Derek Elley

Precision lensing by Benoit Delhomme, and charming, contained playing by the amateur cast, add up to a tasty package.

Has buckets to spare of that rarest screen commodity — genuine, engaging charm.

An utterly charming retro romancer set against a background of '70s movie going. Full of lovely touches and well-etched performances, and flawed only by a bland male lead.

Has a low-key power that comes as much from its off-handed approach to the dark material as from any manipulative techniques.

A thoughtfully written drama of ideas with vivid performances by August Diehl and Ulrich Matthes.

A movie that is utterly engrossing despite being, on the surface, about very little.

There’s plenty of unvarnished, off-the-wall Irish humor, especially in the ensemble scenes of family life and boozy barroom chat, plus real warmth beneath the rough one-liners.

Some genuine shocks punctuate The Exorcism of Emily Rose, an unusually intelligent genre item that manages to mix full-bore horror with courtroom drama.

Sverak's sheer technical finesse, and ability to spin on a dime between comedy and tragedy, the personal and the historical, makes Dark Blue World succeed where other similarly themed movies, from "Battle of Britain" to "The Blue Max," seem heavy-handed by comparison.

Very Korean in its emotional content, while also preserving a quizzical distance that is quite French, picture is one of his lightest and most easily digestible metaphysical meals to date.

Leigh’s gallery of haves and have-nots, of emotional anorexics and exploited deadbeats, carries a strong political charge that’s there for the taking. But the pic also plays simply as a black, offbeat comedy with a romantic undertow.

For all its digressions and occasional flat moments, Iwai's movie is a remarkable, acutely involving one, working on an emotional level that can only really be expressed through music -- a strong component in all of Iwai's pics.

The tangled tale of love and disguise is awesome in its action sequences but doesn't touch the heart to the same degree.

Marvelously involving family saga.

Highly enjoyable when all its gears are clicking, but rarely as good as it should be.

The film spins a beguiling web of detail that builds to a surprisingly throat-clutching finish.

The most emotionally satisfying pic to date by Korean iconoclast Kim Ki-duk.

A terrific performance by young actress Patricia Kovacs makes the high-stakes gamble of Down by Love -- a light psychodrama almost entirely centered on one character in an apartment -- into an engrossing 90-odd minutes.

An entertaining chick pic for all ages and sexes.

A cracking slice of old-fashioned, widescreen entertainment.

A funny, touching, off-the-wall relationer that's one of the freshest helming debuts in world cinema this year.

Poetic, bawdy, contemplative, often side-wrenchingly funny and finally quite touching, this tale about a nerdy garbage man whose life is changed by an egocentric hobo philosopher is flawed only by its length.

A true original…Beautifully shot, full of droll humor and at 77 minutes never overstaying its welcome.

A charming relationships comedy about food, gourmet cooking and emotionally chilling out. Anchored by a career-best performance from German thesp Martina Gedeck.

After several years of transition, Jackie Chan finally gets the mix right in The Accidental Spy, an entertaining meld of far-flung locales and criminal shenanigans that sees the 47-year-old action star comfortably combining the twin demands of action and maturity.

A small picture with a big heart.

Strength of Davies’ vision is the crux, and it holds the line to the final, confident fadeout.

Strongly recalls Hong Kong kung-fu movies of the late '60s and '70s, with physical grit, over-the-top heroics and inventive fight choreography providing the entertainment.