Diggler-5

The pampered rich folk of Manhattan get skewered alive in this elegant adaptation of John Guare's hit play. Based on an amazing true story, the film concerns a wealthy Manhattan couple (Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland) whose lives are turned upside down when a young black man (Will Smith) who claims to be a friend of their children's drops in after having been attacked in the park. He says he's Sidney Poitier's son, cooks up a gourmet meal, quotes "Catcher in the Rye," and endears himself to this couple. As the film progresses, one stunning event after another occurs, culminating in a beautifully cathartic ending. Sutherland gives one of his best performances, but it is the luminescent Channing who steals the movie. It is so nice to see this gifted actress -- looking more beautiful than ever -- in the lead as opposed to playing someone's best friend. Her impeccable timing and innate charm elevate an already dazzling screenplay to heights unimaginable. "Six Degrees of Separation" is as witty, thoughtful, and relevant as any film made the entire decade.

Upon its 1982 release, "Hanky Panky" was universally panned by critics and shunned by moviegoers. But the first film to team Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner -- a pairing that resulted in two more movies and an offscreen marriage -- is a very funny, wildly entertaining film in the Hitchcock tradition. Originally intended as another Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor vehicle, the Pryor role was rewritten for a girl and Radner was cast. "Hanky Panky" is reminiscent of Wilder's 1976 "Silver Streak;" as in that film, he again plays a nice guy in over his head, being trailed by both cops and killers. Radner plays the girl who believes he is innocent, and inevitably the two fall in love. The film gives both Wilder and Radner a chance to display their unique brands of comedy, especially in the film's funniest scene in which Wilder refuses to accept that the pilot of the plane they are flying in has died. A must for devoted Wilder and Radner fans!