Clear story, clear characters. You know where you are at all times.
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.
You always know where you are. The story doesn't wrong-foot you.
A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..
Clear path from start to finish. No assembly required on your end.
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
You always know where you are. The story doesn't wrong-foot you.
As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.
You always know where you are. The story doesn't wrong-foot you.
A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.
Clear path from start to finish. No assembly required on your end.
Clarity is undervalued in film. These are clear, and better for it.
The best simple dramas are about one person and one problem. Very clear.
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
Clear path from start to finish. No assembly required on your end.
A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.
You always know where you are. The story doesn't wrong-foot you.
With dreams of diving abroad, Tsuneo gets a job assisting Josee, an artist whose imagination takes her far beyond her wheelchair. But when the tide turns against them, they push each other to places they never thought possible, and inspire a love fit for a storybook.
Clear path from start to finish. No assembly required on your end.
SEELE orders an all-out attack on NERV, aiming to destroy the Evas before Gendo can advance his own plans for the Human Instrumentality Project. Shinji is pushed to the limits of his sanity as he is forced to decide the fate of humanity.
Clear path from start to finish. No assembly required on your end.
In Fujisawa, Sakuta Azusagawa is in his second year of high school. Blissful days with his girlfriend and upperclassman, Mai Sakurajima, are interrupted by the appearance of his first crush, Shoko Makinohara.
You always know where you are. The story doesn't wrong-foot you.
These films were chosen for the state you're in, not the state you wish you were in.