The movie is supremely entertaining -- and often hilarious.

This is a long, impeccably detailed, richly textured movie about a most unusual life, and although it's far from perfect, the sum of it achieves what Fincher set out to do in the first place: Make you blubber like a 6-year-old who just found his pet turtle lying belly-up.

The Wrestler presents a fascinating peek at the workings of the pro wrestling industry (the tenderness and humor the athletes share backstage is the complete opposite of the ferocity they display in the ring).

Waltz With Bashir isn't only a harrowing anti-war plea, it is also an eloquent and deeply moving argument that it is critical to never forget human atrocity, lest the past be repeated.

Charles Bukowski would have loved this foul-mouthed, fiery, reckless woman. Against all odds and common sense, you will, too.

Attention all geeks (and geeks at heart): Get ready for two hours of serious awesome.

This is a romantic comedy that makes the concept of romantic comedies appealing again -- that reminds you how resonant and transporting they can be when they're done right.

Michael Mann's extraordinary Public Enemies is an unusual sort of gangster picture, a near-impressionistic recreation of the last year in the life of one of American history's most notorious bank robbers.

The movie is absolutely hilarious, a satire as brisk and fleet as a farce and as profane as a convention of Tony Montana impersonators.

A worthy and delirious final chapter to this hallowed animation franchise.

The film wouldn't work at all, though, if Sarsgaard didn't strike the perfect balance between snaky predator and love-struck fool.

Campos, a cinematic disciple of Stanley Kubrick and latter-period Gus Van Sant, opts to let the movie do the talking for him. The fact that this is a film of few words only adds to its hypnotic, relentless pull.

Most prison movies are about escape or survival. A Prophet (Un Prophete) is about the creation of a consciousness. This one, too, could have been called “An Education.”

The biggest compliment you can pay the much-anticipated film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that you can't imagine Stieg Larsson's corker of a story ever having existed in book form.

What makes Exit Through the Gift Shop so fascinating -- and it is riveting, regardless of your interest in the art world -- is the eloquent way in which it illustrates how beauty and meaning really are in the eye of the beholder and how that eternal phrase still holds true: There's a sucker born every minute.

Although it is structured like a thriller, and its plot dominated by Benjamin's detective work, The Secret in Their Eyes is really a cautionary tale about the consequences of a life of too much apprehension and propriety.

The cast is uniformly spectacular, infusing the characters with nuance and complexity.

I Am Love is a bold and thrilling masterpiece -- the introduction of a major talent to the world's stage.

Here, finally, is something you've really never seen before.

Harrowing and grueling, Lebanon ends on a gentle, hopeful note.

Animal Kingdom moves with a brisk efficiency - Michôd trusts the viewer and doesn't waste time with unnecessary back story - and the plot twists and turns at brutal speed.

There isn't a moment in the entire film that doesn't feel genuine.

This is an intentionally fanciful, gossamer movie, extremely personal and heartfelt, influenced in equal parts by Michelangelo Antonioni (although never so elusive) and Gus Van Sant (just not quite so self-conscious).

A script that deftly fleshes out characters and mimics reality shockingly well.

Director Kim Jee-woon's astonishing story of a serial killer who picks the wrong man's fiancée to murder, is so extreme and intense that it had to be trimmed down in its native country before it was released to theaters. We lucky westerners get to see it in all its hair-raising, stomach-churning glory, and that's a wonderful thing.

The movie, engrossing as it is intentionally horrifying, is capped by a last-minute revelation that brings the story to a haunting, powerful close.

The movie plays out as a series of memories, so exact and evocative that watching it becomes an immersive experience.

McGregor hasn't been this appealing or vulnerable in ages, and in both of the film's love stories, he exemplifies Mills' message.

And so the saga of Harry Potter comes to an end - not with a whimper but with a rousing thunderclap of incident, emotion, suspense and old-fashioned movie magic.

One of the first things that strikes you about these courageous people, who constantly confront volatile, gun-carrying thugs, is that they outgrew their violent pasts and now live contented lives with their families.

Straw Dogs is an artful provocation - a meditation on masculinity and societal mores in the guise of an explosive thriller.

What ultimately makes Drive so compelling is its characters - sketches given dimension and heft by a superb cast.

50/50 is crude and funny, and it demands that you laugh. And you will.

Like Roman Polanski's "Repulsion," Martha Marcy May Marlene gradually places us inside the mind of a woman who just might be insane, and in its audacious, terrifying final scene, the movie traps us there in perpetuity, refusing to provide the viewer with a way out. This time, the horror follows you home - no exit, no escape.

