Finding John Christmas (2003)

A decade since it aired, Shameless (U.S.) has always stuck to its guns (and baseball bats) about character diversity.

For anyone who is not a cis white woman, a justice-fueled murderous rampage is not framed as liberation. Instead, they contribute to harsh stereotypes that vilify minority women with dangerous consequences.

Juno is extremely funny, very well-written, and contains great performances. The film is also about a very important topic, one that is extremely relevant now: women’s reproductive rights. Is this Oscar-winning film spreading a pro-life or pro-choice message to its audience?

The trouble with Yara (2021) is that in its attempt to tell the whole story, it struggles to tell a consistently engaging story.

With the theme of unemployment, it presents a family fantasy anecdote rather the a comment on social problems.

Stand and Deliver is an inspirational classic from 1988 starring Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, and his class of rag tag students in East Los Angeles. It’s the story of how a new teacher shows a motley group of students in the inner city with backgrounds as gang members, dishwashers, and mechanics — the power of self-determination. He teaches the teenagers to believe in themselves through algebra and calculus.