Jack Black, whose Kung Fu Panda opens this week, seemed to move awfully quickly from rising star to overexposed. His always-moving, rock 'n' roll persona seems to be everywhere, turning up in several movies a year, always pitched at the same high level. It's all too easy to concentrate on his most annoying performances, as lazy fast-talkers, or selfish schemers in films like Saving Silverman, Shallow Hal, Envy and The Holiday. But a closer look at his filmography shows more than a few samples of the Jack Black that we initially liked and elevated to stardom.

1. High Fidelity (2000)
This was the first time Black came onto my radar, although he had previously been in at least 30 other movies and TV shows. It's arguably the first time he tapped into the Jack Black persona for the length of an entire movie, and he was nicely fitted in the mix between cool, confused John Cusack and Todd Louiso (as the withdrawn music nerd). His was a supporting role, rather than a lead, which is the best place for a character actor of his caliber. Moreover, Black played a nerd with a wide-ranging knowledge of music, implying that he was at least using his brain for something (as opposed to many of his other films). As for his performance, he showed enough natural, unhinged exuberance (especially in his surprise rendition of "Let's Get It On") that, frankly, he deserved an Oscar nomination.

As my wife said, it's just not the Oscars if there's nothing to complain about. However, I was impressed that two of the year's toughest films, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (389 screens) and Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men took the most nominations. Typically, the Academy is attracted to much less challenging and easy-to-categorize films (like Atonement). Both films are fairly bleak in their vision, but I suspect There Will Be Blood will sneak out ahead for two reasons: it's an epic, and epics almost always win. And, to quote a character from Sunset Boulevard, it "says a little something" about the current sociopolitical climate.

One of the biggest controversies cropped up over the foreign film category, which came up with five nominations that no one has ever heard of. (The Counterfeiters opens sometime next month and Mongol opens in June.) Not to mention that they ignored top contenders like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (opening this week) and Persepolis (30 screens). Thankfully the outrage has begun discussions on changing the stupid, ancient rules for the category. Currently these rules require each country to submit one film, and multi-national films, such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (107 screens), to be disqualified. A small group of "specialists," rather than the Academy as a whole, votes on the small list of films. The documentary category was less obscure, and although I saw 19 documentaries in 2007, I only managed to see two of the five nominees, No End in Sight and Sicko. I have an Academy screener for Operation Homecoming that I hope to catch soon, and Taxi to the Dark Side (1 screen) is screening for Bay Area press next week.

Quick: Name the last live-action film starring Nicole Kidman that absolutely rocked the box office? Okay, that's a tough one, I know, so how about the last live-action Nicole Kidman film that was any good? Hmm, that's also pretty tough. Fine, how about you just name the last live-action film that starred Nicole Kidman. That's pretty easy. The Golden Compass. It debuted last month. Yes, it's pretty clear that Kidman's appearance in a film is not all that it used to be, and fans aren't exactly flocking to the theater just because a film includes her name in the credits. Straight off filming the latest Baz Luhrmann epic, Australia, comes word from the sometimes-reliable Page Six that Kidman has dropped out of her next flick, The Reader, which was due to begin filming this month.

The reason? Well, they claim it's because the gal is pregnant, and she doesn't want to take on any work that could potentially harm her unborn child. Of course, Kidman, nor her reps, have confirmed that she is pregnant, and so I wouldn't go and take this news as official word. Page Six describes The Reader as being about "a man who carries a longtime sexual obsession for an older woman who's later prosecuted for war crimes after it emerges she was a member of the SS and a guard at Auschwitz." The film is based on Bernhard Schlink's book, and it co-stars Ralph Fiennes and Bruno Gatz. A rep for The Weinstein Co. said the "status on The Reader has not changed," so who knows what the real truth is.

