Van Sant gives no pat or easy answers. Instead he makes us squirm, worry, and think. That's why Elephant is a must-see movie.

All give heartfelt, unflashy performances that help make Shattered Glass one of the season's most thoughtful offerings.

It's a terrific movie, smart and funny enough to hold up at any time of year.

At the very least, look for it on 10-best lists next month, and there's every chance it will be a strong contender at the Oscars. Filmmaking so sensitive and intelligent deserves its weight in honors.

This is a rip-roaring adventure combining edge-of-your-seat battle scenes with vivid historical details and more fascinating characters than most action movies dream of. Add heartfelt acting and Russell Boyd's atmospheric camera work, and you have the adventure movie of the year.

Obviously a profoundly personal film, but it's also a smartly conducted tour through the world of building and design that Kahn towered over during the most successful phases of his career.

Content and style dovetail superbly in this offbeat drama, where images continually change in size and shape, evoking the story's message that human experience is always a pathway, not a destination.

Children may enjoy it, aside from the youngest, who might find it too weird for comfort. Its main audience is adults, though. And not just any adults, but those in the mood for venturesome fare that's both surreal and hilarious.

Look for realism, and you'll find The Cooler disappointing. Look for a far-fetched yarn that's as unpredictable as a throw of the dice, though, and you'll find it engaging fun.

Articulate interviews and an unusually creative visual style make the picture as lively to watch as it is illuminating to think about.

What distinguishes Girl With a Pearl Earring is its combination of refined filmmaking and Johansson's exquisitely understated acting. It partakes of Vermeer's spirit and style, and that makes it one of the year's best movies.

Intelligent, revealing, and sometimes hilarious.

The filmmaking is meticulous and the ideas are endlessly thought-provoking.

Like many Altman movies, this is less a dramatic story to follow than an atmospheric environment to visit.

This is a great companion piece to Hou's masterly "Flowers of Shanghai" and fresh evidence of his status as Taiwan's greatest filmmaker.

In addition to its own merits as a social and cultural document, Broomfield's film continues the welcome trend of more and more nonfiction movies finding their way to theater screens and attracting wide general audiences.

Mood, atmosphere, and character are more important than story twists in this unassuming, acutely observant drama.

Like all masterpieces, it speaks to later ages as powerfully and intelligently as to its own.

It's a troubling, courageous, compulsively watchable work of art.

Superb performances from a nonprofessional cast. It's gripping, timely, and revealing.

Wong has acquired a loyal cult following over the years, and Dupont's exquisitely filmed episodes show why.

Enriched by allusions to biblical stories of fathers, sons, and sacrifices, subtly woven into the movie's moodily photographed fabric.

Pure fun.

A riveting movie.

Bruce Willis is bruisingly good as the hero and Brad Pitt is suitably zany as the activist who dogs his trail.

Hurt gives an astonishingly sensitive and funny performance as the bedazzled intellectual, and first-time filmmaker Kwietniowski unfolds the story with an unfailing blend of humor and compassion.

When he's good, Mr. Mamet is very good indeed, and Spartan stands with the best work he's done. It's fast-moving, unpredictable, and as tautly, tightly wound as thrillers get.

A complicated story that demands your full attention; Mr. Gondry unfolds it at a mind-bending pace. This alone makes it a hugely refreshing respite from ordinary multiplex fare.