A heartbreaking and beautiful film, Nomadland is punctuated by moments of grief, pain, and joy. It explores the idea of how easily your self-worth can be wrapped up in a capitalist system and what happens when that system fails you.

I played piano for many years in elementary and middle school.  While I enjoyed it, I was never particularly good or noteworthy.  I took lessons once a week and practiced as often as I felt like. People said I was good, which made me happy. But I was never pushed harder. I was never pushed passed just being 'good.'  What happens when any of us are pushed past our most basic comfort zone?  In Whiplash, Damien Chazelle's second feature film, this point is driven home with a ferocious intensity that you leave, breathless, wondering how you could apply this need, this desire, to break boundaries in numerous aspects of your life.  How do I become the best?

What to do when your marriage is crumbling beneath you?  Do you try and mend the pieces?  Or, do you realize it's so far gone that leaving ends up being your best option?  For Amy Elliot Dunne, her emotional turmoil leaves her with seemingly one option.  And it's not quite option B.

Routine is comforting. It can provide a sense of structure and security to life. Routine is also dull. Repetitive even.  It can only be sustained for so long before something has to change. And depending how long you wait, that change could be pretty intense.

What are your memories of growing up?  What stands out?  For me it's stepping onto stage in front of a full house, yet not the curtain call. It's the hug line at high school graduation, yet not getting my diploma.  It's walking up a new street in a new city, yet not the flight to get to that new city.  This is true of most things in your life - the seemingly insignificant moments leave the greater imprint on your brain. It is this idea that beautifully drives Richard Linklater's Boyhood, a nearly three hour study of growing up, what it means to us, and how it's the little things that matter. 

Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel, The Two Faces of January is a wonderfully delicious noir crime thriller. Equal parts style and substance, the film is a visual feast of gorgeous Greek locales and excellent plotting through character.  Equal parts Fitzgerald and Hitchcock, the film is one grand party until it all comes crumbling down. And crumble it does.