3 Best Movies to Watch by Luke Kirby

1. Rectify, 2016

	

Some of the best novels of all time will probably take a few pages to introduce their premise, backstory, and key characters, and might demand some patience until the plot fully unfolds. This might be a hard sell in today's world of short attention-spans, but some stories just need the time. Rectify is one of those stories. We meet Daniel Holden, played by Aden Young, after he is released from death-row prison after 19 years. While smart and thoughtful, Holden is obviously a damaged man, slightly out of synch with the world outside. His release affects his family very differently – some, like his sister, Agatha, had been fighting for his release since the day he was arrested. Others, like his brother-in-law, suspect he's guilty of the crime he was accused of. Still others, like the fictional town's sheriff, are bent on finding new evidence to lock him away again. So, in addition to awe-striking Southern landscapes, thought-provoking themes, subtle writing, you get a deep and detailed character-driven plot played by amazing actors. It might be too slow for some. This is not a who-dunnit or true-crime voyeurism. But you will be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't enveloped by torrent of emotion when Daniel meets his mother and sister outside of a prison cell for the first time in nearly twenty years in the very first episode. And it really gets better and better with every season.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Abigail Spencer, Adelaide Clemens, Aden Young, Bruce McKinnon, Clayne Crawford, J. Smith-Cameron, J.D. Evermore, Jake Austin Walker, Jayson Warner Smith, Johnny Ray Gill, Luke Kirby, Michael O'Neill, Michael Vartan, Sean Bridgers, Sharon Conley
Rating: 15, TV-14

2. Take This Waltz, 2012

	
Take this Waltz is a movie that wants you to have a problem with it. It's about a woman (Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine) torn between her husband (played by Seth Rogan) and a new man who entered her life. It's an emotional and honest account as well as a mature slice-of-life film that you will appreciate either if you are familiar with a similar situation in real life, or if you give the film a chance, which I recommend you do.Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Aaron Abrams, Danielle Miller, Diane D'Aquila, Graham Abbey, Jennifer Podemski, John Dunsworth, Luke Kirby, Michelle Williams, Sarah Silverman, Seth Rogen, Vanessa Coelho
Director:  Sarah Polley
Rating: R

Shattered Glass tells the unbelievably true story of Stephen Glass, a popular and promising young journalist at The New Republic. Stephen's storytelling skills are sought out not just by his admiring colleagues but by other publications as well, so when a rival journalist from Forbes finds holes in one of Stephen's stories, no one takes the accusation seriously at first—except perhaps for Charles Lane, Stephen's editor. Immune to Stephen's charms, Charles digs for the truth and tries, despite an alarming lack of support, to pursue what's right.

Set in the '90s, Shattered Glass may be a throwback to old-school journalism, but its ideas about the integrity of facts still hold water, especially in an age fraught with rampant disinformation.

Genre: Drama, History

Actor: Andrew Airlie, Bill Rowat, Brett Watson, Brittany Drisdelle, Caroline Goodall, Cas Anvar, Chad Donella, Chloe Sevigny, Christian Tessier, Hank Azaria, Hayden Christensen, Howard Rosenstein, Isabelle Champeau, Jamie Elman, Linda E. Smith, Louis-Philippe Dandenault, Luke Kirby, Lynne Adams, Mark Blum, Mark Camacho, Melanie Lynskey, Michele Scarabelli, Morgan Kelly, Pauline Little, Peter Sarsgaard, Pierre Leblanc, Rosario Dawson, Russell Yuen, Simone-Elise Girard, Steve Zahn, Ted Kotcheff

Director: Billy Ray

Rating: PG-13