My Family/Mi Familia (1995)

This is the story of the Sanchez family. It begins when Jose treks from Mexico to the "village" of Los Angeles in the 1920s, and ends in modern-day L.A., with Jose's children grown and living lives more varied and confusing than he could have imagined.

Often, I'll sit through a two-hour movie that focuses on two or three main characters and I'll feel, at the movie's end, as though they were strangers. Although this film spreads itself over about 10 characters, the script and performances let you connect to them in a way that is unusually intimate. You know these people. You understand these people. They are family.

My Family/Mi Familia has landed on both Gary's and my "Top Movies of All Time" lists -- and it deserves the honor.

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