Going all the way back to Homer's Odyssey, some of our finest stories take place on voyages or quests of some kind, where our hero (or heroine) not only experiences new sights and adventures, but also some transformation in thinking, circumstance, or attitude as a result. The road movie is the cinematic equivalent.

Actor Seymour Cassel is on the phone and, when asked what he's been doing, says, "Well, I'm looking for work."

It was hot and dusty in the high desert of Taos. The scraggly cemetery looked like the set of a spaghetti western. Mourners included biker dudes, Val Kilmer in a Stetson, and Jack Nicholson in moccasins. It was June 2010. Dennis Hopper was about to be buried.

Back in the day, the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was all the rage. Paperbacks of A Coney Island of the Mind could be seen stuffed in jean pockets on college campuses. Now 93, he is the subject of a valuable biopic by photographer and filmmaker Chris Felver

Lesson learned: if you refer to a plot point in a Quentin Tarantino movie as "harebrained," Quentin Tarantino just might want to speak to you about yo...

From his lonely childhood in Kansas to his drug-fueled days and nights in Hollywood, Dennis Hopper's amazing life was a roller-coaster series of triumphs and failures.

It does not seem quite possible that Jack Nicholson could be turning 75 today. He seems ageless, particularly when you revisit his best films. And that's just what we should all do to mark the occasion.

Duvall can look back with pride on a rich and colorful life, and his contributions to film should never be underestimated, as the following ten titles demonstrate.

Recently, the yearly reading of "Howl" at Columbia University attracted crowds to the Philosophy Hall. An irony was not missed: in his days, Allen represented rebellious youth. Now, he is the poet of our time.

Happy New Year, darlings. All of you reading this piece have something in common: you survived 2010. Not everyone was so lucky, and a lot of people, as always, took the off-ramp from Life.