Overview: Director David Cronenberg adapts author Don DeLillo's novel about a Manhattan billionaire (Robert Pattinson) who finds his quest to get a haircut from his father's old barber complicated by the presidential motorcade, a gang of violent anarchists, and a funeral procession for a famous hip-hop star.

Verdict: Robert Pattinson is so good in the role of Eric Packer it almost makes my teeth hurt. There is no hint of any other character he ever played, no repetitive mannerism and nothing identifiable from any of his public appearances. Paul Giamatti's Benno is sad and scary-memorable.

The film itself is genius, Cronenbergian but amzingly restrained. Many of the lines are lough-out-loud funny, in a warped kind of way. I especially loved the riff on rats as money.