You're white, will you be my nanny? The Nanny Diaries (TWC/MGM)

"Nanny Fact: in every one of my interviews, references are never checked. I am white. I speak French. My parents are college educated. I have no visible piercings and have been to Lincoln Center in the last two months. I'm hired."

That's from the best-selling novel The Nanny Diaries, written by two former nannies, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. They smartly skewer New York's elite upperclass as they take you into the secret world of Manhattan nannies. The Nanny Diaries (opening August 24 throughout San Diego) now arrives on screen with Scarlett Johansson as an NYU graduate who falls into a nanny position and then takes us on what amount to an anthropological tour of how rich Manhattanites pass off parenting to nannies.

The Bush Administration comes under scrutiny in No End in Sight (Magnolia)

No End in Sight (opening August 24 at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theatres) joins the growing ranks of documentaries about the war in Iraq. Films examining the war began almost immediately following the invasion. Two early controversial ones were Robert Greenwald's Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War and Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. These were joined by Gunner's Palace and Iraq in Fragments.

No End in Sight differs from these films in two ways. One, this is Charles Fergeson's first film and he's more a scholar than a filmmaker. And two, his film is less about looking to the fighting or a ground perspective of the war, and instead the film talks to insiders in order to place Iraq in a historical context and then examine the mistakes and misjudgments that have come to define the Bush Administrations handling of the Iraq invasion and its aftermath. Listen to an extended version of my Film Chat with KPBS News' Alan Ray.

Rowan Atkinson eyes the best route in Mr. Bean's Holiday (Universal)

Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean's Holiday (opening August 24 throughout San Diego) arrives on U.S. shores after having already conquered most of the globe. The film opened earlier this year in England, Asia, most of Europe and South America, and has already amassed nearly $200 million in box office sales.

Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean is a character well-suited to global fame. The nearly mute Bean relies mostly on physical comedy which translates well into any language. Atkinson was inspired to create the character in the 1980s after a trip to Venice where he saw Italian street vendors selling souvenirs of British rock stars. If British rock stars could capture an international audience why not a British comic? Atkinson has said "Bean is very simple humor, extremely broad and extremely accessible. It's the inner child within the adult who identifies with him and the dichotomy of responsibilities."