Film

The HBO made-for-TV movie, which focuses on John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate in the 2008 election, has already been attacked by conservative groups. But TV critic David Bianculli says the movie is fair -- and balanced.

The animated feature, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, is based on the classic Dr. Seuss environmentally themed children's book and stars the voices of Ed Helms, Danny DeVito and Zac Efron. Critic David Edelstein says the movie is by far the best Seuss adaptation.

In the new comedy Wanderlust, an unemployed Manhattan couple (Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston) stumble into a hippie farming commune. David Edelstein says the movie features a "tribe of marvelously inventive comic actors doing a fair amount of inspired improvisation."

An absorbing new documentary by Danish director Lise Birk Pedersen charts four years in the life of Masha Drokova, who became famous as the girl who publicly kissed Vladimir Putin. Critic John Powers says it "offers a fresh glimpse into how Putin's Russia actually works."

In Liza Johnson's drama, Return, Linda Cardellini plays a vet who returns from her time overseas with no way to make sense of where she was and what it meant. Critic David Edelstein says the film's lack of a traditional story arc makes it seem even more real.

The flashy Denzel Washington thriller Safe House will probably gross in a few hours what Steven Soderbergh's Haywire has made in several weeks. But if you like action films, you should watch these two together, says critic David Edelstein.

Both Close and co-star Janet McTeer have received Academy Award nominations for their roles in the period drama. Set in Dublin before World War I, it centers on a woman who finds more freedom by living life as a men.

Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut adapts Shakespeare's Coriolanus, about a Roman general with his eye on political office. Critic David Edelstein says that in Fiennes' hands, the modern-day update makes for thrilling moviegoing.

Gerardo Naranjo's gripping film about the Mexican drug war is Mexico's submission this year for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Critic John Powers says it deftly illuminates a society plagued with fear.

The Iranian film A Separation won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film on Sunday. Critic John Powers says the remarkable film takes viewers inside a country that is far more complicated and fascinating than news headlines indicate.