In Cowboys and Aliens, the enemies are horror fantasy monsters with a nod to James Cameron's classic creations down to their gooey mitts. In The Whistleblower, they can be government officials, policemen, friends and relations, evil in human form. 

Based on the real life story of Nebraska cop Kathy Bolkovac, who gets a job with an international peacekeeping force in post-war Bosnia, the new movie is a thriller in which some members of the U.N. and U.S. State Department collude with contractors in the lucrative trade of human trafficking. Just doing her job, Bolkovac played by Rachel Weisz in the film, simply can't stop the violence against women committed by the men who are there to keep them safe. 

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Mamma Mia's pretty boy, Dominic Cooper, turns ugly-twice– portraying the evil Uday Hussein, Saddam's sadistic psychopath son, as well as Latif Yahia, the Iraqi army lieutenant tortured into service as his body double. In sharp Armani suits, Cooper maintains a brutal edge for Iday, an enraged wounded soul for Latif. This accomplished performance, the first Oscar worthy Best Actor of the year, begs the question, can an Academy Award go to a portrait of a despicable character? Yes, Forest Whitaker won for his deft portrayal of Idi Amin. 

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Guild Hall's John Drew Theater was packed on Friday night for the second film in the documentary series HIFF Summerdocs: Page One: Inside the New York Times. This fine glimpse at newspapers in the digital age so fits the Zeitgeist with the huge to do about ethics in journalism generated by the British tabloid scandal, that the film's main character, David Carr has become a television pundit facing off on Charlie Rose and other shows since the time of this documentary's June premiere at Lincoln Center. At a pre-screening reception at the Maidstone, Carr said the medium of television is not natural for him. “I'm just surviving.”

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Summer may be a time to chill, but when it comes to movies, some like it hot. The romantic comedy, Friends With Benefits, may sound smart and snappy with sex that sizzles, but in the end, the message is old fashioned: never let her go. 

Do I hear Ezio Pinza crooning in the background? Well no. Friends With Benefits has a booming soundtrack that had me begging for silence. But it also winks at the classics like It Happened One Night. Are Justin Timberlake (as Dylan, an online art director) and Mila Kunis (as Jamie, a head hunter, no pun intended) this generation's Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert? 

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Just before she became all the rage on the news, backing her husband Rupert in hearings about the British tabloid scandal, famously diverting the path of a cream pie, Wendi Murdoch was interviewed in Southampton on Saturday at a private screening of a movie she co-produced with Florence Sloan, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. 

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Morgan Freeman, the actor who portrayed Nelson Mandela in the movie Invictus, defined heroism at a luncheon of luminaries in television, theater, journalism, and film at the Four Seasons on Monday, July 18. The occasion: the 93rd birthday of Nelson Mandela, perhaps the most heroic man of our time for his 67 years of public service, his insistence on justice, equality, and dignity, his work to end apartheid, freeing both blacks –and thereby whites in South Africa. And what gift did “Madiba” want most for this celebration? 

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Opening this week, Life, Above All, a film set in a small South African township, was the closing night feature of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Lincoln Center in June. Beautifully shot and wonderfully acted particularly by two young girls who had only the experience of singing in the school choir before being tapped for this project, the film offers a rare glimpse into a community ravaged not only by HIV/AIDS but prejudices that prevent addressing the problem. 

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Jewish mothers became the secret stars of the evening as Harvey Weinstein introduced a private screening of Sarah's Key at MoMA on Monday: the evening's host Diane von Furstenberg is such a mother as is his own, Miriam, who was in the audience, happy, he said, that this new film was not controversial in the manner of a recent Weinstein release, Julian Schnabel's Miral. Indeed, Sarah's Key, based upon the wildly popular novel by Tatiana de Rosnay and already a hit in Europe will not have B'nai Brith asking, Is it good for the Jews? 

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You'd be wise not to accept a glass of red wine from Warwick Wilson, the character played by David Hyde Pierce in his new movie, The Perfect Host. That epithet aside, let's just say his cooking skills may be impeccable, but his intentions are more than intoxicating. 

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Pawn to king 4. Last Tuesday, Bryant Park was a chess fest. Young and old, seasoned and novice players sat head in hands contemplating plastic pieces on the checkered mats. You could hear a pawn drop. Some, like Jay Bonin and Asa Hoffman, were guys I knew back in the day when I was dating my husband Bob Salpeter, a player who would haunt the clubs like the Marshall, a sponsor of this event. For me, a chess widow, this event was a reminder: in the game of chess, the queen has all the power, but the king is the prize.

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He always shows up, said director Bill Haney, explaining why he bestowed a bald eagle crafted out of recycled moose antler by Iroquois Indian Stan Hill to Robert Kennedy, Jr. “He walks with kings and still has the common touch,” Haney went on praising Kennedy's commitment to the men and women in Appalachia threatened by the raping of coal from the mountains that secure their communities. Kennedy is also a star of Haney's new documentary, The Last Mountain.

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