No doubt: it’s been a very good year for both these stars. And much as I admire Jean Dujardin’s sublime performance in The Artist, my hunch is that the industry will favor one of its own on Oscar night. So who will it be — George or Brad? I’m saving my prediction for a later Oscar piece, but for now … More Details

Believe it or not, in a pop culture filled with mindless reality shows and slick formula franchises, there are still a few players out there whose work offers a glimmer of hope that originality and intelligence can prevail. Tilda Swinton is one such player. It is heartening that at 50, her career is in red-hot mode. Her next film, We … More Details

I’ve just sat down dutifully and read the reviews for the new 3-D rehashes of Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night, as well as the treacly-sounding One Day, and realized once again there is no reason to make my way to the multiplex this weekend. Just where are all the great movies these days? I think I’ll stay home and … More Details

It’s been nearly two years since the kerfuffle when Faye Dunaway made the admittedly unfortunate, off-hand remark on hearing that Hilary Duff (who calls herself an actress) was playing Clyde’s moll Bonnie Parker, a role Faye after all originated. Her reaction: “Couldn’t they at least cast a real actress?” Rather than rise above it, Hilary, a performer who has every … More Details

Can it really be that Benjamin Braddock, the disaffected young man starting out his adult life in “The Graduate,” turns 73 today?
That character was of course immortalized in 1967 by a then unknown Dustin Hoffman, whose sheer talent and nervous energy compensated for a conspicuous absence of classic leading man attributes.
It’s sad to think young people today may know this gifted actor primarily as Ben Stiller’s hippy-dippy Dad in the execrable “Meet the Fockers” (2004). In truth, over the past fifteen or so years, almost invariably Hoffman’s performances have outclassed the movies featuring them.
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