David Sterritt

It's not a pretty picture, but it won't be soon forgotten by thriller fans with nerves and stomachs steely enough to take its violence in stride.

This cleverly structured Argentine heist movie isn't as original or ingenious as it tries to be, but it's fun watching the chicanery veer down one unexpected pathway after another.

Deliciously acted and good-humored to its core, it's one of the summer's very best surprises.

The sequel is more exciting and surprising than the 2002 original, thanks largely to Molina's excellent acting. Only the strenuously comic scenes fall as flat as one of Spidey's leftover webs.

Patrick McGrath's novel provides a solid and suspenseful story, even if it loses much of its bite in Mackenzie's hands.

Pacino's performance in People I Know is the best thing he's done in ages.

Brilliantly filmed in his usual transfixing style, Kubrick's last movie pleads for alertness to the temptations that assail human nature from within and without.

This well-acted melodrama paints a convincing portrait of its Montana milieu, and its best scenes suggest real insights into the paradoxical attitudes toward masculinity and sexuality that American men often feel compelled to assume.

Doesn't make it a masterpiece, but it's fun. [2002 re-release]

This grim Danish-Swedish production is socially revealing and artistically creative, both coldly realistic and infused with compassion for its heroine and her youth culture.

The story seems awfully far-fetched when real people play the characters, but the canines are cute and Glenn Close was born to play Cruella De Vil, the monstrous magnate who sets the plot in motion.

This unconventionally structured thriller moves at an energetic pace, spurred by a string of clever variations on conventional film narrative.

Rich atmospherics and an all-star British cast make this a superior melodrama if you can handle the heavy-breathing sex scenes.

The documentary is revealing and chilling, although it doesn't explore the inner workings of the American criminal-justice system as thoroughly as one might wish.

Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith give uproarious comic performances as government agents ordered to keep New York's monsters in Manhattan, where they'll blend right in with the rest of the confusion.

Watching Demme's documentary is both a crash course in the nation's tumultuous past and a provocative visit with one of its most colorful citizens.

Brando made one of his most indelible impressions in this relentlessly dramatic, ever-controversial tale of loyalty and betrayal in the world of working-class unions.

Hilarious, frenetic, and touching, but stereotyped and superficial in its treatment of both homosexuals and conservatives.

The film isn't quite excellent, though, since it sags in the middle and starts to seem repetitive.

Bowfinger is mediocre . . . can be irksome, tedious, and hard to sit through.

Equally fascinated by the afflictions of life and the usually squandered opportunities these afford for courage and self-sacrifice.

A well-made entry in the fashionable caper-movie genre, which has gathered steam lately with "Ocean's Eleven" and others.

The archival and interview footage is priceless.

Malkovich is wryly amusing as German director F.W. Murnau, and Dafoe steals the show as a vampire playing an actor playing a vampire.

Funny, sad, and tinged with magic realism, this ambitious comedy-drama is as original as it is nimbly directed.

This colorful time capsule of a movie was directed by Van Peebles's son, who appeared in "Sweetback" as a child and doesn't minimize the difficulties his father's underfinanced dream entailed for his hard-pressed family and friends.

Buoyed by Lili Taylor's explosive acting, the movie paints a vivid portrait of Warhol's eccentric universe without stinting on lurid details and outrageous behaviors.

Written and directed with uncommon sensitivity by James Mangold, a strikingly talented newcomer.