The box-office hit Erin Brockovich arrives on video shelves this week. Plenty of folks seemed to latch on to lovable Julia Roberts as she kicked corporate ass and managed to look good in a halter top--at the very same time!

Me, I was disappointed, largely because the director behind the film, Steven Soderbergh, is a highly intelligent filmmaker, someone clearly above this rather simplistic material.

Here are my picks for other Soderbergh films to rent: sex, lies, & videotape was indeed overhyped and overrated when it first came out in '89 (the director even said so himself), but the film does stand up as a droll take on sex, commitment and the gender gap. For those of you who haven't, The Limey must be checked out. Peter Fonda and Terence Stamp are a match of sheer genius casting, in a film that boasts an exquisite editing job. This film deserved much, much more attention than Brockovich, but sadly, didn't get it. Perhaps my fave Soderbergh though, is King of the Hill, a story about Depression-era children surviving hardship that manages to be poignant while never overly-sentimental.

As for Julia Roberts, I feel Jane Fonda made the definitive woman-struggling-against-corporate-evil in The China Syndrome in '79. Not a single stupid one-liner. See the difference for yourself.

--Genevieve Paiement