Elizabeth Weitzman

Friedlander offers a nicely subtle performance, but the other actors - including Alan Cumming, Deborah Harry and Amy Sedaris - appear to have turned up as a favor to the director. Don't feel obliged to follow their lead.

With costumes taking precedence over character, the movie ultimately seems more concerned with atmosphere than action.

Overlong and dramatically thin.

Crudup tends to take average parts in standard genre films and turn them into something special.

If you take The Alto Knights on its own terms – as an eccentric but engaging curio – there’s still plenty of fun to be had.

Those who've read and loved the book should be satisfied, but it's reasonable to hope for more from the final entry.

The script unfurls too many obvious setups, but director Eric Valette is smart enough to rely on his most authentic effect — Dupontel’s natural intensity.

The humor is sharp and so are the judgments, which pile on until the characters are nearly suffocated under the weight of so much disdain.

If Boyd’s perspective is limited, his focus is sharp.

If any life story should make for a compelling biography, it's certainly Hugh Hefner's. Unfortunately, this love letter is so lacking in any edge, the end result is not just unsexy but unforgivably staid.

We have little to hang onto once the film falls apart. Between the ongoing sermonizing and that final, sharp shock - which is gravely mishandled - we feel cowed into submission, rather than led towards enlightenment.

A charming coming-of-age drama.

The beginning is awkwardly earnest, but the play matures considerably while retaining its youthful energy and enthusiasm

It's not sharp or ironic, but drab and downbeat. Unfortunately, it's also going to feel utterly familiar to those who've seen their share of independent dramas in the last 15 years.

In this visually and emotionally severe landscape, Reichardt has created the sort of film that will inspire grad students to write passionate thesis papers - and casual moviegoers to feel as lost as her would-be settlers.

Filmmaker and subject also share a disdain for restraint, shouting and jostling to ensure we’ve gotten their point. But while their parallel passions aren’t exactly subtle, they do make their mark.

Is it possible to enjoy the company of the world's most irritating woman? Mike Leigh's surprisingly sunny dramedy makes a pretty good case that, in fact, it is.

Cage, adopting an accent that could best be defined as Just British Enough to Sound Serious, adds some welcome weirdness to this otherwise generic production. He doesn’t fit in at all, but then again, who’d want him to?

The first feature from Adam Bhala Lough is brashly passionate in its desire to express the power and validity of graffiti art. But it's also preachy and single-minded, populated by a world of sympathetic heroes and hissable villains.

Despite its definitive title, you won't actually learn much about Alfred Hitchcock from Sacha Gervasi's briskly superficial biopic. But you'll enjoy the experience anyway.

This mundane romantic comedy is notable for one reason only: its leading couple.

The film is best suited for dance buffs excited by an unexpected congregation of artistic pioneers.

As full-length toy advertisements go, you really couldn’t ask for more.

Those who go looking for tragic relevance in Scott Rosenbaum's debut indie won't find much to grasp onto.

Don't misunderstand: the proceedings are pretty silly, and the scares were a lot fresher back in 1979, when we first saw "The Amityville Horror." But Cornwell and his cast take things just seriously enough to keep us at least intermittently on edge.

Weisz's meticulously crafted turn is certainly touching, but it lacks the immediacy of, say, Celia Johnson's in 1945's "Brief Encounter."

Although little Timothy does arrive in unusual circumstances, his story will feel familiar to anyone who's encountered Hollywood's particular brand of calculated sentimentality.

Boredom is the very basis of this sequel, at least at the beginning.