Starring: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar
It Ends with Us, the first Colleen Hoover novel adapted for the big screen, tells the story of Lily Bloom, a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan, suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Ricki Lake, Amy Locane, Susan Tyrrell, Polly Bergen, Iggy Pop, Traci Lords
A prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her mother’s wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent.
Starring: Heather Matarazzo, Brendan Sexton III, Eric Mabius, Matthew Faber, Daria Kalinina
Middle-school student Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo) faces degradation at school — where she is teased constantly — and at home. The middle child between nerdy older brother Mark (Matthew Faber) and perky younger sister Missy (Daria Kalinina), Dawn can’t seem to find a place to belong. Although she has a crush on a cute boy (Eric Mabius) whom her brother knows, she can only catch the attention of bully Brandon (Brendan Sexton Jr.), who threatens her to show affection.
Starring: James Duval, Susan Behshid, Jenee Gill, Gilbert Luna, Roko Belic
In his fourth and best feature, Totally F***ed Up, provocative and talented independent filmmaker Gregg Araki delves into the troubled world of gay teenagers. Araki here addresses the disproportionately high suicide rate among gay teens.
Principal among six friends, two of them a solid good-humored lesbian couple (Susan Behshid, Jenee Gill), is the lonely Andy (James Duval), an appealing youth with a James Dean look and vulnerability, who doesn’t believe love exists – until he’s swept off his feet by the handsome, slightly older but vastly more experienced lan (Alan Boyce).
Meanwhile, Andy’s pals Steven (Gilbert Luna), an aspiring filmmaker, and his lover Deric (Lance May) soon experience a crisis in their relationship when Steven strays, trying to blame it on the fact that the new guy in his life just happened to have a bootleg Nine Inch Nails tape to tempt him with. Rounding out the group is easygoing skater dude Tommy (Roko Belic).
Araki effectively punctuates his story with quotes in the manner of one of his acknowledged idols, Jean-Luc Godard, and probing interviews with Steven, who’s always poking a camcorder in his friends’ faces.
Starring: Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway, Hector Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, Mandy Moore
Shy San Francisco teenager Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is thrown for a loop when, from out of the blue, she learns the astonishing news that she’s a real-life princess! As the heir apparent to the crown of the small European principality of Genovia, Mia begins a comical journey toward the throne when her strict and formidable grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews), shows up to give her “princess lessons.”
Starring: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Chad Faust, Eva Amurri
Mary (Jena Malone) is a devout girl at a Christian high school, dating Dean (Chad Faust). But her perfect world begins to fall apart when Dean reveals that he’s gay. She receives a vision from Jesus and tries everything she can to help Dean, including offering her virginity. Unfortunately, Dean is sent to a treatment center to “cure” him, and Mary discovers she’s pregnant. When her friends turn on her, she finds solace with school misfits Roland (Macaulay Culkin) and Cassandra (Eva Amurri).
Starring: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Diedrich Bader, Tina Majorino, Sandy Martin, Haylie Duff, Trevor Snarr, Shondrella Avery
In small-town Preston, Idaho, awkward teen Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) has trouble fitting in. After his grandmother is injured in an accident, his life is made even worse when his strangely nostalgic uncle, Rico (Jon Gries), shows up to keep an eye on him. With no safe haven at home or at school, Napoleon befriends the new kid, Pedro (Efren Ramirez), a morose Hispanic boy who speaks little English. Together the two launch a campaign to run for class president.
Starring: Dame Darcy
A haunted girl, Clara One-Arm, is tormented by ghosts, dolls, her nurse and raw meat.
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury, Cindy Cheung
Co-hosted by writer Edward Douglas
In 2005, M. Night Shyamalan was coming off a number of huge hits for Disney with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, but he decided to do something different, an original fairy tale he could show his young daughters.
In the movie, Paul Giamatti plays Cleveland Heep, caretaker of an apartment complex filled with eccentric characters, who discovers a mermaid named Story (played by a fairly new Bryce Dallas Howard) who needs his help protecting her from a number of fierce creatures. The movie was mostly panned by critics, not helped by the release of a tell-all book about the making of the movie, though it may still be one of Shyamalan’s more original concepts with many out-there ideas that people just didn’t get. It probably didn’t help that the filmmaker cast himself as a Messiah-like character either.