As Page Six points out, perhaps now is a good time for Kidman to take a much-needed break. Her last three films, The Invasion ($15 million), Margot at the Wedding ($1.8 million) and The Golden Compass ($59 million) didn't exactly break any box office records, and so some time away to nurse that bun in the oven might be the appropriate move.

Riding a wave of near-unanimous praise, Andrew Wagner's Starting Out in the Evening began its box office sojourn at the top, earning an estimated $11,610 per screen at seven theaters, according to Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Wagner previously made the fascinating dysfunctional family comedy drama The Talent Given Us, which starred his own family, but this time performances by non-family members Frank Langella and Lauren Ambrose have been roundly acclaimed. (Check out reviews by Cinematical's James Rocchi and Ryan Stewart.)

Todd Haynes' I'm Not There has received some ecstatic critical response, which translated into "encouraging but less than superlative response," in the words of Mr. Klady. By the numbers, the film made an estimated $5,310 per screen at 130 engagements, which actually sounds pretty good for an unconventional film that even the critics have had difficulty getting a handle on. (Read more: Cinematical reviews by James Rocchi and Jeffrey M. Anderson.)

The third new specialty release, Izuru Narushima's Midnight Eagle, barely opened, earning an estimated $1,630 per screen at two theaters. The action thriller also opened the Tokyo Film Festival but is probably most notable because it's the first time in memory that a Japanese film has opened day and date in Japan and the United States. Sadly, it was slaughtered by the few US critics who saw it, as recorded at Rotten Tomatoes.

Margot at the Wedding expanded from two to 35 theaters and continued to perform well, raking in $11,200 per screen, while No Country for Old Men jumped out into 860 theaters and made an estimated $9,000 per engagement. Mr. Klady pointed to three holdovers: Sean Penn's Into the Wild ($1,920 per screen), Alejandro Monteverde's Bella ($1,970 per screen) and Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ($3,190).

I'm thankful for a lot of things this year, my son being first and foremost, but I wouldn't get too far down the list without coming to movies and food, and then food in movies. Showing characters eating or relating to food in some way can be a quick and easy way to capture a magical moment. You can reveal something about a character, you can take a break from an otherwise hectic narrative, or you can simply bask in the sheer, physical beauty of food, the same way another movie might show characters dancing. The following is my second annual "thankful" list of food scenes in current movies playing on 400 screens or less.

I'm thankful for the use of the term "savory snacks" in Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (285 screens). When Jack (Jason Schwartzman) returns from having made love with the Indian stewardess (Amara Karan) in the train's bathroom, his brothers ask: "where's our savory snacks"? I'm thankful for the adorable Sarah Silverman and the way she sighed her way through the line "I want someone to eat cheese with" in I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (3 screens). And I'm thankful for Scarlett Johansson eating potato chips in bed in The Nanny Diaries (26 screens) -- her only way of dealing with the end of a horrible, horrible day.

Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding did smashing business at two theaters in Manhattan, earning a per-screen average of $39,800, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Was it the sparkling dialog, the witty performances, the star wattage of Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black? The critics were mixed: our own Ryan Stewart opined that the film was "torpedoed by its own self-indulgence." A. O. Scott of the New York Times was kinder ("frequently brilliant, finally baffling") and Lou Lumenick of the New York Post was not ("I've had root canals that were more enjoyable"). Check Metacritic for more critical coverage.

Opening in a single Manhattan theater, What Would Jesus Buy? performed quite nicely according to Box Office Mojo, making $11,600. Personally, I thought Rob VanAlkemade's documentary was timely and entertaining, although quite scatter-shot in its approach.

Opening in a single Los Angeles theater, Smiley Face earned an estimated $5,700 over the weekend, according to Mr. Klady. Distributor First Look has been criticized for changing their plans from a wider release last April; filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake comments: "It is sad to see a film that screened at 4 incredibly well known festivals [Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Toronto] being released in only 1 theater." Amen! Both Jette Kernion and Monika Bartyzel reacted positively to Gregg Araki's stoner comedy starring Anna Faris; the movie hits DVD in January.

