F. X. Feeney

It is worthy of comparison to the lifelike, character-rich films we cherish from that era (1970s), and is certainly one of the finest films to come out this year.

Breakdown recalls so many good movies, in such unpredictable order, that by the end it simply stands on its own, a solid, logical, edge-of-the-seat sluiceway of escape and pursuit.

eXistenZ gives us Cronenberg at his wittiest, and Leigh at her most vulnerable and fascinating.

It's a disturbing film in the best sense.

Byrne is a stand-up poet the way some actors are stand-up comics. His innate depth prompts The Usual Suspects to transcend its own cleverness--and this is the movie's smartest, least predictable surprise.

Has such perfect pitch in small matters that, as it builds, it proves no less capable in tackling bigger issues--and what begin as chuckles become deep belly laughs.

Cox's own directorial style is innocent, in the sense of being original without ever straining for effect.

This gets my vote as director Franco Zeffirelli’s finest film. Certainly, it’s his most personal.

This is such a dazzlingly self-assured directorial debut that it's hard to know what to praise first.

The fun is in getting there, and in the mechanics, charted by writer-director Francis Veber.

Dizdar maintains a knife-edged balance in tone throughout the film

It's a fresh installment in what appears to be a self-perpetuating sitcom of British life.

Writer-director Kasi Lemmons works fast, and the world she conjures is powerfully realized.

Cleverly structured, fast-paced, funny, even moving.

Director John Dahl ("Red Rock West," "The Last Seduction") has a pronounced knack for snap reversals and out-of-the-blue shocks.

The Messenger may be a caricature of theology, but then Besson is a cartoonist of genius.

A labor of love -- a swan song repaying a lifetime of happy debts to the theater, by grace of two terrific performances.

It's fitting, then, that Dinner Rush boasts Hawks-ian virtues: fiery energy, swift, character-driven chitchat and a tough, upbeat sense of how the world works.

Above all, you've got Jennifer Grey, as a rich girl summering in the Catskills and falling for her working-class dance instructor, played by Patrick Swayze. The chemistry between them is red-hot, and they're wonderful dancers.

Zhang's work is always worth watching, but this is the first of his films in which the sorrows are so heart-rending, its many comic moments so laugh-out-loud human.

The Proposition is a very hard and harsh movie, but it also has a hypnotic, lyrical velocity. As Arthur, Huston exudes dead charisma.

Writer-director Hans Petter Moland (The Last Lieutenant, Zero Kelvin) has a fine eye for landscapes, but an even surer touch with actors.

Funny and light, all the more potent for seeming so effortless.

Chilean-born actress Leonor Varela (TV's Cleopatra, a few seasons back) plays Chavo's mother, who, in her rage to see her children survive, powerfully embodies the film's moral center.

Their discretion makes From Hell less a horror movie than a classical film noir.

The film's discretion short-circuits any impulse we might have to regard Glennie as a handicapped person who has “overcome.” Instead, we're led to experience her life as she does - as an adventure in which setbacks are not challenges, but illuminations of untracked paths.

Pellington's sharp, fastball compositions and nerve-splintering cutting style are of a piece with such intelligence, devilishly mixing shock with optimism.

Overall, Whitely's debut film may just fill you with an unexpectedly deep elation.