Pride

There's something magical about feel-good British movies that celebrate the proverbial underdog, like Billy Elliot and The Full Monty, and Pride is a brilliant, touching addition to that subgenre. Stage and screen director Matthew Warchus and screenwriter Stephen Beresford have captured the heart and humor of what happened when young, urban activists didn't just raise money but also really connected with the predictably closed-minded folks from a small mining town. The questions and comments that the older generation of Onllym citizens pose, while rooted in stereotypes, are adorably well-meaning -- like when a grandmotherly woman asks young lesbians if it's true that they're all vegetarians, or when a young man asks flamboyant Jonathan (Dominic West) if he'll teach him how to dance. The older folks eventually help their young counterparts as well, showing them that friendship should be unconditional and that they shouldn't give their whole lives to the fight.

The multi-generational cast is wonderful, with Schnetzer (so memorable as Max in The Book Thief) and Mackay (How I Live Now) as standouts among the up-and-coming actors and Considine, West, and Bill Nighy as scene-stealers among the more seasoned pros. This isn't a super-serious chronicle of the miners' strike or the English gay rights movement; the story doesn't dig too deeply into the reasons behind the strike, and it ends with the following year's Pride Parade, when AIDS is the dominant crisis of the gay community. But Warchus didn't set out to make a heartwrenching drama like The Normal Heart; Pride is exactly what it was meant to be -- a charming and unforgettable story of friendship and standing together.