Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter / journalist Mark Boal master a new form of filmmaking — confident, straight-forward dramatization — and Jessica Chastain is the steely head and heart behind the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden.

d: Kathryn Bigelow | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose | Chastain

The Ides of March (2011)

George Clooney directs an elementary story of an idealized presidential candidate (played by Clooney) who turns out to be just as human as any politician, and aid Ryan Gosling realizes what everyone already knows — that politics is a cynical business.

d: George Clooney | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
the State of the Union | Make it mandatory. | My name is Molly.

Contagion (2011)

Steven Soderbergh directs an international thriller about a pandemic that kills millions of people in a few months, capturing all the ensuing paranoia, as if Hitchcock came back to make one of those zombie apocalypse movies. But Jude Law is just awful.

d: Steven Soderbergh | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
Don’t touch anything. | I think I’m sick. | It came from here.

The King’s Speech (2010)

Colin Firth’s King George VI and commoner speech therapist Geoffrey Rush form a contentious friendship across social boundaries, humanizing the king and uplifting Rush in a real crowd-pleaser. Ultimately, though, what do kings do besides speak?

d: Tom Hooper | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
Enemy | Bertie | Exercise | Common man | It’s just a chair.