Although I gave up reading the New Republic with any regularity long before it acquired master fabricator Stephen Glass as a reporter in the late 90s, I appreciate writer-director Billy Ray’s agenda, which is to show how ready and willing Glass’s colleagues and readers were to be duped by himand how we as spectators are too. Hayden Christensen plays Glass with just the right amount of flattering charm, and Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, and Chloe Sevigny all do well as his fellow staffers. Given recent similar incidents of young con artists posing as journalists, this is a timely and compelling film, but I wish the filmmakers had widened their focus to address the kinds of journalistic corruption that go beyond simple fibbing. 99 min. (JR)