Jill Sprecher's 13 Conversations About One Thing is a favorite film of mine, a deeply underappreciated and thoughtful tale from 2001. It is a Möbius strip of a movie, thirteen vignettes that wrap around themselves. The conversations may well be about happiness, but that's simply how I prefer to view the movie

Matthew McConaughey is Troy, a wealthy attorney who boasts about his success and mocks anyone who would ascribe anything to luck or chance. But fortune thinks differently, and Troy suddenly loses control of this carefully-constructed life. Without spoiling too much, he faces legal and ethical dilemmas, followed by a spiral of depression and despair.

McConaughey's excellent performance works wonderfully with a careful script. After an incident, a fellow attorney asks him if something's wrong, and Troy answers nothing's wrong, he only had three drinks last night, just two watered-down drinks, and the facts and the denial are put on obvious display. And as anonymous as a powerful attorney without a last name might be, he's this month's Fictional Attorney of the Month.