Elizabeth Weitzman

With so many cynical Hollywood romances cluttering theaters, Zhang Yimou's unabashed simplicity is most welcome.

A very funny, solidly entertaining movie that, despite its unshakable obsesion with undergarments, is as sweet as a Kwik-E-Mart Squishee.

Both public tribute and private therapy session, Baadasssss! should have been a self-conscious disaster. By confronting his past with wit and style, Van Peebles has instead created a meta-cool history lesson and homage.

Sloppy, self-satisfied and surprisingly heartfelt.

It's a tribute to both the subject and his biographer that this story of one man's experience is also a vital chronicle of the times in which he's lived.

If you're looking for either insight or even just an introduction into the mind of a great artist, "One Day" is worth the effort.

There are times, to be sure, when Herzlinger's antics threaten to swing from cute to cloying. But the few missteps are gently redeemed by an unexpectedly charming finish.

Here's hoping its old-fashioned sensibility appeals to contemporary kids, because we could certainly use more movies as smart and sweet as this one.

Bergman and his gifted cast do an excellent job portraying the wounded, but still vital, connections that help these people heal even as they fervently believe it's time to give up.

Strikes a nice balance between smart and sweet.

If Chalk had been made by Christopher Guest - an obvious influence - it would get the attention it deserves. Packed with sly jokes, hilarious performances and sad truths, the movie will probably become a cult classic among educators.

The result is a highly amusing folly, rendered with a surprisingly gentle affection.

The Painted Veil may begin too slowly, but it also ends too soon.

The Groomsmen captures a single, specific moment, when responsibilities await but adulthood is still unwelcome. If their predicament strikes a chord, you may want to join Burns' boys for their final hurrah.

Conventional, but intensely passionate, war movie.

Despite a brief, unnecessary foray into melodrama -- stands alone as compelling entertainment.

It feels as though we're on a journey with Benjamin, who proves to be a wryly funny, passionate and complex traveling companion.

The heavy subject is tempered with gentle humor.

The beauty of Ai’s epic imagery feels like a perpetual challenge: Are you looking? Are you listening? Are you responding?

Cahill deserves major credit for keeping the story from becoming mawkish or twee. He was also wise enough to realize it's Douglas' show, and as soon as he steps into the frame, you'll know it, too.

She (Walters) may be working with old news, but she shores up this shaky film with a heart the size of an ocean liner.

Just like the can-do VW Beetle of the title, Herbie: Fully Loaded succeeds adorably despite the obstacles in its path.

Where Kim's best-known movie, "The Isle," was a stomach-churner, this beautifully composed canvas is the sort of film one falls into, resurfacing at the end with great reluctance.

Csupo needed two very gifted leads to do this beloved story justice, and found them in AnnaSophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson.

Masterly coming-of-age drama.

Very little actually happens in the movie. There are no cathartic breakdowns or soul-changing epiphanies. Instead, we're offered a collection of small moments that feel so familiar, they remind us how false most films really are.

A risky experiment with a striking payoff, Ted K is an impressionistic attempt to personalize the most unrelatable experience imaginable: life as a killer.

A provocative reflection of its rule-breaking subjects, Brett Morgen's political documentary re-examines the past while drawing unmissable parallels to the present.

Dives into the brutal heart of a place most people would avoid at all cost.

To Devlin's great credit, he keeps us rapt throughout.

The whole movie is a blast, thanks to a whip-smart script clearly written for kids and grownups alike.

It's a "First Wives Club" for single guys, giving voice to a whole range of authentic, if not always responsible, attitudes and emotions.

Deftly intercutting between several tenuously-connected lives, Barbara Albert's astringent drama is transformed by bright flashes of compassion.

Despite a somewhat unpolished look and a few slips into cliche, the film makes up in sincerity what it lacks in sophistication.

Gentle and affecting, it offers an introduction to a mostly unfamiliar world while touching on issues recognizable to all.

For those who've become increasingly conscious of the connections between strangers sharing a city, it's a challenge that's hard to resist.

Certainly has the look and feel of a masterpiece, but it's missing the emotional core that most moviegoers need.

So yes, you'll roll your eyes when the coach defies Papale's naysayers by insisting that "he has heart." But if there's a single surprise on this familiar field, it's that the movie does, too.

While some may be put off by Peggy's wild-eyed mania, and the film's broadly comic tone, Shannon makes this lost spirit strikingly sympathetic.

Yektapanah's stripped-down methods --remote setting, a cast of locals, the sparest of scripts -- are used so effectively, it quickly becomes clear that he's most concerned with the similarities rather than the differences between people.

The jokes, fast and furious enough to satisfy both teens and intrepid parents, are far funnier than they are raunchy.

The result is a quietly simple fable that hits you hardest after it's over.

Indeed, this year’s Antiquarian Book Fair is celebrating its 60th anniversary at the Armory right now. And after seeing “The Booksellers,” you’ll be a lot more likely to think about how to get there, and maybe a little less inclined to place that next easy order on Amazon.

A neat little almost-thriller, this witty French diversion manages to mess with your head with little apparent effort.

Visually arresting and deeply disheartening, James Longley's impressionistic documentary explores the pain of a shattered country by homing in on a few tiny shards.

If you think of Reilly as little more than a camp icon, you've got a lot to learn.

Allen and Short seem to be having so much fun that their enthusiasm is entirely contagious. Let the season begin.

With its carefully-chosen soundtrack, funky animation, and enthusiastic interviews, Dean Budnick's affectionate documentary pays apt tribute to Wetlands, a local landmark that closed in 2001.

