BEST OF FILM

• EDDIE THE EAGLE

As a boy, Eddie (the Eagle) Edwards of England desperately wanted to compete in the Olympic Games. He eventually chose a sport in which there would be few competitors for a spot on the national team—ski jumping. This true story follows Edwards's ascent from bumbling teen to Olympian at the 1988 Games in Calgary. An uplifting, if a bit clichéd, look at a man whose dream would not be denied.

• EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!

A celebration of '80s party culture—Sideburns! Mustaches! "My Sharona"!—this Richard Linklater film is about a shy college freshman who joins the baseball team and learns to navigate the campus party scene in the days before the start of the semester.

• ICE GUARDIANS

As the NHL looks to diminish fighting and teams seek to get faster, the enforcer is being phased out of the game. In this documentary, players who made a living with their fists reminisce about the halcyon days of the goon.

• THE PHENOM

A hotshot rookie pitcher, played by Johnny Simmons, with a hard-nosed dad (Ethan Hawke) battles his demons in this dark, superbly acted meditation on the pressures of stardom and the unpleasant forces that sometimes create it.