It's like watching Alfred Hitchcock try to solve a Rubik's cube in a roadside diner.

Rapturously elegant and deeply sexy in a deliciously restrained way. One of the most romantic movies I have ever seen, right up there with "Brief Encounter"and "Casablanca."

Those with the stomach to sit through Decline will be rewarded with a lively, masterful documentary.

While Tarr's newest epic, Werckmeister Harmonies, isn't intended for the shopping-mall crowd, it is more viewer-friendly and will please adventurous moviegoers.

Its superb performances, music, photography, dialogue, its rhythms of tone and theme all complement each perfectly.

This is one perfectly terrifying movie, an instant classic.

Comes as close to perfect as any movie I've seen lately.

A really classic adventure yarn with one of Hollywood's great actors hitting one out of the ballpark. If you're seeing only one movie this season, this is the obvious choice.

Breakneck, raucous and thoroughly exhilarating.

The latest episode of this ongoing masterpiece of reality TV -- which every seven years revisits a group of English people first interviewed as 7-year-olds in 1964 -- is every bit as enthralling as the earlier ones.

Less a conventional biography than a performance film - one that stuns and delights.

It's a highly erotic work that at no point seems staged. Credit brilliant use of fog, mirrors, silhouettes, slow motion and special effects worthy of a music video.

You'll laugh, you'll cry -- the year's best movie.

Essential viewing not just for those fascinated by adventure, exploration and survival, but for anyone interested in the magic of leadership.

The result is a magnificent feast for the eyes and brain.

Glossy, big-budget thriller that qualifies as the season's biggest and most rewarding surprise.

Bursting with energy and originality even after 36 years, A Hard Day's Night is easily the best show in town.

An absorbing, deeply affecting, well-acted --and remarkably evenhanded -- antiwar statement. It's also incredibly suspenseful and very blackly funny.

The breathtaking visual and aural restoration by Coppola and Murch makes the film's original glories even more intense than you remember them.

An all-time classic that seems even better after two decades.

It's hard to remember a film that mixes disparate, delicate ingredients with the subtlety and virtuosity of Sofia Coppola's brilliant The Virgin Suicides.

An unqualified triumph, the year's best movie so far.

An extraordinary experience: an original and brilliant combination of comedy, action and sophisticated political comment -- the best American movie of the year thus far.

If she (Paltrow) were the only good thing about Shakespeare in Love, it still would have been worth seeing; that she is the crown jewel in a glittering tiara of a film studded with writing and acting gems testifies to the deep pleasures to be found in this remarkable movie.

Lee's incendiary and brilliant new film.

The year's best foreign-language movie an absolute must-see.

It ranks among Robert Altman's best work ever, and that its many satisfactions derive in large part from a superbly written screenplay by Julian Fellowes that has no equal this year.

A heart-pounding experience that makes you think and contains a gallery of characters that will haunt your nightmares for years to come.

Hands-down the best movie of the year.

So consistently involving because the excellent cast delivers their lines with the kind of utter conviction not seen in this kind of movie since the first "Star Wars."

Like a bomb exploding in a fireworks factory: It's fierce and shocking and dazzling and wonderful.

A rare case of an American remake that actually improves on a European movie.

A flat-out masterpiece, surely the best movie of the year; indeed, an all-time classic.

An unqualified triumph.

Sheer delight. An ensemble comedy-drama that recalls Robert Altman's best work.

A film of such cyclonic visual and emotional power, of such dazzling virtuosity and shattering humanity, that it is difficult to endure, yet alone describe. Savagely beautiful and savagely true, Saving Private Ryan is an excruciating masterpiece.

Being John Malkovich, which contains not a frame of extraneous footage, is more than a must-see movie: It's a must-see-more-than-once event.

You have never seen a movie like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon because there has never been a movie like it.

A Japanese cross between "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz" -- is such a landmark in animation that labeling it a masterpiece almost seems inadequate.

Perhaps the year's most daring and fully realized movie, is a pitch-perfect re-creation of '50s melodramas, showcasing a four-hankie performance by a peroxided Julianne Moore.

Short and sweet, small and smart, Tadpole is the oasis in the desert of dopey summer blockbusters - an uproarious, sophisticated coming-of-age comedy so flawlessly written, acted and directed it seems practically miraculous.

Summer hasn't even started, but you won't likely find a better catch this season than Finding Nemo, a dazzling, computer-animated fish tale with a funny, touching script and wonderful voice performances that make it an unqualified treat for all ages.

A thrilling, beautifully crafted, fact-based horse story that's not merely the summer's finest movie, but may well be the one to catch come Academy Awards time.

It's impossible to conceive of this ruefully funny entertainment without Bill Murray, who is nothing less than brilliant.

It's a wistful yet penetrating film, shot through with magic realism and life-affirming humor, that gets you deep down where you live.

Chomet's wacky tale is so crammed full of eye-popping images, it's impossible to forget afterward.

A majestic conclusion to a nine-plus-hours epic that stirs the heart, mind and soul as few films ever have.

Audacious, thought-provoking and ruefully funny.

At turns sexy, ultra-violent and sweet, it will infiltrate your brain long after you've seen it.

Chance encounters and fated love are the stuff of fairy tales, which is what makes the deliriously romantic sequel Before Sunset a small miracle.

A gorgeous, poetic and stirring epic.

Caouette has used art, wit and a huge heart to forge his experiences into an unqualified masterpiece.

Who's going to love it? Anyone with a sense of humor: Team America: World Police is hands-down the funniest movie of the year.

