Chris Kaltenbach

The American writer and poet Charles Bukowski is certainly an acquired taste, and Factotum may be just the film for determining whether one wants to acquire it.

It's a deft sleight-of-story Aniston, White and Arteta pull off, giving us a character who seems more than she is, but is really less than she appears.

Craven's films aren't showy, but that should never be held against them. In their streamlined construction and rock-solid simplicity lay their brilliance.

Playing a perpetual victim like Victor (Walken) might be easy, but making audiences want to watch him for 97 minutes isn't.

Nicholson is terrific here, in a role that demands he act, rather than just be Jack.

Passionately acted and grittily convincing.

It's the rare film that trusts both its audience's intelligence and its emotions.

A thoughtful, engaging film.

An unrelentingly dark vision that's as hard to watch as it is impossible to walk away from.

If only all this wonderful talent wasn't in service to a story that pushes credulity beyond the breaking point, perilously close to the realm of farce. Too many coincidences, too much convenient timing, too little honest plot development.

In less accomplished hands, Black Book could have been a hopeless mishmash. But Verhoeven proves a sure-handed storyteller, which might come as a surprise, as well as a terrific visual stylist, which shouldn't.

The most exhilaratingly horrifying movie to come out in years.

The cast of Rain is first-rate, especially Wierzbicki and Peirse, whose tense relationship is as loving as it is competitive.

White throws in a dog-in-peril shot to ensure the audience's sympathies. The ploy works, perhaps too well, turning Year of the Dog less into the askew character study it wants to be than a showcase of lovable-dog shots.

A welcome anomaly - a shallow hero you root for.

Akin to being force-fed sugary confections from a bottomless bowl. At first the idea seems just grand, but after a while, all you want to do is scream, "Enough!"

Jew or Gentile, a good story well told is a thing to be cherished.

Some might find the whole thing exhilarating, but exhausting is more the word that comes to this man's mind.

It's a tough slog, but worth seeing once. [08 Nov 2008, p.4C]

This may be the quietest addict ever to hit movie screens, as well the most disturbing.

A wonderfully understated work offering insights to a world where no emotion is simple.

Nobody does this stuff better than Disney, and there's plenty here to like.

Offers plenty of honest, good-natured laughs in the process. That's something young and old can appreciate equally.

The images here are graphic and disturbing. But Miike somehow manages to stop just short of disgusting.

This is a movie that's really about how much fun Glenn Milstead had being Divine, and how he — perhaps unexpectedly — found so many fans willing to go along for the ride. That's an American success story worth celebrating.

Much of the film's virtue lies in its straight-ahead narrative and uncomplicated morality. That and the undeniable charisma and virtuosity of its star.

Comes across as more willfully clever than profound, leaving us to applaud the message while pondering why the messenger had to strain so hard to get it across.

The film's action doesn't disappoint; if anything, it ups the adrenaline ante considerably.