Avalon

Barry Levinson wrote this from his own grandfather's stories. Sam lived in the house while Levinson was growing up, and over the years his anecdotes turned into a film. It is the third instalment in the semi-autobiographical Baltimore series, after Diner and Tin Men. The story follows three generations of the Krichinsky family, Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe, from the 1910s into the 1950s, and its real subject is assimilation. After the war the cousins move to the suburbs, join clubs, and start eating dinner in front of a new marvel, the television. That is also the film's sharpest idea: as the family table breaks up, so does the tradition of telling stories, and Levinson makes the point not by declaring it but by changing the seating in a dinner scene. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays the grandfather, Aidan Quinn his son, with Joan Plowright and Elizabeth Perkins as the wives. It received four Academy Award nominations. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet drama about migration, family, and a tradition disappearing without anyone deciding to end it. Who it is not for: anyone wanting incident. The film runs almost entirely indoors on conversation and slows noticeably in its middle stretch.