Carrie Rickey

A feast for the eyes and ears as its story is a banquet for the heart.

The Big Easy is an extremely enjoyable (and well-lubricated) vehicle for two actors who aren't quite yet stars, but should be.

A melodrama painted in the saffron-and-turmeric hues of a Bollywood musical, Broken Embraces is the Spanish filmmaker's homage to Hitchcock's "Vertigo," that moody account of obsessional love and double lives.

Pazira, whose sapphire eyes blaze through the lattice of her slate-gray burqa, isn't much of an actress, as her singsong narration attests. But when not speaking, she has a commanding presence and is an effective witness to the ravages of war.

Do you need to have seen A Chorus Line to understand or enjoy Every Little Step? I think not. This companion piece to one of America's most beloved musicals is about human longings and shortfalls.

Wondrously emotional film, one that sneakily dismantles your defenses and purges grief you didn't realize you had.

A riveting remake of a pretty terrific 1957 western about manhood, fatherhood and honor.

A seven-word review: Very good performances. Much too much weather.

A mostly charmless affair.

For two hours I felt like a kitten chasing an elusive ball of catnip that remained just beyond my paw.

A small, quiet film that walks tall and resonates long after.

Bill Condon's screen adaptation of the 1981 Broadway sensation is, if possible, as dazzling and energizing as its source.

Exhilarating, breathless, must-see chronicle of the skateboarder revolution and evolution.

Not an easy movie to watch.

Set exactly a century ago, The Last Station is a droll tragicomedy starring those battling Tolstoys, whose family is unhappy in its own way.

Ain't no mountain high enough to keep the Funk Brothers from getting to you.

A story with a beginning and end but without a middle. Two slices of bread without the sandwich meat, I wrote in my notes.

Bravo to Brooks for conceiving Mother and for giving Reynolds a role that required her to do something more than merely effervesce. Here Reynolds bubbles, she boils, she exhibits a complex geology of human emotions. Her Mrs. Henderson is the mother of all mothers, and Mother is the mother lode of all comedies. [10 Jan 1997, p.05]

The movie trades in familiar virtual realities. Yet as realized by the gifted director Mamoru Oshii, who imagines cityscapes melting into circuit boards, Ghost in the Shell is where virtual reality meets superrealism. [9 May 1996, p.C4]

Wrenching, poignant, and quietly healing.

It lacks momentum, and thus the propulsion required to rocket it into the movie mythosphere.

The film is cannily made.

The film's humor comes in part from the gap between what Oliver says and what the audience sees.

Intermittently hilarious if also interminable.

Vibrant and vivacious documentary.

Rango is best enjoyed by those over 10 who have an idea of what "existential" means and can appreciate a surreal mashup of "Chinatown," "Gladiator," "High Noon," and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

As a movie, Steal is as finely wrought as the decorative ironworks that hang on the walls of the Barnes between Picassos and Seurats. Yet as a narrative of the facts, it is as one-sided as a plaintiff's brief.

Its deceptive simplicity makes A Better Life so emotionally profound.