Bill Goodykoontz

The Babadook is a terrific horror film.

What matters is creating, and “Eat That Question” turns out to be a stirring look at the creative process examined, however reluctantly, by someone who created a lot, and exceptionally well.

What makes the movie so good is Williams' absolute refusal to play along.

An epic-length, fascinating film about faith and its opposite number, doubt.

Scafaria gives her characters and the situation an absurdist tone that makes the whole concept a little more palatable.

Eschewing a tidy wrap-up, Reeves doesn't leave us feeling manipulated, as so often happens in films like this. Instead, we want to know where the story goes from here, and that's no small accomplishment.

Floridly explicit, gleefully disgusting and yet somehow kind of sweet, the film is a showcase for Carla Juri.

Overall The Insult is a compelling, timely movie. Doueiri is doing what artists do: Making the personal universal, while at the same time showing the impact a few poorly chosen words can carry.

Creepy, confounding and more than a little curious. It's also quietly compelling.

Now this is a scary movie. And, given that it's a horror film, that means it's a good one. [18 Oct 2012]

An unorthodox delight.

The porn, the drugs, the smog, the bad haircuts - you can play it for laughs or play it straight. With terrific performances from Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, Black does a little of both. The film is at once a nod to hard-boiled film noir and a send-up of it.

The Dark Knight Rises brings the Batman story to a close in enormous, satisfying fashion, not just on the huge scale it builds for itself, but on a human level as well.

The directors (Lapeyre also wrote the film) have gathered a terrific bunch of young actors for the film, which plays at times like a “Lord of the Flies” knockoff but also has something original to say.

Abu-Assad does a masterful job of showing, in these seemingly hopeless circumstances, the fragility of life.

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is at once an awkward mingling of two complex life stories and a gripping, necessary look at how information is gathered, shared and, yes, stolen.

Not a lot happens, other than eating between small bits of drama and large doses of humor. If you saw the first film, you know how good that can be.

Moreno felt as if she didn’t have much worth as she struggled, she says. One of the most satisfying things about the film is that through decades of struggle she clearly has found that worth. It’s in her confidence, the confidence of someone who has come out the other end of a long struggle with the knowledge than nothing is going to get her down. You can’t get the best of her. It’s inspiring.

If you're willing to let a movie wash over you and work at what it might mean, you'll love "Holy Motors," Leos Carax's surreal ode to … identity? Movies? Performance?

Weisz’s performance is what provides the tension. It’s impossible to read her — or, more accurately, it’s possible to misread her. That’s kind of the same thing, but not quite.

Lanthimos makes statements about the nature of love and relationships and their place in society, and there are fewer statements more important than those.

Affleck is the center of the film. His Doug is, in some respects, rather like Affleck - the director of the elaborate heists, as well as a performer in them.

Whether it’s the next in a long line or a summation of a fun series, Mission: Impossible — Fallout is a movie that all but defines escapism at its finest.

The Fall Guy isn’t exactly Oscar bait. Which is fine. Instead, it’s the rare movie that succeeds on its own terms, doing exactly what it sets out to do, which is entertain its audience.

This is real edge-of-your-seat stuff, in a throwback way - no booming special effects, just old-school timing and execution.

It relies on a singularly brilliant performance by Colin Firth to make it one of the year's more satisfying films.

Osmond may tell the story to wring maximum emotion out of the audience, but so what? Isn’t that why people make these movies? It is. And more importantly, it’s why people watch them.

This is World War I from a woman's point of view, a different perspective than we usually see. It's the story of someone who doesn't fight — who would be so shaped by tragedy that she would vow never to — but for whom the horrors of war are just as vivid and devastating.