Michael Sheen

These days, Michael Sheen seems likely to turn up anywhere — and everywhere. The actor who gained attention and acclaim with a string of roles drawn from real-life characters in films such as "The Queen," "Frost/Nixon" and "The Damned United" also has demonstrated a fondness for turning more commercial films on their heads — delivering joyously odd performances in vampire franchises such as "Underworld" and "Twilight" and sci-fi outings such...

These days, Michael Sheen seems likely to turn up anywhere — and everywhere. The actor who gained attention and acclaim with a string of roles drawn from real-life characters in films such as "The Queen," "Frost/Nixon" and "The Damned United" also has demonstrated a fondness for turning more commercial films on their heads — delivering joyously odd performances in vampire franchises such as "Underworld" and "Twilight" and sci-fi outings such...

It's a crisp May morning on the set of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," and Michael Sheen strides into an elaborate reconstruction of an Italianate marble hall in costume as Aro, the head of the Volturi, a menacing group of age-old vampires that metes out justice in the realm of the supernatural. Dressed in a cloak, he's sporting long, black locks, bright red lips and matching tinted contact lenses that give him a distinctly malevolent look. When a reporter asks if it's uncomfortable to look through the eyes of a monster, he suggests, quite politely and quite to the contrary: "No, I think it's more uncomfortable for you."

Bracing for terrible news about their only child, the couple at the center of "Beautiful Boy" must endure an even worse truth: Not only has he died in a school shooting, but he was the shooter. The focus of this well-observed, low-key drama isn't teen despair or media spectacle but the emotional fallout for the boy's parents, played with uncompromising intensity by Maria Bello and Michael Sheen. First-time feature director Shawn Ku avoids therapeutic bromides about closure as he ventures into an unmapped zone of grief.

Michael Sheen reprises his role as Tony Blair in "The Special Relationship," about then- President Bill Clinton's relationship with the then British prime minister. HBO's new film concludes the Blair trilogy, written by Peter Morgan, which began with the 2003 drama "The Deal," exploring Blair's early years in politics with his friend and rival, Gordon Brown, and continued with 2006's "The Queen," which scored an Oscar for Helen Mirren in the title role. You've had a longstanding relationship with Peter Morgan.

Michael Sheen, who played talk show host David Frost both on stage and now in the upcoming screen version of "Frost/Nixon," knows that the transition can be scary. "The great joy and fear about working in front of a camera is that it picks up everything," said Sheen. He rejoined his stage costar Frank Langella for director Ron Howard's adaptation of Peter Morgan's acclaimed play about the 1977 interviews that revived Frost's career and humanized a disgraced Nixon. The film opens Friday.

Bracing for terrible news about their only child, the couple at the center of "Beautiful Boy" must endure an even worse truth: Not only has he died in a school shooting, but he was the shooter. The focus of this well-observed, low-key drama isn't teen despair or media spectacle but the emotional fallout for the boy's parents, played with uncompromising intensity by Maria Bello and Michael Sheen. First-time feature director Shawn Ku avoids therapeutic bromides about closure as he ventures into an unmapped zone of grief.

Don't panic, don't touch that dial, but for the second week in a row (after the fine LeBron James documentary "More Than a Game") I'm pounding the drum for a sports film. But as written by the always entertaining Peter Morgan, responsible for "The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon," "The Damned United" is considerably more than a sports film. Starring the top-flight quartet of Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney and Jim Broadbent, this is a motion picture about ambition, betrayal and moral blindness, the tale of a complicated, driven, gifted man (who happens to be a professional soccer coach)

The acting contests are packed with drama as award newbies (Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe, Jeremy Renner) square off against overdue A-listers (Sandra Bullock, Matt Damon) and veterans (Jeff Bridges, Christopher Plummer). There is also a lot of movie-like suspense because there are many front-runners but no clear favorites. -- LEAD ACTOR Front-runners Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart" Nicolas Cage, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" George Clooney, "Up in the Air" Matt Damon, "The Informant!"

