Home for the Holidays

1995

Every year, Claudia (Holly Hunter) dreads her trip home for Thanksgiving. Between her parents (Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft), her sardonic brother (Robert Downey Jr.) and her overdramatic sister (Cynthia Stevenson), things are bad enough. But this year, Claudia has more reason for angst. She's lost her job and is dealing with her daughter's (Claire Danes) revelation about her sexual activities. Jodie Foster directs this ode to dysfunction.

3.6 Average Rating

Something New

2006

Having carefully calculated her professional life, African-American accounting exec Kenya McQueen (Sanaa Lathan) is concerned that her personal life doesn't measure up, so she agrees to go on a blind date with a sexy, free-spirited landscape architect (Simon Baker). Her new love interest turns out to be white, which isn't necessarily a deal-breaker -- until she meets a seemingly perfect black man (Blair Underwood).

3.6 Average Rating

Step Up

2006

Sentenced to a stretch of community service at a prestigious school for the arts, streetwise troublemaker Tyler Gage unexpectedly discovers his natural talent for dance when he pairs with one of the academy's ballerinas.

3.6 Average Rating

Twilight

2008

When Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest to live with her father, she starts school and meets the reclusive Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire. Despite Edward's repeated cautions, Bella can't help but fall in love with him, a fatal move that endangers her own life when a coven of bloodsuckers try to challenge the Cullen clan.

3.6 Average Rating

Clueless

1995

Director Amy Heckerling's fresh adaptation of Jane Austen's novel &NFi;Emma&NFi_; follows the misadventures of meddlesome Beverly Hills high schooler Cher, who gets more than she bargained for when she gives a fashion-challenged student a makeover.

3.6 Average Rating

The Wedding Date

2005

Single girl Kat (Debra Messing) can't stomach the idea of attending her sister's (Amy Adams) faraway London wedding, where her ex-boyfriend (Jeremy Sheffield), who had ceremoniously dumped Kat perilously close to the altar, will likely be a guest. But duty calls, and she must fly in for the torturous affair, which she decides might be more palatable if she seeks companionship of a different sort … that of a male escort (Dermot Mulroney).

3.6 Average Rating

Fire

1996

Two Hindu women struggle with loveless, arranged marriages: Sita (Nandita Das), who discovers that her husband (Javed Jaffrey) has a mistress, and her sister-in-law, Radha (Shabana Azmi), who cannot give birth. As the lukewarm coals of their long-term relationships fade, the women ignite passion in their lives by finding comfort in each other. Director Deepa Mehta's drama is supposedly the first Indian film about lesbians.

3.6 Average Rating

It's a Wonderful Afterlife

2010

Gurinder Chadha's delightfully irreverent comedy stars Shabana Azmi as Mrs. Sethi, a mother bent on finding her daughter a husband by any means, even if it kills her. Or, rather, even if it requires her to kill. She can't help herself: When her daughter's deemed not good enough, she defends as she thinks any good mother should. But how can she shake the cops' scrutiny? Suicide's not an option, at least not until she's able to marry off her child.

3.6 Average Rating

Encuentros Sexuales de un Taxxista

2005

Pedro, a taxi driver bored with the monotony of his life, daydreams about having sexual encounters with his passengers. When Pedro actually gets the chance to act out his fantasies, however, he must face the tragic consequences of his lustful actions. Nadia Contreras, Diana Salgado, Rocio Puron, Gabriel Cosme and Luis Enrique Parra star in this erotic drama.

3.6 Average Rating

Charlotte Gray

2001

A Scottish woman (Cate Blanchett) searching for her missing pilot boyfriend during World War II must choose between finding her lost love and taking a stand when she meets a local farmer (Michael Gambon) and his son (Billy Crudup), a leader in the resistance who's harboring two Jewish children. Australian director Gillian Armstrong helms this period drama based on Sebastian Faulks's novel of the same name.

3.6 Average Rating

Little Dorrit

1988

In this two-part adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel, Derek Jacobi stars as Arthur, a well-meaning middle-aged man who, through an unexpected relationship with seamstress Little Dorrit (Sarah Pickering), is drawn into the plight of a group of debtor prisoners. Christine Edzard directs and writes this expansive, award-winning drama for the screen; Alec Guinness co-stars as the imprisoned William Dorritt.

3.6 Average Rating

The Secret Life of Words

2005

After surviving the war in Yugoslavia, taciturn nurse Hanna heads to Ireland for some relaxation. But when she hears about an oil-rig accident off the coast, she agrees to tend to a heroic burn victim, who changes her life.

3.6 Average Rating

Dogfight

1991

Four young Marines spending their last night stateside in San Francisco before shipping out to Vietnam stage a dogfight: The Marine who finds the ugliest "date" and brings her to a party wins. Eddie Birdlace (River Phoenix) is having no luck finding an appropriate chick -- until he meets Rose (Lili Taylor), a shy, ugly-duckling waitress who worships folk singers. But will Eddie confess to Rose the real reason he wants to "date" her?

3.6 Average Rating

Disappearing Acts

2000

Music teacher Zora Banks (Sanaa Lathan) yearns for a successful career as a singer-songwriter -- and for a decent man in her life. While moving into a new brownstone, Zora meets rough-edged construction worker Franklin Swift (Wesley Snipes), and the two hit it off. But when certain secrets come to light, their burgeoning romance starts to unravel. John Amos costars in this made-for-cable-TV movie based on Terry McMillan's best-selling novel.

3.6 Average Rating

The Piano

1993

Holly Hunter stars as Ada McGrath, a mute but strong-willed 19th-century Scottish expatriate who arrives in New Zealand with her daughter (Anna Paquin) and her beloved piano in tow. Although betrothed to a landowner (Sam Neill), she's pulled into an affair with a laborer (Harvey Keitel). Hunter and Paquin both won Oscars for their performances in this haunting drama from writer-director Jane Campion.

3.6 Average Rating

Take My Eyes

2005

Winner of seven Goya Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Lead Actor and Actress, Iciar Bollain's raw drama exposes the hard truths about domestic abuse. With her son in tow, battered wife Pilar (Laia Marull) finally flees her violent husband, Antonio (Luis Tosar), taking asylum at her sister Ana's (Candela Peña) home. Free from the clutches of her abusive husband, Pilar struggles to start a new life; problem is, she still loves Antonio.

3.5 Average Rating