Pollock (2000)

.
"If people would just look at the paintings, I don't think they would have any trouble enjoying them. It's like looking at a bed of flowers, you don't tear your hair out over what it means."
Ed Harris (who also directed) portrays the madman Jackson Pollock -- neurotic, alcoholic, womanizing, misogynistic, and brilliant abstract artist -- from the time he first began making an impression on the world in the early 1940s until his tragic death in 1956.

Marcia Gay Harden plays Pollock's wife Lee Krasner who was also an abstract artist. Others in the cast include Val Kilmer as artist Willem DeKooning; Sada Thompson as Pollock's mother; Robert Knott and David Leary as Pollock's brothers Sande and Charles; John Heard as architect Tony Smith; Jeffrey Tambor as art critic Clem Greenberg; and the art patrons Bud Cort as Howard Putzel and Amy Madigan as Peggy Guggenheim; Jennifer Connelly as his lover Ruth Kligman. Ed Harris' own father, Bob Harris, has a small role as a veterinarian.

With a good Tom Waits song over the closing credits.

Run time: 2 hours, 2 minutes

Rated R for language and brief sexuality.

My personal rating: B+

The Lucky Ones (2008)

.
With a Little Help From My Friends
Three soldiers return from Iraq, each with physical and emotional scars, and find themselves in a rental car together when their plans change due to airline delays whilst they are trying to get to their individual destinations.

Sgt. Fred Cheavers (Tim Robbins), a reservist who sustained a back injury, is headed home with his family for good. Pvt. Colee Dunn (Rachel McAdams), a tough and street-smart but immature chick with a minor leg injury, is on a 30-day leave and plans to visit the parents of Randy, her war boyfriend who died saving her life. Sgt. TK Poole (Michael Peña) took a shrapnel hit to his private part but still has ambitions of becoming an officer, marrying his sweetheart, and eventually becoming a politician to change the world.

Their journey turns into a cross country road trip as they each discover that the world has gone on without them in ways they'd never expected and they must find a way to cope and move on themselves.

Molly Hagan and Mark L. Young appear as Cheaver's wife and college-bound son. Others in the cast include Howard Platt, John Heard, John Diehl, Annie Corley and many others.

Written by Neil Burger and Dirk Wittenborn; directed by Neil Burger.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

My personal rating: B+