Fred Camper

The fragmented compositions isolate the characters, trapping them in walled-off worlds -- which makes the brief kiss between Otomo and the grandmother all the more touching.

The performances are convincing, and director Gene Rhee does a good job of outlining the messiness of human affections here, showing how we don't always know what we really want or how to get it.

Understated but affecting.

The film does offer a good deal of engaging dark humor.

While not particularly cohesive, this 2002 film has some nice moments of comedy and father-son poignancy.

De Niro sinks this crime drama with his vacant, inattentive performance as an affectionally challenged homicide detective.

Shafer (himself a former Playgirl centerfold) never quite manages the incisive social critique his story seems to require.

Occasionally lighthearted but always affecting cautionary tale.

The music Bjork wrote for the sound track is at least minimally accomplished, unlike Barney's staggeringly vacant direction.

Kar Kar's singing is wonderfully expressive, and an improvised song to his wife at her grave site demonstrates the emotional wellspring of his music.

Utterly fresh and beguiling.

I'm no boxing fan, but there's something admirable about fighter Johar Abu Lashin's love of his sport, chronicled in Duki Dror's tautly constructed 2002 documentary.

Julie-Marie Parmentier is fetching as the vulnerable younger sister, and the duo generate considerable erotic tension; unfortunately Denis' detached and indifferent camera never gets inside the story, its characters, or its milieu.

The most telling moments in this 2003 video documentary aren't the statements of the neo-Nazis, a tiny minority who get way too much screen time, but the lies and bigotries of the ordinary citizens.

This rarely screened, melancholy 1957 film, Yasujiro Ozu’s last in black and white, is one of his best.

A moving evocation of longing unfulfilled.

As masterful as Welles's filming is, what makes Touch of Evil a staggering masterpiece is the global quality of his style, which causes every image to echo almost every other in the film.

This film's extraordinary unity of style, theme, and plot is what sets it apart from the superficial historical epic. Behind all the color, movement, and elaborate decor of this "commercial" film lies an exceptionally taut structure.

The compositions and camera movement are both precise and elegant.