Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith look at Children of Men as a story about the memory of family at the end of time—a world where nostalgia replaces birth, and the smallest spark of new life becomes a collective act of faith.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith trace the collapse of a patriarch’s paradise, where the dream of self-sufficiency turns into a theology of madness.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore Running on Empty as a portrait of the revolutionary 1960s ideals colliding with 1980s family life — a story about parents on the run from the past and a son who just wants a future.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore Hanna as a story of overprotection and isolation—a father so intent on keeping his daughter safe that he leaves her unprepared for everything that isn’t lethal.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith unpack Tamara Jenkins’s semi-autobiographical tale of a family chasing stability in the fringes of 90210.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith dig into Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm (1997), where suburban Connecticut families freeze under the pressures of shifting social mores, crumbling marriages, and one fatal ice storm.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss Todd Solondz’s 1996 indie darling Welcome to the Dollhouse. Dawn Wiener faces the brutality of junior high, the cruelty of family favoritism, and the faint promise of escape through music, fantasy, and misfit connection.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith frame a new lens on Kids (1995): how the real “kids” built a family in the absence of parents, and how that story was twisted by outsiders.