David Sterritt

Its best moments are as exuberant and insightful as anything the screen has given us this season, and its passionate concern for believable characters in a recognizably real world offers a refreshing change from the current spate of feel-good fantasies.

Kim's movie conjures a sense of spiritual discipline as suspenseful as it is stunning to watch and exhilarating to contemplate.

How could such a high-octane cast produce such low-octane horror?

Gallo's earlier work suggests he has directorial talent, but here it's buried beneath too much ego to be detectible.

In reducing Presumed Innocent to a 126-minute film, director Pakula has necessarily stripped it of many complexities and ambiguities that lend the novel much of its interest. The performances are capable, if rarely inspired.

Some slow and vulgar moments aside, it's a minor treat for viewers who don't mind keeping their expectations low. [11 Oct 1985, p.25]

The movie's most original features are the awfulness of the dialogue and the hamminess of Richard Jordan's performance as a Nazilike policeman. He seems to have given up on the project long before director Alan Johnson ran out of film. [28 Nov 1986, p.39]

What makes the film stunning is less its metaphorical scheme than its cinematic style. Always a matter of flowing camera movement, Kubrick has photographed much of the action with long "traveling shots" that capture time and space as a seamless whole, not fractured into the bits and pieces of standard editing techniques. [26 June 1987]

Frankenheimer doesn't recapture the magic he once created in movies like "The Manchurian Candidate," but he does cook up an effective thriller in the "French Connection" vein.

Taking great commercial risks, director Martin Scorsese avoids movie-star performances and the psychological storytelling that Hollywood movies normally thrive on.

In this exquisitely filmed adaptation Pacino is as vivid a Shylock as we're likely to see. Despite all the scholarly excuses for this drama, though, it's shot through with outrageously anti-Semitic attitudes.

Rarely have Gibson's tears seemed more fictional than in this supposedly authentic account of a historical event that's far too tragic to merit such superficial treatment.

Sometimes disturbing but consistently fascinating.

The same story was told vastly better in the 1949 melodrama "The Reckless Moment."

Wittily written and deliciously acted, Lonergan's debut film is a clear cut above the average.

The comedy is often crass and crude, but it makes telling points about how much of "race" is more about the words and gestures we use than the actual colors of our skins.

Eventually you realize the whole movie has been about young showoffs who think it's uproarious to gross out neighborhood grownups.

Carpenter pulls out all the action-adventure stops, but he and coscripter Larry Sulkis forgot to write dialogue the audience could listen to without howling in disbelief.

The sensitive directing of Richard Benjamin and the exquisite cinematography of John Bailey give the comedy and drama a special glow, as do the strong performances by Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage and the stunning one by Elizabeth McGovern. [03 May 1984, p.29]

Quirky, heartfelt acting makes this a superior entry in the perennial teenage-misfit genre.

Contains extremely graphic sex and many twists that are unpredictable but not very compelling.

Kline stands out in the dual roles of the heartless tycoon and his playboy son.

An eye-opening movie, both socially and politically.

Brilliant, poetic, and utterly unique.

The acting is passionate, but the film would be more effective if it presented a more thoroughgoing lesson in the raging horrors that swept through European culture during the era of the French Revolution.

The main performances are generally weak, although the smaller ones are sometimes brilliant, and the yarn never builds much momentum as it leapfrogs from one subplot to another. [28 Dec 1990, Arts, p.14]

Get cracking, filmmakers. It'll take a lot of doing to beat this creep-show for worst picture of the year. It's about a computer programmer who beats the devil in a series of spooky challenges. No fewer than seven directors worked on it, and it doesn't make any sense at all. [23 May 1985, p.25]

A glistening gem among caper movies, this impeccably elegant jewel-heist drama takes its title from Buddhist lore, its cast from France's great gallery of leading men, and its style from the unique blend of cinematic savoir-faire and brooding existential angst.

Eastwood's performance is a built-in metaphor for Wilson's ungainly effort to be what he isn't. Seen in this light, it's a daring and moving piece of work. And so, despite flaws along the way, is the movie as a whole, which was directed by Eastwood himself. [13 Sep 1990]

More thoughtful and varied than the average Hollywood cartoon.