Redacted ($1,760 per screen; 13 theaters) and Southland Tales ($1,780 per screen; 63 theaters) appeared to fall victim to bad buzz. Everyone kept saying that no one would want to go see Brian DePalma's Iraq War project and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Critical response was lukewarm overall, though a number championed it, according to Rotten Tomatoes. (Ryan Stewart felt it "doesn't ever truly gel.") The same site estimated that only 34% of the Southland Tales reviews were positive; its champions are fewer but no less appreciative -- but not Nick Schager, who called it "monumentally vapid."

The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men expanded into 148 theaters and soared into the overall Top 10, scoring a scorching per-theater average of $20,540.

Writer-director Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding, his follow-up to his Oscar-nominated The Squid and the Whale, portrays the friendship -- and friction -- between sisters Margot (Nicole Kidman) and Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Pauline, mother to Ingrid (Flora Cross), is marrying her boyfriend Malcolm (Jack Black) -- and Margot comes to lend her support for the big day, bringing her son Claude (Zane Pais) along. But the sisters aren't really the best friends they claim to be, and the Pauline's coastal home soon seethes with judgments and resentments and secrets. And yet, according to Leigh, the tension on-screen wasn't on-set: "It was a pretty happy set, actually -- and also the scenes are exciting; it was exciting to have scenes with this much going on them. So you never went home bummed out; they were exciting and really good scenes, and the tension was alive. ..." Of course, Leigh also had the fairly unique experience of working with her husband as her writer-director. ... Leigh spoke with Cinematical in San Francisco about working with the people you love, what happened when the cameras were off, which of her movies she doesn't flip past when they come up as she channel-surfs and the sort of movie she considers a "crowd pleaser."

Cinematical: To start with a fairly obvious question, is it easier or harder when at the end of the day's shooting, you're going home with the director? Does that make your job as an actor easier, or more difficult?

Jennifer Jason Leigh: A lot easier -- because of our relationship, too, but it was a lot easier. Because not only can you talk about the day, but you can talk about the next days to come, and what you want from the scenes and what you're striving for -- and also you have the person you love most with you through it all, so you get to have this great creative collaboration doing something you love together and be together. For me, it made it easier. Also, if there was a scene I wanted a little extra rehearsal on, I could get it at home.

Cinematical: You had unlimited access to the writer.

JJL: Writer, director, yeah. "Could we work on that scene. Could I rehearse with you?"

Cinematical: What was it like working in these very intimate dramatic scenes with Jack Black -- who people don't automatically think of as an actor, who people think of more as a presence, or a comic actor. Did you do a lot of preparation, or did he just show up bringing his "A" game?

JJL: We did rehearse; we all rehearsed. Jack was Noah's first choice, and Jack's someone I've always wanted to work with, and I've known Jack a really long time, so I knew he could be great. I just think he's a wonderful actor, so ... he would always joke about having his "A" game on, and all that, but ... he's just so good. There was never a doubt in my mind. And I knew we'd have good chemistry, because we're friends, and I just enjoy him anyway. It's always nice to work with people you know and like, just because you already have that history - and it shows, in a way, and you can feel it on the screen a lot of the time, I think. He's a wonderful actor; everything you would hope he'd be, he is. He's warm, he's available; he's funny, he's smart as hell ... he's lovely.

Over at Paramount Vantage, they've posted on a public site the scripts for their potential Oscar-contenders: A Mighty Heart, Into the Wild, The Kite Runner, and Margot at the Wedding. And as Ray Pride over at Movie City Indie very kindly points out to the rest of us, you can also get to the script for There Will Be Blood (goody goody goody!) by getting a little tricksy and just following the URL format of the other films.

