Was it 1984 that my family got its first DVR? '83, perhaps. It was Christmas and I was home for a visit. The video store of choice back then was Erol's and one of the first movies we rented was Lost in America. There are many scenes to love in this film -- "The Desert Inn has heart!" "Nest egg." "We're going to touch Indians!" -- but there was one my father watched over and over, laughing almost maniacally.

It's the scene where Albert Brooks character, sure of a promotion, discovers that he is not going to get it. And while his boss believes he is offering the Brooks character a valuable account (he works at an ad agency), he is inconsolable. He goes nuts, his anger escalating, until he is finally screaming at his boss: "FUCK YOU."

My father, not a fan of profanity -- he is, after all, the man who said "I'm afraid that newspaper work coarsens a woman" -- laughed harder at that than anything.

I laughed the same way when James Caan shoved a piece of paper in Kathy Bates live and told her to "eat it" if she liked it so much. Harder still when Nicolas Cage in -- OK, blanking on the title, just one of my favorite movies of all time, based on The Orchid Thief, but TMP is written on a strict no-Googling policy, Adaptation, there it is! -- procrastinated at his writing desk, daydreaming of a perfect muffin.

Some scenes from film (and probably books) resonate on a deeper, more personal level. For some reason, that glimpse, when I was 24 or so, into my father's coiled anger about his work life, made a deep impression on me. Anyone else have examples?