By the end of the movie, when all your questions have been answered, you're left with the exhilarating high of having been manipulated by a gifted artist in a diabolically dark mood.

The Muppets may have been born out of a desire to revive a dormant franchise that was once a cash cow, but there isn't a single beat in the film that feels crass or opportunistic. This one is from the heart.

All of Payne's films have been driven by the anger and frustration of his protagonists, but The Descendants is the first one in which sadness lurks behind every frame.

The overriding point of Into the Abyss, what keeps this sad, sorrowful film from becoming depressing and elevates it far above the usual chatter of liberal-conservative debate, is that there can be light on the other end of even the darkest of tunnels.

The wait for a great action movie is finally over. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is pure popcorn of the highest, most flavorful order, and it's good for you, too.

Shame is fearless in the way the most ambitious art often is, and to write it off for what it doesn't do is reductive and misguided. You don't just watch Shame: You feel it, too.

Chemistry is one of the few things left filmmakers can't fake with CGI, and the dynamic between Craig and Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is so sensational, it instantly propels the movie beyond glossy, high-toned pulp into something far more affecting.

This is the rare breed of Hollywood studio production that has the brash spirit of an independent picture and the sharp wit of a stand-up comic.

As usual for the Dardennes, the plot is slight but loaded with hairpin turns of tremendous emotional power.

Coriolanus is not by any stretch a hero, and yet Fiennes makes him magnetic, a warrior you can't look away from even when you might want to.

It showcases one of Whedon's greatest strengths: his ability to take previously disrespected genres - in this case the slasher film - and turn them inside-out and upside-down and every which way but loose.

Monsieur Lazhar doesn't send you home depressed. Instead, the film leaves you hopeful, and even exhilarated, that even the most painful wounds can sometimes heal.

One of the scariest films I've seen in ages, although I cannot in all honesty explain exactly what the movie is about.

By the end, the movie has pulled off a small miracle: You become absorbed in the lives of these people for who they are and not what they own.

This is an exciting, exceptionally well-made futuristic thriller that also happens to be loaded with lived-in touches and punchy ideas.

This delightfully twisted story about a boy and his (dead) dog showcases precisely what Burton excels at: blending the macabre and the heartfelt in a perfect, if oddball, union.

Madrid, 1987 operates on a dizzying number of levels - as a romantic comedy, a sex farce, a study of culture clash, ageism and idealism - and the highest compliment you can give this ridiculously talky movie (which plays better if you speak Spanish) is that you're a little sad to see the characters go on their way once they part, probably forever.

This is a gorgeous, flashy, widescreen epic, like "Boogie Nights" or "Casino," about the most essential things in life: Family, friends and love. But most of all, love.

Mendes' approach to action is classical and elegant - no manic editing and blurry unintelligible images here - but what makes the movie truly special is the attention he gives his actors.

This is writer-director David O. Russell's idea of a romantic comedy, and it's terrific - one of the freshest, funniest, most elevating crowd-pleasers of the year.

Life of Pi works seamlessly on two levels. With grace, imagination and stunning visual acuity, it explores Martel's twin themes of faith and the power of storytelling. It's also a thrilling action adventure.

Maya is as consumed with finding bin Laden as Jake Gyllenhaal was obsessed with finding a serial killer in "Zodiac," only he was doing it as a hobby.

The design of the film is breathtaking at times, veering from the jagged hyperbole of German expressionism to the drolleries of English comedy at its most daft, if not most broad. [7 Feb. 1992, p.G5]

The experience of watching Funny Games, be it the original or this version, is never forgotten, whatever your ultimate impression of the film.

No is an exploration of the power of the media to manipulate hearts and minds. The moral of the story: Always go positive.

Star Trek Into Darkness gives you an exhilarating, tingle-inducing rush — that rare feeling that comes when a gigantic entertainment is firing on all fronts, exceeding your expectations.

The movie fares less well when the plot and Simon’s neuroses come to the surface, but there is some tremendous suspense in the movie’s final scene.

You can't beat a Bond film for adventure on a grand scale.

A strange art-house film, a must-see for punks and nightclubbers, a puzzle for the merely curious.

Anyone who understands the subtle shadings of friendship will appreciate Our Song's realistic slice of teen life.

A funny and constantly surprising exercise in comic tension.

The impact of Promises comes from the openness of the children.

A rare movie, one that manages to be both quiet and electrifying, touching and unnerving. But it is not a great movie, even though its stars deserve for it to be.

Gere has never been better cast.

You may be drawn to Intimacy's graphic scenes, but you'll emerge convinced there's more to life -- and the film -- than sex.

