Amy Deserving
Put Junebug at the top of your rental queue. Phil Morrison's tale of a newly married couple that travels to the South to meet his odd family and court a strange folk artist for her art gallery. The result is an absolute surprise, as the film avoids most everything you might expect in favor of a story that will stick with you long after it concludes. And though the whole cast is great, Amy Adams as a motormouthed mom-to-be steals the film and your heart. Bonus: The commentary track is priceless. Adams recalls the names of extras, their babies and just about everything else about the film, while charming you all over again.

Bone Thugs
One of the most fascinating historical works we've read in a while, the graphic novel Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh and the Gilded Age of Paleontology by Jim Ottaviani & Big Time Attic (G.T. Labs), tells the story of some Wild West prospectors looking for...dinosaur fossils. Though largely forgotten these days, the results of this old rush would help to fuel the study of paleontology, as well as the public's interest in those cool-looking dinosaurs. As with earlier books about scientists such as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Niels Bohr, Ottaviani unearths unexpected excitement, interesting facts and occasional treachery of the world of science and uses it to create readable, compelling and, sure, informative tales.

Deadlock
As Smallville heads into its 100th episode Thurs., Jan. 26, it does so with the knowledge that one of its characters ain't gonna be around anymore. And that character is...not going to be named in this here column, that's for sure. But stunts like this aren't what keep this show compelling--and, no, it's not Tom Welling's hunkosity either--it's the way the show's brains have managed to take geeky pulp entertainment and turn it into something even teens, tweens and grandmas could love. And that's super.