Intimidated by the words "avant-garde film"? Then hand yourself over, without reservation, to the skills of documentarian Martina Kudlacek and her astonishingly accessible primer, In the Mirror of Maya Deren.

One of the most compelling films the Holocaust has yet produced.

As full of joy as pain, it's a perspective we need to see more often.

As goofy action comedies go, Shaolin Soccer is one of the best.

As casually insensitive and careless as you might expect from a film of this era, but it's also surprisingly crafty about finding ways to incite discussion

A definitive, low-tech stomping of every sci-fi clone that has sprung up in the original's wake.

Adults should find its simmering drama at least as compelling as teens will, even if parental figures are only slightly more present here than in a " Peanuts" comic strip.

It's practically a primer on how to rework a literary classic into an impressively restrained movie with something fresh and intelligent to say.

A rousing, sometimes funny, frequently depressing documentary.

Even when its wires are showing, the movie's soul is always evident.

As funny as it is sharp.

Tamblyn's surprisingly measured performance commands attention.

A well-crafted, bravely revealing little film that could be considered essential education for baseball fans. It's just a bonus that the documentary is so entertaining.

An invitation to see something a little less pretty, and potentially more enduring.

fully devotes itself to painting a family portrait seldom allowed such rich cinematic detail.

Maybe the redemptions offered are simplistic in the context of this place, but they make for a dramatic (if heavily foreshadowed) conclusion.

If there's one image that sums up the filmmaking style of Takashi Miike, it's the close-up of a bubbling hot pot on the family dinner table.

Isn't just a feel-good movie; it's a feel-good-and-righteous movie. And audiences will forgive its flaws.

May not be as dramatic as Roman Polanski's ''The Pianist,'' but its compassionate spirit soars every bit as high.

The film's unhurried pace is actually one of its strengths. Entirely appropriately, the tale unfolds like a lazy summer afternoon and concludes with the crisp clarity of a fall dawn. That's not just a farm movie, that's life.

This is a ride, a video game, a soundtrack -- unapologetic and clearly labeled as such. It has no middle speed.

The film means to provoke a closer look at the faces of good and evil. It questions whether we really live in a world that can be divided neatly into black hats and white hats.

The best that can be said of the men in Coline Serreau's Chaos is that some of them are pimps.

These children are indeed the faces of war. It's just harder to recognize them because they're the ones someone cared enough to save.

Because Manito is really just an opera without the violins or Viking hats, you probably don't need to have everything spelled out. Its Spanish-English script is secondary to the universal language and timeless drama of family, community, dreams made and dreams dashed.

As rich and literary a work as you might expect.

Lively and beautiful filmmaking. It may leave you scratching your head, but it shouldn't leave you cold.

What's unique about this documentary is that it grips history with both hands, shakes it, examines it, and exits with the entire wrinkled contents bravely in tow.

It is at least an "experience" that has to be labeled exhilarating.

Actually an above-average farce, at least as featherweight chick flicks go.

Ride it out, and you will find the rewards modest but meaningful.

Writer-director Im Sang Soo's coolly stylized political satire doesn't provide a lot of answers, unfortunately, but it does show how the future of a nation might turn on a few drunken insults thrown around at a high-level dinner party.

One of the smartest things Kaplan does, besides getting talented Boston folk singer Catie Curtis to contribute to the soundtrack, is hang around long enough to see how this three-headed relationship plays out.

In Mongolian Ping Pong the point is to look under the majestic vistas and see value in ordinary things -- ping-pong balls included.

Combines an insider's perspective with what can only be described as gutsy cinematography.

You buy "fair - trade" coffee; you assume you're being socially responsible. But now, along comes Black Gold to tell you that all fair-trade coffee is not created equal, and that Ethiopia, the "birthplace of coffee" and home of some of the world's best beans, may be getting the least fair shake of all.

A poignant, all-too-common tale of casual abuse in a workplace that is candidly labeled "better than most."

It takes a special first-time director to stick her neck out, personally as well as professionally. As much as anything else, The Cats of Mirikitani is a testament to good breeding.

It's fair to say that a meaner documentary might have packed more punch. But it's hard to imagine Michael Moore turning out anything that feels as pleasantly nourishing.

This Earth doesn't really have anything new to say, but it does present some newly entertaining ways of saying it.

A movie that entertains and enlightens without being preachy - in fact, most of its beliefs are strenuously ambiguous; that’s a key part of the joke.

Meier’s soft touch with the offbeat material is surprisingly mature, to the point of maybe being a bit too reserved.

Kings of Pastry, goes inside an intense event that few Americans know much about - a kind of tradesmen's Olympics.

It needs only to entertain. And that it does thoroughly, leaving us both charmed and enriched without feeling very preached at. Praise be.

Where Wiseman excelled in respecting the broad rhythms and pure storytelling of the ring, Chang's new documentary focuses on the stories of three boxers and weaves them into a compelling narrative that rivals anything Hollywood could script.

Knowlton has landed on four stories that deserve to be told, and she's told them in a straightforward way that gets the job done, with obvious dedication and love.

The cast is up to the challenges of that arc, but the plot doesn't always keep them afloat.

Miller is certainly faithful to the spirit of Rendell's psychologically probing, class-dissecting novels, even if his probing doesn't go nearly as deep and his storytelling isn't as compelling.

With more character development this might have been an eerie thriller; with better payoffs, it could have been a thinking man's monster movie.

Serves up enough action and passion to stay afloat, but at the end of the day it's just not the perfect ride those earlier films were.

Has a sultry and complex psychological intent all its own, yet it's reminiscent of some earlier Denis works, including ''Nenette and Boni.''

