Desson Thomson

May leave you more cold and stunned than enlightened.

You're exhilarated from beginning to end.

It doesn't seem like overstating things to say that Eros becomes steadily worse as it goes along.

An extraordinary film ... that's impossible to dismiss or leave unmoved.

Someone definitely inhaled too much before making this one.

We may not get to their innermost feelings, which would have taken this documentary to a deeper, maybe darker level, but the movie's purpose is celebratory. As such, it's a satisfying experience.

The movie, which is based on the Lowell Cunningham comic book series, throws out some wonderful implications, but they’re frustratingly few and far between.

A canny (and profoundly sexy) movie.

The movie's entertaining for some wickedly funny situations and witticisms.

Often wickedly funny, but about halfway through, the premise becomes -- shall we say? -- intestinally overextended.

O'Neal's performance, on the other hand, could incite angels to throw tomatoes from heaven. As the meek-and-noble reporter (who never seems to find time to file stories), he seems to be a confused Barry Lyndon, inexplicably whisked into this century and given a Georgetown lease, a ridiculous movie role and a byline. You get the feeling that, like this movie, his news stories need editing.

Cheerful, energetic and on the money.

A bare-bones outline ignores the performances, the stirring music, the close-in camerawork and the direction of Steve Anderson. The emotional punch and atmosphere of the movie soar through any hokiness. Plummer's search for the son he never saw grow up becomes a powerful odyssey.

A highly watchable slice-of-low-life entertainment. If this isn't her best role, it's Dunaway's gutsiest.

It's more a collection of episodes that build to a complex, richly layered picture of these girls' lives. And the more time we spend with them, the more endearing they become.

The movie Casanova, starring Heath Ledger, not only fetters the randy Venetian in political correctness, it condemns him to dwell inside the modern equivalent of a bad Shakespeare play.

Newton may not be a great actor, either, but she's full of life and charm. She's the only thing holding this movie together at all.

It's full of good heart, and you can't help but like its unequivocal sentimentality.

Compelling, if throwaway, drama.

Essentially, Chuck & Larry is an oafish chance for audiences to laugh at gay-bashing jokes and then feel morally redeemed for doing so -- courtesy of an obligatory wrap-up scene that reminds us that homosexuals are humans, too.

If you're a fan of Witherspoon, this movie was produced, shot, edited and distributed entirely for you.

Like Casablanca, Diva, Clockwork Orange and countless other quality-cult films, Prick Up Your Ears has an indefinable idiosyncrasy that makes you want to come back for more.

It's also genuinely moving to see disenfranchised individuals discovering self-determination from the hard ground up.

Parents is an impressive debut, and certainly the most provocative new release around town. You may leave this movie realizing how dark your childhood actually was. You may also leave a vegetarian.

You'll be rooting for these people to get slaughtered out of sheer boredom.

There are more climaxes in here than in a Swedish blue movie. This is not to say you won't be thrilled, charged up and put through the ringer at times, but your intelligence will need to be shoved under your seat like warm, flat soda.

A little too shopworn and pokey to be more than a respectable European diversion.

Start lining up now, bring a bullwhip -- and maybe some d-Con. Indiana will do the rest.