Three Special Actresses

Meryl Streep comes through, as always, in It's Complicated, a very funny movie. Emily Blunt keeps getting better as the very appealing queen in The Young Victoria and Robin Wright Penn shines through with the complicated title role in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

3 New Recommendations

All 3 are good movies with This Is It being the most surprising. I've never been a fan of Michael Jackson and have been put off by his sleazy activities, but Willie Brown, in his most interesting San Francisco Chronicle column every Sunday, highly recommended it. I'm so glad he did. This movie stands on its own as an insight into the putting together of a megastar's colossal concert. It's also an education for viewers into the extraordinary talent and serious professionalism of Michael Jackson. The Beaches of Agnes is another compelling documentary and is made by a major Italian talent, Agnes Varda. Bad Lieutenant, a film by Werner Herzog, about a cop in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina played by Nicholas Cage. I've intentionally passed up most of Cage's blockbusters of recent years, but Werner Herzog drew me in, and I thought Cage was phenomenal as a drugged up cop with a conscience, well, some kind of conscience. His performance reminded me of just how engaging he can be, as in Leaving Las Vegas and Red Rock West.