Figgis brings strong visual imagination to the first hour, but he can't rescue Richard Jefferies's screenplay from plot holes bigger than the manor itself.

While the story is sentimental, heartfelt acting makes its impact less manipulative.

Smart and sumptuous.

What's lacking in The Upside of Anger is a steady sense that we're watching real people cope with real, jolting emotions.

The show provides a prodigious number of giggles, and it's so short (well under 90 minutes) that you'll have plenty of time to rent the original This Island Earth and test out wisecracks of your own.

The animation is deft but the screenplay is stilted, the voice-performances are unimaginative, and the whole project is surprisingly clumsy in its efforts to please young and old alike. A major disappointment.

Not even veteran talents like Dukakis and Scheider can surmount the artificial dialogue, arbitrary plot twists, and wan humor of this disappointing comedy-drama.

The movie is enriched by its fine acting and by its creative respect for an innovator whose influence still permeates contemporary art.

Add marvelously imaginative directing -- finally Yakin fulfills the promise he showed in "Fresh" almost a decade ago -- and you have a colorful, creative, deliciously frolicsome romp.

The Plot Against Harry isn't likely to be a smash hit; it will be most successful in large cities, with audiences who want something different from slam-bang Hollywood comedies. But it has the special kind of charm that comes from watching believable characters behaving in real, if eccentric, ways. [02 Feb 1990, p.11]

Gary Oldman and Lena Olin give energetic performances, ably supported by Annabella Sciorra and Roy Scheider as a long-suffering wife and a high-powered mobster. But the movie's main distinction is its increasingly lurid tone, reaching heights of mayhem so bizarre they're almost surrealistic. [4 Feb 1994, p.12]

This intensely topical satire tackles a wide range of important issues, from corporate whistle-blowing to the toll sexual license takes on stable family structures.

Has to be called one of the year's best movies. Credit goes partly to the built-in fascination of its subject and partly to its excellent cast.

The subject and the film clips are great, although the documentary as a whole is a bit gimmicky.

The story is a sort of "Stella Dallas Meets Slums of Beverly Hills," helped by heartfelt acting from its talented stars.

Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston give mature performances as the bereaved parents, and David Morse brings an offbeat touch to the basically decent man who traumatized their lives.

The acting is sincere and the camera work is pretty, but this art-movie variation on "The Sixth Sense" doesn't have enough energy to fulfill the high promise of Berliner's previous picture, the enchanting "Ma vie en rose."

Sensitive, imaginative.

Sail to the box office, swashbucklers. Dumas is back in style.

Bogosian's performance is one of the film's weaker links, however; he misses the full-bodied intensity his character demands.

Even when its emotions run a bit out of control, Kramer vs. Kramer is a strong and positive film. Its performances are first-rate, from Hoffman and streep down to Howard Duff (as a divorce lawyer) and a terrifically talented lad named Justin Henry, who visibly matures in his portrayal of Billy, the contested kid.

Bassett and Diggs are appealing as the slightly odd couple, but the movie rambles on too long.

Too bad (Arnold) can't save the movie from it's superstitious clap-trap, sadistic violence, and sheer silliness.

Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman give sturdy performances, but Neil Jordan's historically based drama seems oddly cool and distant with regard to its incendiary subject.

Anderson's cinematic style gets more adventurous from one movie to the next, and he begins this story with bursts of originality that leave his respected "Rushmore" far behind.

Janeane Garofalo and Uma Thurman make a bright-eyed comedy team in this romance.

The movie morphs into a deconstructed remake of "Indecent Exposure" and it's downright riveting, with Campbell doing her best acting to date.

David O. Russell hasn't yet developed enough filmmaking savvy to juggle so many intellectual, emotional, and narrative elements. He's clever and ambitious, but perhaps too much so.

This is a lively, life-affirming documentary no viewer is likely to forget.

