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In theaters Friday: Lucky You, Spider-Man 3 New on DVD: Dream Girls, Little Children Celebrity birthday: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson turns 35 today. Happy birthday, Dwayne. I’m happy to report that we here at the Filter have successfully been able to smell what you’re cookin’ for 10 years now. Why we’re not anxiously awaiting The Scorpion King 4 right now, I’ll never know.

I rented The Last King of ScotlandMonday and was blown away. The story, of course, begins in Scotland where young Dr. Nicholas Garrigan has just graduated and is ready to step out from under his parents’ roof. The grey/green cinematography here is astounding and contrasts well with the warm, rich palette of the rest of the film. Garrigan moves to Uganda to work among the poor villages with a small medical staff. But before he can really delve deep into charity work he meets Uganda’s new militant leader Idi Amin, and surprisingly wins the man’s favor. Amin soon convinces the young doctor to be his personal physician. Garrigan resists the cozy post at first, but ultimately can’t say no to the charismatic Amin. Soon he is living in a nice home with a convertible and having a blast becoming a trusted advisor and confidant to the wealthy dictator. But the closer he gets to Amin, the more he realizes the true and brutal character of the new Ugandan regime. And it’s too late to resign as Amin’s doctor. He knows too much. He has to escape.

Forrest Whitaker deserves the Oscar he won for this role as Amin. His portrayal is seductive, passionate, and all-consuming. Whitaker’s performance is, much like the real Amin, positively bipolar. One minute he is warm and charming. The next his is downright frightening. No less brilliant though is James McAvoy as Garrigan. He truly fleshes out a well-rounded and flawed character when he could have chosen to be bland, a blank slate that simply reacts to all the chaos around him. “You’re a child,” Garrigan says with conviction to Amin. “And that’s what makes you so scary.” I should have listed Garrigan in my future star actors list last week. In summary, I can’t recommend The Last King of Scotland more. It’s a wonderful piece of work. Read more about the real Idi Amin here.

Robot Chicken does Star Wars, for real. I’ve been a fan of Seth Green’s for a while. Not only does he perform the voice of the criminally juvenile son Chris on Family Guy, he was a bright spot in The Italian Job remake as well (“I got the Holy Spirit... get on it... it's a good train!”). I used to see him biking around USC, and he always used the proper hand signals when making a turn in traffic. He’s also been writing and directing hilarious stop motion short films like this wicked satire of Calvin & Hobbes on Cartoon Network under the title Robot Chicken. The brilliance of that work has finally paid off. Star Wars creator George Lucas liked this clip so much he wanted to host it on starwars.com, and the meeting about that led to the development of a full-fledge 30-minute Star Wars spoof starring Lucas as himself, and Mark Hamill returning as Luke Skywalker!

Steve Carell may be taking on the Noah mantle in this summer’s Evan Almighty, but Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky plans to make a darker, more disturbed biopic of everyone’s favorite shipbuilder sometime in the near future. Check it out here.

This just in: Shreveport continues to blow up. I love how the Hollywood location scouts say Shreveport looks “like any Midwestern town” and “like a little backlot.” They might as well be bending down and pinching the city’s cheeks like a six-year-old at the family Christmas.

As promised, here are my Top 5 picks for future star actresses. You can see the guys I listed last week right here. Keep in mind these are very much future projections, and not necessarily actresses I think will be huge this year. Okay, here we go.

5. Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She’s a cousin of original Hollywood hottie Ava Gardner, so stardom runs in her blood. Winstead has played low-profile but memorable roles in The Ring Two, Bobby, Factory Girl and Grindhouse, but breaks out into wide exposure this summer as Bruce Willis’ tough-talking daughter in Live Free or Die Hard.

4. Kerry Washington. How many critically-acclaimed movies does she have to pop up in before she gets a staring role? After Ray, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Last King of Scotland, Washington might get more ink for her turn as the lead in the New York drug drama Life Is Hot In Cracktown, based on the Buddy Giovinazzo novel.

3. Kerry Condon. Currently starring in the John Milius’ brilliant HBO series Rome, Condon is a 24-year-old Irish actress so talented, she’s just biding time till Oscar comes knocking. If she continues to choose quality projects like Angela’s Ashes, she has a long career ahead of her.

2. Amy Adams. No one lights up the screen like Amy Adams—even when she’s playing frumpy like in her 2004 Oscar-nominated performance for Junebug. After getting laughs in last year’s Talladega Nights, she’ll split screen time with my number one pick in two upcoming flicks: Mike Nichols’ hotly-tipped Oscar-contender Charlie Wilson’s War, co-staring Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and dark comedy Sunshine Cleaning.

1. Emily Blunt. The Devil Wears Prada scene-stealer has no less than seven films coming out in the next year and a half, including surefire chick flick hit Jane Austen’s Book Club and the aforementioned Charlie Wilson’s War. The industry loves them British and versatile, and Blunt is both. She’s more than that. She’s the new Judy Dench.