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write again: Woody Allen has made a wonderful new picture, "Midnight in Paris," and it's his best, most enjoyable work in years. If you're surprised to be reading that, think how I feel writing it. I've been a tough sell on the past dozen or so Allen films, very much including the well-acted but finally wearying "Vicky Cristina Barcelona. " It seemed that everything he touched in recent years was tainted by misanthropy and sourness. Until now. With "Midnight in Paris," Allen has lightened up, allowed himself a treat and in the process created a gift for us and him. His new film is simple and fable-like, with a definite "when you wish upon a star" quality, but, bolstered by appealing performers like Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard and Rachel McAdams, it is his warmest, mellowest and funniest venture in far too long.

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write again: Woody Allen has made a wonderful new picture, "Midnight in Paris," and it's his best, most enjoyable work in years. If you're surprised to be reading that, think how I feel writing it. I've been a tough sell on the past dozen or so Allen films, very much including the well-acted but finally wearying "Vicky Cristina Barcelona. " It seemed that everything he touched in recent years was tainted by misanthropy and sourness. Until now. With "Midnight in Paris," Allen has lightened up, allowed himself a treat and in the process created a gift for us and him. His new film is simple and fable-like, with a definite "when you wish upon a star" quality, but, bolstered by appealing performers like Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard and Rachel McAdams, it is his warmest, mellowest and funniest venture in far too long.

The Mods & Rockers Film Festival returns to the American Cinematheque's Egyptian and Aero theaters for its 12th annual outing, this year celebrating the work of Oscar-winning documentarian Murray Lerner ("From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China"). Opening the four-day retrospective Thursday evening at the Egyptian is a 40th anniversary salute to the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, the largest rock fest of that era and site of the last major performances by Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

Michael Sheen reprises his role as Tony Blair in "The Special Relationship," about then- President Bill Clinton's relationship with the then British prime minister. HBO's new film concludes the Blair trilogy, written by Peter Morgan, which began with the 2003 drama "The Deal," exploring Blair's early years in politics with his friend and rival, Gordon Brown, and continued with 2006's "The Queen," which scored an Oscar for Helen Mirren in the title role. You've had a longstanding relationship with Peter Morgan.

At a pivotal time when fallen communist regimes were giving way to fledgling democracies, when European nations were emerging as a collective superpower, U.S. President Bill Clinton invited a rising political star to the White House. Tony Blair, soon to become prime minister of England, was a like-minded, charismatic statesman eager to help shape a new world. He and Clinton would forge one of the dynamic alliances of the 20th century. Following Blair's victory in 1997, the two men resolved to advance their liberal, progressive agenda across the international stage, a goal of Clinton's now remembered as much for what might have been—and for the Monica Lewinsky scandal that ruined it — as for what was actually accomplished, as HBO's new film, "The Special Relationship," makes clear.

The acting contests are packed with drama as award newbies (Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe, Jeremy Renner) square off against overdue A-listers (Sandra Bullock, Matt Damon) and veterans (Jeff Bridges, Christopher Plummer). There is also a lot of movie-like suspense because there are many front-runners but no clear favorites. -- LEAD ACTOR Front-runners Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart" Nicolas Cage, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" George Clooney, "Up in the Air" Matt Damon, "The Informant!"

It's a crisp May morning on the set of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," and Michael Sheen strides into an elaborate reconstruction of an Italianate marble hall in costume as Aro, the head of the Volturi, a menacing group of age-old vampires that metes out justice in the realm of the supernatural. Dressed in a cloak, he's sporting long, black locks, bright red lips and matching tinted contact lenses that give him a distinctly malevolent look. When a reporter asks if it's uncomfortable to look through the eyes of a monster, he suggests, quite politely and quite to the contrary: "No, I think it's more uncomfortable for you."

THERE'S no membership card, but there is a statue. There's no clubhouse, but there is an annual meeting at the Kodak Theatre. Welcome to the Oscar Club. It's no secret that Oscar voters seem to favor certain performers over others, nominating people such as Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Jack Nicholson time and again. But all that may be changing given the broadband speed with which Oscar odds now rise and fall.

Don't panic, don't touch that dial, but for the second week in a row (after the fine LeBron James documentary "More Than a Game") I'm pounding the drum for a sports film. But as written by the always entertaining Peter Morgan, responsible for "The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon," "The Damned United" is considerably more than a sports film. Starring the top-flight quartet of Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney and Jim Broadbent, this is a motion picture about ambition, betrayal and moral blindness, the tale of a complicated, driven, gifted man (who happens to be a professional soccer coach)