Films That Pair With Wine

Judah Rosenthal is an ophthalmologist and a pillar of the community who has a big problem: his mistress Dolores Paley has told him that he is to leave his wife and marry her - as he had promised to do - or she will tell everyone of their affair. When he intercepts a letter Dolores has written to his wife Miriam, he is frantic. He confesses all to his shady brother Jack who assures him that he has friends who can take care of her. Meanwhile, filmmaker Cliff Stern is having his own problems. He's been working on a documentary film for some time but has yet to complete it. He and his wife Wendy have long ago stopped loving one another and are clearly on their way to divorce. He falls in love with Halley Reed who works with a producer, Lester. Cliff soon finds himself making a documentary about Lester and hates every minute of it.

Things have been tough lately for Amelia. Her best friend moved out of the apartment, her cat got cancer, and now her best friend Laura is getting married. Amelia copes with things with help from Laura, Andrew, Frank, and a brief romance with Bill--"The Ugly Guy."

This ultimate tribute to all independent filmmakers takes place during one day on the set of a non-budget movie.

In the metropolis of Rain City which is run under a military state, Wanda's Café is the meeting point for several individuals, who, in the words of Lt. Gunther of the police department, are converging on "the shit (they're) wallowing in". Former Rain City police officer John Hawkins - Hawk to his friends - has just been released from prison where he served eight years for murder, a crime to which he readily admits. He killed Fat Adolph, a mobster, in an effort to clean up the streets and protect the ones he loved. He has returned to Wanda's - Wanda who was his former lover - to restart his life. Straightforward Wanda still loves Hawk, but is not in love with him, and as such offers him a place to stay with no strings. Wanda has just hired largely innocent Georgia to work in the café. Penniless Georgia and her husband Coop have just arrived in Rain City with their infant son Spike in the run-down camper in which they live. They believed moving to the city - their first time ever in such - would solve all their problems. Frustrated Coop has been unable to find work, so he ends up hooking up with another Wanda's regular, a criminal named Solo. The power and money associated with this new criminal life changes Coop. His and Solo's problem is that their criminal activities are impinging on that of a more ruthless criminal named Hilly Blue, who will not sit idly by without getting what he considers his fair share of the activity. In the meantime, Hawk starts to fall for Georgia, who is torn between the love she felt for the man she married as opposed to who Coop has become, and the support provided by Hawk, who wants to care for her and Spike. Hawk has to decide what to do to help Georgia while getting what he wants for his renewed life.

The concurrent sexual lives of best friends Jonathan and Sandy are presented, lives that are affected by the sexual mores of the time and their own temperaments, especially in relation to the women in their lives. Their story begins in the late 1940s when they are roommates attending Amherst College together. Both virgins, they discuss the type of woman they would each like to end up with. The more-sensitive Sandy meets Susan at a mixer and believes he'll lose his virginity to her. He goes through the process methodically, considering what she wants, but there's little true passion or romance. The more sexually-aggressive Jonathan, loses his own virginity to "Myrtle," a steady but hidden girlfriend. Based on what each knows of the other's relationship, both men strive for a little more of what the other has. These relationships also set the tone for all the relationships they will have in the future. Through their lives, they always seem not totally satisfied with each relationship, still pining for what the other has. This view might change as they and their friendship hits middle age, when Sandy is with a domineering woman named Cindy, while Jonathan is with model/actress Bobbie, whose life goes spiraling downward because of her relationship to Jonathan and despite her beauty which on the surface offered so much opportunity for her. Jonathan's sexual trajectory, directed through these experiences, ends up in a manner he probably did not foresee.

In an apartment on Manhattan a couple of friends from the New York upper-class meet almost every night to talk about social mobility, play bridge and discuss Fourier's socialism; the cynic Nick, the philosophical Charlie, party girl Sally and austenite Audrey. They are joined by Tom. His background is much simpler and he is critical of their way of life. But he finds a soul mate in Audrey, who without his knowledge falls in love with him.

