Persepolis
This is a week where I have to exploit a loophole in my Gamespite contract and choose a film I have yet to see. However, the "Pick of the Week" is not meant to be what is objectively "the best" film coming out any particular week, but what this writer is most excited to add to my online rental queue. Persepolis is based on a graphic novel that a woman who grew up in Iran wrote about her experiences. Being an adolescent is hard enough, but when you might get hauled off to jail for wearing lipstick? Yeah, that's kind of rough. Now in France, the author has made a political film free of politics.

10,000 BC
Roland Emmerich, the poor man's Michael Bay, has found something of a niche making these special effects laden "tentpole" movies with huge budgets and tons of marketing, with a lot of time and care being spent on every aspect of the film except unimportant bits like the script or the acting or ending up with a watchable film.

Charlie Bartlett
Charlie Bartlett is a rich kid kicked out of private school who decides to become the most popular kid in his public school. As everyone's confidante and friend, he dispenses advice (and psychological pharmaceuticals) and butts heads with the alcoholic Principal, Robert Downey, Jr., who finds himself playing very much to type.

Definitely Maybe
If you refer to romantic comedies as "romcoms" and you think precocious children trying to keep solipsistic grown ups from splitting up is "cute," then brother have I got a film for you! For the rest of you, I'd keep a cyanide capsule handy in case your significant other(s) brings this home with the expectation that you watch it together.

Futurama: Beast with a Billion Backs
The other day I met a guy with a Bender Bending Rodriguez tattoo on his arm and spent the rest of the day spouting my favorite lines from the show, which turn out to be applicable to every situation imaginable. "Friends! A guinea pig tricked me!" works surprisingly well in many different contexts. I hope this newest film lives up to that fantastic legacy.

In Bruges
After a job gone wrong, two hitmen must hide out in small-town America. Part fish-out-of-water comedy, part odd-couple romantic comedy, part serious and gripping crime drama, In Bruges apparently ducks and weaves through all of this disparate parts and makes a very satisfying and cohesive whole. The Onion AV Club describes it as the film Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels) might make if he "sat down, took a couple of deep, cleansing breaths, and put as much thought as energy and style into his films."

The Spiderwick Chronicles
I genuinely like that the kids of today are spoiled for choice when it comes to fantasy being created exclusively for them. Harry Potter is a phenomenon that I wish had been around when I was a tot.