What to Watch Tonight

Rent It: Eat Pray Love (PG-13, 2010). Julia Roberts portrays Liz Gilbert, a woman who begins a yearlong, worldwide search for herself. Despite some clunky dialogue, the film is light and focused — buoyed by Roberts’s restrained performance. But for many, the real draw will be the view. Not the beautiful, foreign vistas. Rather, the international smorgasbord of men including Javier Bardem, Billy Crudup, and James Franco. My Grade: B

Queue It: Before Night Falls (R, 2000). The film that launched Javier Bardem’s international career and garnered his first Academy Award nomination (he would later win for No Country for Old Men). The movie is based on the autobiography of the Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas who lives in Havana, is falsely arrested, eventually moves to the U.S., and dies from AIDS-related complications. A brilliant and sad performance from Bardem. My Grade: A-