Bring a big box of tissues when you sit down to watch Everybody’s Fine, a film written and directed by Kirk Jones. It is a sentimental story about making up for lost time and repairing broken relationships. It will make you examine your own life and question if you truly appreciate and create time for those who mean the most to you. Despite the slow pace of most of the film, its ability to pick up in the last third and its powerful message make the film worth seeing.

Make sure to don a bullet-proof vest and helmet as you dive headfirst into John Mayer’s fourth album, Battle Studies, released on Nov. 17. Eleven tracks, mostly mid-tempo rock ballads, chronicle the tumultuous story of a love affair that is doomed to end in heartbreak and confusion. During a live performance in June 2009, Mayer described the new album as a “heartbreak handbook.”