Like every successful and talented young actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt wants to direct. He recently completed his first effort, a short film called Sparks starring Carla Gugino, Eric Stoltz, and Xander Berkeley, which Gordon-Levitt also produced and adapted from an Elmore Leonard story. Then, he invited his members of his on-line community to improve on the poster art. For five years, Gordon-Leavitt has been tinkering with his own web site, hitRECORD.org, which, as Jason Guerrasio explains in Filmmaker magazine, is conceived as "a site where artists and filmmakers can go to post their work and then collaborate with a community of users who can contribute to the work by adding their own tweaks, or as Gordon-Levitt puts it, remixing."

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Ty Burr celebrates Anna Faris, "the very best thing in very bad movies." At a time when good actresses are plentiful and good parts for them seem to be scarcer than ever, Faris is hard-working yet remains cruelly underappreciated by critics, because it's been her fortune to have been kept busy by the makers of the some really tacky movies.

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As Paramount slowly dribbles out information on who will be involved in its megagabudgeted toy adaptation and why, we eagerly make note of each new announcment and work it into a complex mathematical formula that will help the Screengrab to scientifically determine whether it will merely stink, stink on ice, stink to high heaven, totally reek, or actually be just good enough to sneak in and catch five minutes of on the way to the snack bar.  (Your humble author is particularly interested as to the potential quality or lack thereof of G.I. Joe, since it is set to release on his 40th birthday, and he is anxious to learn whether going to see it will constitute a celebration or a punishment.)

So, based on what we know so far, how bad is it likely to be?

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Juno continues overwriting its way into America's heart — it made as much as I Am Legend this weekend, weirdly enough. To quote Variety, "I liked the movie, but it seemed to me Juno talked [less like a pregnant teenager, and] more like a 30-year-old ex-stripper trying to make a name for herself as a screenwriter." Hey, that's just how the Facebook generation talks, homeskillet!

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If I were more of cynic I would probably roll my eyes and brace myself for the inevitable op-ed pieces about how Americans don't want to see Iraq War movies that would follow the eventual failure of this film at the box office. But if I'm going to be honest, I've got pretty high hopes for this one. Maybe I'm just glad to see Kimberly Peirce making another film, as it's been a full nine years since Boys Don't Cry. Judging by the trailer, it appears she hasn't lost any of her feel for portraying flyover-country (now called "red state") life onscreen. In addition, Stop-Loss looks to be a more ground-level approach to the Iraq War, more a soldier's story than a grand statement, which is a welcome change from all the lofty rhetoric on either side of the issue. Gordon-Levitt aside, the cast isn't especially promising, but we didn't exactly think much of the girl from The Next Karate Kid either before Peirce got her hands on her, and look how well that turned out.