Ladyhawke (1985)

Sources told me that this was a cult classic. I fully expected an '80s sword-and-sorcery flick to be cheesy, but when YouTube suggested it, I figured it would at least be different from my other recent viewings.

Medieval peasant and habitual petty thief Phillipe "The Mouse" Gaston (young Matthew Broderick, mischievous as usual) escapes from an Italian dungeon but needs help evading guards ordered by the bishop of Aquila (John Wood) to kill him. Enter Etienne of Navarre (Rutger Hauer), former captain of said guards, who seeks to kill the bishop over a past treachery. Etienne is accompanied by a faithful red-tailed hawk, but by night, Phillipe sees neither of them, only the friendly Isabeau of Anjou (young Michelle Pfeiffer) and a black wolf who attacks only their enemies....

Election (1999)

Once I saw this title on the menu, I decided it should be my first viewing after Election Day. The advertising didn't appeal to me, especially the poster showing a tiny man's head in a girl's mouth, but the movie itself has some enduring clout, including reportedly being Barack Obama's favorite political pic.

High school civic teacher Jim (Matthew Broderick) has complicated feelings about busy, ambitious A student Tracy (Reese Witherspoon): He resents her for having had an inappropriate relationship with his now fired and divorced co-worker, Dave (Mark Harelik), but also fears that he will make the same mistake, especially if she becomes the student government president and thus spends more time around him. He persuades injured football star Paul (Chris Klein) to run against her. Paul's sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell), bitter at him for dating her female love interest, Lisa (Frankie Ingrassia), then enters the race to thwart him. Amid this havoc, Jim turns out to be in much more danger of straying toward Dave's ex-wife, Linda (Delaney Driscoll), who is also a friend of Jim's wife, Diane (Molly Hagan).

WarGames (1983)

This is one of those movies with only one moment people are likely to reference, and it's at the end (albeit not a twist like in Soylent Green). At first, I assumed there was nothing else of value in WG. Then it occurred to me that viewers wouldn't know that much if the rest were boring, so I opted in.

David (Matthew Broderick in his first leading role) is too rebellious for school but has a way with machines. In an attempt to remotely hack into a computer game company database and sample an upcoming release, he inadvertently reaches a NORAD supercomputer nicknamed Joshua (voiced by John Wood) and starts a war-planning simulation. Wouldn't you know that the systems engineering chief (Dabney Coleman) had just arranged for Joshua to have full control because the human element was too unpredictable. Joshua's screen displays fool NORAD into thinking that the USSR is making highly threatening moves, and the American response raises Russian alarms. David gets in trouble, authorities believing he's either a prankster or an agent. Oddly enough, for a long time, he's the only one to take the Joshua threat seriously. The computer is more autonomous than widely assumed, makes no distinction between games and reality, and fully expects to launch missiles within a few dozen hours of strategizing. It's up to David, his girlfriend (Ally Sheedy), and Joshua's reclusive creator (also John Wood) to prevent WWIII and the presumed end of the world.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

The title alone made me a little reluctant to see this movie. The credit to Kenneth Lonergan didn't help. But it takes a lot to shoo me away from an Academy Best Picture nominee in the long term, and Dad and I wanted to get one more out of the way in time for the ceremony. Lion, Fences, and Hacksaw Ridge were not immediately available.

Middle-aged Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) lives as a Boston handyman with basically no social life beyond the occasional unprovoked bar brawl. His life gets more miserable still when his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler, oddly enough) dies of a heart attack -- and to Lee's unpleasant surprise, Joe's will asks that Lee take care of Joe's 16-year-old son, Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Lee and Patrick have trouble seeing eye to eye on arrangements. For example, "Patty" would hate to leave his friends behind, but Lee can't stand to live in Manchester, where people whisper about him for reasons that take a while to become clear....

You Can Count on Me (2000)

I'm pretty sure this used to be on IMDb’s top 250; that's most likely how I took notice of it. Nowadays it stands out as having the first major role for Rory Culkin. It's also the earliest I've seen of Mark Ruffalo and the latest I've seen of Matthew Broderick.

The opening establishes Samantha and Terry as having been orphaned when Sammy was a teen and Terry a bit younger. After a fast-forward, Sammy (Laura Linney) is a single mother of eight-year-old Rudy (Culkin). Her new boss at the bank (Broderick) is not very sympathetic to her need to leave early. But as luck would have it, Terry (Ruffalo) shows up just in time…to ask for money. Sammy makes him feel guilty for not replying to her letters for six months, so he agrees to stick around and help take care of his nephew. As you can imagine, the title is ironic.