Won't replace anyone's annual viewing of "It's a Wonderful Life." But your family could find a worse way to take a holiday break.

Though some see Treadwell as an idealistic martyr who made the ultimate sacrifice for his passion, others vilify him as an arrogant fool who courted his own end.

It's clear that Kor's goal is to keep people talking, and thinking, about impossibly difficult subjects. And there's no debating her success in that regard.

Both epic and intimate, this impassioned samurai drama is for anyone who's ever watched a movie and muttered, "They just don't make 'em like they used to."

A crushingly dark vision of male rage and female vulnerability, Hélène Angel's accomplished first feature hits you like an anvil -- after it's all over.

The performances are impeccable, and the film’s structural elements are deftly handled across the board.

Jiang's razor-sharp conclusions are less about the Japanese army or the Chinese government than about simple human nature.

The most extraordinary thing about Me You Them is that no one behaves as though anything remotely out of the ordinary is going on.

Plenty of films owe a debt to "The Godfather," but it's rare to see inspiration used as successfully as it is here.

Turns the dangerous monotony of poverty and unemployment into something nearly hypnotic.

Because the film focuses entirely on the women's work, we learn too little about their personal histories. How did they even rise to such prominence in what appears to be an extremely patriarchal society?

There's no question that the film's primary intent is to showcase its stars, but thanks to their perfectly attuned performances, it feels more real than self-conscious.

An urgent, stirring story made all the more inspiring by the very ordinary nature of its subjects.

Despite the movie's intimate nature, Siegel deftly broadens his view to observe the culture and conditions of contemporary American farming. Don't be surprised if, by the finish, you wind up fantasizing about your own rural homestead.

Dropping in amusing anecdotes and tender memories, a deeply reflective Young revisits - and often reinterprets - both his recent and classic work.

Broomfield conducts riveting interviews with a former LAPD officer, Biggie's fiercely protective mother and assorted hangers-on, but the actual thrust of his evidence seems almost irrelevant.

The intimate history of Doug Block's parents becomes fodder for a broader look at family secrets in this complex documentary.

Weary and overworked to her very bones, Dora nevertheless has a heart of gold and a spine of steel. The movie does, too.

The many riveting moments will stay with you for days, and Padilla is well up to the task of carrying this intense story on his tiny shoulders.

Carefully walks the fine line between paying homage to a classic and entertaining a modern audience.

Clearly intended as a reminder that one person can move - or, at least, save - mountains.

Once in a while, a little reality can be a welcome antidote to our increasingly outsized film fantasies.

Mazel tov to Scott Marshall for creating an endearing portrayal of familial lunacy that ought to charm as many Smiths as it will Steins.

The kind of thriller we've seen a thousand times before. Fortunately, nobody told leads, Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins, both of whom devoutly believe they're in another, better movie.

Sauper captures a world in which life and death are treated with equal practicality - and disregard. His camera is unflinching; your gaze may not be quite so steady.

The story's fractured structure - and Christopher Doyle's dreamlike cinematography - make for a striking mood piece.

Pamela Yates' unblinking chronicle of recent Peruvian history paints a devastating picture of a people nearly destroyed by their own leaders.

A charmingly loony tale of two young loners who form an unlikely bond, this droll Japanese import puts the predictable banality of most Hollywood teen flicks to shame.

Ought to suit fans just fine.

Never shies away from either the beauty or the cruelty of the hunt.

Fox stumbles a little at the end, which is unnecessarily exaggerated. He should have trusted his own talent - it's the attention to minor details that makes his work so memorable.

A fascinating, damning picture of bourgeois boredom that manages to be both epic and intimate at the same time.

Rarely has Paris seemed more enchanting than in Danièle Thompson's optimistic ode to Gallic romance.

Watching Tuba's proud girls disappear into anonymous clouds of chadors says more than any political diatribe could, and Bani-Etemad is wise enough to know it.

A lovely little coming-of-age story, this Taiwanese romance was directed by Chih-Yen Yee with a skillful subtlety enhanced by his young cast.

Consistently compelling and required viewing for anyone remotely interested in pop culture.

Bong's primary point is dead-on: Battling bureaucracy, from dishonest government leaders to indifferent civil servants, is the biggest horror of all.

Enlightening and rather unsettling documentary.

The sort of film one should probably see either a half-dozen times or not at all. It's a complex, highly ambitious documentary that aptly reflects its subject, contemporary French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Both politically intricate and genuinely hilarious, Faat-Kine is a story grounded in dichotomies.

Eye-opening political documentary focuses on "the strange world of violence and fear, fantasy and deception, in which we now live."

Warm and engaging.

With a soundtrack that ranges from classical to jazz to bluegrass, this is not only an obvious choice for ­music lovers, but required viewing for anyone interested in the mysteries of creative inspiration.

This is powerful stuff, offering us not only a new look at the past, but to the unavoidably relevant insights into the present.

Even if this movie doesn't quite hit the highs of its predecessor, it's nice to know that there are still filmmakers ready to respect the eternal struggles of freaks and geeks.

While Enchanted wittily updates traditional tales, it is, in the end, as carefully calculated in its appeal as any movie ever was.

It’s no easy task to find a fresh way to approach a familiar face, but D’Apolito does a wonderful job ushering us through the highs and lows of Gilda Radner’s life.

As stripped down as its title, this gentle Argentinian road movie makes much out of very little.

Dynamite perfectly describes this riveting documentary.

With this moving, contemplative portrait of an artist who has suddenly become an old man, de Oliveira refuses to patronize either his hero or his audience.