Ben Affleck reclaims his place in directorial debut

Ever since Ben Affleck won an Oscar for his "Good Will Hunting" script, the actor has been something of a laughingstock, and it's all his fault. While his joined-at-the-hip buddy Matt Damon pursued respectability, Affleck took the cash and appeared in one lame flick after another, so maybe it's no surprise that with his cultural currency at an all-time low, Affleck went back to the creative side with "Gone Baby Gone" (Miramax, 2007, R), a Dennis Lehane adaptation he co-wrote and directed.

Affleck wisely cast younger brother Casey in the lead as a young Boston missing persons investigator who discovers the depths people will sink to for a few bucks, and it's the film's relentless cynicism and bleakness that sticks with you. For that we can thank Ben for staying true to the subject matter, though the actor-turned-director still is pretty hard on himself on the commentary track he shares with co-writer Aaron Stockard.

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"Tell Me You Love Me -- The Complete First Season" (HBO, 2007, Not Rated): HBO has been on a real therapy kick lately. First came "The Sopranos," with its mob boss routinely crying and confessing on the couch. The cable stalwart's latest series, "The Treatment," is about a psychotherapist and his clients. And last year's "Tell Me You Love Me" focused on couples' therapy, its roster of loveless marriages paired with startlingly explicit (even for HBO) sex scenes. Unfortunately, "Tell Me You Love Me" starts out depressing and more than a little bit dull, which leads one to suspect the sex was thrown in mostly to lure or at least retain viewers, but to the show's credit its intimate portraits of incompatibility grow on you.

"The Wiz" (Universal, 1978, G): In 2005, Sidney Lumet was given an honorary Academy Award, the prize typically tossed to filmmakers that everyone loves and respects except the Academy itself, which had never before awarded them an Oscar (Lumet had been previously nominated for "12 Angry Men," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Network" and "The Verdict," among his many classics). Getting the last laugh, Lumet actually earned some of his best reviews for last year's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," a comeback following a couple of decades of off-game clunkers, the atrocious "The Wiz" -- his disco-era musical remake of "The Wizard of Oz" -- among them.

"Zapped!" (MGM, 1982, R): Teen sex comedies are typically neither sexy nor funny. But even with standards set that low, "Zapped!" is a bit of a bust (pardon the pun). Its high-concept scenario -- freak accident gives Scott Baio (as a bespectacled nerd) the power to undress women with his mind -- is resolutely low-class.