Rating: 2.5 stars

The rapper Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls) was an unlikely superstar. He was overweight, not particularly good-looking, and had been a smalltime crack peddler on the mean streets of Brooklyn. But he was an expert wordsmith with an unbelievable flow, a ribald sense of humor, a storyteller’s eye for detail, and a teddy-bear-like charisma. A lot of people consider him the best rapper of all time. You won’t get an argument from me.
Besides all of his natural talent, Biggie had another thing going for him: He was discovered by one Sean Combs, a.k.a. Puff Daddy, a.k.a. P. Diddy, a.k.a. . . .well, only time will tell. When they met, Combs was a rising rap impresario, a natural-born hustler with a gift for creating spectacles. With Combs’ showmanship and Biggie’s talent, they proved to be an unstoppable force—until Biggie was gunned down in Los Angeles at the age of 24, the victim of the insidious East Coast vs. West Coast rap war that had already claimed the life of Tupac Shakur.
Now Biggie gets the biopic that fans have been clamoring for—...

Historians will look back and say that 2008 was the year of the meta performance, the year that movies—and moviegoers—finally became so sophisticated that each film became an endless loop of self-commentary.

Let’s start with Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. Would that performance have been nearly as funny (assuming you thought it was funny to begin with) if it wasn’t FREAKIN’ Tom Cruise, a man who had gone from movie star to media punch line in a matter of months? That performance proved that Tom could, at the very least, laugh at himself, do a funny dance, pack on the pounds (or at least a fat suit), and chuck his vanity for a few minutes.

Next there was Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. Would Rourke’s Randy the Ram have been as poignant (and slightly spooky) if the career of the aging, ’roided-up, has-been wrestler didn’t so closely resemble the career of one Mickey Rourke?

Following that, there was Kate and Leo as the Wheelers in Revolutionary Road. Their story of a disillusioned golden couple in the 1950s was made all the more gripping by the fact that the two actors had...

Here’s the kind of useless exercise that only a true film dork with way too much free time on her hands could accomplish: I’ve listed all 36 of Woody Allen’s theatrical films (okay, there are actually 38, but I’ve never seen Cassandra’s Dream or Love and Death) and ranked them from best to worst.

I encourage you all to agree or disagree, call me names, rage against the very nature of our list-obsessed society, and express intense anger at my profound overestimation of Husbands and Wives and clueless underestimation of Match Point. But one thing you can never do is make me waver on number 1. Not only is Manhattan my favorite Woody Allen film, it is quite possibly my favorite film of all time.

1. Manhattan (1979)
2. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
3. Annie Hall (1977)
4. Husbands and Wives (1992)
5. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
6. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
7. Take the Money and Run (1969)
8. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
9. Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
10. Zelig (1983)
11. Sleeper (1973)...

Rating: 3.5 stars

It’s hard to convince people that Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, a fictionalized account the historic interview between British chat show host David Frost and disgraced American president Richard Nixon, is as edge-of-your-seat riveting as any good sports movie. But it is. Of course, the dry title doesn’t help. Maybe, Smackdown! Frost/Nixon would’ve been better.
The beauty of the film, based on the Peter Morgan play of the same name, is that Frost (Michael Sheen)—who had some minor success in the United States but was ultimately sent back to the UK with his tail between his legs—sees his exclusive interview with Nixon as a way to get back his table at Sardi’s. He craves fame, status, a kind of professional redemption. He has no idea that he’s out of his depth—his obsession is scoring the interview, not actually conducting it.
As for Nixon (Frank Langella), well, we already know what he’s like—brilliant, twitchy, paranoid, and self-pitying. But his loyal right-hand man Colonel Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon) convinces him to take the...