A musical remake of the classic 1937 film of the same name, A Star is Born was designed as Judy Garland's comeback vehicle after she had been cruelly axed by MGM studios for professional unreliability. Her erratic moods caused serious production delays this time around, too, but the behind-the-scenes turmoil was certainly worth it--Garland gives just about the greatest one-woman show in movie history. The story is the stuff of pure Hollywood legend. Aspiring actress-singer Esther Blodgett meets fading matinee idol Norman Maine (James Mason), who navigates her to stardom under the more melodious handle of Vickie Lester. As she rises meteorically, he declines into alcoholic self-pity--and the result, if you haven't guessed, is plenty of heartbreak. Mason lends subtle support in a role Cary Grant refused as too downbeat for his image, but Garland grabs centre stage with an all-out emotional performance that rivets the attention.

Director George Cukor was famous for coaxing the very best out of screen divas, and A Star is Born must be counted as his crowning achievement. The lush visual style that he contributes provides a suitable setting for Garland's deep, rich voice--throbbing with melancholy in the Harold Arlen-Ira Gershwin ballad "The Man That Got Away", then capering joyfully in the gargantuan musical number "Born in a Trunk". Moss Hart's script takes many cynical swipes at the pretensions of Tinsel Town--perhaps too many for the taste of studio boss Jack Warner, who ordered drastic cuts in the film after its premiere. --Peter Matthews

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Bahman Gobadi's intense quasi-documentary A Time for Drunken Horses deals with the lives of a young family of Kurds on the Iran/Iraq border. Their father has died in a landmine incident while smuggling and young Ayoub leaves school in an attempt to feed his siblings and find money for surgery on his crippled brother Madi. Things go from bad to worse: a marriage contract is reneged upon and we last see Ayoub and Madi trudging with a mule drugged against the cold with liquor through the snows of the high border hills as wolves howl in the distance. A few scenes remind us that this poverty is not an accident, but part of a system of actual and cultural oppression: soldiers frisk a group of children and confiscate exercise books; Ayoub spends money on a picture of a Western body-builder for Madi; they and their sisters spend evenings listening to a crackling transistor radio. There is a bracing purity to some of these images of stark suffering which shames much mo! re obviously artistic or popular film-making.

On the DVD: A Time for Drunken Horses has trailers but no more elaborate special features. The DVD is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and has simple but effective Dolby Stereo sound. --Roz Kaveney

You wouldn't know it by watching the Batman movies they collaborated on, but this smart adaptation of John Grisham's novel proves that director Joel Schumacher and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have some talent when the right project comes along. Schumacher had previously directed Grisham's The Client, and brought equal craft and intelligence to this story about a young Southern attorney (Matthew McConaughey, in his breakthrough role) who defends a black father (Samuel L Jackson) after he kills two men who raped his young daughter. Sandra Bullock plays the passionate law student who serves as McConaughey's legal aide and voice of conscience in the racially charged drama. Added to the star power of the lead roles is a fine supporting cast, including Kevin Spacey, Ashley Judd and Oliver Platt. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com