David Sterritt

The title means "The Swamp," and you may feel you're in one after 103 minutes with such a generally unlikable gang.

A film of great ambition and accomplishment...Such weaknesses aside, Jungle Fever remains the most thoughtful, provocative, and deeply felt statement on race problems and gender relations to arrive on screen in a very long time - and the funniest and most entertaining to boot.

Maybe the movie does so much dawdling and meandering so we'll have more time to bask in their presence; in any case, the otherwise pleasant picture uses up its ideas long before it uses up its running time.

A riveting movie.

Vigorous but rather scattered account of two gallant young runners in the 1924 Olympics, based on the real-life experiences of Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell.

In the end, however, the story is too contrived and melodramatic to reach its full potential.

Mississippi Masala is too ambitious for its own good, but it takes you to parts of the world - and parts of the American scene - that have waited too long for a place on the wide screen.

The chief reason for its legendary reputation is the brilliant match between its timeless historical subject - the trial that required Joan to defend her faith before skeptical representatives of church and state - and Dreyer's decision to film it primarily in relentless close-ups, using the sharply etched faces of his performers to suggest the invisible spiritual struggles going on beneath the drama's human dimensions.

Always hard-hitting and often grimly, revealingly satirical.

A deliciously weirded-out picture by Guy Maddin, a deliciously weirded-out Canadian filmmaker.

Redeemed by sensitive acting.

The latter element joins with Crudup's excellent acting to make this deliberately scruffy tale a worthwhile experience if you can handle its explicitly sordid subplots.

There's precious little to think about despite the screenplay's comic-philosophical musings on fate and coincidence.

Grodin is brilliant, though, practically stealing the movie without an extra word or unnecessary gesture. He's an uncommonly talented actor, and it's good to see him in a movie that gives him a chance to show his stuff. [22 July 1988]

The first half is high-quality science fiction, the rest is a high-tech chase adventure with a gleeful yen for destructive thrills.

Morris's unique blend of realism and surrealism gives the film great resonance as a portrait of one eccentric individual and, more important, a study of the morbid proclivities that run beneath the surface of our supposedly civilized society.

Good performances by a distinguished cast don't quite overcome the weaknesses of the disappointing screenplay.

Tavernier's compassionate views and long filmmaking experience shine through this eloquently acted drama.

Beneath its surface of chronic suffering and hospital details, Chereau's best drama etches a humane, sensitive, and richly moving portrait of fraternal love struggling to mitigate human frailty.

Told through both animation and live action, the fantasy is almost too inventive for its own good, filling the screen with unsettling pictures and situations that could be much too scary for young viewers.

Poignant and well acted, though not very memorable.

Filmed to perfection by the great Christopher Doyle and others.

Howard spins the story with enough gusto and gumption to make it reasonably entertaining.

The atmosphere is more compelling than the plot, but the story does pack a surprise or two.

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.

As a nonagenarian, de Oliveira is the world's oldest working filmmaker, and still one of the best. This is a lovely, lively, timely treat for the eyes and mind.

Reissued with the addition of 50 minutes trimmed from the original 1980 cut, Fuller's only A-budget movie is still among the lesser works of this frequently brilliant filmmaker.

Hovering between vivid countryside documentary and understated melodrama, this almost wordless film is a unique excursion into fascinating territory.