Claudia Puig

Sarah Polley's memoir is a poignant, funny and engrossing film, challenging our notions of memory and family mythology.

A marvel of well-rounded characters, strong performances and disarming chemistry, this deeply felt film is like a loving elegy to the end of childhood. It's easily one of summer's best films.

At once futuristic, funny and fantastical.

Wonderfully enchanting wintry fare.

Grimly dark humor and spot-on production design buttress the captivating story and heighten the unnerving atmosphere...Gone Girl will leave you breathless and haunted.

When was the last time you saw a blockbuster that was impeccably executed and simultaneously thought-provoking, audacious and unnerving while consistently being fun and entertaining?

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.

Land of Mine is a powerful epic, superbly acted, tense and unsettling, but also poignant and occasionally tender.

The Incredible Jessica James is an enchanting, deftly-written and witty movie for lovers and haters of romantic comedies, as well as for all those in between.

Marjorie Prime is a contemplative, intimate and poetic chamber piece, superbly told and nimbly acted, with equal parts nuance and empathy.

As involving as the story is with its impressive ensemble cast, “Norman” is above all a showcase for Gere’s substantial talents.

A deeply personal film about the crisis in reproductive rights that manages to be even-handed, insightful and deeply moving.

The captivating documentary Chavela, directed by Catherine Gund (“Born to Fly”) and Daresha Kyi, mesmerizes with its impressionistic blend of archival photos, musical performances, concert footage and candid interviews with the legendary singer herself, as well with her ardent friends like Pedro Almodóvar and former lovers.

Combining so many disparate strands — historical, contextual, personal and even gossipy — with the performative could have felt disjointed. But in Armstrong’s capable hands, it all comes together fairly seamlessly, providing a compelling portrait of Kelly’s noteworthy career.

This humanistic tale, helmed by a masterful filmmaker, offers a potent — and yes, inspirational — story of triumph against huge odds.

Fontaine powerfully conveys the religious women’s inner torment, but with restraint, both visually and verbally.

Pan's Labyrinth artfully fuses a war film with a family melodrama and a fairy tale. The result is visually stunning and emotionally shattering.

Thirty pounds lighter, all cheekbones and bulging eyes, Gyllenhaal plays one of the year's most memorable characters in this dark, provocative drama.

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

Depressing and gut-wrenching, but always powerful and gripping.

The net result is an entertainingly frightening film that keeps the audience in a state of alarmed, but eager, anticipation.

Borat is most gloriously funny moving picture for to make people see their stupidness.

Translating solitary musings, raw despondency and personal enlightenment into arresting visuals is a substantial feat and novelist/screenwriter Nick Hornby was the perfect choice to convert the fascinating book into a lively script.

The good news is that this is not merely a few episodes cobbled together: It's a real movie.

This unconventional psychological drama weaves a fascinating tale, and Collette and Williams give two of the summer's best performances.

Features the season's most tragic heroine along with some of the liveliest dead people ever seen on film.

Funny People nimbly intersperses humor and reflection. It is a rumination on mortality, fame and life choices, punctuated with Apatow's trademark raunchy humor.

A wonderfully odd, bleakly comic and thoroughly engrossing film.