David Sterritt

Unexpectedly subtle cinematic style.

It's an ideal match, and Eastwood deserves accolades as both director and star of this powerfully made picture.

The latest installment is packed with surprises and emotion for people who've seen earlier stages of the project, but even newcomers will be fascinated by the vivid glimpses it provides of everything from love and family to political action and the pervasiveness of class distinctions in British life.

Is this misogyny, as some insist, or a critique of misogyny, as others say? Many moviegoers, grossed out by the film's gothic approach to medical matters, won't watch long enough to find out which is the answer. [30 Sept 1988]

Heavily influenced by Quentin Tarantino's brand of quirky sensationalism, this high-energy saga by Paul Thomas Anderson goes a long way toward exposing the greed and stupidity of the pornography trade, then loses its moral compass and steers toward a sadly superficial ending.

As slow-moving as the voyage it portrays,...a surprisingly complex view of contemporary life beneath its good-natured surface.

Directed by newcomer Todd Field, who has a sensitive eye and a knack for storytelling.

Avoiding the clichés and condescension that characterize many films on religious figures, the movie is at once a compelling drama and a thoughtful look at faith-related issues on personal, social, and cultural levels.

A conventional dark comedy with moments of unexpectedly biting wit.

Nobody's Fool centers on a hard-luck guy named Sullivan, played by Newman with a wisdom and panache that recall the best work of his career.

The picture's thoughtfulness and ambition make it unusually suspenseful, gripping, and disturbing.

It's a picture marked by competence, not the boiling-over intensity that Frears and Thompson fans have anticipated. [30 Nov 1990]

One of Almodóvar's most challenging pictures, jumping around in time and sending a large gallery of characters through a wide variety of situations -- will find him again at the peak of his powers.

Swank gives one of the year's most complex and hard-hitting performances in the demanding central role.

It's the best animated fun of the year, and you don't need a lamp or a genie to enjoy it.

Smart, funny, stimulating.

The film should captivate anyone with a taste for bold cinematics, unpredictable storytelling, and pitch-black humor aimed at the worthiest of targets: a self-involved and self-congratulatory, industry that often gives lip service to art while worshipping the bottom line. [10 Apr 1992]

It combines a fresh and exciting style with stunning performances and that rarity in current film, a deeply humanistic story.

Loach has made more memorable films, such as "Raining Stones" and "Ladybird Ladybird," but his dramatic sense remains strong and his social conscience is absolutely unstoppable.

The acting is capable and the suspense is effective at times, but the gore is grisly and the climax is surprisingly hokey.

A fascinating nonfiction voyage into rural and urban France, focusing on idiosyncratic individuals who live off things the rest of us throw away, from food to furniture.

Politics and humanism find an engrossing balance in this ambitious drama based on the life of Reinaldo Arenas, a gay Cuban poet who was persecuted by the homophobic Castro regime.

Few American filmmakers put more faith in the ability of words to stimulate mind and heart.

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

Has a sense of emotional urgency and deep-dwelling grief.

The topic is well-suited to the Maysles brothers, who helped pioneer reality-centered "direct cinema" techniques.

The plot switches gears every time it threatens to run out of energy, which keeps the show as lively as it is preposterous.

It's hugely ambitious, with a sweeping range of character types, frequently shifting moods, stylistic flourishes of many kinds, and some mighty wry satire, aimed largely at the world of psychotherapy.