By COLIN COVERT, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Steven Spielberg, arguably the most popular filmmaker of the 20th century, meets his match this week: Steven Spielberg.

"I've dealt with situational depression. I do have an addictive personality. I can be self-destructive. I can be vindictive."

Sam Shepard made a big entrance into the world of movie acting as the doomed romantic farmer in Terrence Malick's critically acclaimed "Days of Heaven." He has appeared in 40-odd films since that 1978 breakthrough. He has played iconic roles (heroic test pilot Chuck Yeager in "The Right Stuff"), walk-ons (Valerie Plame's father in "Fair Game") and a whole lot of sheriffs.

In "The Guard," writer/director John Michael McDonagh reinvigorates the buddy-cops comedy, moving it to small-town West Ireland and injecting it with rollicking, subversive wit. His film puts a straight-arrow FBI man (Don Cheadle) beside a cantankerous, cheerfully corrupt country cop (Brendan Gleeson, "Harry Potter's" Mad Eye Moody).

I haven't seen another studio release this year that jitterbugs with love for movies like "Super 8."

It's been 16 years since Jodie Foster directed a movie -- "Home for the Holidays," a warm look at a divided Baltimore family. Her new project, "The Beaver," is a darker, more daring tale of domestic dysfunction.

Like a slalom skier, Kristen Wiig has avoided all the traps and pitfalls Hollywood puts before funny actresses.

Werner Herzog's documentaries have taken him to the wastelands of the Sahara, to the midnight sea beneath Antarctica, to the top of a live Haitian volcano, to blazing Kuwaiti oil fields and to Alaska's grizzly-bear country.

Many noses tilted disdainfully skyward when Kenneth Branagh signed on to direct the superhero movie "Thor." But despite filming seven of Shakespeare's plays, the Belfast-born actor/director is no musty old tragedian.

Tom McCarthy must be several people.