What will it take for Mark Ruffalo to be widely acknowledged as one of the best and most exciting actors working today? Sure, the guy takes some roles that are kind of baffling (Rumor Has It, for example), but he also does amazing work with the greatest directors available. A little bird tells me that he’s one of the highlights of Rian Johnson’s follow-up to Brick, The Brothers Bloom (which, this little bird further tells me, is a great movie in its own right… but with not enough Ruffalo. Has any movie ever really had enough Ruffalo, though?). And of course he’s working right now in Scorsese’s new film, and he’s in Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness (which got beat up at Cannes, but I am still excited about). That’s just what he has coming up, to say nothing of his past work.

Now he’s moving on to another director I love: Noah Baumbach. Ruffalo and Amy Adams have joined Baumbach’s latest movie, Greenburg. It’s either a movie about a town or a Jewish person; nobody knows the plot, but the script is being shopped around Cannes with hopes for a late 2008 start. Baumbach remains on fire as a filmmaker, despite Margot at the Wedding being about 7000 times less accessible than The Squid & The Whale. Sure, the movie was mean and ugly, but it was also true and funny. If you’re the kind of person who demands movies filled with only likeable characters, you’re part of the problem, dammit!

So let’s all salute Mark Ruffalo, a man who is keeping his career going in a fantastic direction, even if that direction is not getting him the awards and huge, quivering fanbase he deserves.