The 11th Hour
The impassioned voice of Leonardo DiCaprio carries viewers through this visually impressive and often alarming documentary on global warming. More engaging than Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth but perhaps less informative, The 11th Hour does an excellent job of driving home the implications of inaction on climate change.

Lions for Lambs
Three very different conversations on war play out simultaneously in this political thriller by Robert Redford. In Washington, DC, a Republican senator (Tom Cruise) debates with a veteran reporter (Meryl Streep); on a university campus in California, a professor (Redford) tries to dissuade two of his students from joining the army; and in the mountains of Afghanistan, two U.S. soldiers are stranded behind enemy lines.

Music Within
Richard Pimentel (Office Space’s Ron Livingston) returns from the Vietnam War deafened by combat. Initially demoralized, the American soldier finds a reason to live in a new friend who suffers from cerebral palsy (The Queen’s Michael Sheen) and a mission in life when the U.S. government asks him to lead a program that helps disabled people find work. Based on a true story, Pimentel’s work has been credited with starting the disability-rights movement in America.

Reservation Road
Lives collide and turn to tragedy in this intense thriller written and directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda?). A man (Zodiac’s Mark Ruffalo) is driving his son home from baseball practice when he accidentally kills another child in a hit-and-run accident. Overtaken by grief and desperate for justice, the child’s father (Walk the Line’s Joaquin Phoenix) loses patience with the authorities’ investigation and goes after the man who took his child’s life.

There Will Be Blood
A story of American ambition and humankind’s timeless quest for power. An oilman goes from rags to riches in early-1900s California. When money is no longer enough to please him, the ruthless tycoon turns to land, and soon finds himself taking on the church and those who align themselves with its authority. There Will Be Blood brought in eight Academy Award nominations and saw Daniel Day-Lewis take home an Oscar for best actor.