On Wednesday night Tim Burton gave the Film Society of Lincoln Center a 17-minute taste of Sweeney Todd, his film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s macabre musical. The 1979 Broadway hit was inspired by Victorian folklore about a crazed London barber who slits his customers’ throats and, in some versions of the story, colludes with his lover to bake the corpses into meat pies – which become wildly successful! (Ah, the culinary possibilities before rogue... more ›

, Jake Kasdan's movie about the Los Angeles pilot season also currently in theaters. That character, Lenny, also puts people off with her blunt, anti-social straight talk, though she's a highly paid businesswoman so it's slightly more acceptable behavior than autistic Linda's. Thanks to Weaver, both of these provocative women are worth a watch. It may have been a few years since Weaver's string of Oscar nominations, but with these intriguing performances in small independent movies, she's definitely back on the radar. more ›