The Big C

Laura Linney won a Golden Globe in 2010 for her role in The Big C, and with good reason. Her turn as Cathy Jamison is fearless, vulnerable, delicate and assertive all at once. A cancer diagnoses inspires many emotions, all of which Linney touches on beautifully. It gives her the courage to command the presence of onions in her life, which were embargoed as per her husband's assessment of them as "stinky poo-poo." Between her husband's juvenile indiscretions, her son's cruel pranks on her, her brother's middle-class guilt and subsequent homelessness, her ornery widowed neighbor, and a mouthy student, Jamison has had enough and is taking her life back, one telling-off at a time.