The late, lamented Fametracker.com used to have a column called "Hey! It's That Guy!" which was tailor-made for Chiwetel Ejiofor. Though he has yet to become a household name, his performances have made a lasting impression on anyone who has seen them. He first appeared onscreen as a quiet translator in Steven Spielberg's Amistad, but it wasn't until Dirty Pretty Things five years later that the world stood up and took notice. His introspective, achingly sympathetic portrayal of an immigrant concierge who stumbles into a criminal conspiracy won the actor universal acclaim and a place atop Hollywood's go-to list. He has since worked with the likes of Spike Lee, Ridley Scott, Woody Allen, Alfonso Cuarón, and now David Mamet, who cast him as the lead in his newest film Redbelt.

flipside's article | published 05.10.2008

Chuck a stone at the Milwaukee International Film Festival, and you're likely to hit a documentary, probably one about the Bush Administration or slaughterhouses or a musician -- or in the case of Air Guitar Nation, bogus musicians. Nonfiction films have always been a staple at Milwaukee, which concluded its fifth edition in September and saw record crowds queue up for popular docs like Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten. To these eyes, Julien Temple's conventional biography of the founder of The Clash relies on too many wooly testimonials by old pals, but the screening still provided one of my lasting memories of this year's festival.

flipside's article | published 04.31.2008

It was a very good year for American movies, and no movie was more American in its vision than P.T. Anderson's swaggering horror show about oil, religion, and madness in the early 20th-century West. At its center is Daniel Plainview, a tall, gangly, beady-eyed prospector who emerges from a dark fissure in the earth -- a mineshaft that doubles, perhaps, as perdition -- to begin a single-minded, unholy quest to rule California's lakes of black gold. Although Plainview's hard work embodies the American notion of the self-made man, his towering oil derricks become menacing, phallic symbols of his ego, and when he looks upon them it is with a kind of prideful, scorching lust that he would never confer upon a woman.

flipside's article | published 02.25.2008

The word "legend" gets bandied around a lot in Hollywood, but in George A. Romero's case, the moniker is fitting. Starting with 1968's Night of the Living Dead, he has helmed a series of zombie pictures that helped define the genre and now stand as some of the indisputable masterpieces of horror. His other notable films include Knightriders, Monkey Shines, Martin, and a pair of collaborations with his friend Stephen King, Creepshow and The Dark Half. The fifth entry in his zombie franchise, Diary of the Dead, opened this weekend; he recently sat down to discuss it with the press.

flipside's article | published 02.17.2008

It's easy to laugh at Sylvester Stallone -- I've been guilty of more than my share of it over the years. And yet he has been making movies for three decades in an industry where careers are measured in weeks. And if resurrecting his moribund Rambo franchise at age 61 might invite snorts of derision, the fact that he could do it at all is a testament to his durability, savvy, and show-business skills. He's proven demonstrably critic-proof over his career, and with little competition beyond Cloverfield at the box office this January, the last laugh may once again be his. His smiling, congenial manner belies the monosyllabic automatons that made him his fortune, while his erudition speaks to a thoughtful and canny mind behind all that '80s muscle.

flipside's article | published 02.02.2008

John Sayles remains one of the true originals in American cinema. Though he sometimes works as a screenwriter on mainstream Hollywood projects, he is best known for his daring, unique, and deeply personal films like City of Hope, Eight Men Out, Brother from Another Planet, and Lone Star. He and his longtime producer Maggie Renzi sat down with the press shortly before Christmas to discuss their latest project, Honeydripper, as well as their thoughts on independent filmmaking in general.

flipside's article | published 02.01.2008

In the nearly 30 years he's been acting in films, Danny Glover has seen every high or low you can possibly imagine. Starting with a bit part in the 1979 Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz, he's appeared in personal dramas, romances, westerns, horror films, period pieces, action movies, and everything in between. His most famous role is still Roger Murtaugh, Mel Gibson's straight-laced partner in the Lethal Weapon films. But everyone has their own movie -- from Saw to The Color Purple -- for which they remember him best. His latest project has produced one of the strongest roles in his career: a bar owner trying to hold onto his life's work in John Sayles' Honeydripper.

flipside's article | published 01.31.2008

Shy, reserved wallflower Diablo Cody famously worked as a professional stripper, blogger, and raconteur before her screenplay for Juno shot her into the upper crust of Hollywood elite. Juno's director, Jason Reitman, comes from a much different background: son of the famous comedy director Ivan Reitman, he seems to have inherited his father's touch for moviemaking, both with this film and his previous effort, Thank You for Smoking.

flipside's article | published 01.27.2008

One of the pleasures of writing film reviews is catching on to performers like Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons -- consummate pros who make even the worst films better by their very presence. Janney is best recognized for her role as C.J. Cregg, the president's press secretary on the long-running drama The West Wing. She has portrayed similar tart-mouthed characters in films and television for over a decade. Simmons also broke out through television, as the terrifying neo-Nazi Vern Schillinger in the HBO prison drama Oz. Subsequent series include recurring roles on Law & Order and The Closer, but film fans know him best as J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker's perennially grumpy boss in the Spider-Man films. The two play the perplexed parents of Juno MacGuff in the new film Juno, whose lives take a turn for the surreal when their daughter announces that she's pregnant.

flipside's article | published 01.27.2008

Some of us grizzled old coots still think of Jason Bateman as Ricky Schroeder's snotty friend Derek on Silver Spoons. He's worked steadily -- if not always prominently -- since then, gathering a large array of television series that never quite found the traction to break out. That was until he landed the role of Michael Bluth, the lone voice of sanity in the cult series Arrested Development. Though it lasted only two-and-a-half seasons, the accolades it earned -- helped in no small part to Bateman's spot-on comedic timing -- established it as a modern classic. A string of high-profile movie roles soon followed, topped by this winter's Juno, where he plays the feckless adoptive father of the titular teen's incoming baby.

flipside's article | published 01.27.2008