F. X. Feeney

It's a first-rate chamber piece for actors, but Julie Christie brings a particularly layered depth to what could have been a very flat role; a combination of bereaved mother and castaway wife. Her torment and her intermittent joys are so fully communicated that they anchor the film.

Demonstrating yet again that he knows few limits as an actor, Duvall not only nails the accent, he inhabits the man's flinty, grudge-bearing contrariness with such a furious commitment that it brings out the best in the actors around him.

Enigmas make Panic involving, and suspenseful.

Writer-director Carl Colpaert never loses his balance, despite the David Lynchian leap of faith he asks us to make midway, in a twist so bold as to be a backflip. If anything, this extra layer in the story effectively illuminates the moral choices Jesus must navigate.

Khouri manages, with terrific flair, to keep the extremes of screwball farce and blood-curdling family intensity on one continuum -- not only through the strength of the performances (including one from James Garner, who, as Sida's dad, gets the best one-liners) but in the ways they match across time.

Impeccably produced.

A sharp, upbeat, well-wrought meditation on love and race that kicks the new year in movies off to a terrific start.

A superb, instructive portrait of an artist at work.

(Herzog's) tribute to Kinski doubles as a life-affirming monument to creation in all its variety.

A smart, romantic, heartbreaking pleasure.

The Wayanses can be crude beyond crude, but they're so clever that their inventiveness takes the place of taste.

Bergman's collaboration with Ullmann began when he directed her in "Persona" (1966). Here, with the roles nearly reversed, she shows herself as great an interpreter behind the camera.

What makes Sunshine unique, what rewards a first viewing and lives in the mind long thereafter, is that Szabo has attempted to place Judaism and Christianity on a continuum that is both historically truthful and highly personal.

A witty, well-crafted comedy that combines primal slapstick with sharp satiric banter to keep children and parents laughing together.

Moll ratchets his suspense with impressive mastery, wringing a maximum of excruciating terror out of the humblest everyday materials.

It's a sweet chamber piece, beautifully played.

One's laughter builds on such a rising curve that memories of its flaws burn away.

Penn's own gifts as an actor seem, in turn, to bring out the best in Nicholson, as well as the rest of the cast.

First-time director Baltasar Kormakur -- balances tones with a smooth, mature confidence.

Celebrity is one of Woody Allen’s finest. This is a minority opinion….But I prefer Allen when he works in a minor key – “Broadway Danny Rose,” “Radio Days” --precisely because he’s not trying to be profound, only true to firsthand observation.

Nearly three and a half hours in length, but owing to its freedom of movement, the film feels weightless.

First-time writer-director Mark Hanlon creates a solidly trippy atmosphere.

Mystery Men gives proof that satire isn't dead.

Christine Lahti, making her directorial debut, wrings good laughs and strong emotion throughout, largely through the performances.

The picture's deepest strength, however, is the fire Fernán-Gómez conjures from deep within himself, as if "honor" were an extinct volcano he could will into exploding, given enough anger and time.

Writer-director David Jacobson has an excitingly clear-eyed, unsentimental feel for the intensity of adolescent passion.

Catches the volatile beauty of what it was to be alive and politically aware in the early '70s with a rare accuracy and depth.

Thrillingly unpredictable.