Dopers, liars, and questionable heroes have been in the news a lot lately, thanks to both Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens being snubbed for the Baseball Hall of Fame and Lance Armstrong getting set to finally admit to doping to Oprah Winfrey.

I’m fascinated by these men as uniquely tragic figures—Shakespearean almost: Lauded as heroes while harboring a secret that could be their complete undoing. It’s too simple to suggest that they are merely living dual lives—faking it in public, while privately racked with guilt and the fear of being caught. Because there is something else all three of these men share—massive chips on their shoulders. They know that they are great, with or without the drugs. They know that they worked extremely hard for their success. They know that other, less famous or talented athletes have done the exact same thing. (For the record, in the case of Clemens, I'm speaking of an alleged use of steroids. It hasn't been proven.)

I’ve always thought that this fascinating mindset—the daily horror of living a lie coupled with the endless mechanism for self-justification and rationalization—would make an excellent subject for a film.

And then I realized I already...

For me, 2012 was the year of the BUT. (That’s one t, people. One t.)

I loved Zero Dark Thirty BUT was uncomfortable with its seemingly pro-torture politics.

I found Django Unchained to be audacious and bold entertainment BUT could’ve lived without the final bloodbath (and the profligate use of the “N-word.”)

Silver Linings Playbook was utterly charming BUT wished it had been a bit more rigorous in its depiction of mental illness.

The Impossible took hold of me and never let go, BUT I wished it hadn’t reduced the devastating tsunami of 2004 to one white family’s struggle for survival.

Argo was quite possibly the smartest film of the year, BUT the director (Ben Affleck) might've used a better lead (Ben Affleck).

Caveats aside, it was a great year at the movies. Here are my faves.

1. MOONRISE KINGDOM: Precocious 12 year olds in love and on the run from clueless, self-absorbed adults. On a simple level, Moonrise Kingdom is a classic love story about two perfectly matched young people waiting for the world to catch up. But it’s also, as all of Wes Anderson’s films are to...

Here’s why I shouldn’t be reviewing Les Misérables. Because I don’t like Les Misérables. There, I said it. Boom.

I don’t like the shameless melodrama, I don’t like the repetitive music, I don’t like the dopey second-half love story, I don’t like the absurdity of Javert’s obsession with Jean Valjean (at some point, Javert became a comic figure to me, a 19^th-century Where’s Waldo).

I’m not talking about Victor Hugo’s novel, which I’m sure is miraculous. (The Cliff Notes were miraculous for me back in high school, if you know what I mean.) I’m talking about the musical, which is only a few steps better than an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. And don’t get me started on Andrew Lloyd Webber.

But maybe you’re different. Maybe you’ve seen the show, which held the record for the longest running play on Broadway, numerous times. Maybe you own the soundtrack, plus a Les Miserab-mug, have the Playbill framed in gold on your bedroom wall.

If so, I suspect  you will love Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables. Because it’s the musical, writ large. It’s angstier! The love story is shmoopier! The French Revolution is revolutionary-er! (Ahem). The...

When I found out that Peter Jackson was planning on filming The Hobbit, the beloved prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it seemed out of order—the appetizer after the three-course entree.

But I was willing to play along. After all, the filmgoing public—and Jackson himself, obviously—has a great affinity for Tolkien’s characters and stories. Why not give us more?

That was before I found out that Jackson was planning on turning The Hobbit, a slim volume at best, into another film trilogy. What’s Elvish for “ripping people off”? (I’m just glad that Jackson didn’t have this extreme impulse toward gigantism 10 years ago, when he first started The Lord of the Rings trilogy—we’d probably be up to our 9th installment at this point.)

At the very least, you would expect that The Hobbit would be turned into three compact films. Wrong again! The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, clocks in at an orc-sized 166 minutes. Even Gandalf himself couldn’t get so much blood out of that stone.

For those who haven’t read the book, it focuses on Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), a modest Hobbit living a life of creature comforts and...