Actor Jason Robards (1922)

Magnolia (1999), an American drama film directed and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson, follows Los Angeles police officer Jim Kurring as he investigates a disturbance at a woman’s apartment. Inside, he discovers a body in the closet. A neighborhood boy named Dixon futilely attempts to reveal the identity of the murderer to Jim. Later, Jim visits Claudia Wilson’s apartment after her neighbors call the police during an argument with her estranged father, Jimmy Gator. Despite her erratic behavior and drug use, Jim still asks her out on a date. Meanwhile, Jimmy is dying of cancer and hosts a quiz show called ...

The American comedy-drama film, The Paper (1994), directed by Ron Howard, follows Henry Hackett, a dedicated metro editor at The New York Sun. While he loves his job, Henry is tired of the long hours and low pay. He fears becoming like his work-obsessed boss, Bernie White, who neglects his family. When Bernie reveals his prostate cancer diagnosis, he tries to reconcile with his estranged daughter before it’s too late. Facing financial struggles, the paper’s owner enacts unpopular cutbacks under the supervision of Henry’s rival, managing editor Alicia Clark. At home, Henry clashes with his pregnant wife ...

The American legal drama film, Philadelphia (1993), was written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Jonathan Demme. Andrew Beckett, a senior associate at the largest corporate law firm in the city, keeps his homosexuality and status as an AIDS patient hidden from his colleagues. Despite attributing a lesion on his forehead to a racquetball injury, it is actually Kaposi’s sarcoma, a defining condition of AIDS. Beckett takes several days off work to try and conceal the lesions and manages to finish the paperwork for an assigned case. He then instructs his assistants to ...

Quick Change (1990), an American crime comedy film directed by Howard Franklin and Bill Murray, is based on the novel of the same name by Jay Cronley. In the movie, Grimm, dressed as a clown, cleverly robs a bank in midtown Manhattan with his girlfriend Phyllis and best friend Loomis. However, their simple heist turns into a chaotic nightmare when they try to make their getaway to catch a flight out of the country. The group must navigate through the chaos of New York City and its conspiring forces to reach the airport. ...

Parenthood (1989) is a hilarious and touching family dramedy, helmed by director Ron Howard who collaborated with screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel on the story. Gil Buckman, a salesman from St. Louis, is struggling to juggle his job and his family. He faces a tough situation when he discovers that his oldest son Kevin needs therapy for emotional problems, and that his younger children Taylor and Justin also have their own issues. As he begins to blame himself and question his parenting abilities, Gil’s ...

The Day After (1983), an American television film, originally aired on ABC. Dr. Russell Oakes works at a hospital in Kansas City and spends time with his family, despite his daughter Marilyn’s plans to move away. In Harrisonville, located approximately 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Kansas City, the Dahlbergs prepare for their eldest daughter Denise’s wedding rehearsal with Bruce, a University of Kansas student from Lawrence. However, the young couple becomes preoccupied with sexual desires and family issues arise when Denise’s younger sister takes her birth control and Jim catches her sneaking back home the following morning. Meanwhile, Airman First ...

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) is an epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci and Leone. A train pulls into the Old West town of ‘Flagstone’, and a man wearing a harmonica around his neck disembarks. He swiftly dispatches three gunfighters who were waiting for him. The leader of the outlaws, Frank, is in ...