After Dinner, Have Sexytime With Borat

As Thanksgiving approaches, I'd like to recommend a few films for you to enjoy. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" is a brilliant gut-buster, one of the best films of the year, and if you haven't seen Paul Greengrass' exceptional docudrama "United 93," that's a shame. It's the best film I've seen in 2006.

Other films I've seen that I would recommend you seek out: Marc Forster's existential comedy "Stranger Than Fiction," George Miller's delightfully fun Antarctic fable "Happy Feet" and Darren Aronofsky's ambitious meditation on mortality, "The Fountain." And despite a colleague of mine's nit-picky attitudes about Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," I found it to be a good thriller, but, yes, not one of his best. I was high on his "The Aviator," proof he's still vital and capable of greatness.

Reminder: A new edition of The Scout (pdf) is available at www.app.com/ entertainment in the WebExtras queue. In it (below), a who's who in Christopher Guest's "For Your Consideration," the Cruise-Wagner Matrix and the deal at United Artists, a first look at Steve Carell in "Evan Almighty" and so much more.