Roberts inhabits the character with a gravity and poignancy that she had never even hinted at before.

Not about sex; it's about leaps of faith, at work, in love, in life.

Often grim, but never nihilistic: Even at its darkest, Dizdar gives the movie an optimistic bounce. The movie is often shockingly funny, too.

Gets everything right.

What Sunshine State lacks in momentum, it makes up for with a Dickensian sprawl of characters -- 50 in all -- who possess the depth and humanity that has become a Sayles trademark.

Sitch keeps the tone consistently light, scoring big laughs all the way to the film's climax.

If this rousing, technically dazzling movie doesn't get you going, then you probably didn't like football to being with.

Mesmerizing.

Its lingering hangover, however, is decidedly pleasant.

There's some genuine suspense in Lantana, including one unbearably tense moment that is worthy of Hitchcock. But the movie's most unnerving aspect is the way in which it suggests true happiness may be impossible to regain once you've lost it.

The latest and loosest -- in the saucy sense of the word as well -- adaptation of (Austen's) sly comedies of uppercrust manners.

Swinton single-handedly carries The Deep End past its nagging ambiguities.

Nothing overly dramatic happens during the course of The Taste of Others but the characters prove to be engaging and their quite real human emotions are enough to carry it.

A breezy pleasure.

All of Egoyan's movies have revolved around characters with damaged, fragile psyches, but rarely have they been illustrated as deftly -- and as gracefully -- as in Felicia's Journey.

Light on plot but heavy on observation: Wang concentrates on exploring the unseen ways in which mother and daughter rely on each other.

Milks Carter's story for maximum "inspirational" value, and at times the movie skirts dangerously close to afterschool-special territory.

Suggests that professional wrestling is more than a multibillion-dollar industry: It's also a way of life.

Although the movie never so much as flirts with melodrama, there is still a bittersweet undercurrent.

A very complicated movie. It is also pretty wonderful.

Lives up to its advance buzz as a showcase for some wonderful performances and a sharp storytelling eye by director Gavin O'Connor.

For those in the 3 to 5 bracket, Elmo doesn't often aim wrong.

If The Score isn't quite in the same league as the classic "Rififi" or even "Thief," its single-mindedness still makes for a refreshing change from the preposterous bloat of most contemporary action movies.

It's almost startling to see a film that believes in itself and its characters so deeply.

Romantic comedies don't have to be profound when they are as appealing as this one.

This bleak, oh-so-dark comedy is one of the best movies you almost didn't get to see.

Sad confusions and emotional disconnections are what the story is all about.

Grim, tight and well acted.

There's nothing in Bounce you haven't seen before, but the movie is surprisingly unsentimental, the Paltrow factor cannot be denied.

The protagonists of Light It Up seem strangely tender and vulnerable, and the movie, if heavy-handed at times, does a remarkable job of making their plight moving.

Compared to manipulative tearjerkers like "Pay It Forward" or "Men of Honor," Billy Elliot is a model of restraint, one that earns its warmth the hard way -- by making us care about the people who are going through familiar steps.

The strength of the performances, along with the good will generated by these flawed but likable characters, carry the movie through.

A charming confection spun from pure whimsy.

Not the kind of documentary that will appeal to a large number of moviegoers. Yet it makes perfect sense that it will be shown on the campus of University of Miami, famous for its strong medical school.

The star is the coming together of East and West, and how art provides the medium.

Past the foreign mysticism and eccentricity of Tibetan Buddhism to portray its characters as unmistakably, identifiably human.

Glover and especially Bassett give strong performances, shaking off their Hollywood patina and losing themselves in these gritty roles.

The movie is small and familiar, but this time, those turn out to be strengths.

Frenetic, maddening, exhilarating, ridiculous, fascinating farce of an action-comedy-thriller-mystery-whatever.

Both a dazzling technological achievement and a really sweet movie.

For filmgoers not interested in history, Sunshine might be a three-hour investment they may not want to undertake.

If nothing else, Startup.com is a pointed reminder that mixing business and friendship never, ever works.

Thanks to a superb cast headed by the popular Brazilian actress Regina Casé, this unorthodox tale is ultimately believable.

The characters are easy to overplay, but the ensemble keeps its feet on the ground.

So impressive you welcome each and every one for the film's 48 minute duration.

A mix of slapstick, melodrama and jaw-dropping stunts.

Saura's storytelling style draws us deep into Goya's world, a disturbing but bittersweet place that can look hauntingly modern.

A wrenching film.

Deliciously confusing.

Shot mostly with a hand-held camera and in the gray hues you expect from the gruesome landscape, Kippur is highly sophisticated in its action scenes.

