F. X. Feeney

You come away from Boiler Room eager to see what Younger will do next.

Seen in the bowl's metaphoric reflection, Nolte's Adam, with his patronizing wish to build a great art museum to "give something back" to the poor laborers who built his fortune, is a complex American monster.

Whaley successfully balances his scenes on a knife-edge of tenderness and anger that was Truffaut's trademark.

Among the pleasures the film evokes, as few films have, is the bliss of conversation.

This bright farce is spun from interlocking coincidences that only seem far-fetched.

Even as the psychological interdependencies of the two boys take the foreground, the movie gets more and more crowded with fun-house surprises and cliffhanging set pieces.

The main body of the film earns comparison with the military parables of John Ford, particularly "The Long Gray Line" and "The Wings of Eagles."

Mamet's fixation on language is, nonetheless, more effective onstage than onscreen, where the technical and visual requirements distract from the sounds of the words -- the heart of Mamet's work.

May lack any transcendent point that would make it exceptional, but it is certainly a worthy start, and worth catching.

Some critics are badly selling the film short, when the story it tells, measured strictly in terms of emotional power and overall fun, is as moving and pleasurable as any matinee item by Ford, Hawks or Raoul Walsh.

Surprisingly moving -- prompting lumps in the throat over what was, after all, a historic moment of the most luminous hope.

Lyrical and funny, Full Grown Men is a tough-minded film about the need to grow up.

We may not fully grasp what Nora saw in Joyce, but what he saw in her is made unmistakable, and worth seeing.

Writer Sam Catlin and director Danny Leiner have fashioned an alert, shrewdly observed portrait of a moment in time.

Although the dialogue initially flakes with awkward exposition, writer Ruth Epstein and director Harvey Kahn have fashioned a riveting thriller full of good scares and learned, muckraking insight into the global labyrinth of oil and politics.

Excellent performances.

A refreshing breakaway from both idolatry and cynicism.

A film whose story movingly outfoxes any number of shopworn expectations on its way to a singular, heart-rending outcome.

Lurie manages, despite these obstacles, to inspire Redford to give one of the most layered and interesting performances of his career.

The love that grows between Fish and Poinsettia could have turned treacly in the wrong hands, but director Charles Burnett -- has the direct observational style of the silent masters.

The two leads have a wonderful chemistry together.

This lightweight thriller has an enjoyable premise.

They make a believable trio of siblings, but not even their combined wit can lift this script above the maudlin.

The good news is that they've resurrected a franchise with wonderful potential and may eventually grow bored enough of recapping past triumphs to take it in more daring directions.

A reliably solid treat.

A snappy, delightfully balanced bit of historic whimsy.

Williams is a great clown, and Oedekirk and Shadyac give him room to really cut loose, and cure the movie. That’s as it should be.

A happy vulgarity still reigns.