Jay Roach

In 1947, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was Hollywood's top screenwriter until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs. Trumbo (directed by Jay Roach) recounts how Dalton used words and wit to win two Academy Awards and expose the absurdity and injustice of the blacklist, which entangled everyone from gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) to John Wayne, Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger. The film also stars Diane Lane, John Goodman, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

This Covent Garden production of Bizet's Carmen, makes a vivid musical and dramatic impression. Director Francesca Zambello creates a properly Spanish atmosphere, filling the stage with a profusion of detailed characters. In Act One's town square each of the many soldiers, strollers, cigarette factory girls, and children are individuals, so there's a bustle of continuous, realistic activity. That attention to detail carries over to the rest of the opera, involving viewers in the action.

When it comes to the subject of community, David E. Kelley--the prolific writer-producer behind television's The Practice and Ally McBeal--falls somewhere on a continuum between directors Howard Hawks and Robert Benton. While Hawks's professional characters are bound by a knowledge of how to do what they do even if they don't know why, Benton's people, professional or not, have long ago substituted their own eccentric reasons for that elusive why.

At the height of the 2000 election season, CBS anchor Dan Rather quipped, "The presidential race is crackling like a hickory fire." Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers) recaptures that blaze in his smart HBO docudrama about the thriller in Palm Beach County. Written by actor Danny Strong, Recount bounces between the Sunshine State, Gore's Tennessee headquarters, and Bush's Texas stomping grounds.

Meet the Parents found such tremendous success in the chemistry produced by the contrasting personalities of stars Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller that the film's creators went for broke with the same formula again in Meet the Fockers. This time around, Jack and Dina Byrnes (De Niro and Blythe Danner) climb into Jack's new kevlar-lined RV with daughter Pam (Teri Polo), soon-to-be son-in-law Gaylord (Stiller), and Jack's infant grandson from his other daughter for the trip to Florida to meet Gaylord's parents, Bernie and Roz Focker (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand in a casting coup).

Randy Newman's opening song, "A Fool in Love," perfectly sets up the movie that follows. The lyrics begin, "Show me a man who is gentle and kind, and I'll show you a loser," before praising the man who takes what he wants. Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is the fool in love in Meet the Parents. Just as he's about to propose to his girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo), he learns that her sister's fiancÈ asked their father, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), for permission to marry. Now he feels the need to do the same thing.

Despite symptoms of sequelitis, Austin Powers in Goldmember is must-see lunacy for devoted fans of the shagadelic franchise. For every big-name cameo and raunchy double-entendre, there's an equal share of juvenile scatology and pop-cultural spoofery. All is forgiven when the hilarity level is consistently high, and Mike Myers--returning here as randy Brit spy Austin, his nemesis Dr. Evil, the bloated Scottish henchman Fat Bastard, and new Dutch disco-villain Goldmember--thrives by favoring comedic chaos over coherent plotting.

First he fought for the Crown, now he's fighting for the family jewels! Mike Myers (Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery) returns as the world's grooviest superspy in his latest comedy-adventure! Intent on world domination, diabolical genius Dr. Evil travels back to 1969 and steals Austin's "mojo." Now Austin must return to the Swingin' Sixties, recover his mojo and stop his terminally square arch nemesis from liquidating the world.

Back in 1967, buck-toothed, crushed-velvet-wearing, mop-topped Austin Powers worked as a swingin' fashion photographer by day and a groovy super agent for a British organization the rest of the time. His chief nemesis was the bald-pated, cat-loving, megalomaniacal Dr. Evil. Just before Austin Powers catches him once and for all, Dr. Evil has himself place in a cryogenic capsule and blasted into space. Not wanting to be outdone, Powers volunteers to have himself frozen, too. Thirty years pass, and Evil eventually returns to London to continued his wicked machinations.