Nothing I've read about Iraq or seen on TV in the past few weeks has felt nearly as real and intimate as this commanding fiction.

Haunting and hopeful.

Even blood, spilled so freely, has a distinctive intensity of red in this beautiful and harrowing film.

There's a bravura recklessness to Beautiful People that perfectly fits its subject.

Cagey, high gloss comedy.

The nonprofessional cast of Bahman Ghobadi's remarkable, slow, rough edged feature reveals a simple, piercing grimness and determination framed by the gray, icy landscape of Iranian Kurdistan.

It's a tiny, sunny character study about a fat guy who's an unlikely chick magnet. And as such it's a pip.

Fonteyne edges closer than most to capturing the mysterious rhythms of liaisons -- pornographique, romantique, and otherwise.

Emotional presence and a sophisticated understanding of commitment-phobia (as something other than a comedic punchline or an excuse for sex scenes) distinguishes this intense, contained drama, as does the unforced, sensual, and sensitive cinematography of Uta Briesewitz.

Watch for the director's own mother, Lili Kosashvili, a standout as Zaza's fierce, stately mama.

Feels delightfully organic, eccentrically rambling, the found artistic collage of a woman who herself loves to collect.

Bean's commitment to serious theological examination is exciting, Gosling's performance is riveting, and this fiery and imperfect feature shines as a demonstration of independent filmmaking at its most uncompromising.

What matters now, what Lumumba conveys, is the urgent chaos of revolution.

Grant is the rare actor who can mix the characteristics of sex appeal and ambivalence in believable, rather than irritating, proportions.

The fetching cast (including Jennifer Beals as a histrionic girlfriend), while a long way from Gwyneth and Matt stature, nevertheless reflects Stillman’s enhanced status as an established indie talent.

Crystal turns in his best (read: least sappy) performance in ages, getting through an entire movie -- most of it, anyway -- without mugging.

Goes where all too few films dare to venture these days -- into the heart of moral darkness.

The charm and art of De Felitta's gentle domestic sketch expand far beyond biographical borders.

It's ''Moskowitz's March,'' really -- and it ends in stirring victory

A stirring action movie -- in the international manner of ''The Fast Runner'' or ''No Man's Land."

Riveting family portrait.

High school reunions should only be this satisfying.

One of the great virtues of Disney's most elegant animated ''classic'' in years is how blessedly sermon-free this zippy, dignified retelling of Edgar Rice Burroughs' ripping 1914 yarn is.

Ah, monsieur, you can lead a Frenchman to the Big Apple, but you can't make him a New Yorker -- and that's exactly what makes The Professional so fascinating.

So sharp and dryly urbane in its mod-Brit take on the noir, noir, noir, noir world of gambling, dames, and pulp fiction, it makes higher-profile attempts like ''Rounders'' look blah, blah, blah, blah.

Superb psychological thriller.

Janet McTeer displays Amazonian power while Jennifer Jason Leigh tears into her role as a high maintenance creature with a ferocity that leaves little room for her usual acting tics.

Noyce's movie works because the director -- trusts himself, and his audience, to understand that catastrophe isn't always a matter of loud ideology. Rather, it's the result of age-old human weakness. And sometimes it's quiet.