Acts of Worship

2001

Alix (Ana Reeder) is a druggie living on the streets of Manhattan. Digna (Michael Hyatt) is an acclaimed photographer in the same city. Their worlds intersect when Digna finds Alix passed out in a stairwell and decides to take her in and help her get back on her feet. At first, it seems the two women couldn't be more different, but as they get to know each other, they realize they're both driven by the same fear and soon form a strong bond.

3.1 Average Rating

Incendiary

2008

Director Sharon Maguire's powerful drama stars Michelle Williams as an adulterous young housewife struggling to come to terms with the deaths of her husband and infant son after they're killed in a terrorist bombing at a London soccer game. Crippled by grief, the widow seeks comfort through affairs with two men (Ewan McGregor and Matthew Macfadyen), inadvertently putting herself in the midst of a dangerous love triangle.

3.1 Average Rating

The Quiet

2005

After losing her father, deaf and mute teen Dot (Camilla Belle) goes to live with her dysfunctional godparents (Edie Falco and Martin Donovan) and their rebellious daughter, Nina (Elisha Cuthbert). Before long, each is entrusting the silent Dot with disturbing, shameful secrets they assume will be kept private. Little do they suspect that Dot harbors a big secret of her own in this visceral drama directed by Jamie Babbit.

3.1 Average Rating

Sweetie

1989

Director Jane Campion's 1989 debut feature plumbs the dysfunctional depths of one Australian family. Emotionally distant Kay (Karen Colston) is thrown off by the sudden arrival of her sister, Dawn (Genevieve Lemon), fresh out of the insane asylum. The two sisters, who are complete opposites, quarrel endlessly -- and to make matters worse, their father arrives with the dire news that their mom has left him to go "find herself" in the outback.

3.1 Average Rating

Lovely & Amazing

2002

Four spirited women tackle everything from relationships to careers in this captivating indie drama, starring Brenda Blethyn as an insecure mother who passed along bits of her neuroses to each of her three very different daughters. The eldest, Michelle (Catherine Keener), is an ex-homecoming queen in a loveless marriage; Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer) is an apprehensive actress; and the adopted Annie (Raven Goodwin) is a precocious 8-year-old.

3.1 Average Rating

Down to the Bone

2004

Irene (Vera Farmiga), a drug-addled, working-class mother of two, decides to check herself into a rehab center in upstate New York, where she meets and falls in love with a fellow addict (Hugh Dillon) who's working hard to mend his ways. But when one of them relapses into addiction, can their commitment to each other prevail over the lure of narcotics? Debra Granik won the Director's Award and Farmiga won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance.

3.1 Average Rating

Rain

2008

Following the death of her beloved grandmother, Rain is (Renel Brown) forced to leave her idyllic life on Ragged Island to live with her drug-addicted mother in a poverty-stricken Nassau neighborhood. Shell-shocked by the bleak surroundings of her new life, Rain finds solace in a burgeoning friendship with a school coach (CCH Pounder) who encourages the teenager to make use of her athleticism by joining the track team.

3.1 Average Rating

Smithereens

1982

Restive 19-year-old Wren (Susan Berman) exits the soul-sucking boredom of her blue-collar New Jersey roots, intent on becoming a punk star in New York City's edgy clubs. But after losing her job and getting evicted from her shabby apartment, Wren's prospects for stardom are dim at best. Ever the optimist, she refuses to abandon her dream in this quirky urban drama from director Susan Seidelman (her feature-film debut).

3.0 Average Rating

I'm Through with White Girls

2007

After years of dating white women, an unconventional "brotha" (Anthony Montgomery) vows to try his luck with some "sistahs" of his own race. But when he falls for a self-described "half-Rican Canadian" (Lia Johnson), is it possible he's found his soul mate? True, she isn't black -- but her race is only part of the problem. For this longtime commitment-phobe to settle down, he'll have to drastically change his ways.

3.0 Average Rating

A Good Baby

1998

While hiking the back roads of a North Carolina hamlet, Raymond Toker (Henry Thomas) finds an abandoned baby. Deciding to rear the infant himself when no one in town claims the tyke, Raymond faces some difficult challenges. For one, his decision doesn't sit well with Josephine (Cara Seymour), a local beauty who loves Toker but not the baby. The arrival of enigmatic huckster Truman Lester (David Strathairn) may shed light on the child's identity.

3.0 Average Rating

The Cake Eaters

2007

When aspiring musician Guy Kimbrough (Jayce Bartok) returns to his family home in upstate New York, his arrival shakes up his father, Easy (Bruce Dern), and brother Beagle (Aaron Stanford), who are both still devastated by the recent death of the family matriarch. As the three men struggle to connect, each also tries to find love. Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Ashley and Miriam Shor co-star in actress Mary Stuart Masterson's directorial debut.

3.0 Average Rating

The Simian Line

2001

In the 300-year-old town of Weehawken, N.J., four couples (including Harry Connick Jr., Lynn Redgrave, Cindy Crawford and Eric Stoltz) come together for an evening of mischief on Halloween night. But their intimate dinner party takes a disastrous turn when the fortuneteller (Tyne Daly) invited to entertain them announces that "one couple will be finished by the end of the year." Which one of them it will be is anyone's guess.

3.0 Average Rating

Rough Magic

1995

An introspective magician's assistant (Bridget Fonda) realizes her true powers while adrift on a fanciful journey through rural Mexico, where she's being pursued by a gritty private investigator (Russell Crowe) hired by her eccentric millionaire fiancé. A curious blend of outlandish magical realism and the standard "gumshoe" nostalgia, Rough Magic is based on the novel &NFi;Miss Shumway Waves a Wand&NFi_; by James Hadley Chase.

3.0 Average Rating

Greasewood Flat

2004

Struggling blues musician Johnny (Chip Adams) faces the music in this sensitive tale of self-discovery and familial bonds. His music career on the skids and his passion gone, Johnny heads back to the country town he once left to seek greener pastures. Defeated, Johnny now must face his estranged family, including the three generations of women he deserted years ago. Mark Boone Junior, Allison Marley, Irene Bedard and Kieran Mulroney also star.

3.0 Average Rating

Wanda

1971

In her first and only film as director, Barbara Loden (who was married to legendary producer-director Elia Kazan) stars as a wandering divorcée who has given up custody of her children, trading in domesticity for an aimless life on the road. She eventually teams up with a small-time crook (Michael Higgins) and sets off on an adventurous crime spree. Loden's startlingly honest portrait stands among the classics of independent cinema.

3.0 Average Rating

Chromophobia

2005

Encouraged by his editor to seek "sexy stories that sell," a reporter preys upon the private life of an erstwhile friend -- with disastrous results -- in this darkly comic tale that contemplates a modern British society overrun by American values.

3.0 Average Rating