#2. Smoke (1995)

Storyline: The plot of this movie, like smoke itself, drifts and swirls ethereally. Characters and subplots are deftly woven into a tapestry of stories and pictures which only slowly emerges to our view. This film tries to convince us that reality doesn't matter so much as aesthetic satisfaction. In Auggie's New York smoke shop, day by day passes, seemingly unchanging until he teaches us to notice the little details of life. Paul Benjamin, a disheartened and broken writer, has a brush with death that is pivotal and sets up an unlikely series of events that afford him a novel glimpse into the life on the street which he saw, but did not truly perceive, every day. Finally, it's Auggie's turn to spin a tale....

Plot Keywords: writer, shop owner, teen boy, father, mechanic, ex-girlfriend, creative ...

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#3. Everybody's Fine (2009)

Storyline: Frank Goode lives by himself in Elmira, NY, a recent widower with heart trouble, retired from a factory job, proud of having pushed his adult children toward success. In the summer, all four kids bail on a reunion, so, against doctor's orders, Frank decides to surprise each with a visit. He sets out to see his artist son in New York City, his daughter the ad exec in Chicago, his son the conductor on tour and presently in Denver, and his daughter who's a performer in Vegas. None are as he imagines or hopes. Will they let him see themselves as they are, and can this dad adapt?

Plot Keywords: widower, son, daughter, lesbian, endearing, engaging, new york city ...

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#4. The School of Rock (2003)

Storyline: After being kicked out of his rock band, guitarist Dewey Finn faces a mountain of debts and depression. He shares an apartment with an old band member, Ned Schneebly, who is now a substitute teacher. Dewey accepts a job as a substitute teacher at a snobbish private elementary school where his attitude and hijinx have a powerful result on his students. He learns they are talented young musicians, and he decides to form a rock band with them to win the $10,000 prize money in a local band contest. Once Dewey wins a competition called "Battle of the Bands", the prize money would solve his financial problems and put him back in the rock music spotlight.

Plot Keywords: guitarist, music teacher, prodigy, principal, student, roommate, charming ...

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#5. Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)

Storyline: Gregory invites seven friends to spend the summer at his large, secluded 19th-century home in upstate New York. The seven are: Bobby, Gregory's "significant other," who is blind but who loves to explore the home's garden using his sense of touch; Art and Perry, two "yuppies" who drive a Volvo and who celebrate their 14th anniversary together that summer; John, a dour expatriate Briton who loathes his twin brother James; Ramon, John's "companion," who is physically attracted to Bobby and immediately tries to seduce the blind man; James, a cheerful soul who is in the advanced stages of AIDS; and Buzz, a fan of traditional Broadway musicals who is dealing with his own HIV-positive status.—Dennis Lewis <dsl@sprynet.com>

Plot Keywords: choreographer, theater fan, composer, musician, friend, twin, emotional ...

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#6. We the Animals (2018)

Storyline: Manny, Joel, and Jonah tear their way through childhood and push against the volatile love of their parents. As Manny and Joel grow into versions of their father and Ma dreams of escape, Jonah embraces an imagined world all on his own.

Plot Keywords: brother, mother, father, boy, friend, bleak, brash ...

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#8. Down to the Bone (2004)

Storyline: Winter in hard-scrabble upstate New York. Irene is working class, a mother of two boys, and a user of cocaine. She gets into trouble and checks into a rehab program where she meets Bob, a nurse. After she goes home to her husband and returns to her job as a grocery checker, she stays in touch with Bob and the intimations of an affair begin. By now, she's changed jobs, cleaning houses with her friend Lucy. The temptations of drugs are close at hand. Can she handle sobriety? What about Bob?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: drug addict, husband, child, nurse, wife, moving, raw ...

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#9. Dead of Winter (1986)

Storyline: Katie McGovern is a struggling actress living with her husband and her student brother, who is visiting. She attends an audition that she found in the paper and is selected to shoot a short video which will be sent to the director for his approval. Mr. Murray, the man holding the audition, picks Katie up and takes her to a remote mansion where they shoot the video. Katie is selected to replace the previous lead in the film who looks remarkably like her. Soon, however, things begin to look as if they are not what they seem. Katie soon realizes she is in danger and attempts escape.—Brian D. Switzer <bswitzer@uoguelph.ca>

Plot Keywords: actress, assistant, doctor, husband, police officer, chilling, tense ...

