We're smack in the middle of the annual movie drought. The award bait all came out in late December, but the spring and summer blockbusters aren't being released yet. This leaves us with wannabe blockbusters that didn't make the cut for release at desirable times of year, a few romantic comedies (or, this year, BDSM-lite tales of control and stalkery) released for Valentine's Day, and, apparently,(seriously?). Point being, this might be a good time to stay home and catch up on good movies you missed last year. And have I got a suggestion for you: Pride

Consider this less a review than a love letter, a pitch for two hours and one minute of your time.

The historical and political environment of Pride's setting is a familiar one: Margaret Thatcher's Britain, centered on Thatcher's brutal attacks on workers. But if The Full Monty, to name one prominent example, is set after the fight was over, after the factories were closed and the depression had set in, Pride is set in the middle of the fight. The coal miners' strike, specifically. But Pride is a story of solidarity that extends beyond the picket lines and the pits to London's gay bars and pride march. It feels wildly improbable, as you watch, that a group of gay and lesbian activists from London collected thousands of pounds to support striking coal miners in South Wales, and that the mining community ultimately welcomed them in, but it's (mostly) true, and it's the subject of a moving, inspiring, funny, delightful—if tinged with sadness—movie.

"It was a pretty good march today," Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners founder Mark Ashton says on the evening of the 1984 pride march. "Not much in the way of beatings or abuse, hardly any petrol bombs or swastikas. Is it me or are the police getting soft? It's funny, they've stopped hanging around outside our clubs lately. What's that about? D'you think they finally got sick of all that Donna Summer?" This (continued below the fold) is where his pitch—the movie's pitch—for solidarity begins.