The material is right up Schrader's alley, and while his vision of the first "Exorcist" chapter isn't a masterpiece, it's far superior to the Renny Harlin prequel to "The Exorcist" released last year.

This is moviemaking on the highest dramatic, psychological, and moral plane.

Faucher's filmmaking is exquisite, Naymark's acting is luminous, and superb use of music lends a crowning touch.

In sum, the classical Ron Howard and his splendid cast have made a spellbinding movie that joins "Million Dollar Baby," as well as "Raging Bull," the first two "Rocky" pictures, and "Fat City" as one of boxing cinema's all-time heavyweight champs.

Yedaya's prizewinning debut film is acted and directed with uncommon psychological realism.

Touching, transfixing, unique.

You run across animation this ingenious about as often as a moving castle comes your way.

Hou's sensitivity plus Ozu's inspiration equals sublimity of sight and sound.

Riveting, suspenseful, and a perfect antidote to the too-tricky documentary "Super-Size Me."

Riveting and unique.

There's much subtle beauty in the last movie completed by Merchant Ivory Productions before Merchant's untimely death.

Superbly acted, movingly written, and directed with a tough-minded lyricism rarely found in today's films. A summer movie to love.

Should be required viewing for every concerned citizen.

Suspenseful, surprising, and psychologically rich.

As stylish as it is suspenseful.

Weerasethakul's latest has received mixed responses on the film-festival circuit, yet while it's anything but commercial, it's also anything but unadventurous.

This is a brilliant, if challenging, film.

A plan for a perfect murder goes wildly wrong in this 1958 melodrama by one of France's great filmmakers.

This is a lively, life-affirming documentary no viewer is likely to forget.

Its leisurely, deliberative style is a perfect complement to the emotions it deals with - emotions so penetrating that I warn you at the outset how jarringly intense you may find Bergman's most brilliant drama in decades.

The filmmaker keeps things lively by roaming far and wide with her camera, returning to the statesmanship side of the documentary often enough to let us follow relevant events as they unfold.

A travelogue unlike any other.

On the screen, Burton turns out to BE the ideal filmmaker for this deliciously bizarre yarn. He's given free rein to his fantasies in past movies, but rarely as wittily and consistently as he does here.

A true American tragedy, directed with skill and conviction.

An ingeniously scripted psychological thriller.

The movie's underlying theme is the complex relationship between objects and memories, worked out through a taut, compelling story and superbly understated acting. Ryuichi Sakamoto composed the atmospheric score.

This low-key drama is a miracle of mood, atmosphere, and sensitivity.

Filmed to perfection by the great Christopher Doyle and others.

This deliciously offbeat Canadian comedy gets its charm from marvelous acting and from a screenplay bursting with ideas. Great fun.

At once dreamily surreal, acutely intelligent, and strikingly tough-minded, this pitch-dark dramatic comedy recalls David Lynch and "Donnie Darko" while remaining fresh and original to its core. A stunning directorial debut.

Brilliant, poetic, and utterly unique.

Can a misguided adult start afresh with a new set of values and priorities? This ambitious drama, directed by one of France's most resourceful filmmakers, explores that crucial question in depth and detail.

Required viewing for anyone interested in the struggle for American racial equality.

Frequently funny, sometimes sad, often electrifying.

Gilliam has rarely been more inventive, energetic, or just plain funny.

Lively documentary about McGovern's disastrous run for the US presidency. The interviews with him are worth the price of admission.

One of the great Bertolucci's most acclaimed films...Trintignant gives a legendary performance.

Soldier's Daughter thrives less on Hollywood-style drama than on nuances of personality, details of everyday life, and emotions so commonplace that conventional movies rarely take the time to acknowledge them, much less explore them with loving care.

Writer/director Peter Duncan's first film is darkly humorous, with dashes of slapstick, brilliant, and original material.

The film's approach is highly instructive, deeply moving, and geared to deploring the racism that breeds violence rather than reactivating old hatreds.

John Schlesinger's rollicking version of Stella Gibbons's novel is acted with the highest of spirits by Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Freddie Jones, and many others.

Directed by Ulu Grosbard, who has never done a better job of filling the screen with superb acting, and shows great ingenuity at interweaving music with other aspects of the story.

Dustin Hoffman gives the inspired performance that launched his movie career, and director Mike Nichols shows a gift for social satire that has never glistened quite so brightly since. [Review of re-release]

Tim Robbins gives a strong performance in this first-class horror yarn, which has a surprisingly strong political edge.

Back to the Future doesn't exactly leap out of the starting gate, and some scenes are strung out by gimmicky editing. But the story picks up steam as it goes along, and the last third is especially full of speedy surprises. [3 July 1985, p.23]

The movie is artful to a fault, with too many characters sitting in perfectly arranged, immaculately lighted rooms and talking a lot. It contains near-classic sequences, though, and splendid performances. [28 Sept 1990]

The story is slender, but the Brazilian settings are exquisite and lilting tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim cast a spell over the entire enterprise.

Leaves out portions of John Irving's novel that would have given it more balance and perspective, but the acting by Maguire and Caine is first-rate by any standard.

Splendid acting helps Jordan achieve most of his goals, although some may find the romantic and religious elements an uneasy mixture.

A powerful ending lends a strong emotional charge to this prettily filmed drama, but too much of the story is taken up with romantic clichés about the everyday challenges of childhood.

