We consulted IMDb's Highest-Rated Action-Family Films to came up with 10 scene-stealing action figures your kids can relate to, look up to, and be inspired by.
When a foreign exchange student arrives in a small upstate New York town, she challenges the dynamics of her host family's relationships and alters their lives forever.
Director:
Drake Doremus
Stars:
Felicity Jones,
Guy Pearce,
Mackenzie Davis
Two highway road workers spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind.
A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.
Director:
Destin Daniel Cretton
Stars:
Brie Larson,
Frantz Turner,
John Gallagher Jr.
The story of the five-day interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, which took place right after the 1996 publication of Wallace's groundbreaking epic novel, 'Infinite Jest.'
Director:
James Ponsoldt
Stars:
Jason Segel,
Jesse Eisenberg,
Anna Chlumsky
Kate and Charlie Hannah have a relationship well lubricated with alcohol, but Kate finally finds her chemical appetites have gotten completely out of control. With the help of an ex-addict friend at work, Kate finds a support group that helps her begin to conquer her addictions. However, that recovery proves just part of a larger personal challenge to rebuild her life even as her marriage with her drunken husband deteriorates. Written by
Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
To simulate urinating, Mary Elizabeth Winstead wore a bag of liquid on her thigh under her dress and pressed it with her elbow while squatting. See more »
Goofs
As Kate drinks from a hip flask in her car, a woman with a large purse walks by in the background. She walks by again after Kate gets out of her car. See more »
Quotes
Kate Hannah:
I gotta go to work, and you snoozed on my alarm again. I'm gonna be late.
Charlie Hannah:
Yeah, well, you peed on me, so I guess we're even.
See more »
The title SMASHED may make you think this is some lurid story about alcoholism but it's not. It's a very straightforward, sensitive treatment on the subject of addiction as seen through the eyes of an elementary schoolteacher, Hannah, beautifully played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead in one of the best performances this year. Winstead is wonderfully authentic as a young woman whose excessive drinking begins to interfere with her job. She's someone we don't expect to find battling this kind of problem which makes the film all the more poignant. Her marriage to a rather shiftless man who spends his time drinking and cavorting with friends doesn't help. As we learn more about her past we begin to understand how she ended up in this relationship. The good supporting cast includes Aaron Paul as her husband, Charlie, who's even more oblivious than Hannah; Oscar winner Octavia Spencer adds some humor to the otherwise grim gospel of withdrawal and recovery; Megan Mullally is the principal of Hannah's school; Nick Offerman is a colleague who takes an interest in Hannah's troubles and Mary Kay Place is her mother who insists she can still mix a great Bloody Mary. The screenplay by director James Ponsoldt and Susan Burke is determined to avoid the melodramatic pitfalls and clichés of similar stories and purposely takes a lighthearted, sometimes comedic approach. SMASHED is an honest, contemporary look at the bad choices we make and impact they have on our lives.
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The title SMASHED may make you think this is some lurid story about alcoholism but it's not. It's a very straightforward, sensitive treatment on the subject of addiction as seen through the eyes of an elementary schoolteacher, Hannah, beautifully played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead in one of the best performances this year. Winstead is wonderfully authentic as a young woman whose excessive drinking begins to interfere with her job. She's someone we don't expect to find battling this kind of problem which makes the film all the more poignant. Her marriage to a rather shiftless man who spends his time drinking and cavorting with friends doesn't help. As we learn more about her past we begin to understand how she ended up in this relationship. The good supporting cast includes Aaron Paul as her husband, Charlie, who's even more oblivious than Hannah; Oscar winner Octavia Spencer adds some humor to the otherwise grim gospel of withdrawal and recovery; Megan Mullally is the principal of Hannah's school; Nick Offerman is a colleague who takes an interest in Hannah's troubles and Mary Kay Place is her mother who insists she can still mix a great Bloody Mary. The screenplay by director James Ponsoldt and Susan Burke is determined to avoid the melodramatic pitfalls and clichés of similar stories and purposely takes a lighthearted, sometimes comedic approach. SMASHED is an honest, contemporary look at the bad choices we make and impact they have on our lives.