One of the standout movies of the recent Tribeca Film Festival is You Kill Me, a crime-comedy-drama starring Sir Ben Kingsley. He portrays a drunken hit man for a Buffalo, NY, crime syndicate who botches a job while he's in the bag. He's sent to San Francisco to dry out, attend AA meetings, and find a job. That he does, cleaning corpses at a mortuary. Téa Leoni plays a mourner and kindred spirit. This evokes Get Shorty and features one of that movie's co-stars, Dennis Farina, the real-life Chicago policeman-turned-actor. The humor is subtle, the dialogue biting.

The Final Season is a dramatized version of the true story of the Norway, Iowa, high school baseball team. Despite being the smallest school in the state, it managed to win 19 of the previous 23 state championships. But then in the early '90s, the school was absorbed into a larger district. After a petition for one last season, the school board fired the coach and appointed his inexperienced assistant, to ensure a losing final season. Powers Boothe is the head coach who gets the axe, and Sean Astin of The Lord of the Rings plays his successor, eager to prove the school board wrong. The young ballplayers look like they were chosen for their baseball abilities first, and acting skills second. Fans of sports movies look at the authenticity of the game first; and everything looks genuine, as does the sense of life in a small town whose identity is found in a simple ballgame.

I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal is a documentary about the life of Simon Wiesenthal, the larger-than-life Nazi hunter who, after surviving three concentration camps, made his postwar calling in life tracking escaped Nazis. The film depicts his early life as an architect, how he was swept up in the Holocaust, and then, in 1945, his giving U.S. Army officials all the names he'd amassed of the Nazis while a prisoner. This led to his opening an office in Vienna, where he would be a lead player in the capture of Adolf Eichmann, the most wanted Nazi murderer, and to hundreds of others who evaded justice. En route, we meet a man who was surprisingly self-effacing and modest, despite receiving worldwide adulation. "Any Jew who doesn't believe in miracles," he jokes, "is not dealing in reality." This is one of the most memorable films you'll ever see.

Look for Something to Cheer About, another superb documentary. Whereas Hoosiers was a fictionalized account of a tiny Indiana high school that won the 1954 state championship, this movie deals with the following season, 1955-56, when an all African-American team took that same title-the first all black team do so. The team's most distinguished player was Oscar "Big O" Robertson, who went on to a college and NBA Hall of Fame career; every team for which he played retired his number, something few if any other player can say.

Even Money is a drama about gambling addiction with an impressive cast. The movie, by On Golden Pond director Mark Rydell, has two parallel stories. One stars Kim Basinger as a successful novelist married to Ray Liotta, a college English professor. She sneaks away to gamble at a nearby casino, eventually losing her family's savings. Co-producer Danny DeVito, who can make any movie more interesting, portrays a smalltime magician with dreams of long-lost glory. For a time, he's her good luck charm at the tables. The other story involves Forest Whitaker, in his first role since winning the Oscar this year for The Last King of Scotland. He's another deep-in-debt gambling addict whose younger brother, played by Nick Cannon, is a high school basketball star leading his team to a berth in the state championship. Tim Roth is the sinister bookie, while Jay Mohr, another bookmaker, is secretly working for the police, hidden microphone and all. Even Money shows how gambling can be as devastating as alcoholism, smoking, or any other addiction. Ms. Basinger's wide emotional range provides a powerful performance. Director Rydell-who made The Cowboys, one of the few movies in which John Wayne's character gets killed-has a keen sense of story, which makes Even Money so compelling.

Away From Her is a tender movie about a difficult subject. Julie Christie, called out of semi-retirement, portrays a woman afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, which gradually robs her of her memory. Her brave husband, portrayed by Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent, puts on a brave face as his wife grows ever more distant. Eventually he moves her to an assisted-living facility, and for the first month isn't allowed to see her while she gets accustomed to her new surroundings. When he does return, she hardly knows him. Instead she's transferred her love to another patient she thinks, in all probability, is her husband, well played by veteran Michael Murphy. Director Sarah Polley is a young Canadian actress with a slew of quirky independent films on her resume, including The Weight of Water, The Sweet Hereafter, and the underappreciated The Claim. She's taken on a great responsibility in tackling a sensitive subject and treating it with great respect.

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