Has a mixture of strengths and limitations often found in historical epics: lots of eye-filling action and spectacle, little in the way of psychology or human interest.

Many belly laughs.

Some will find the movie's sexual antics too explicit and unconventional for comfort.

The plot is lively and the dialogue packs many good laughs.

The picture has fine ensemble acting and superb Italian scenery. It would have more power if it were shorter and tighter.

As the uptight banker, Robbins does some of his subtlest acting to date. As his hardened but resilient friend, Freeman is simply miraculous, giving the role so much depth, dignity, and good humor that you feel that you've known this man forever. [27 Sept 1994]

The film should captivate anyone with a taste for bold cinematics, unpredictable storytelling, and pitch-black humor aimed at the worthiest of targets: a self-involved and self-congratulatory, industry that often gives lip service to art while worshipping the bottom line. [10 Apr 1992]

Most of the acting is as real and warm as the characters themselves. And the streets, shops, and living rooms of Brooklyn have never seemed more inviting. [29 Jan 1988]

True, traces of his bad habits show through at certain moments, especially near the end, when a long and lachrymose scene plunges into Spielgerian sentimentality of the gooiest kind. But before that unfortunate point, Schinder's List serves up three full hours of brilliant storytelling. That's as humane and compassionate as it is gripping and provocative. [15 Dec 1993]

A thriller so tricky that figuring it out is half the fun.

Bird isn't an easy film, and it doesn't always make an effort to be likable. But it's a dazzler - at least as good as "Round Midnight,'' and that's saying a lot.

To say it right out, The Bostonians is the best movie I've seen all year.

Controversy and all, JFK is one of the year's most powerful and provocative films.

Beverly Hills Cop is an action movie and an Eddie Murphy vehicle first, but Brest's dramatic intelligence surfaces often enough to make a welcome difference in what could have been an ordinary crowd-pleaser. [13 Dec. 1984, p.35]

The result is fine fantasy fun.

Debrauwer brings crisp conviction to what might have been an overly sentimental tale, filming it with a straightforward style and good-natured sincerity that ring consistently true.

Jeffs is an unusually gifted director, but her screenplay (based on Kirsty Gunn's novel) never quite gets a firm grip or a fresh perspective on its coming-of-age subject matter.

Davison gives one of his many bravura performances in this 1977 adaptation of Miguel Pinero's hard-hitting play.

The picture has enough assets to please moviegoers willing to put up with its many four-letter words and the bursts of violence that spring from nowhere at unexpected moments. [27 October 1995, Arts Film, p.12]

Who would have guessed a documentary about Derrida, the great French philosopher of deconstruction and "différence," would be so entertaining?

It's an impressive movie, pointing to Howard as a promising new director.

Hodges and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg fill the British production with Dostoevskian ironies, and Owen is perfect as the antihero.

The acting is excellent and Penn reconfirms his remarkable talent for muted, understated filmmaking that focuses on character and dialogue rather than spectacle and sensationalism.

Good acting and pungent dialogue.

This unusual romantic drama is sensitively acted by a well-chosen cast and subtly directed by Cox.

Excellent acting and a finely tuned screenplay spark this genuinely offbeat melodrama.

The acting is uneven, but Huston's performance gains eerie intensity as the tale moves from sensationalistic melodrama to humanistic tragedy.

Some will dislike its shaggy-dog screenplay and restless camera work, and others may find its finale too postfeminist for comfort.

The acting is amiable and the story is crisply told.

While this slightly edgy comedy has moments of offbeat charm, it would carry more conviction if the acting were richer and the characters focused on more sophisticated attitudes and ambitions.

Its ethical and intellectual insights wane when the love story kicks in, weakening what might have been a much deeper movie. Still, its performances are wonderful to watch.

One of the season's most watchable treats.

What keeps the movie from championship status is a sense that the filmmakers see Ali's social and political contributions as extra added attractions, ultimately less important than his greatness in the ring.

There's some very funny dialogue, but the picture falls apart when it tries to think real thoughts about celebrity, publicity, and the media.

The acting and screenplay are amusing, but director Sitch might have taken a more adventurous approach to a tale with such an adventurous subject.

Carrey is excellent, making the most of his comic gifts even in a cumbersome Grinch outfit, and the eye-spinning color scheme is dazzling to behold.

The comedy is frantic and tasteless in the usual Waters mode, but it takes telling potshots at the Hollywood establishment, which isn't nearly so open about the tackiness of its products.

The movie is more a family album than a historical study, but you'll learn a lot and your toe will tap, tap, tap.

The characters are hardly original...but Stone puts them into play with his usual fever-pitch gusto, producing what's probably the most heart-pounding gridiron movie ever made.

Dench and Winslet give strong and creative performances, and Broadbent is positively brilliant as old Bayley.

Generous doses of bright-sounding music add to the movie's appeal.

Sometimes disturbing but consistently fascinating.

The first half of this freewheeling comedy-drama finds Toback at his imaginative best. The second half sinks into silliness.

The movie's TV-style production values are a little too slick, but the real-life stories are fascinating to watch.

If you can handle its horror-comic grotesquerie, you'll find an enormous amount of cinematic imagination at work.

It packs an emotional punch despite shortcomings of story and style.

Logue's magnetic performance is the movie's main virtue, supported by a good secondary cast and a sharply written screenplay.

Gilliam's first solo flight as a director is more notable for its inspired visual ideas than for the frequency of its laughs, but Python devotees will have fun.