STOP-LOSS (2008)

Who's in It: Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rob Brown, Abbie Cornish, Alex Frost
The Basics: Purple Heart recipient Phillippe (that's what they give you when you're married to Reese Witherspoon for any length of time — OK, kidding) is redeployed for a third tour of duty to Iraq. He decides that this is not for him and goes AWOL, demanding an answer — much like the movie does — to the question of why the war goes on and on, decimating the lives of everyone it touches.

What's the Deal? Even if you haven't seen any of the recent Iraq War-themed films (and you probably haven't because they've all earned a collective 35 bucks at the box office), and even if you never saw Coming Home or The Deer Hunter, you sort of already know what's going to happen. These guys are going to be really, really messed up, and no one's going to be able or willing to help them. It's a plotline that's ingrained in the culture just by sheer repetition: That war stays hell even after the war is over. But of all the recent fictional films about Iraq, this one's the best of the bunch.

What Kimberly Peirce Is Really Good At: As a Texan, I can tell you that she knows middle America well enough to critique its politics and its prejudices without making everyone there look like someone from a sketch on Blue Collar TV. She does it all without being judgmental or phony or condescending, which is something Hollywood almost never gets right.

Underpants Cinema: I guess it's a concession to its target audience, but I thought it was kind of strange how when the soldier boys all have their various existential crises, they manage to be in wet T-shirts or look like an ad for Calvin Klein briefs.

How You'll Know It's More Humanistic Than Political: No matter what your politics are, you'll leave thinking the movie let the other side off too easy.

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