May prove too dark to make the list of Schwarzenegger's biggest hits. But the movie suggests the actor still has a lot to offer -- and he's willing to take some chances, too. Welcome back, Arnold.

A refined, tasteful film about pure, hard lust.

There's enough here to make anyone who enjoyed -- if that's the right word -- "Happiness" or "Magnolia" splendidly unhappy.

It's all speed, movement and blood -- lots and lots of blood.

Streep is simply amazing to behold, an actress who invests every fiber of her being -- every gesture, every inflection, every strand of hair -- into her performance.

Documentary of riveting personal stories.

If there's a flaw, it's that Kempner has fashioned more a hagiography than true biography.

This is a small, intimate movie bound to get lost in the holiday shuffle, but its pleasures are worth seeking out.

While House of Mirth is well done as a period piece, it has such an eerie contemporary resonance that you nearly forget about the horses and corsets and lamplight.

Despite its stylistic flaws, the acting and the magic of the story make Maelstrom a different kind of film.

A long overdue look at the man's art and an unself-pitying and unsparing exploration of her (his daughter's) relationship with him.

After a leisurely first half, The Devil's Backbone becomes utterly spellbinding, its tension mounting in steady increments, its story taking one dark turn after another, and its bittersweet resolution destined to haunt you long after you've left the theater.

While the film is undeniably melancholy, Moretti's trademark light touch keeps it from becoming overbearing.

It's just as voyeuristically enjoyable as those VH-1 has-been bios but without the soft-focus star shots and with far more edge, energy and originality.

An engaging and powerful portrayal of puberty gone awry.

Much of the charm in Tortilla Soup comes from Elizondo as Martín. He plays the devoted patriarch so alluringly.

Style is the main attraction in The Limey -- it's as close to experimental filmmaking as mainstream movies get -- but the film works well when taken simply as a pure revenge drama, too.

Eclectic, grandly engaging documentary.

Kitano's most enjoyable, flat-out fun movie, provided you can stomach the violence.

This genial, lyrical little movie seems guaranteed to broaden Kitano's fan base in the United States.

Shower is also a comedy -- but it's the movie's melancholy streak that is its strongest asset.

Zhang, who tried to make his actors as unaware of the camera as possible, lets the story evolve slowly and deliberately.

An unapologetically stupid and implausible movie, but in the best possible way -- it's so sure of itself, it wins you over.

Somewhat lumbering but ultimately rewarding plot.

Joy Ride is also surprisingly funny, thanks mostly to Zahn.

A wonderfully rumpled, loose comedy about the paralyzing fear of failure.

An exploration of how fear and mob rule can poison even the purest of souls.

It's a simple message, and it's delivered with a grace and subtlety that's rare in would-be blockbusters.

A sweet reminder of their lost and lively world.

What strikes you the most about this well put-together film is how little you're drawn to either character or really understand where either is coming from.

The Hollywood action genre, sliding into a lazy dependence on computer-generated fakery, needs this authentic kick to the head delivered by Jet Li.

Exuberant, often hilarious.

It's the slum, the favela, that emerges as Orfeu's most compelling character -- criminally poor yet rich in life.

It's a warm, skillful excavation of what look like ordinary lives, ones that aren't so simple once you dig a little deeper.

Something of Angela's Ashes does gets lost in translation -- mainly, its fiercely funny voice.

Impossible to watch passively. It may be a work of pure fiction, with the requisite preposterous plot turns, but it still has the air of a ''what if?'' scenario, and it is perfectly, thoroughly chilling.

The movie is not without its pleasures. Chief among them is Sean Connery's robust performance.

What makes this documentary worth seeing is the sensational courtside footage taken with IMAX cameras, which bring a whole new way of seeing the game to fans who don't get to sit in Jack Nicholson's section.

An exhilarating visualization of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel of betrayal and vengeance.

Medem may have disrobed most of the cast, leaving their bodies exposed, but the plot remains as guarded as a virgin with a chastity belt. That's why Sex and Lucía is so alluring.

Carrey's amazing transformation in Man on the Moon does justice to Kaufman's undefinable talents and his peculiar outlook on entertainment.

Under the Sun doesn't intend to be dramatic, much less melodramatic. This beautiful film just wants to capture life's simplicity.

Registers as a more scenic "Hoosiers" with rowdier fans.

Some of the most riveting passages of the film are Harris slathering skeins of rich color, dipped fresh from cans of house paint, onto canvases stretched out on the floor.

The movie isn't a thriller, but it has the tension of a thriller, and its cool, icy tone, deliberate pacing and clean, antiseptic lines are reminiscent of Kubrick and Antonioni.

