RETIREMENT PLAN

With About Schmidt, Alexander Payne, filmmaking's foremost social satirist, makes a moving, reflective and ultimately very personal film. Scott Macaulay talks with the writer-director.

I AM A CAMERA

In Auto Focus, Paul Schrader furthers his fixation on compromised masculinity with the true tale of sitcom star, proto-swinger and porn addict Bob Crane. Travis Crawford discusses it all with the writer-director.

THE PLAYER

Shot on the streets of New York, Dylan Kidd's Roger Dodger is a smartly executed comedy that won the first-time filmmaker the Grand Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. Scott Macaulay talks with Kidd.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Michael Moore's provocative new film, Bowling for Columbine, takes aim at America's obsession with violence and the "culture of fear" cultivated by the American media. Shaya Mercer reports.

TO SIRK, WITH LOVE

Set in 1957, Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven has the look and feel of a lost Douglas Sirk classic. But the anxieties the film poignantly dramatizes are as contemporary as ever. Peter Bowen reports.

VIEW FROM BELOW

In Steven Shainberg's film Secretary, Mary Gaitskill's S/M-tinged short story is turned into a comically twisted romantic fable. Filmmaker Maria Beatty gets to the bottom of this adaptation by talking with screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson.

FEMALE TROUBLE

With her Sundance Grand-Prize-winning Personal Velocity, filmmaker Rebecca Miller adapts her own short story collection to draw a luminous DV portrait of women in crisis. Anthony Kaufman talks with the writer-director.

LUST FOR LIFE

Boasting sublimely imaginative visuals and a commanding performance by Salma Hayek, Julie Taymor's Frida succeeds in bringing the Mexican artist to the screen with all her complexities intact. Maria-Christina Villaseñor speaks with Taymor.

SWEET SMELL OF DISTRESS

In Revolution #9, writer-director Tim McCann creates a disturbing portrait of a man losing it in an advertising-drenched world. By Anthony Kaufman.

ABOUT LAST NIGHT

Aided by a superb cast, actor-turned-producer-turned-director Fisher Stevens probes relationship issues through humor and a blend of live action and animation in Just a Kiss. Scott Macaulay reports.