Private Life (2018)

Tamara Jenkins's Private Life is a touching, funny movie that is all too rare. It's about a middle-aged couple (a writer and a theater director) living in the Village desperately trying to have a child, by any means possible. Not only is the writing excellent and realistic, but the acting from Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn have never been better.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest winner to come out of Sundance.  It will undoubtedly draw comparisons to "The Fault in Our Stars," as a coming-of-age story featuring a young girl diagnosed with cancer. What this movie does so well is it is humorous (more so than you'd expect from a movie revolving around cancer), charming, quirky, emotional and beautifully written.  You become emotionally invested in the characters, feeling all the pressures that the high schoolers face.  It is at times deadpan funny, reminiscent of Wes Anderson's style.  There's an air of Anderson in the cinematography and design too, especially with all the miniature models.

The best part of the movie is the love letter to the movies.  The protagonist and his partner make amateur parodies of classic films, and the audience gets to see titles and clips that are downright brilliant and hilarious.  Some of them are cheesy and hokey and ridiculous, but you can't help but smile.