Ernest Hardy

What follows is a film as odd as its title character. Timothy flings grown-up ideas at the viewer but rips the teeth from them rather than risk our discomfort.

Drumming doesn't quite have the skills to finesse the varying tones demanded by his textured script...and he could have taken one more pass on smoothing out character arcs, which are too truncated to be believable in a few cases. Still, the ensemble cast is fantastic, and Drumming is a talent to watch.

What could have been an impossibly bleak viewing is actually made more unnerving through DeFriest's droll humor and acceptance of his fate — rather than being Zen-like, he's prickly and dark, with such dazzlingly high native intelligence that you mourn for potential needlessly wasted.

Stays with you, though, not because of its political content, but because of the unexpected emotional punch that's thrown near the end.

Remind(s) us of the power of good old-fashioned character-driven movies.

Tragic, funny and deadpan dark, it's easily one of the best films of the year...It's the brutally unsentimental, intelligent, unflinching heart at the film's core that makes it a marvel.

It’s the captured conversations about everyday lives and struggles that pin you to your seat.

Deceptively rambling, shrewdly ragtag documentary.

It's an often gut-wrenching viewing experience in which the triumphs of the hero are hard won.

For adults, the film will drag in spots, but it's filled with all those values you hope to instill in your children.

A provocative, timely script full of gasp-inducing lines and scenes.

It's a small film whose power is derived from its stripped-down scale.

Writer-director Niki Caro, who adapted the screenplay from the novel, has crafted a script replete with both crowd-pleasing touches and subtle but powerful insights into all the characters.

What makes Kuchu work as taut agitprop, and ultimately to devastating emotional effect, is that Wright and Zouhali-Worrall allow the enormity of the film's political concerns to be telegraphed through the stories, experiences, and astute analysis of ordinary queer folk and their hetero allies.

What makes this straightforward film so incredibly moving is that it keeps its scathing political commentary firmly rooted in everyday struggle.

It's a sweet and wise film - neither groundbreaking nor revolutionary save for the fact that it places narrative and character arc at the center of its concerns.

The film's scope is staggering, including its detailed outlining of BP's origins and fingerprints across decades of unrest in Iran.

An unassuming little film that packs a huge emotional and artistic punch.

Hotel Rwanda, based on real lives and events, aims unequivocally to break your heart.

The film staggers under its own didacticism. Too often we're told of men who were professionals back home and are here reduced to driving cabs, waiting tables or vending ice cream.

A heartfelt documentary.

Presswell's stylized dialogue, whose rapid-fire banter often hardens into self-conscious artifice, is biting and witty, but is thankfully absent either endless pop-culture references or cloying self-consciousness of its own cleverness.

MTV, comic books and gangster flicks are all in Lola's cinematic family tree; it's a heady, breathless ride.

The execution is actually worse than the premise. Nonstop racial, sexual and cultural stereotypes parade across the screen with little wit or real humor to guide them.

It's a wit-free homage to Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan that, for all its slick presentation, never comes close to hitting the mark of its forebears.

A Zeitgeist potpourri, strung with late-20th-century fear and anxiety.

It’s a rousing celebration.

If only this movie were rich enough, strong enough to be worthy of this (Dafoe's) performance.