The Treatment

Yes, Lars and the Real Girl is about a man who falls for a sex doll. It's also about the women who help pull him out of his shell – and a lot more. Screenwriter Nancy Oliver (Six Feet Under) talks about the work behind building the real girl.

In just two films, writer-director Jason Reitman (In God We Trust) has found comedy in the realm of personal responsibility. First, Thank You for Smoking and, now, Juno. For this Oscar nominee, the first and second times are the charm.

Not only has screenwriter Tony Gilroy (The Devil's Advocate, Dolores Claiborne) had quite a career, but quite a year as well. He adapted the Bourne books, including Ultimatum. Now he makes his directorial debut with Michael Clayton. NOTE: This encore presentation of The Treatment will not be heard live on KCRW as it will be pre-empted by special post-primary election coverage.  

Elvis Mitchell hosts director-writer-producer Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love) whose latest film is There Will Be Blood. This critically acclaimed, epic film has just received eight Academy Award nominations, including two for Anderson in the categories of Directing and Adapted Screenplay.

Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934 is not only a mouthful as a title, but this DVD set deals with plain-spoken and direct controversy on the big screen in the silent era. You can hear all about it from its curator, Scott Simmon.

After Malcolm X and The Hurricane, you'd think Denzel Washington had enough of real life. But The Great Debaters, his second film as director, shows why fact drew him back. It's life as drama.

It's an unusual grouping of films for Marc Forster: Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball, Stranger than Fiction and his newest, The Kite Runner. And many of them deal with storytellers. It's narratives and narrators.

With Basquiat, Before Night Falls and his newest, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, artist and director Julian Schnabel turns film biography into art. He discusses separating fiction from fact.

Elvis Mitchell hosts writer-director Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) whose latest film is The Savages, starring Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Since 1984, writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen (Blood Simple, Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou?) have taken the chase and made some of best films of the past decade about it. Their newest, an adaptation of Colmac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, is a high-octane version of that. Start your engines!