Pick of the Week: "Bowling for Columbine" DVD
Michael Moore's brilliant, darkly comic, controversial Bowling for Columbine won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Although it’s a difficult film to watch in many ways, I think it is the best documentary I've ever seen.

Pick of the Week: "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" DVD
George Clooney makes an assured directorial debut with this biopic based on Chuck Barris' cult book, and Charlie Kaufman's witty script strikes the right balance between the comic and the tragic. In addition to creating TV's The Dating Game and The Gong Show, Chuck Barris claims in his autobiography he was an undercover assassin for the CIA.

Pick of the Week: "Bend It Like Beckham" DVD
Bend It Like Beckham is a movie that really lifted my spirits. It follows the pattern of many ethnic coming-of-age stories, yet it does so in such a way as to make an old story seem fresh. Read a full-length DVD review of Bend It Like Beckham.

Pick of the Week: “The Dancer Upstairs” DVD
The Dancer Upstairs is an adaptation of Nicholas Shakespeare’s novel of the same name inspired by the search for the head of the terrorist group known as the Shining Path in Peru. The movie is in English and marks the directorial debut of John Malkovich, although he remains behind the camera. Read a full-length DVD review of The Dancer Upstairs on DVD.

Pick of the Week: "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" DVD
I found The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers to be highly cinematic moviemaking and mythic storytelling. However, it's basically an action-adventure movie, and for me some of the action sequences became tedious. Read a full-length DVD review of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Pick of the Week: “Chicago” DVD
I laughed a lot while watching Chicago, and it contains about 15 song-and-dance numbers. However, the filmmakers didn’t want the story to stop while the musical numbers are performed, and lovers of traditional musicals might be disappointed. I see the movie as more of a comedy with musical numbers than as a musical. Read a full-length review of Chicago on DVD.

Pick of the Week: “The Quiet American” DVD
Because of its compelling mix of the political and the personal, along with Michael Caine's superb performance, The Quiet American drew me in completely. Several powerful films have been inspired by Graham Greene’s fiction, and this movie is yet another. Read a full-length review of The Quiet American.

Pick of the Week: "Solaris" (2002) DVD
Steven Soderbergh's Solaris is sci-fi without action sequences, razzle-dazzle special effects, or gee-whiz high-tech gadgetry, but I found the movie to be very intellectually engaging. Read a full length review of Solaris on DVD.

Pick of the Week: "Wings of Desire" DVD
I loved the hypnotic and poetic mood in the predominantly German-language film Wings of Desire (1987), an unconventional movie that kept me spellbound from beginning to end. The story unfolds from the point of view of angels watching over Berlin, and the film is a richly textured fable that is a moving valentine to that city.

Pick of the Week: "Solaris" (1972) DVD
There is almost no action in Tarkovsky’s Solaris, and the special effects are unimpressive. But I find this film extremely thought-provoking and hypnotically resonant. To my mind, this movie is cerebral science fiction at its very best because of the humanistic and moral issues it explores. Read a full-length review of Solaris on DVD.

Pick of the Week: “Gangs of New York” DVD
Gangs of New York is not quite at the level of Martin Scorsese's best movies, but it's still a stunning achievement. I like the film’s operatic look at American life in the mid-19th century. Read a full-length review of Gangs of New York on DVD.

Pick of the Week: “The Hours” DVD
I found The Hours to be emotionally and intellectually engaging, and I thought the performances of the 3 leading actresses were terrific. But the film may speak mainly to those who love novels.