The best reason to see It Runs in the Family is the sight of unquenchable Kirk.

Far from the movie of the year, the first installment of the long-awaited Lord of the Rings trilogy is an all-around disappointment.

A scrupulously balanced look at the subject outlined in the title. Packed with historical, sociological, and cultural context.

Blends compassion for individuals with explanations of the socioenonomic factors that influence them.

Its best moments offer a sense of motion-picture poetry that will lift receptive viewers out of their seats.

The story has more violence than brains, but Hong Kong action star Chow makes an interestingly moody impression in his first Hollywood role.

A profound film by a legendary director in the greatest period of his career.

Riveting, suspenseful, and a perfect antidote to the too-tricky documentary "Super-Size Me."

The picture is effectively made, but viewers will want to erase the horrific violence that erupts in scene after scene, leading to an unusually mean-spirited finale.

Contains quite a few grisly and ghastly images.

How did a dignified pro like Duvall get stuck in this fender-bender?

It's as forgettable as they come.

The acting and directing are uneven, but many scenes have strong emotional and political power.

It's a troubling, courageous, compulsively watchable work of art.

Though it periodically loses its way among cardboard characters and stereotyped scenes, it deserves hefty credit for attempting more than the average movie dreams of accomplishing. [13 Aug 1981, p.18]

But the drama's attack on racism would be more persuasive if it rejected vigilante justice and recognized that hatred and violence of all kinds must be condemned if evils like bigotry are ever to be eradicated.

Must-see viewing if you're not quite sure the sun really set over the British Empire.

This poetic and compassionate drama by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan combines the intricate structure of his earlier movies with an emotional power that raises his remarkable career to a whole new level.

Hal Hartley's innovative comedy-drama is more ambitious than successful, but it deserves credit for trying something genuinely unusual.

Suffers from a lack of chemistry.

Some of the suspense set-pieces are impressive, but the picture would pack a greater wallop if it were stitched together more tightly and consistently.

Lovely to look at, if not very deep in its thinking about relations between humans and their animal friends.

Allen has fun with all his roles -- The rest of the acting is bland, but the movie's preteen target audience won't mind, and adults will find occasional grown-up jokes to chuckle at.

A true American tragedy, directed with skill and conviction.

If you can handle its horror-comic grotesquerie, you'll find an enormous amount of cinematic imagination at work.

Offbeat tale, which tackles weighty themes. But sentimentality overtakes intelligence.

The movie is well acted, deeply moving, and unlike some love stories, it doesn't feel forced or contrived.

Shots of blood and naked bodies clash bizarrely with Coppola's more quaint and engaging notions; the result may be intended as a dialectical encounter, but seems more like a head-on collision.

Its greatest assets are imaginative camera work and top-flight performances from Pam Grier as the heroine, Samuel L. Jackson as the deadly boyfriend, and Robert Forster as the bail-bondsman who falls battily in love with her.

The fine cast is also misused -- especially Kidman, who looks as unruffled at the end of her torments as before they began, and Zellweger, who does a job of overacting that might have gotten rejected by "The Beverly Hillbillies."

The story is as contrived as it is comical.

Great premise, but the ensuing trials and tribulations - not to mention hapless attempts at comedy - are as off-key as a karaoke scene in which Hudson sounds worse than any audition Simon Cowell has ever had to sit through.

Excerpts from Schroeder's long video documentary about him, and from the flawed melodrama "Barfly" they made together, add more variety.

The result is a run-of-the-mill fantasy, competently produced but disappointingly familiar, from its "Forbidden Planet" premise to the digital-clock countdown near the end.

This is not a happy tale, and its ending will have moviegoers reaching for every handkerchief they can find. But its compassion is as clear as the talents of the folks who made it.

The delights of the movie lie in its zany characters, its goofy settings, and above all its surrealistic visual style.

Always hard-hitting and often grimly, revealingly satirical.

This deliciously offbeat Canadian comedy gets its charm from marvelous acting and from a screenplay bursting with ideas. Great fun.

Conjures up enough involving moments to create some drama.