Eddie Cockrell

Sixty years after World War II, descendants of a prominent Nazi responsible for implementing Hitler's policies in Slovakia reignite debate over their heritage in emotional docu 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him.

The serious subject of forced female circumcision becomes the stuff of predictable melodrama in God's Sandbox.

A mildly diverting, largely inoffensive teen laffer that's long on cartoonish high school hijinks but short on dramatic concentration and crucial story details.

Debuting helmer Vicente Amorim provides a determined forward movement, which, while lacking in cultural explanation, gives the saga uplift and punch.

This unaffected charmer treats a hot-button contempo issue with old-fashioned grace and benevolent wit, rendering it a sure-fire word-of-mouth crowd-pleaser.

Joyously funky documentary.

Has the frustrating feel of a rousing, epic oater sadly compromised.

A blue chip cast is wasted in the painfully unfunny ensemble comedy Niagara Motel.

"It's the ultimate Dogme movie, before the birth of Dogme," is how 79-year-old Lithuanian-born independent mainstay Jonas Mekas describes peaceful, enthralling assemblage encompassing home movie footage from last three decades of his life.

Consistently silly and intermittently laugh-out-loud funny spoof.

Picture raises pithy questions sure to provoke animated discussions pro and con. Credit Davenport for a mostly unbiased presentation that presents her own disenchantment in a balanced manner.

Todeschini has the most physically demanding role, with a gaunt face and ravaged body that utterly convinces of the brutality of the ailment.

A labored screwball comedy about disenchanted people of privilege yearning for fulfillment, pic is full of leaden hijinx directed and played with all the subtlety of a myocardial infarction.

A sibling survivor story of uncommon personal and political breadth.

Crowd-pleasing, darkly comic joyride.

The star plays Doyle as just rough enough around the edges to warrant the character's setbacks, but not so unpleasant that the twinkle in his eye is extinguished.

Superbly modulated yet unrelentingly grim, Mirage builds upon a remarkable performance from young Macedonian newcomer Marko Kovacevic to tell the tragic tale of a talented schoolboy driven to violence through neglect and manipulation.

Thesping is pitch-perfect across the board.

Sure, it's all been done before, but seldom with this degree of vigor and panache.

Continuing the late-career renaissance of historically urgent, politically engaged fiction filmmaking that began with 1999's "The Legend of Rita" and 2004's "The Ninth Day" German vet Volker Schloendorff stumbles slightly, but doesn't fall, with Poland-set Solidarity saga Strike.

An extraordinary performance by vet thesp Yolande Moreau in the title role.

A beautifully atmospheric vessel that will seem infinitely deep to some and chafingly dry to others.

Though treading a firm, clear-eyed line between education and exploitation, the well-acted and technically proficient drama -- too chaste to scandalize, too dark for general audiences -- works as a mobilizing tool for its cause.

Links narrative fiction filmmaking to avant-garde with vision and authority.

A vibrant, immediate treatise on love and cultural identity in a complex new world of fluid borders and deep suspicions in the stunning new Czech drama Up and Down.

A savvy sequel that should speak to anyone who's let that one great love slip away.

Although the outcome is public record, picture is undeniably gripping as it reveals a distressing degree of voter complacency.

As engaging and stimulating as the man himself.