One of Steven Spielberg’s best films and arguably the best studio film of 2015, Bridge of Spies tells the fascinating story behind an exchange of prisoners between the U.S. and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

In 1957, attorney James B. Donovan reluctantly defended accused Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, losing the case but successfully preventing his execution with the argument that he could at some point be used as collateral in an exchange of prisoners with the Soviets. Five years later Gary Francis Powers’ U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying over Russia. Convicted of espionage and sentenced to hard labor, the CIA recruited Donovan to secretly negotiate an exchange of Abel for Powers.

Tom Hanks gives one of his finest performances as Donovan, whether walking simply down lonely streets, riding trains in quiet distress, arguing in court, negotiating with slick operatives on both sides of the equation, or enduring attacks on his home and family while being denounced in the press. His validation at the end of the film as President Kennedy’s spokesman mentions his name on national TV to the astonishment of his family is an aw-shucks moment worthy of comparison to the emotional high points of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial or Schindler’s List.

Almost as good is Oscar-nominated Mark Rylance as Abel. The film’s cinematography, production design and music score are also first-rate in a film that should not be missed.

Bridge of Spies is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

The story behind the demise of 60 Minutes Wednesday and the downfall of CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather is told in James Vanderbilt’s Truth about the smear campaign conducted by the right-wing conspiracy theorists who successfully raised doubts over the authenticity of the leaked memo that exposed then-President George W. Bush’s failure to participate in the Texas National Guard after obtaining an appointment to that organization to keep him out of the Vietnam War. Allegations of fraud were never proven, but the scandal was enough to get Rather’s senior investigative reporter Mary Mapes fired and her superiors at 60 Minutes Wednesday, as well as Rather, to resign.

Cate Blanchett is at her best as Mapes and Robert Redford surprisingly makes a believable Rather. This was Vanderbilt’s first film as director. Gloria Vanderbilt, Anderson Cooper and Timothy Olyphant’s cousin was previously known for his screenplays for Zodiac and White House Down.

Truth is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

It was the suffragists, a group of men and women who won the vote for all British citizens in England in 1918, but you’d never know that from Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, a dreary film which glorifies the violent early feminist group, the suffragettes. Yet for all its male bashing, the film never really succeeds in making its case. Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter fail to impress, but Meryl Streep as movement leader Mrs. Pankhurst fiercely ignites the screen in her brief appearance. Had she been given more to do, the filmmakers might have had something worth watching. As it stands, the film’s flop status is richly earned.

Suffragette is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

David Gordon Green’s Our Brand Is Crisis is adapted from Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary of the same name. While Green has given us such interesting films as All the Real Girls and Joe in the past, he has also given us clunkers like his last film, Manglehorn. This one, with its fits and starts, is somewhere between the good and the bad.

Promoted as a comedy, the film about low-life political shenanigans is not funny in the least. Sandra Bullock is a one-note manic depressive operator and Billy Bob Thornton as her nemesis is a total sleaze-ball. The film’s saving graces are the supporting players, Anthony Mackie, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy, and Zoe Kazan as Bullock’s cronies; Joaquim de Almeida as Bullock’s Bolivian Presidential candidate; and Reynaldo Pacheco as an idealistic supporter of the candidate.

Our Brand Is Crisis is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Julianne Moore gives another amazing performance as Laurel Hester, the Ocean County New Jersey detective whose life and death are the focus of Freeheld.

A twenty-three year exemplary cop on her way to becoming a lieutenant, Hester had purchased a house with her domestic partner, mechanic Stacie Andree, about a year before she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Knowing she was dying, she petitioned the county executives (freeholders) to give her pension to Andree. It was denied, setting up a fight to the end in which her fellow cops, gay rights advocates and ordinary citizens shamed the county into doing what was right, which ultimately resulted in changing state laws after her death.

Moore gets strong support from Ellen Page as Andreee, Michael Shannon as her detective partner Dane Wells, and Steve Carell as gay activist Steven Goldstein.

Freeheld is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

The complete opposite of Freeheld, Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall, is a cringe-inducing travesty about the beginnings of the gay rights movement. Ignore this excrement and seek out Nigel Finch’s inspiring 1995 film of the same name with a star-making performance by Scandal’s Guillermo Diaz instead. You won’t be sorry you did.

Both films are available on standard DVD only.

Also available on standard DVD only, Isobel Quixet’s Learning to Drive is a quietly effective character study of a middle-aged woman in the throes of a divorce and the gentle Sikh taxicab driver and driving instructor who helps boost her confidence in herself. See it for the performances of Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley.

This week’s new releases include Crimson Peak and Spectre.