The movie ultimately turns out to be less about sex than it is about the point in a friendship where two people decide they will both be better off if they part ways.

While Cacoyannis' film may not be totally faithful to the master's pen, for literature students and theater lovers, this Cherry Orchard is a rare treat.

If The Magdalene Sisters occasionally flirts with cartoonishness, the movie is tempered by Mullan's considerable filmmaking skills.

Provides a few of the best thrills so far this summer.

Never becomes cloying, because although Agresti does not lose sight of the great sadness at the center of his tale, he resists the temptation to overplay its bigger moments.

The result is an unwieldy but still compelling look at the plight of immigrants wrapped in a thriller about black-market organ transplants.

Simple and austere, The Cuckoo also draws from the mysticism of tales of gnomes and other creatures who inhabit remote Nordic lands. It is that blend of reality with allegory that delivers the film's beauty and charm.

Precious without ever being cloying, All the Real Girls is a wise, delicate and immensely touching romance.

An ensemble cast brimming with great theater actors and movie stars tears into a collection of meaty, moving, funny roles, with largely vibrant results.

It may not get top billing, but glorious music is the star of Songcatcher, an intriguing and often lovely film.

A sparkling exercise in movie cool.

Occasionally feels a bit suffocating, like being trapped at a party by a drunkard who won't shut up until he tells you his entire life story.

Sometimes the film feels as if it's trying too hard to include every possible horror a teenager could sample.

This is courtroom drama at is best, especially when you listen to the sublime soundtrack.

The story is worth telling, one that begs the question: Has anything changed?

It is as emotionally raw and wrenching as life itself.

This is a thriller that embraces stillness and silence where others prefer noise and bombast. It thrives on the hush before the explosion instead of its aftermath, and it's that eerie sense of expectation that gives the film its thick aura of suspense.

A fascinating record of how the movie fell apart, piece by piece, with everything short of a natural disaster conspiring against the filmmaker.

A rather luminous movie on the power of love.

Loses its nerve in the final minutes, relying on a series of contrivances to arrive at an unconvincingly pat, happy ending. The story begged for a darker, more biting resolution.

Quibbles aside, Ultimate X zips by speedily and is rad fun for sports fans and sedentary folks alike.

For those with the patience to latch onto Van Sant's slow, methodical groove. It's worth trying.

Better than its trailers indicate. Forget the seemingly silly Chapstick moment: Any film that sends a cold shock to your system is doing something right.

Celebrates a larger-than-life heroism that is, sadly, all too rare.

If Treasure Planet falls short of "Lion King's" classic status, it still proves there is plenty of room in animation for movies that aren't geared exclusively to 8-year-olds.

The movie asks tough, unflinching questions about America's responsibility to maintain world peace -- and the price we are willing to pay in order to accomplish that. Timely stuff, indeed.

The magic of the film lies not in the mysterious spring but in the richness of its performances. The producers have assembled a cast with three Academy Award winners.

Timing is key in a comedy like this, and Sonnenfeld keeps everyone and everything clicking. The pacing is swift and the laughs are steady.

Nothing fantastic or supernatural ever happens, but you can still feel cosmic forces at work behind the scenes, conspiring to repeatedly test the movie's characters, doling out reward and punishment in equal doses.

The charm of Jimmy Neutron is that it's both futuristic enough to intrigue kids and retro enough to hook their parents.

Just plain fun.

A slight movie, and in the end you wish it said a little more, but it is also a startlingly honest production. When it's all over, you can't imagine it being any other way.

Might have been unbearable if Linklater hadn't filled it with so much self-deprecating humor, undercutting the pretentiousness whenever it threatens to become too thick.

This is a rare breed of crowd-pleaser: a big-hearted, generous movie that never patronizes the audience.

A very engrossing movie, the kind that gives shameless manipulation a good name.

The package is perfectly irresistible.

In between all the emotional seesawing, it's hard to figure the depth of these two literary figures, and even the times in which they lived. But they fascinate in their recklessness.

More sour than sweet, but Steers knows that, even in a cruel, unsentimental world, there is room for forgiveness and hope. Just don't expect a hug.

An uncommonly playful fright machine -- a fun house factory of scares.

The kind of uplifting film families can enjoy without any reservations.

Surprisingly sweet and, dare we say it, old-fashioned, with an engaging sense of humor that's a definite improvement on lame, lowbrow efforts such as "Little Nicky."

Only a very stony heart could resist its pull.

Shows Jerry Seinfeld as you've never seen him before: being unfunny.

The world's newfound familiarity with the region's troubles only make Kandahar more compelling.