Steel Magnolias (1989)

Sally Field and Julia Roberts play M'Lynn and Shelby, a mother who worries and a daughter who refuses to be worried over, and their arguments about Shelby's health and her wish for a baby are the spine of the film. Robert Harling wrote the original play months after his own sister died of complications from diabetes, and it was shot in the Louisiana town where that story happened, which may explain why the grief feels lived in rather than staged. The salon friends supply the jokes, and there are plenty. Be warned that Shelby's illness does not end well. What lingers is Field's raw outpouring of grief and the laughter that breaks right through it.