A sublime variation on the buddy road movie, infusing the midlife crises of the two main protagonists with hope and poetry.

Pure magic.

From the Hitchcockian opening credits to the final frame, Almodovar has Hitch on his mind.

The movie equivalent of a 12-course feast crammed with unforgettable images and mind-boggling stunts.

A spectacularly rendered tale of a family of superheroes, takes the art form to a whole new level.

A spare, exquisitely realized masterpiece about faith, redemption and boxing that beautifully illustrates his longtime philosophy that "less is more."

Delightful performances are delivered by all in this ingenious work of cinema that is worth seeing if only for its glorious views of the Himalayas.

This isn't a war movie. Rather, it's a powerful, heart-tugging portrait of the innocent victims of conflict.

24-karat stuff, even if it has a soul of tin. With the voices of Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams and Mel Brooks, Robots is a giddy erector-set update of "Toy Story" with a splash of "The Wizard of Oz."

A stunning drama from that remote former Soviet republic.

Park's direction is flawless and Jung Jung-hoon's cinematography is stunning.

A great movie, period. It's great because it's so real.

No adventurous filmgoer will want to miss Tony Takitani.

Vividly re- creates TV news icon Edward R. Murrow's historic face-off with Sen. Joseph McCarthy in devastatingly low-key detail -- is the right movie at the right time.

One of the oddest, most perplexing -- and delightful -- films to come along this year. And last year, too.

Walk the Line superbly combines music and two of the year's most riveting performances to tell one of the screen's great love stories.

Break out the popcorn and prepare to be blown away. King Kong is the most pulse- pounding and heart-stirring romantic adventure since "Titanic."

Masterful, atypically political - and flawlessly acted.

Profound and majestic.

Ron Howard's splendid The Da Vinci Code is the Holy Grail of summer blockbusters: a crackling, fast-moving thriller that's every bit as brainy and irresistible as Dan Brown's controversial bestseller.

Russian Dolls is itself a delightful mini-trip to Europe. Its overly cute bits are like cinematic tourist traps, but it's the beauty that stays with you.

Deserved an end-of-the-year prestige release, is a true work of art in a marketplace filled with velvet paintings. It's positively magical, the reason we loved movies in the first place.

All hail the great Helen Mirren, who after her triumph in HBO's "Elizabeth," delivers the performance of a lifetime as that monarch's frumpy, 20th century namesake in Stephen Frear's witty, touching and engrossing The Queen.

Dropping by on the same people every seven years like an old friend - or an unwelcome relative - Apted has constructed a peerless, suspenseful work that develops character to a depth that would make Tolstoy jealous. If you have any interest in documentaries, watch the DVD of the first film, "7 Up" (49 Up hits DVD Nov. 14). You won't be able to stop.

Beach ("Windtalkers") gives a tremendously moving, Oscar-caliber performance as Hayes, portrayed by Tony Curtis in an earlier movie and celebrated in a song performed by both Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.

I can't wait to see Borat, which has twice as many laughs as all of this year's other movie comedies combined, for a fourth time.

This is a serious movie overflowing with memorable acting, unforgettable images, searing tragedy, unexpected humor and an eloquent plea for international understanding. And while it's by no stretch of imagination light entertainment, it's fundamentally a more optimistic work than either "Amores Perros" or "21 Grams."

Happy Feet is not only the year's best animated movie, it's one of the year's best movies, period. Go.

Taken together, Eastwood's masterworks - two of the best films of 2006 - may be Hollywood's last word on World War II.

A sublime meditation that is one of this year's wisest, warmest and funniest films.

Nothing this year comes close to being as utterly unforgettable as Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, an extremely dark and disturbing fairy tale for audiences say, ages 12 and up.

Ridiculous comedies can be fine, but the ones that matter creep up close to the truth. This one lives in it.

Porumboiu, who also produced and wrote, elicits remarkably deadpan performances from Teo Corban (as the show's host), Ion Sapdaru (the professor) and - especially - Mircea Andreescu, as the old man. Even the subtitles cracked me up.

If there is a genius working in Hollywood today, it's animation director Brad Bird, who tops the delightful "The Incredibles" with arguably the finest 'toon in the Pixar canon, Ratatouille.

What a sweet collision is Rescue Dawn: the American psycho meets the German kook.

The best and most entertaining movie adaptation of a stage musical so far this century - and yes, I’m including the Oscar-winning "Chicago."

This flick is fast and ferocious, his (Sidney Lumet) sharpest and best since "Prince of the City" (1980) - and surely one of the year's finest.

Denzel Washington dazzles in his best screen performance to date as Frank Lucas.

The first movie I've seen in a very long while that deserves to be called a masterpiece. It's such a stunning achievement in storytelling.

You won't have a more viscerally emotional experience at the movies this year.

Hollywood's Woman of the Year is a pregnant 16-year-old, the incredibly hip, smart-mouthed and totally endearing heroine of the wise and witty Juno.

What might seem like showing off in another movie is dazzling storytelling here, packing in an hour's worth of human misery.

A charming, hilarious robot love story aimed at the entire family.

Director Zack Snyder's cerebral, scintillating follow-up to "300" seems, to even a weary filmgoer's eye, as fresh and magnificent in sound and vision as "2001" must have seemed in 1968, yet in its eagerness to argue with itself, it resembles "A Clockwork Orange."

It's time to stop calling Azazel Jacobs a "promising" filmmaker. With Momma's Man, Jacobs achieves the promise.