A Glean movie guide
Earned Smiles: Feel-Good Without the Fuzz
Real life, only better.
Uplifting stories that trade saccharine clichés for authentic, grounded human connection.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Peanut Butter Falcon
A gritty, modern-day Huckleberry Finn tale that finds warmth in an unlikely, authentic friendship.
A down-on-his-luck crab fisherman embarks on a journey to get a young man with Down syndrome to a professional wrestling school in rural North Carolina and away from the retirement home where he’s lived for the past two and a half years.
- 02
Chef
A refreshing, low-stakes celebration of culinary craft and the simple joy of a father-son road trip.
When Chef Carl Casper suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner, he is left to figure out what's next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife, his friend and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen -- and zest for life and love.
- 03
The Holdovers
A sharp yet tender 1970s-set drama where mutual understanding grows from shared loneliness.
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
- 04
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Taika Waititi’s signature deadpan humor keeps this misfits-on-the-run story perfectly unsentimental.
Ricky is a defiant young city kid who finds himself on the run with his cantankerous foster uncle in the wild New Zealand bush. A national manhunt ensues, and the two are forced to put aside their differences and work together to survive.
- 05
Sing Street
A vibrant musical that balances 80s escapism with the harsh, grounded realities of a struggling family.
A boy growing up in Dublin during the 1980s escapes his strained family life by starting a band to impress the mysterious girl he likes.
- 06
The Intouchables
An irreverent, hilarious look at a real-life bond that refuses to lean on pity or melodrama.
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.
- 07
Minari
A quiet, beautifully observed portrait of a family’s resilience and the hard-won American Dream.
A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
- 08
Little Miss Sunshine
A chaotic road-trip comedy that finds its heart in the messy, abrasive reality of a dysfunctional family.
A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.
- 09
CODA
A loud, funny, and deeply sincere look at finding your own voice while staying rooted in family tradition.
As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.
- 10
Soul
A visually stunning existential journey that finds profound meaning in the small, ordinary moments of living.
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
- 11
The Straight Story
A meditative, slow-burn journey that proves kindness and persistence are the ultimate feel-good virtues.
Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.
- 12
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
A whimsical mockumentary that uses a tiny shell to explore big, sincere themes of community and loss.
Marcel is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. When a documentarian discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, his resulting short film brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope at finding his long-lost family.