The Boob Tube (1975)

The makings of a great midseason filler episode that would connect in many different directions. This is a police drama filler with a guest director.

Based on Bethany's autobiography "Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board," this heartwarming film tracks the struggle to pursue normalcy and ambition after a major injury.

These confines won’t really encourage you to read the film as a metaphor for the nerve-inducing experience we’ve all been through over the last year, however — and in the interest of maintaining your dignity, you probably shouldn’t. While the sociopolitical commentary may have worked for the similarly-themed Buried (2010), in which we find Ryan Reynolds on his own buried alive in the Middle East, but this futuristic take on the premise is best left as a piece of distracting entertainment. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is no less suffocating, literally and dramatically.

A quiet film that does not demand your tears but earns them. It explores love that lingers, timing that fails, and the silence between what was and what could have been.

'Brother' is a gripping family drama with dazzling performances all around.