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#10. The Return of Peter Grimm (1935)

Storyline: Cantakerous, opinionated Peter Grimm is a seventh generation member of a Dutch immigrant family that founded a family flower farm two centuries earlier. Realizing he has a bad heart, Grimm extracts promises and concessions from those he expects will survive him and draws up his will appropriately. He extracts a promise from his beloved foster daughter Catherine that she will marry his newly-arrived nephew Frederik although she loves James, a hired hand on the farm. Grimm's hopes that the farm will remain in the family are given a blow when the mercenary Frederik announces his intentions to sell the entire operation to a hated Grimm rival When Grimm returns as a spirit he discovers a terrible situation of his own creation. His "friends" are dissatisfied with their bequests, young William's health is failing, and Catherine seems headed for an unhappy marriage. Through the dying William and his old friend and confidante, Dr. Macpherson, Grimm's spirit tries to reverse the harm he's done.—duke1029@aol.com

Plot Keywords: wealthy man, ward, nephew, boyfriend, doctor, ghost, fascinating ...

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#11. Wendigo (2001)

Storyline: A blue Volvo makes its way through the fading light this chilly winter evening in upstate New York. Kim (Patricia Clarkson), George (Jake Weber) and their 8-year-old son, Miles (Erik Per Sullivan), are city dwellers stealing a weekend away at a friend's country farmhouse. But a fluke accident sets off a chain of events that alters their lives forever and conjures up the ferocious spirit of the Wendigo, a Native American myth made manifest in Miles' imagination.

Plot Keywords: creature, mother, ad executive, son, neighbor, frightening, tense ...

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#12. The Fighting Preacher (2019)

Storyline: Preacher Willard Bean becomes the world middleweight boxing champion in 1905, but when Joseph F. Smith asks him to step away from the limelight and serve a five-year mission in upstate New York, the Beans immediately pack their bags and travel to the East Coast. Once there, they find the hatred that existed 90 years earlier is still alive and very present.

Plot Keywords: preacher, boxer, champion, missionary, mormon, inspiring, heartwarming ...

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#13. Some Things That Stay (2004)

Storyline: During the 1950s, a teenage girl named Tamara Anderson (Katie Boland) moves to a rural town with her liberal family, which includes her artist father, Stuart (Stuart Wilson) ; her mother, Liz (Alberta Watson) ; and a younger brother and sister. At first Tamara enjoys country life, and begins a romance with Rusty Murphy (Kevin Zegers), a handsome farm boy. But when her mother falls ill with tuberculosis while her father is out of town painting, she is left to care for her younger siblings.

Plot Keywords: artist, wife, teen girl, teen boy, mother, love interest, emotional ...

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#14. Tuck Everlasting (1980)

Storyline: While exploring the woods behind her house, young Winnie Foster (Margaret Chamberlain) meets the charismatic Jesse Tuck (Paul Flessa). Jesse introduces Winnie to his family, who turn out to be immortals living near the Fountain of Youth. Winnie is taken in by Angus (Fred A. Keller) and the rest of the family, though their idyll is soon interrupted by a power-hungry man who wants to sell the spring water. Winnie and the Tucks must make sure their secret remains safe -- which proves no easy task.

Plot Keywords: young girl, young boy, mother, father, corrupt businessman, airy, charming ...

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#15. Snow Day (2000)

Storyline: When an entire town in upstate New York is closed down by an unexpected snowfall, a "snow day" begins when a group of elementary school kids, led by Natalie Brandston, try to ensure that the schools stay closed by stopping a mechanical snowplow driver by trying to hijack his plow truck. Meanwhile, Natalie's big brother Hal is using this day to try to win the affections of Claire Bonner, the most popular girl in his high school, while Hal and Natalie's father Tom, a TV meteorologist, faces off against a rival meteorologist for weather coverage of the day's events.

Plot Keywords: student, driver, meteorologist, girl next door, mother, brother, melodramatic ...

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