434 Best Slice-of-Life Movies to Watch (Page 23)

We all know that remaining unmarried when middle-aged doesn’t mean one is lacking, but even when we can acknowledge how dated this idea is, for women, there’s still the societal pressure, the loneliness, and the feeling of having missed an opportunity to have children. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is centered on one such middle-aged woman living in a small town in Georgia, and she has a fairly peaceful life… until she nearly dies and shortly forms an attraction to another man. Director and co-writer Elene Naveriani takes her time to delve deep into Etero’s story, the complicated grief she has towards the men that have raised her, as well as the spite towards the arbitrary goals other women have reached and made fun of her for. The journey does take a rather slow burn, but it’s wonderful to see a film so empathetic and nuanced about this dilemma, and free from the judgment many women have encountered on this topic.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Eka Chavleishvili, Lia Abuladze, Piqria Niqabadze, Tamar Mdinaradze, Temiko Chichinadze

Director: Elene Naveriani

When plucked out of your cushy, city life to labor on rural farmlands, it’s a tough change. It would have been a terrible one for Luo Min and Ma Jianling, if it wasn’t for Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Rather than depict this transfer policy as pure drudgery, the film depicts it as somewhat of a nostalgic summer romance in warm-tone shots and casual slice-of-life moments inspired by the semi-autobiographical novella written by writer-director Dai Sijie himself. It probably felt that way to his generation as well. But make no mistake. Sijie subtly pokes fun at the censorship the ways teenagers would do, that is, by saying what adults would like them to say, but doing exactly what they were told not to, anyway. That being said, there is a bit of a Western bias here– the banned books are Western, after all, and the two boys sharing French embroidery and sewing patterns seemed to be a strange plot point– but Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress warmly depicts his generation without losing sight of the drastic changes they had to go through.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Chen Kun, Cong Zhijun, Wang Hongwei, Wang Shuangbao, Xu Yukun, Ye Liu, Zhang Chenghe, Zhou Xun

Director: Dai Sijie

Narrated by the familiar voice of Jack Black, Apollo 10 ½ is a throwback story told with admirable specificity and imagination. Black plays a grown-up Stan, who looks back on his younger years with a mix of fondness and wonder: how did they get away with the things they did then? American suburbia in the 1960s was both loose and conservative, caught between a generation holding on to the reins of the earlier century and one eager to launch into the next. 

Stan, as the youngest child of a big, rowdy family, gives us a charming look into the times, as well as a projection of his own fascination: Apollo 11 and the space age. He inserts himself in this monumental narrative and generously brings us along in his fantasy. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether Stan’s recruitment by NASA is actually fact or fiction, but that’s part of the fun, especially since Stan himself doesn’t seem to mind at all.

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Family, History, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Science Fiction

Actor: Avery Joy Davis, Bill Wise, Brent A. Riggs, Brian Villalobos, Buzz Aldrin, Christian Moran, David DeLao, Glen Powell, Holt Boggs, Jack Black, Janis Joplin, Jennifer Griffin, Jessica Brynn Cohen, John F. Kennedy, John Kaler, Josh Wiggins, Keslee Blalock, Larry Jack Dotson, Lee Eddy, Milo Coy, Mona Lee Fultz, Natalie L'Amoreaux, Neil Armstrong, Nick Stevenson, Richard Nixon, Samuel Davis, Walter Cronkite, Zachary Levi

Director: Richard Linklater

Rating: PG-13

There's no shortage of media depicting alcoholism, but many of them come across as preachy, sanctimonious, and coming from someone that hasn't gone through it. Steve Buscemi’s directorial debut is another character study of an alcoholic pushed to drink because of losing both his job and his girlfriend, but the way Buscemi writes, directs, and acts as this Long Island town drunkard has an unassuming realism that doesn’t paint Tommy’s life as the worst thing ever, but rather as a steady toleration of having life left unfixed, of continuing to indulge in self-destructive behavior, because it’s not bad enough to actually do something about it. Trees Lounge might not be the most exciting debut, but it’s one that’s honest.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Anthony LaPaglia, Bianca Hunter, Bronson Dudley, Brooke Smith, Carol Kane, Chloe Sevigny, Daniel Baldwin, Debi Mazar, Elizabeth Bracco, Eszter Balint, iO Tillett Wright, Irma St. Paule, John Ventimiglia, Kevin Corrigan, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Mark Boone Junior, Michael Buscemi, Michael Imperioli, Mimi Rogers, Richard Boes, Rockets Redglare, Samuel L. Jackson, Seymour Cassel, Steve Buscemi, Steven Randazzo, Suzanne Shepherd

Director: Steve Buscemi

Rating: R

When something like a World War happens, the generation that grew up at the time inevitably would be changed, and this change sticks to that generation, even if the ones that follow don’t immediately understand. The Last Suit is centered on this idea, but it does so through a relatively lighthearted and humorous way, as Abraham Bursztein goes on a cross-continental trip to see a childhood friend from the war, and meet people with different perspectives along the trip. With at least six different languages, two different timelines, and a compelling protagonist, The Last Suit is a new take on the Holocaust that might be a tad too sentimental for some viewers, but is a poignant reminder of the history that still haunts the world today.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Ángela Molina, Cristóbal Pinto, Jacek Lenartowicz, Jan Mayzel, Julia Beerhold, Karolina Porcari, Martín Piroyansky, Michał Sikorski, Miguel Ángel Solá, Natalia Verbeke, Norma Argentina, Olga Bołądź

Director: Pablo Solarz

Life can get tough if you move to another country. You have to adjust to the language, to the culture, and to the community you choose to move to, and that’s just if you decided to make the move intentionally. But some of these difficulties can be made much easier to bear with a good friend. Shun Li and the Poet is centered on a friendship between two immigrants in a Venetian island town, and although they come from other sides of the world, the kindnesses they share as strangers, and the intimacy they keep when they share more of their life stories, prove to be lovely. It might be a tad slow for some viewers, but the contemplation and celebration of their shared humanity makes for a lovely watch.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Andrea Pennacchi, Giuseppe Battiston, Marco Paolini, Rade Serbedzija, Roberto Citran, Zhao Tao

Director: Andrea Segre

One of those long-lost mid-budget dramas that's content with observing the rich yet uneventful lives of average folk, Nobody's Fool reminds us that nothing exciting or shocking needs to happen to make a good story. The late, eternally charismatic Paul Newman leads an ensemble of character actors in relaxed, memorable roles—Bruce Willis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Margo Martindale, and Jessica Tandy, among others. It's the authentic, neither-love-nor-hate relationship among all these characters that drives all their individual drama forward and keeps the film from stagnating into anything less than endearing. Here, the idea of things never really changing in this small community is meant to be a comfort, not a lament.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Alexander Goodwin, Alice Drummond, Angela Pietropinto, Angelica Page, Anibal O. Lleras, Bruce Willis, Carl J. Matusovich, Catherine Dent, Drenda Spohnholtz, Dylan Walsh, Elizabeth Wilson, Gene Saks, Gerry Robert Byrne, Jay Patterson, Jerry Mayer, Jessica Tandy, Joe Paparone, Josef Sommer, Marcus Powell, Margo Martindale, Melanie Griffith, Page Johnson, Paul Newman, Philip Bosco, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Richard Mawe, Shannah Laumeister Stern

Director: Robert Benton