Bruce Dern

Susan Sarandon, Alfonso Cuaron, Bruce Dern, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Mary Steenburgen are just a few of the actors and directors who will be celebrated at AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards Monday in Beverly Hills, Calif.

I saw Nebraska over the holidays with my boyfriend and his mom and my mom. It was a rather odd double date, come to think of it, but this isn't about that.

A lull in the end-of-year Grownup Movie frenzy allows us to focus on one of the year's best performances, plus a look at the enduring popularity of a long-gone comic strip.

Of all the eras in Hollywood history, the decade that stretched from 1969 to 1979 was perhaps the most daring, a time of experimental masterpieces that shocked audiences into seeing the world in a different way. In the era's edgy eloquence, Karen Black portrayed quirky women who found themselves in…