As a fan of Albert Camus and Jean-Luc Godard, teenage Nick Twisp is definitely out of his element when his mother and her boyfriend move the family to a trailer park. When a pretty neighbor named Sheeni plays records by French crooners, it's love at first sight for frustrated and inexperienced Nick. Learning that she is dating someone,...

A discount store clerk strikes up an affair with a stock boy who considers himself the incarnation of Holden Caulfield.

A naive Midwesterner insurance salesman travels to a big-city convention in an effort to save the jobs of his co-workers.

Alexander's day begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by more calamities. Though he finds little sympathy from his family and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him, his mom, dad, brother, and sister all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

A man with a clipboard asks passersby a survey question: "Are you the favorite person of anybody?" He has a scale, from "very certain" on down. His manner is open. He offers oranges to one respondent. He talks, one at a time, to three people. Their answers, however brief, are revealing.