As young crowds drift away from cinemas, producers are targeting the 'Back To The Future' generation

Jon Favreau's enjoyable first installment benefited enormously from a wisecracking, ad- libbing, force-of-nature performance from Robert Downey Jnr as Tony Stark, the playboy billionaire also known as superhero Iron Man.

Robert Boyle was an Oscar-winning art director whose early architectural training was instrumental in his success.

Was Jeff "The Dude" Bridges owed an Oscar? Absolutely. For many exquisite performances, from Starman to The Big Lebowski to Fearless.

Crazy Heart is somewhere between a hardluck and a good-luck story. Jeff Bridges may be a chain-smoking, bourbon-soaked country music has-been, reduced to playing shows in bowling alleys.

Jon Ronson's book about the Pentagon's secret experiments in psychic combat has been turned into a film in the most unsatisfying possible manner.

Jon Ronson's droll and troubling exposé of the US military's bizarre practices – which included forming an experimental unit that employed paranormal techniques (such as killing goats by just staring at them) to train a legion of "Jedi warriors" – has been adapted into this weak satire.

In the end, like a well-made film, it all went according to the script: a David versus Goliath battle saw the little guy triumph, Kathryn Bigelow scored a historic first for female film-makers, and The Hurt Locker walked away with six awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, at the 82nd Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

"Precious," the harrowing tale of an incest survivor's struggle for self-acceptance, swept the Spirit Awards yesterday, taking home five prizes at the independent film world's version of the Oscars.

The Texan musician and producer has dug out the best of Americana for a string of acclaimed movies. Now he's tipped for a Bafta – and an Oscar – for his most recent soundtrack

In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges's character is clearly prey to the same kind of demons that afflicted Cash at times during his career.

Tender with a twang of regret

That Crazy Heart was made at all is a miracle. And now its star, Jeff Bridges, is hotly tipped to win the Best Actor Oscar. Guy Adams reports on how it happened

She used to be the girl next door. Now she's a woman with the gravitas to rival Meryl Streep, says Geoffrey Macnab