In 1951, Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) are high-school seniors and friends in a small, declining Texas town. Duane is dating Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd), the prettiest (and wealthiest) girl in town. Sonny decides to break up with girlfriend Charlene Duggs (Sharon Ullrick).
Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist in Philadelphia, returns home one night with his wife, Anna, after having been honored for his work. Anna tells Malcolm that everything is second to his work, and that she believes he is truly gifted.
Dublin, en 1985, Conor Lawlor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo ), un jeune lycéen de 15 ans, est contraint de changer de lycée car ses parents, touchés par la crise économique, n'ont plus d'argent pour payer ses études. Dans ce nouvel établissement, il subit l'ambiance désastreuse du lycée religieux « Synge Street ». Inspiré par les groupes mythiques de l'époque tels que The Cure, Duran Duran ou encore A-ha, le jeune garçon forme un groupe de musique avec l'aide de ses nouveaux camarades et de son grand frère Brendan (Jack Reynor), pour séduire la belle et mystérieuse mannequin Raphina (Lucy Boynton).
The story centers on Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo), a blind high school student struggling with independence. At the beginning of the film, he and his best friend, Giovana (Tess Amorim), are discussing how they have yet to kiss anyone. Leo is especially distressed because he wants his first kiss to be special, but doesn't believe anyone wants to kiss him. When the day ends, Giovana walks Leo home, his arm linked with hers, and she unlocks his door for him, something she regularly does for him despite her house being a block in the opposite direction. Leo arrives home and his mother expresses distress at Leo's sunburned skin and worry at the thought of leaving Leo home alone while she and his father are out. Leo insists he will be fine, and his mother agrees under certain terms. Leo and Giovana return to school after holiday and classmate Fabio (Pablo Carvalho) makes fun of Leo's loud typewriter. When their professor instructs Fabio to move to the empty seat behind Leo, Fabio outright declines, arguing he will constantly have to assist Leo if he sits there. A new student named Gabriel (Fabio Audi) arrives and takes the empty seat behind Leo.
Charlie (Logan Lerman) is uneasy about beginning his freshman year of high school; he is shy and finds difficulty in making friends, but he connects with his English teacher, Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd).
In 2002, six-year-old Mason, Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) and his older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) live with their single mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette) in Texas. Mason overhears Olivia arguing with her boyfriend, saying she has no free time. Olivia then moves the family so she can attend the University of Houston, complete her degree, and get a job.
The film focuses on 15-year-old Billy Casper, who has little hope in life and is bullied, both at home by his physically and verbally abusive older half-brother, Jud, and at school. He is constantly held to account for some prior run-ins with the police, although he insists that his mischief is behind him. Yet we see evidence of his mischievous side as he carries out his morning newspaper delivery, stealing eggs and milk from milk floats. He has difficulty paying attention in school and is often provoked into tussles with classmates. Billy comes across as an emotionally neglected boy with little self-respect. Billy's father has left the family some time ago, and his mother refers to him in the film as a "hopeless case.
In Canada, novelist Yann Martel meets Pi Patel, an Indian immigrant with some knowledge from Pi's late father's friend, known to Pi as "Mamaji", for a good book. Pi tells Yann his life story.
On Saturday, March 24, 1984, five students report at 7:00 a.m. for all-day detention at Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois. While not complete strangers, each of them comes from a different clique, and they seem to have nothing in common: the beautiful and pampered Claire Standish, the state champion wrestler Andrew Clarke, the bookish Brian Johnson, the reclusive outcast Allison Reynolds, and the rebellious John Bender.
The film is set in Coalwood, West Virginia in October 1957. The coal mine is the town's largest employer and almost every man living in the town works in the mines. John Hickam (Chris Cooper), the mine superintendent, loves his job and hopes that his boys, Jim (Scott Miles) and Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal), will one day join him in his mine. When it appears that Jim will receive a football scholarship to attend college, this leaves Homer to fulfill his father's dream, although his mother, Elsie (Natalie Canerday), hopes for more for her son.
Oskar, a meek 12-year-old boy, resides with his mother Yvonne in the western Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1981 and occasionally visits his father Erik in the countryside. It is not clear why Erik is living apart from Yvonne, but on one such visit, when Oskar and Erik are enjoying a cosy night playing games, a drunken neighbour arrives and Erik starts to drink heavily with him, breaking up the cosy father/son evening. Oskar collects clippings from newspapers and magazines about grisly murders and pictures of hunting knives. He keeps a knife under his mattress.
Zac was born on Christmas in 1960. He had a special relationship with his father Gervais, but things began to fall apart as Zac's non-masculine ways started to show. Their unique relationship officially came to an end when Gervais comes home to find Zac dressed in his mother's clothes. Ever since then, he "had unwittingly declared war on his father".
An unnamed widow lives alone with her only son, selling medicinal herbs in a small town in southern South Korea while doing unlicensed acupuncture to the town's women on the side. Her son Do-joon is shy, but prone to attack anyone who mocks his intellectual disability. She dotes on him and scolds him for hanging out with Jin-tae, a local ne'er-do-well.
In the small town of Endora, Iowa, Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is busy caring for Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio), his brother with a developmental disability, as they wait for the many tourists' trailers to pass through town during their "yearly ritual" of camping at a nearby recreational area. His mother, Bonnie (Darlene Cates), gave up on life after her husband hanged himself seventeen years earlier. She spends almost all of her time on the couch watching TV. With Bonnie unable to care for her children on her own due to her morbid obesity, Gilbert has taken responsibility for repairing the old house and looking after Arnie, who has a habit of climbing the town water tower, while his sisters Amy and Ellen do the rest. The relationship between the brothers is of both care and protection, as Gilbert continually enforces the "nobody touches Arnie" policy. A new FoodLand supermarket has opened, threatening the small Lamson's Grocery where Gilbert works. In addition, Gilbert is having an affair with a married woman, Betty Carver (Mary Steenburgen).