From fire-breathing A-types (Jarhead, Miami Vice, The Kingdom) to eccentric geniuses (Ray, which netted him a Best Actor Oscar), Jamie Foxx has an affinity for portraying guys on the brink. The 40-year-old actor is ready to do it again with The Soloist, as a musical prodigy who winds up schizophrenic, homeless, and busking on L.A. street 
 corners until he's befriended by a soul-scarred journalist (Robert Downey Jr.). Director Joe Wright (Atonement) took a social-realist approach to this true story, populating the cast with actual homeless and mentally ill people, who provided a reality check for the stars. "When you're acting with someone suffering from schizophrenia, you've got to 
 be true," says Wright. Straddling the line between madness and sanity drove Foxx into some dark places. "I couldn't sleep at night," the actor says. 4/24

Our nominee for Most Self-Explanatory Title of the spring. This punchy pic follows a luckless guy (Channing Tatum) who gets a ticket out of hardknocks NYC when a scam artist (Terrence Howard) offers him a career as a bare-knuckle brawler in an underground circuit. And then...he fights. A lot.