Gary Goldstein

A compelling documentary that's short on running time but long on emotion.

Once again, truth proves stranger than fiction in the raucous and provocative documentary Weiner.

Despite its omissions, the film proves a rich and satisfying meal and should be embraced by Chaplin fans and completists.

They all share their amazing war stories and life memories with great humility and warmth.

This fanciful piece, written and directed by Alexis Michalik, based on his popular play “Edmond,” owes more than a passing debt to “Shakespeare in Love,” among many other stage-centric films, while staking its own claim as a brisk, funny, sneakily poignant love letter to words, plays, playwrights and actors.

In 70 short minutes, directors Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch skillfully pack their Miami Beach-centric documentary, The Last Resort, with a wealth of visual, emotional, social, cultural and historical significance.

An exceptionally intimate, human-scaled picture. It's also quite a special piece of work.

Marquette, aided by Frank Langella's precise narration, has crafted an engrossing and disturbing tribute.

As brainy, vital and captivating as its eponymous star, the documentary Bill Nye: Science Guy should warm the hearts and minds of science lovers, weather enthusiasts, environmental watchdogs and astronomy buffs, all while inspiring viewers to ask questions and seek answers.

It’s a testament to Jack Bryant’s lovely script and Kerstin Karlhuber’s thoughtful direction that this controversial concept is handled with such even-handedness and grace.

That the film is animated, yet feels so thoroughly real, is a testament to its vivid use of rotoscoping as well as a solid script by director Ali Soozandeh, an Iranian expatriate.

The film rarely feels static or stagy. It's a fine and memorable effort.

The lovely and poignant drama The Artist and the Model stirringly presents art, life and death as one irrevocably tangled trio.

A richly absorbing historical docudrama.

Gripping...It’s a tough, distressing film, yet in the measured hands of directors Pat McGee and Adam Linkenhelt, its emotional and humanistic qualities transcend the kind of exploitive defaults that could have made this a punishing, eye-popping horror show.

As Madeleine Sackler's absorbing, often tender documentary The Lottery shows, when it comes to the world of charter education, no seemingly good deed may go unpunished -- or at least undercut.

[A] colorful, absorbing documentary.

For a drama that’s as quiet and circumspect as Chronic, it’s a decidedly bold film, one that pulls few punches as it slowly peels away the emotional layers of its complex protagonist. t also features an ending that’s as devastating as it is shocking.

An enigmatic, if perhaps hopeful, epilogue caps this sad, strange, at times weirdly poignant portrait.

It’s a film of decided care and forethought.

This is a compelling, often profound film, one that creatively surmounts its inherent limitations and shines a vital and heartfelt light on being transgender.

It’s a sporadically tense and ominous four-chapter ride that slowly envelops you in its near mythical — at times mystical — neo-western spell.

[An] absorbing, entertaining and lovingly crafted documentary.

The Man Who Invented Christmas is a jaunty, amusing patchwork of truths, half-truths and pure fiction that cleverly combine to recount the story of the whirlwind creation of Charles Dickens' famed novella "A Christmas Carol."

Rise scores as first-rate family filmmaking and a worthy reminder that some dreams can and do come true — big time.

Some may also wish this low-key film spent more time with Pak and Hoi together than it does with them apart. Yet this approach lends the story a kind of mosaic quality, effectively fleshing out our protagonists vis-a-vis their friends, family members and home lives.

Though much of the movie was shot in secret to protect the filmmakers, Bailey and Thompson managed to create a remarkably vivid portrait of a land and its people, while bringing us two unforgettable heroes in Campbell and Freeth.

The ambitious Peepli Live manages to mine substantial dark humor from this tragic situation while offering pointed - and sometimes poignant - social commentary in the process.