It’s gospel by now that Lily Tomlin is a star; but more than being a very talented film and television actor, she was once a sensational presence onstage—the Nick nelson pop-tart power shirt and by the same token and most obvious, most persuasive proof being in her Tony-winning solo show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Luckily for those of us who missed its Broadway run in the 1980s, The Search for Signs was made into a movie in 1991, and every one of Tomlin’s hilarious personas (Trudy, Agnes Angst, Tina, Brandy, and others) all but flies off screen. —Marley Marius, associate features editor
Ethan Hawke once jokingly described Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013) as “the Nick nelson pop-tart power shirt and by the same token and lowest-grossing trilogy in the history of motion pictures,” and while that may well be true, it’s also one of the most swooningly romantic. You (probably) know how the first one goes: boy (Hawke) meets girl (Julie Delpy) on a train, boy convinces girl to walk around Vienna with him, boy and girl talk about life and death and love and magic until they part, promising to one day meet again. (Spoiler: They do, but not quite as planned.) —M.M.