"Actor: Anna Deavere Smith"

• Philadelphia - Collector's Edition | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Up-and-coming young lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) has just been fired by his prestigious law firm. They say he hasn't got what it takes. Andrew knows it's because he's got AIDS. Determined to defend his professional reputation Andrew hires fierce brilliant personal-injury attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) to sue his former employers for wrongful dismissal. Joe is initially reluctant to take on the case. Although he as grown up knowing the pain of prejudice he's never

• The American President | DVD | (01/03/2010) from £7.96   |  Saving you £11.02 (221.73%)   |  RRP £15.99

  What sounds like a high-concept romantic comedy pitch from hell--widower president falls for smart lobbyist while the world watches--is actually intelligent, charming, touching and quite funny. Granted, it's wish fulfilment all the way (when was the last time you saw a president who was truly presidential?) but in the capable hands of writer Aaron Sorkin (TV's Sports Night) and director Rob Reiner, TheAmerican President is incredibly enjoyable entertainment with quite a few ideas about both romance and the government. Michael Douglas stars as the president, who after three years in office starts thinking about the possibility of dating. When he auspiciously encounters cutthroat environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening), sparks begin to crackle and the two begin a tentative but heartfelt romance. Of course, his job gets in the way--their first kiss is interrupted by a Libyan bombing--but darn it if these two kids aren't going to try and make it work! However, they hadn't counted on the president's Republican antagonist (Richard Dreyfuss), who starts carping about family values. The predictable plot--Douglas finally goes to bat for his lady and his country--is leavened by Sorkin's wonderful, snappy dialogue and a light touch from the usually subtle-as-a-sledgehammer Reiner. Both manage to create a believable White House-office atmosphere (with a crack staff including Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Anna Deavere Smith and Samantha Mathis) as well as a plausible and funny dating scenario. The true success of the movie, though, rides squarely on Douglas and Bening; this is unequivocally Douglas's best comedic performance (ergo his best performance, period) and Bening, usually such a good bad girl, takes a standard career-woman role and fleshes it out magnificently. You can see in an instant why Douglas would fall for her. One of the best unsung romantic comedies of the 90s. --Mark Englehart

• Philadelphia | DVD | (25/05/1998) from £7.37   |  Saving you £5.62 (76.26%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Philadelphia wasn't the first movie about AIDS (it followed such worthy independent films as Parting Glances and Longtime Companion), but it was the first Hollywood studio picture to take AIDS as its primary subject. In that sense, Philadelphia is a historically important film. As such, it's worth remembering that director Jonathan Demme (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild, The Silence of the Lambs) wasn't interested in preaching to the converted; he set out to make a film that would connect with a mainstream audience. And he succeeded. Philadelphia was not only a hit, it also won Oscars for Bruce Springsteen's haunting "The Streets of Philadelphia," and for Tom Hanks as the gay lawyer Andrew Beckett who is unjustly fired by his firm because he has AIDS. Denzel Washington is another lawyer (functioning as the mainstream-audience surrogate) who reluctantly takes Beckett's case and learns to overcome his misconceptions about the disease, about those who contract it, and about gay people in general. The combined warmth and humanism of Hanks and Demme were absolutely essential to making this picture a success. The cast also features Jason Robards, Antonio Banderas (as Beckett's lover), Joanne Woodward, and Robert Ridgely, and, of course, those Demme regulars Charles Napier, Tracey Walter and Roger Corman. --Jim Emerson

• Human Stain | DVD | (25/04/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  How far would you go to escape the past? Coleman Silk (Hopkins) is a respectable college professor whose life is thrown into turmoil when his affair with a janitor (Kidman) is discovered...

• The Human Stain | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  After his career and reputation is ruined, a distinguished professor at a prestigious New England college embarks on a remarkable personal resurrection.

• Life Support (HBO) | DVD | (04/02/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  You can't live without it. HBO Films presents Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah (Chicago) in a heartbreaking story of one woman's journey to the brink of self-destruction and despair and her inspirational fight to regain her dignity and her family. Ana is an HIV-positive former drug addict from Brooklyn desperately struggling with her past and passionately trying to make things right with her involvement in an AIDS outreach group Life Support. Inspired by a true story it's a touching poignant tale of loving losing and letting go.

• Rachel Getting Married | DVD | (01/08/2011) from £5.38   |  Saving you £4.61 (46.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When an estranged daughter (Hathaway) returns to her family home for her sister's wedding the effects on the family dynamics are obvious. Conjuring up both heartbreaking and hilarity this romantic comedy tells a family tale with no lack of subtlety.

• Nurse Jackie - Season 3 | DVD | (05/03/2012) from £7.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Award winning black comedy with Edie Falco (The Sopranos), Eve Best (The King's Speech), Peter Facinelli (Twilight) and Paul Schulze (The Sopranos).Jackie Peyton is an ER Nurse with a difference. She's an angel of the wards with flaws; bending the rules to ensure justice is done for the patients that go through her care. But she's also juggling a serious drug addiction and a complicated family life. Season 3 sees her carefully separated worlds come crashing together.