Adam Sandler for Best Actor? No joke, I think the guy deserves serious consideration for his complex, nuanced, and fearless work in Judd Apatow’s Funny People.

He plays George Simmons, a comedian who rose from small nightclub standup to global success by making the kind of low-brow films where he plays a Merman or a man-baby in diapers. (It’s tempting to say that George is an alternate universe version of Sandler—Sandler without the humanizing influence of his wife and kids. But that’s part of what makes Sandler's performance so fearless—people will inevitably compare him to George, who’s pretty much a dick.)

George is a self-loathing narcissist (they seem to specialize in that particular oxymoron in Hollywood), who lives alone in a giant mansion, beds a series of faceless groupies, and waits for his next script to roll in. George’s hedonistic, unexamined life gets a jolt when he is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. He’s past the point where chemo or radiation can do him any good, so doctors start him on a radical drug treatment. Mostly,...

The romantic comedy gets deconstructed in the endearingly quirky (500) Days of Summer.
Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) is a hopeless romantic who writes greeting cards for a living. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is the new girl in the office, with whom he is immediately smitten.
Here’s the twist: We are told, right off the bat, that things will not end well for our young hero. “This is not a romantic comedy,” the droll voiceover informs us. Instead, this is a breakdown of one young man’s particular heartbreak, with an unusual storytelling device: Tom and Summer’s romance is recounted out of chronology.
Instead of being confusing, the conceit adds dimensions of humor and insight to the tale. We see Tom consummate his relationship with Summer—he’s so giddy, he imagines a little Gene Kelly-style song and dance number on the way work; followed immediately by Tom the morning after he’s been dumped, wearing the same outfit, only now it—and Tom himself—seems rumpled and deflated. We see the couple at IKEA, enjoying each other, being secretive and silly the way new couples...

Over the years, the Harry Potter series has attracted some of Great Britian’s greatest acting talent. Imelda Staunton, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, David Thewlis, Kenneth Branagh, and Gary Oldman have all appeared in the films. And Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, and Michael Gambon (who replaced the late Richard Harris) are series regulars. (It’s to JK Rowling’s endless credit that she has written characters so juicy, these scene stealers simply can’t resist.)
But what I truly marvel at is the casting of the three main children. After all, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson were all about 11 years old when they were first cast in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. And I have a hunch that if the producers were recasting the film eight years later, they’d assemble the exact same group. Radcliffe’s role is the toughest—he has to make Harry virtuous and earnest without being dull. But Radcliffe has a natural heroism about him, an understated confidence, and he plays Harry with a slight hint of sadness that adds depth. (...

The following review is intended for adult readers.

I’ve always said that it you’re going to be outrageous and offensive, at least be funny. Humor often is the end that justifies the means, and Sacha Baron Cohen is one funny dude. His is humor in extremis—taking an already absurd scenario to its most cringe-inducing, over-the-top (yet strangely inevitable) outcome. He is the permanent answer to “oh no you didn’t.” Oh yes, he did.
That being said, I’m not buying into this notion of Cohen as the Jonathan Swift of our time. In his guerrilla-style comedy, he does two things: He takes regular people and puts them into situations so outrageous that they are forced to respond in uncharacteristic ways. He sees these as “gotcha!” moments. But to me, these are not glimpses into the true nature of people. They’re examples of how we respond when confronted by absurdity. (The answer: We respond absurdly.)
The other thing Cohen does is take people who are easy targets for ridicule, and mocks them. His admirers call that probing...