The most disturbing thing about this grass-roots-inspired extreme-wrestling documentary by Paul Hough is how much worse you expect the violence to be.

Though it never rises to its full potential as a film, still offers a great deal of insight into the female condition and the timeless danger of emotions repressed.

The movie's heart is in the right place, but all its messages of tolerance might resonate better if the Spanish-accented pirate didn't get drawn with a gold tooth and the turban-wearing Khalil wasn't an opportunistic rug merchant.

Would have benefited from putting a wider lens on the man and his detractors.

Maybe Tattoo is creepy and stylized enough to pull you along anyway, but if you like your thrillers to dig below the familiar epidermis, look elsewhere.

No sophisticated dance, but it moves about with an open heart. And hey, it's at least as funny as that Greek thing.

At the very least, some of the answers and observations offered up in this hybrid documentary/drama/thesis project will surprise you.

Isn't the most seductive film ever made about border life or undocumented immigrants, but in a way it's unfair to compare it to such artistic triumphs as ''Touch of Evil,'' ''El Norte,'' ''Lone Star,'' and ''Traffic.''

Artful, especially in the ways it avoids sentimentality and employs vintage film clips of truly riveting performances...But Maximilian's narcissistic examination of his theatrical family -- can be boring, and his creative license with the truth is kind of troubling.

While obviously not a unique or uniquely satisfying experience, the film still does the job in a pinch, and looks cool doing it.

This is just humble, heartwarming storytelling with good acting and lush visuals.

For a certain kind of moviegoer, Saints and Soldiers provides above-average nostalgia. Others, more hardened, might call it child's play.

Inspirational.

Can be quite amusing and enjoyable to watch.

Whatever blend of fact and fiction is really at work in this latest offering from ''Dog Days" director Ulrich Seidl -- known, by the way, for playing fast and loose with the documentary format -- the irony-laced ''Jesus, You Know" does persuade viewers to sit up and take notice of its inspired conceit.

What really makes 'The Warrior worthwhile is its indomitable soul.

Assassin is funnier and less awkward than her last concert film, 2004's ''CHO Revolution," but nowhere near as consistently gut busting as 2002's ''Notorious C.H.O." or (first and still best) 2000's ''I'm the One That I Want."

Unusually compelling, even if it's treacly enough to be "The Chorus" in goose step.

The film is at its best in Utah, both because in David Gribble's exhilarating cinematography we finally get to feel the full power and intoxication of the sport.

Wolf Creek is ultimately all about the torture and the trauma. Happy holidays.

If ''Sean" was about conviction and revolution, Following Sean is about ambivalence and resignation. In either case it's pretty easy for a funny-provocative kid to stand out.

The debut live-action feature of Australian animator Sarah Watt has several other things to recommend it as well, including a black-humored screenplay, realistic performances, eye-catching artwork, and a few creative turns on some well-worn themes.

A semiserious documentary about a cult of performance art that until recently was never meant to be taken seriously.

It's worth noting that the movie's spiritual underpinnings are sometimes fairly subtle and other times veer into "Touched by an Angel" territory. The third act is downright Bible-thumping.

There's an honest, unfiltered quality to what you see and hear.

What results is both real and surreal, giving and self indulgent. That’s the country we all live in.

As a political thriller, Formosa Betrayed has enough suspense and intrigue to pull viewers along willingly. It doesn’t try too hard, which is refreshing.

Ironically, Born to Be Wild banks solely on its tameness to captivate and inspire, aided by an upbeat, sometimes incongruous soundtrack.

It's still Black's franchise, though. And part of the problem with this sequel is how little it lets its star just riff with silly abandon, as he did throughout the original.

More storytelling and less preaching would have served those messages better.

Maybe because Hachmeister has a background in journalism, his movie endeavors to educate by covering a lot of ground in its 90-plus minutes, which is certainly commendable, it's just not that satisfying.

Likable performances are critically wounded by implausible scenarios and derivative-minded direction referencing everything from ''Reservoir Dogs'' to ''Fargo.''

Ladling in so much schmaltz that even his in-house critic says, ''This thing's worse than `Terms of Endearment.'''

Unabashed Fidel worship.

Despite being well acted and sweetly moving when it strips down to the tender poem at its heart, Till Human Voices Wake Us spends too much time playing to an otherworldly suspense that simply isn't there.

So much schlock and melodrama find their way into Darkness Falls that when an exasperated character shouts near the end ''All this over a [expletive] tooth!,'' you know how he feels.

Weintrob's stylish visuals mimic Web technologies, which succeed in making his characters seem all the more removed from reality. Now if someone would find a way to equip theater seats with a ''delete'' key, we could be rid of them completely.

There are moments, too, where the forced hipness falls aside and the two lead characters just plain relate, realistically and maturely, with a seasoned playfulness that is truly charming.

It's not that What a Girl Wants is dreadful; it's merely slapdash, wildly inconsistent in tone and style, and mind-numbingly predictable in character and plot.

Ultimately, this film is only scary if you're afraid of artfully self-conscious, grainy cinematography.

So, how's the food? The camera never even goes up close. That's the kind of restaurant documentary this is.

Muniz has better secret-agent toys to play with, funnier lines and sidekicks helping him out, and a bit more discerning director in Kevin Allen ("The Big Tease").

Choppy, cheesy historical war epic really has only a couple of things going for it, and its biggest asset remains the heroic popular legend that inspired its making.

Highly unoriginal tale.

Ultimately undercut by its fictional elements and its flat characters.

For a movie about serial killings and media sensationalism, Cronicas sure is wimpy.

Isn't so much awful as it is self-conscious, overdone, shallow, and just not up to the level of its star.