A few items in the post-Oscars suggestion box for the producers to mull before next year: Enforce the black-tie edict. Memo to Will Smith: The evening is “black tie,” not black scarf. No nominees should double as presenters; makes the show look too intimate. A salute to The Wizard of Oz with Pink singing the incomparable Judy Garland’s signature song was uncomfortable. Only major stars should make solo presentations, not the Zack Efrons, Chris Evanses, and Tyler Perrys. Cut the silly time-wasting shtick with pizzas and selfi es, even if Samsung is a major sponsor. And most of all, make sure aging stars’ plastic surgeries aren’t gasp-inducing.

Catherine Deneuve, at 70, looks anything but aged; she’s lost none of her incandescent beauty, and remains one of the world’s most beautiful women since her screen debut in 1957. On My Way is a charmer about a woman at a crossroads. She owns a struggling restaurant in a small French town. She lives with her mother while carrying the torch for her ex-boyfriend, and is estranged from her perpetually unemployed daughter; she hardly knows her grandson. One afternoon, in the middle of the hectic lunch service, she exits the busy kitchen and drives four hours into the countryside. What ensues is a journey of self-discovery before the gorgeous backdrop of French countryside that’s almost as magnifi cent as Mme. Deneuve herself.

Over on HBO, Veep, the clever political light comedy, is breezing into its third season with title player Julia Louis-Dreyfus way too smart to be content on the sidelines of power. The show’s easy to pick up; each episode quickly assumes a likable aura. The new season has her wondering about running for the presidency; an aide’s wedding; and the unexpected resignation of a key cabinet member. The cast includes Anna Chlumsky, the allgrown- up girl from those My Girl movies, as another aide, and veteran Gary Cole, whose opinions seem to be ignored. The series is as savvy and sly a satire as there ever was.

Also on HBO is Game of Thrones, the fantasy series that’s beginning its fourth season. Thrones is adapted from the novels of R. R. Martin (who’s already written the novel for season fi ve), and is not the easiest series to pick up without seeing previous seasons. The cast is stellar, with plenty of roles for women and children. The story deals with seven families fi ghting for control of a mythical kingdom with the requisite political intrigue afoot, and features breathtaking locations in Iceland, Morocco, and Northern Ireland. It’s clear from the outset why it’s won 10 Emmys.

Nymphomaniac, the latest from edgy Danish director Lars von Trier, is sometimes difficult to endure, yet mesmerizing in a perverted way. The title player is portrayed by several women, starting with Charlotte Gainsbourg. She’s initially seen as the victim of a recent beating. This is after the movie begins—pretentiously—with a seemingly endless blank screen in silence. She’s taken in by passerby Stellan Skarsgard, to whom she proceeds to tell the erotic history of her life.

Stacy Martin portrays her as a 17-year-old, already affl icted with nymphomania, as the movie thrusts some hardcore sexual scenes across the screen. There have been stories that “adult movie” actors were used in the closeups, but that sounds bogus at worst, or a cop-out at best. Whatever, it’s uncomfortable watching actors you know grinding away in scenes straight out of an old 42nd Street grindhouse. That includes Shia LeBeouf, who defl owers her, and returns later to engage in the movie’s most graphic scenes. Others in the cast of note in this sometimes ponderous movie include Christian Slater as the nymphomaniac’s gentle father, little-seen Connie Nielsen as her unloved mother, and Uma Thurman, a scorned wife and mother of three adorable young sons who storms into her soon-to-be ex-husband’s new digs with hubby’s much younger lover.

Writer-director von Trier, however, can’t decide if he’s trying to make us laugh with some inventive visuals or squirm at a serious malady laid bare (pun intended, if you like) before us. You’ll be left puzzled and unfulfilled.

David Strathairn was perfectly cast as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck, and had a memorable role in L.A. Confi dential. No God, No Master is an absorbing drama set in the summer of 1919 during the dreaded “Palmer Raids,” whereby, under the aegis of then-Attorney General Alexander M. Palmer, immigrant anarchists, some violent, were arrested and deported. It culminated with the still-controversial arrest, trial, conviction, and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti seven years later. Strathairn portrays an agent of the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, predecessor of the FBI. He’s been tracking the source of package bombs presumably sent by anarchists. Veteran actor Ray Wise plays Attorney General Palmer, Sean McNall a young J. Edgar Hoover, and Mariann Mayberry fiery anarchist Emma Goldman. This is an excellent depiction of a long-forgotten but pivotal post-World War I era.

Finally, The Raid 2: Berandal picks up the story of an Indonesian detective who goes undercover and joins a brutal crime family. Fans of the martial-arts genre will love the fi ght scenes, which to others will seem incessant.

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