Claudia Puig

Detroit has a vital sense of authenticity, rooted as it is in history, conveyed via Bigelow’s meticulously crafted cinema vérité style that, essentially, thrusts the viewer into the tense events. She is an expert at managing suspense and deftly blending sensitivity with a journalistic sense of details.

The film itself is dark and chilling, if occasionally plodding, but worth seeing for the absorbing potency of its main performances.

A haunting and disturbing film, set in 1938, about "widow houses." Though occasionally overwrought, it emerges as life-affirming.

This charming but slight tale has warmth, wit and interesting characters compassionately portrayed.

A badly constructed, blood-spattered caper that comes unglued early on.

The powerful two-person drama gets watered down by documentary-style footage and voice-overs. But it's worth seeing just for Weaver and LaPaglia.

As a film that pays tribute to vintage '50s Hollywood, Broken Embraces is a visual delight.

Mottola, who wrote and directed 1996's "The Daytrippers," crafts smart, witty dialogue. But the movie suffers in tone. While much of the story feels like a brainier John Hughes comedy, it veers into more dramatic terrain and loses focus.

It features a striking lead performance, but it ultimately leaves the viewer unmoved, and possibly confounded.

Inside Man may be a cat-and-mouse game, but it's far from predictable. What could have been a straightforward thriller is unusually clever, visually captivating and unfailingly entertaining.

With its introduction of wonderfully memorable characters and blend of humor, action and catchy tunes, Guardians is perfectly pitched escapist fun.

Touching, but not cloying, uplifting and hopeful but never sappy and also just plain funny. There is not a false note among the five core performances, nor a false word in Sheridan's script.

While style trumps substance, something in the way this '60s tribute moves attracts us.

Captures a potent sense of the Old West with its multidimensional raw performances and captivating final shootout sequence. But with its emphasis on emotional truths, it transcends the confines of a cowboy movie.

The look of this version may be the finest of the 27 Jane Eyre film and television re-tellings.

For those who like their spoofs silly and their cartoonish gore vivid, Shaun offers some amusement.

A gripping and fascinating tale of political intrigue that spans three continents, its focus trained on the volatile Middle East. It's a global portrait of danger, deception and disillusionment, with no dearth of human casualties.

Jennifer Hudson is the heart and soul of Dreamgirls. When she's on the screen, the movie shines. When she's not, the whole endeavor suffers.

The film is vital for both its history and its currency. Above all, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson works powerfully as a rallying cry for tolerance, love and understanding.

The film is not without flaws. It glosses over the story of the dissolution of Whitaker's marriage and does not delve deeply enough into the source of his problems with his son. A romance with recovering junkie Nicole (Kelly Reilly) rarely rings true.

Blue Car is like an unpolished sapphire, at once harshly realistic and resplendent.

The concert footage is mesmerizing; the planning leading up to the show is pedestrian.

Every second Helen Mirren is on-screen in The Last Station is a study in peerless talent.

Emerges as an African version of "Schindler's List."

The name is a tipoff: Club Dread is dreadful.

Much like Annie Hall did for a previous generation, (500) Days of Summer may be the movie that best captures a contemporary romantic sensibility.

An excellent adaptation of a wonderful work of fiction (The Age of Grief).

Despite the sad denouement, it's still the love story of the year.