Two families, sort of neighbours in Manhattan, cross paths as they navigate marriage, parenthood of a teen, ennui, a first date, and end-of-life care. Rebecca and Mary are sisters; their cranky 91-year-old grandmother's neighbours, Kate and Alex, run an upscale retro-furniture business, and will expand into her flat after she dies. Rebecca is quiet, without a boyfriend until a patient at the clinic where she works introduces her grandson. Mary is acerbic, stung by a recent breakup. Kate looks for meaning in her life, wondering if she should volunteer. Alex, too, is at loose ends. Their daughter, Abby, has zits and teenage moods. What does it mean to be good?

Maggie's plan to have a baby on her own is derailed when she falls in love with John, a married man, destroying his volatile marriage to the brilliant and impossible Georgette. But one daughter and three years later, Maggie is out of love and in a quandary: what do you do when you suspect your man and his ex wife are actually perfect for each other?

After an unexpected tragedy, Suzanne struggles to put her life back together during a sad, strange Christmastime in suburban Virginia.

Successful Carolinian George Johnsten meets Chicago art gallery owner Madeleine at an electoral benefit art auction- love at first sight. Madeleine decides to meet a Southern original artist, so George seizes the opportunity to come along and present her to his North Carolina parents Eugene and Peg, drop-out brother Johny and his high-pregnant wife Ashley. Confronting the outsider soon opens a can of worms as emotions revive or emerge, like admiration and jealousy.

About a recent college grad who returns home while she tries to figure out what to do with her life.

Hannah, Holly, and Lee are adult sisters from a show business family, their boozy actress mother who still believes she's an ingénue that can attract any man she wants, despite still being married to the girls' father, Evan. Hannah, on her second marriage to a man named Elliot, a financial advisor, is the success of the family, taking a break from her acting career to raise her children. Everyone turns to her for advice, while she never talks to others about what she needs or feels. Her first husband, Mickey, is a comedy show writer and hypochondriac, who is going through a crisis as he mistakenly believes he will die soon without a clear belief, as a non-practicing Jew, of what will happen to him in the afterlife. Single Holly is the insecure flaky sister, a struggling and thus continually unemployed actress, who has just started a catering business with her actress friend April, in order to do something constructive with her life. In her own security, Hannah even set up Holly and Mickey together following her own break-up with Mickey, Holly and Mickey's sole date which arguably was the worst night in both their lives. Holly turns to Hannah for everything in her life, including money, despite feeling Hannah overly judgmental about her failures. It's during a catering job that Holly and April meet David, an architect, who seems interested in both of them. Holly's insecurities may threaten her potential relationship with David and friendship with April. Lee, who collects unemployment, is metaphorically the family's piece of clay waiting for the right artist to mold her. She has long lived with artist Frederick, who has contempt for everyone except her, and as such relies on her for whatever his connection to the outside world. This already complex collective becomes even more complex when Elliot contemplates telling Lee that he has fallen in love with her. His attraction to her is as much feeling unneeded by Hannah, who he does not want to hurt regardless of what he decides to do with respect to Lee.

In Brooklyn, engaged Noah and Barri have hit a rough spot in their relationship. Their issues stem from what may be an impending mid-life crisis for thirty-six year old Noah, and financial issues partly from Barri's unemployment, which has led to them taking in a roommate, Jean, Barri's restaurant managing lesbian friend. These issues are only exacerbated by Barri and Jean contemplating going into a Barri-initiated joint venture to renovate then open and manage a resort if they can find the necessary property upstate, this proposition despite they having no money and as of yet no investors. Noah believes Jean only agreed to the proposition because she is in love with Barri herself. Although Barri states she is all right with it, another issue may be Noah working for his ex-girlfriend Eleanor in her small home-based media firm. Although Eleanor is also primarily a lesbian, she and Noah only broke up because of wanting different things in life. Noah and Barri largely get along with the other people in their rent controlled building: the Anders - successful artist Damien, his wife Annabell and their young daughter, Wren - the building owners, Damien with who Noah often plays poker; and octogenarian Sylvia, whose Floridian son Anthony often comes for visits, Anthony included within those poker games. After Sylvia passes away from what is officially listed as natural causes the result of a heart attack, Barri begins to suspect Anthony of having murdered his mother for the insurance money. Barri's feelings are largely due to what she considers Anthony's odd behavior surrounding the death and suspicious activities after the fact. While Jean supports Barri, Noah dismisses what becomes Barri's singular focus on Sylvia being murdered as sheer madness. As Barri and Jean progress with their clandestine investigation of Anthony, they begin to believe that Damien is also somehow involved. With Jean implying that yet another one of who Noah considers a friend is a murderer, their relationship may not be able to survive, that is unless they end up on the same page, which if Barri holds steadfast to her beliefs means providing Noah with more concrete proof. However, if Barri is correct, it may mean their lives are in danger.

