Carla Meyer

Superb.

Unlike the sometimes cornpone depictions of backwoods life in “Winter’s Bone,” the folksier moments here seem organic.

The nagging desire to help these people underscores the involvement of the audience in this superbly told story. You can almost taste the saltwater, and the fear.

Payne's little marvel.

A masterful portrait of the seasons of a life.

A heartbreaking, powerful drama.

The film, winsome and tragic at once and finely attuned to the rhythms of childhood, always seems quite close to real life.

Frank, funny and true as "Ghost World."

Remarkably fresh and inventive.

Fueled by exquisite performances from Tony winner Erivo (“The Color Purple”), as Elphaba, or the Wicked Witch of the West, and Grammy winner Grande as Glinda the Good Witch, “Wicked” is the best movie musical in years, representing a rare instance when performances, visuals and songs are of equally high quality.

Compelling.

Bright Leaves' takes on a sizable foe -- in this case, big tobacco -- but with such grace and wit that his message never seems medicinal.

Beautifully acted and suffused with warmth and humor, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret is a film worthy of the long wait in bringing Judy Blume’s classic 1970 children’s book to the screen.

A superb film.

The concept is high, the humor lowbrow and the joy of experimentation evident in every frame of this wonderful picture.

Hyper-violent yet emotionally powerful.

The new film by documentary editor (“RBG”) turned director Carla Gutierrez distinguishes itself by using the artist’s own words — largely taken from Kahlo’s illustrated diary — to tell her story.

Early scenes are unnecessarily horrific, and the final scenes falter from a disconcerting shift in tone. But this still leaves a significant stretch of beautiful acting, thoroughly engaging action and vital history lessons about the brutality on which some supposedly civil societies were built.

As good as both actors are, watching characters sitting around talking gets old. But the film perks up considerably midway through, becoming a taut beat-the-clock thriller as it covers the days just before Bundy’s 1989 execution, the tension lying in whether Ted will fulfill his 11th-hour promise to confess.

Hawkins, Bonneville and voice actor Ben Whishaw — who makes Paddington sound like the Geico gecko minus the attitude — give the film a strong base of kindness.

Enlivens the classic premise of innocent-in-the-city by moving its archetypal characters in unexpected directions.

Tilda Swinton's rich, compelling performance is reason enough to see this uneven picture, which devolves from a riveting romantic triangle to a morality tale without a moral center.

The story’s eventual move into brutality is all the more devastating because of well-observed intimacy that preceded it.

It's really just old- fashioned melodrama, dressed up with lustrous cinematography and a few nods to history.

A one-woman show.

Judging by her funny, warm, drawn-from-life feature directing debut Wine Country, Amy Poehler is a gracious friend. She and screenwriters Emily Spivey and Liz Cackowski ensure that the many former “Saturday Night Live” performers and writers assembled for this Napa Valley-set Netflix comedy get moments to shine.

The film doesn't always work, but it captures the buzz of moviemaking, and that's infectious.

The film’s best moments show the characters bonding as teens, “Breakfast Club”-style, within their new bodies.