Pollock, USA, 2000, 122 min. Starring Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Amy Madigan, John Heard, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly. Directed by Ed Harris. Harris makes his directorial debut with this bio-pic about the troubled painter at the vanguard of the abstract Expressionist movement, his struggle with depression and alcoholism, and his tumultuous marriage to fellow artist Lee Krasner, played by Harden, in an Academy Award-winning performance. Harris, in both his acting and his directing, brings the screen to life by capturing the artist's famous energy to a tee, demonstrating how a man could possibly work so forcefully to create his art and destroy his life at the same time.

A Beautiful Mind, USA, 2001, 135 min. Starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Christopher Plummer. Directed by Ron Howard. Many books have been written and films have been made postulating the connection between genius and madness. This happens to be the story of someone who is unquestionably a genius, and who also was, for a time anyway, unquestionably mad. Director Howard's controversial adaptation of the life of mathematician John Nash, who suffered from severe schizophrenia but still managed to go on to win the Nobel Prize, is certainly more than your average bio-pic, often playing out just as much as a mystery thriller as it does a drama. The cast is uniformly good with Crowe acting up a storm, Harris as reliable as ever, and Connelly truly impressing in her breakout performance.

Memento, USA, 2001, 113 min. Starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantaliano, Mark Boone, Jr. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Extremely unique thriller presents a story from its end to its beginning as we follow a man who suffers from a malady that periodically erases his short term memory as he tries to track down the man who murdered his wife. But who, if anyone, can he trust? It may seem hard to believe that any film could pull off the oddball structure, turning time upside down as it were, but this one does it with a vengeance, providing the careful watcher with an ending (or is that a beginning?) that will have your jaw on the floor. A film made for repeated viewings.

Mulholland Drive, USA, 2001, 145 min. Starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Justin Theroux. Directed by David Lynch. A young aspiring actress just arrived in Los Angeles finds herself in the middle of a mystery when she meets a beautiful woman who has lost her memory, while in another part of town a young filmmaker tries to gain back control of a project taken from him by mysterious forces. This being a Lynch film though, things are rarely what they seem. The director pokes merciless fun at the film industry, and pays homage to, among other things, two of his favorite films, Vertigo and Sunset Boulevard, with this ultra-stylish, sexy puzzle-box slice of neo-noir, mixed generously with his trademark dark humor and mind-bending version of narrative.

Shrek, USA, 2001, 88 min. Starring the voices of Mike Meyers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. William Steig's children's book is adapted into this gorgeously computer-animated film about a socially-challenged ogre and his wiseacre donkey sidekick out to rescue a princess. There's plenty of fun for both children and adults, as all the best family movies should have, including references to a lot of classic fairy tale characters that may or may not be Dreamworks' Jeffrey Katzenberg's good natured little digs at his former Disney compadres.