Tracy, a lonely college freshman in New York, is rescued from her solitude by her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke, an adventurous gal about town who entangles her in alluringly mad schemes. Mistress America is a comedy about dream-chasing, score-settling, makeshift families, and cat-stealing.

Cookie's Fortune unfolds over an eventful Easter weekend in the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. The town residents are peaceful, kind folk -- with the exception of Camille Dixon -- a pushy theatre director with an incredibly shy younger sister, Cora, whose estranged daughter Emma has just returned to town. On the heels of her latest play, Camille is shocked to discover that her Aunt Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt has committed suicide. Terrified at the thought of how this will tarnish the family name, she eats the suicide note to make it look like a burglary. This set-up leads the police to one main suspect, Willis Richland, who also happens to be Cookie's best friend. Although the rest of the town is convinced Willis didn't commit the crime, an outside investigator isn't so sure. As Easter Sunday and opening night of the play arrive, the truth comes out, revealing more secrets than anyone could have possibly imagined.

Wilson Joel is a man in trouble. There's a searing pain in his gut that he can't tolerate and a dazed quietness to his struggle as he tries to maintain his equilibrium. Wilson is attempting to move on from the sudden and inexplicable suicide of his wife. His mother-in-law is there for him, but her sympathies turn quickly. He has an employer that seems to want to help him, and a workmate who wants him for herself. But nothing and no one can give Wilson solace; so, he seeks oblivion. It is not the usual alcohol or drugs. Wilson inhales fumes from gasoline cans and model airplane fuel and finds temporary salvation in the company of remote-control model enthusiasts. However, nothing that provides him relief really lasts.

Josh Srebnick is 44. He is married to Cornelia, 43, the daughter of Leslie Breitbart, a respected documentary filmmaker. The couple lives comfortably in New York Village and gives the image of happiness. But things are not so rosy as they look: on a personal level, their relationships have been cooling down while they suffer from not having children. On a professional plane, things have deteriorated as well. Josh, who is also a documentary filmmaker like his father-in-law, has lost inspiration: he has been grappling with his last movie for eight years now without being able to complete it. To be true, Josh goes nowhere and his marriage is on the rocks. Things start changing when Josh and Cornelia meet another married pair: Jamie and Darby, a generation younger, express their admiration for Josh (Jamie wishing to become a documentary filmmaker himself). Plus, they are much cooler, smarter and more uninhibited than the two forty-odds. Could they help Josh and Cornelia to revive their couple? Could they give Josh an extra boost of energy to make a fresh start in his art?

In New York City, Susan Weinblatt and Anne Munroe are longtime roommates and friends. Susan is a struggling photographer who wants to get out of the wedding and bar mitzvah racket, those jobs which she primarily gets through her friend, Rabbi Gold, to selling the photographs she wants to take, but she realizes that she has to pay the rent. Anne is an aspiring poet and academic who looks to Susan as her primary guidance. As they move into a new apartment, Anne drops the news that she will not be moving in as she is getting married to her boyfriend, Martin. This news is bittersweet for Susan who is somewhat happy for her friend, but isn't sure if she likes all that Martin now represents to her. Both Susan and Anne will have to make professional and personal adjustments to their new situations, especially in what it means for not having the other as a constant in each their lives. While Anne has a "Martin", Susan has no one currently to replace all that Anne has been in her life. So Susan goes through a series of new professional and personal relationships all in trying to find her way, while the two of them have to decide how and if to maintain their friendship in light of all these changes.