By RUTHE STEIN, San Francisco Chronicle

Most directors' first film disappears only to pop up on Netflix. Not so with Neil LaBute. His first feature, "In the Company of Men," caused quite a stir when it came out in 1997. LaBute wrote and directed this controversial film about two misogynist businessmen who play a cruel joke on a deaf woman in their office by pretending to have romantic feelings for her.

Toward the end of the Depression in 1939, movie audiences were treated to a lush drama about adultery and female friendships in which almost all of the female characters were fabulously wealthy and flaunted their riches by dressing in silk and satin. The men stayed in the background -- very far in the background.

By now almost everyone knows that the U.S. government monumentally failed the citizens of New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. Is there more to be said about this national catastrophe? Yes, definitely, as the engrossing documentary "Trouble the Water" shows in just about every frame.

The end is near for summer movies geared to adolescent boys and grown men in arrested development. Fall movies have adult themes.

With bloated staffs and citizens e-mailing opinions 24/7, Barack Obama and John McCain probably don't feel the need for any more advice. But the presidential candidates could learn a thing or two by watching the best of the movies that have been made about political campaigns.

TORONTO -- When Jim Broadbent appears later this year as Hogwarts' potion master in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," it will round out a career in which it may be said that he's yet to be typecast.

Edie Adams graduated from Juilliard and the Columbia School of Drama, but her fancy degrees didn't grease the way into a Hollywood career. For her, it was connections -- or, rather, one connection, her husband, the great comedian Ernie Kovacs. She became the pitch lady for Muriel cigars based on his well-known smoking habit.

As used to be said of the British Empire, the sun never sets on an episode of "Friends." Money pouring in from syndication plus savings from the $750,000 per episode each cast member was paid has landed these friends among the filthy rich.

If the presidential candidates ever take a break, they would benefit from watching "Under the Same Moon." Although based on a fictional story, it has the feel of truth and is a vivid reminder of the hell Mexicans put themselves through to live in the United States, even illegally.