Elizabeth Weitzman

It's a stunner.

Though overly self-conscious, this "Tale" is nonetheless wry, observant and frequently heartbreaking. It's also bound to make you feel better about your own holiday plans.

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

And oh, what stories these heroes have to tell - and what incredible sights they brought back with them.

While it's visually stunning, the pretentiousness makes it hard to take seriously.

Though not as impactful as Anderson's strongest works - including its adolescent cousin, "Rushmore" - "Kingdom" unfolds with an asymmetrical lyricism of its own.

Some of the artists appear ecstatically transported as they play. Others are just having one hell of a good time. Believe me, it's contagious.

You’ll get several movies for the price of a single ticket in Ryan Coogler’s (Creed) period drama-thriller-romance-musical Sinners. And while some of these disparate elements are more successful than others, the combination is audacious enough to leave you simultaneously awed and overwhelmed by his outsized ambitions.

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.

Trier's voice and vision, are thrillingly unique. His ever-searching camera, which never stops moving, takes us into places we've never been, know too well and won't soon forget.

A little miracle, Azazel Jacobs' lovely story of a life lost and found tackles big issues -love, maturity, fulfillment - in deceptively modest fashion.

The historically essential document they’ve created here pulses with an immediacy that will leave you simultaneously enlightened and stunned.

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.

Long stretches go by without dialogue or discernible action. But there are significant rewards for those willing to accept the movie's deliberate pace.

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.

With a respectfully committed cast, gorgeous scenery and two sad-eyed leads that will break your heart (the kid and the dog are equally adorable), this is clearly not your typical family film. Which will make it that much more appealing to every member of your family.

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?

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.

Andrew Bujalski's considerable gifts begin with his deep appreciation of the miserable, hilarious awkwardness of real life.

Brooks' shallow screenplay feels half-finished, and he never compensates with additional guidance or directorial flair. So all his actors are forced to flail about ineffectually. Apparently, none of them read the script in advance. Because surely then they'd have known to take a pass.

The issue, we come to realize, isn’t that Hite disappeared — it’s that she was erased.

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.

Although Voyages is mapped with anguish and fear, director Emmanuel Finkiel's characters are survivors, and he never lets us forget it.

Kechiche takes his time, allowing us to know the characters as if we live next door. But be warned: for those who come to feel like a member of the family, the unexpected end may seem strikingly unfair.

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.

The result is a visual treasure that successfully blends deadpan quirkiness with a wry realism rarely seen in any film, let alone one for children.

One of the sharpest satires in years.

It is to Padilha's enormous credit that he steadfastly kicks aside our own culturally imposed frames of reference, insisting that we see the truth, and the humanity, within this very real story.