During the heyday of Pitt men’s basketball in the Big East conference — the period in which former head coach Jamie Dixon’s teams appeared in eight straight NCAA Tournaments between 2004 and 2011 — nearly every borough of New York City was represented on the Panthers’ roster.

From its universal ideas to its Oscar-bait-period-piece aura, everything about “Brooklyn” feels familiar — in a good way. The film’s magnetic central performance in Saoirse Ronan alone could...