Shattered Glass

Hayden Christensen is phenomenal as Stephen Glass, a young reporter who used charm and guilt to get many fake articles into The New Republic in the late ’90s. While Christensen has been a bit overwrought in the past (too much emoting in Life as a House, pretty bad as Anakin Skywalker) he’s perfection here, so good and persuasive that you might find yourself believing his lies, even though history has already proven his character a liar. He’s not alone in the powerful department, because Peter Sarsgaard is tremendous as Chuck Lane, the editor who discovered Glass’ journalistic crimes. This film is one of the best pictures about the newspaper business since All the President’s Men, with Christensen and Sarsgaard as powerful as Hoffman and Redford.