The Pianist (2002)
I've wanted to see this since it won three Oscars that year. I'm inconsistent. I think the Oscars are a lot of things that have nothing to do with praising art, but it made me want to see this nonetheless. Eighteen years later, I did. I enjoyed it. I appreciated that they included some humor, and I would guess that Władysław Szpilman himself was the reason for that. I don't think it needed to be 2.5 hours long, but I'd rather it be too long than rushing through a story for the old standard of 1.5 hours. We like to celebrate hard work in this country, and that's great. The total disregard for plain old good luck is absurdly underplayed, though. This story shines a bright light on special talent that had the other key variable: extraordinary luck.