelope Spheeris (Wayne's World) is a startling look at crime amid normalcy.

3.2 Average Rating

Helen

2009

Ashley Judd stars as Helen, an adored wife, mother and successful music professor who also struggles to mask her debilitating depression until a breakdown lands her in the hospital. But this apparent setback offers Helen a new perspective on life and her condition in the form of Mathilda (Lauren Lee Smith), a fellow patient with whom Helen forms a potent bond. Sandra Nettelbeck directs this touching drama; Goran Visnjic and Alexia Fast co-star.

3.2 Average Rating

High Art

1998

Magazine editor Syd (Radha Mitchell) is stuck in a dreary relationship with her boyfriend (Gabriel Mann) when she befriends her upstairs neighbor Lucy (Ally Sheedy), a well-known photographer whose live-in actress girlfriend (Patricia Clarkson) is struggling with a drug addiction. Lucy fascinates Syd, and the pair hit it off. But when Syd calls on Lucy to do an assignment for the magazine, their friendship soon grows into something much more.

3.2 Average Rating

Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity

2004

Determined to improve the romantic prospects of her lonely single mother, Kin Ho, quirky but well-meaning 12-year-old Mindy (Valerie Tian) resorts to Taoist magic to do the trick. But although the spells and potions seem to miss the mark, Kin finds her humdrum, unfulfilling life given a fresh spark from her daughter's good-intentioned charms. Reteaming with director Mina Shum (Double Happiness), Sandra Oh stars in this enchanting light comedy.

3.2 Average Rating

Sister My Sister

1994

This darkly engaging film dramatizes real-life events that scandalized French society in the 1930s, when Christine (Joely Richardson) and Lea Papin (Jodhi May), sisters who worked as maids, murdered their overbearing bourgeois mistress and her daughter. Their lives stifled by their employer, the sisters also formed an incestuous sexual relationship. Nancy Meckler directs this tale of rage and twisted love that also features Julie Walters.

3.1 Average Rating

I'll Take You There

1999

Adrienne Shelly directs and co-stars in this offbeat comedy about Bill (Reg Rogers), a man whose wife just ran off with his best friend. Trying to help, Bill's sister sets him up with Bernice (Ally Sheedy), an odd woman who takes their blind date in an unsettling direction. While Bill tries to make it clear that Bernice isn't his type, she grows increasingly obsessive and forces him to take a bizarre journey with her.

3.1 Average Rating