I don't like to read scripts for movies I haven't seen, generally, but once I've seen a film (particularly if I like it), I do love to go back and read the script; it's endlessly fascinating to me to see how a film starts out as the bare bones of a script, and then how that script gets fleshed out and translated to the screen, to see where the screenwriter's vision ends and the director's begins (when they're two separate people at least -- presumably if it's the same person, the vision doesn't change as much). Then again, I'm a total film dork, and I get fascinated by all kinds of things about film that a lot of people would probably find strange or boring.

Anyhow, I've been reading the scripts for Into the Wild and There Will be Blood... it's always rather interesting to read the script and match it up in my head against the film, and see where things changed from the vision of the script. Do you like to read scripts, either before or after seeing the film?

It isn't uncommon for a guy to get a girl who's out of his league. It certainly happens in the movies and on television all the time. But it does happen sometimes in real life, and often the guy ends up feeling like he's never good enough. And then he sabotages the relationship somehow because of his insecurity. And then the idiot is back to dating women who aren't the woman of his dreams, always regretting screwing up that perfect thing he could have had. We've all seen it happen, right? Well, if you haven't, you can also see the scenario happen in the movies. Just recently I saw Run Fatboy Run, in which Simon Pegg plays a guy who leaves Thandie Newton (totally out of his league, right?) at the altar -- pregnant. And certainly this year's hit comedy Knocked Up was about a situation of a mis-matched couple. Oh, and the upcoming Margot at the Wedding has the same thing going on between Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh. See, it happens all the time.

Now, according to Variety, there's another such movie coming (which we previously heard about and then saw on the pre-strike priority list). Titled literally She's Out of My League, this one is about a guy who finds himself dating an "extraordinarily beautiful woman" (why does it have to be about looks? certainly she could be out of his league in terms of brains or humor or other personality traits -- in Margot, Leigh is out of Black's league in multiple ways). Because he is insecure about her attraction to him, and because his friends and family are suspicious of beauty's motives, he comes close to sabotaging the relationship (unless he's about to leave her at the alter, with child, then this movie's got nothing on Fatboy). The movie will be directed by British sketch comedian Jim Field Smith and will star Jay Baruchel, best known from TV's Undeclared and, interestingly enough, Knocked Up. Originally scripted as a spec by Sean Anders and John Morris, the movie is currently in re-writes care of Tim Dowling (George Lucas in Love). It goes into production early next year, but if you can't wait to learn the secrets about how to score and keep a girl out of your league, I've got some tips: if it's good enough for Ric Ocasek, Rod Stewart and Billy Joel, it's good enough for you. And: girls love a funny guy, so if she's laughing, she probably doesn't care that you're not a hottie.

Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale, a semi-autobiographical film about a Brooklyn family's experience with divorce, was the sleeper indie hit of 2005, and after its success Baumbach shot to prominence as a director to watch. His highly anticipated follow-up effort, Margot at the Wedding, returns to similar themes of family love and loathing; it stars Nicole Kidman as Margot, a high-strung writer who, along with her son Claude (Zane Pais), goes on a pilgrimage of sorts to her childhood home, where her estranged sister (Baumbach's wife Jennifer Jason Leigh) is marrying an unemployed painter (Jack Black) she just met. Baumbach -- who, it must be noted, bears an uncanny resemblance to Adrien Brody -- sat down with us in Toronto to talk about New York, family dynamics and just what's up with all those masturbation scenes.

Cinematical: After Squid and the Whale, a lot of people looked at you as a Brooklyn artist, the way they might look at someone like Jonathan Lethem. Did you have any temptation to make another movie set in Brooklyn, or did you deliberately move away from that?

Noah Baumbach: It wasn't deliberate or not deliberate -- I started writing this movie and it became what it was. It wasn't a response to anything in particular. I feel a real connection to Brooklyn, certainly, because I spent 20 years of my life there, but I don't think of myself as a Brooklyn artist any more than I think of myself as a male artist. I will say that when people would respond to Squid with a kind of Brooklyn-centric reaction I was pleased with that, because obviously Brooklyn means a lot to me.