The Dark Knight

was amazing. I found it riveting, easily the best movie based on a comic book that I can recall, but more importantly, simply a very good film. It tackled real issues, the actors generally delivered, and the script was excellent way more often than it was overwrought. (Most movie scripts, and definitely most comic-book-movie scripts, tend to rarely rise above good and to sink to overwrought and worse far more often.)

Heath Ledger's performance was also all that I had read it was. It's easily the best job I've seen from an actor so far this year. He was over the top--he had to be--but he sold it, and over and over again he delivered on the true craziness in the Joker character. If I were an Oscar voter, I'd be writing his name on my ballot now. I found him both mesmerizing and scary, to the point that I felt sorry for the young kids in the audience. (I suggest you think twice before you take a really young child to this one.)

If you haven't seen The Dark Knight, go as soon as you can. It's a wonderful work.