“Kundun” is on the True Stories network now, a movie I avoided when it was in theaters and only saw years later, at which point I fell in love with it. Never mind the portrait of the Dalai Lama it paints — Roger Ebert makes all the obvious, good points — it’s just a great example of how a masterful director can make even dry subject matter compelling. It moves, it’s gorgeous to look at, and the Phillip Glass soundtrack is mesmerizing.

A New Yorker writer pointed out some time ago that the genius of Martin Scorsese is in the breadth of his work; he’s undertaken everything from musicals to novel adaptations to comedy. (I always thought it was in how he could extract masterful performances from so-so actors like Sharon Stone and Ray Liotta.) Hard to believe this is the same guy who did “GoodFellas.”