Jami Bernard

The eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) can't feel pleasure, even though he's surrounded by it, so it's weirdly appropriate that the movie isn't "fun," even if it's amazing to look at.

In this story of suburban teenage angst, the parents are weird and often cliché to the point of incomprehension, as if seen through the prism of ... a 25-year-old.

No picnic to watch -- Leigh's camera is unsentimental and unsparing.

Moore brilliantly unmasks the inanity of the arguments used in the debate over gun control in America. He then undermines himself by leaping into the blame game without supporting his central thesis, that the media is what makes teens like the ones at Columbine turn around and shoot up their schools.

Does an uncommonly good job of summoning all that goes into a masterpiece - erotic tension, financial considerations, even the sensual, elaborate grinding and mixing of paint colors as per 17th-century requirements.

A pitch-perfect gem.

This rousing story of the comeback colt comes close to a modern-day Frank Capra film without the pandering or mawkishness. Yes, it's a bit hokey, but if you fight the movie's gait you'll miss the excitement of the race.

Beautifully acted and exquisitely photographed, director Claude Miller's superb drama, from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, is awash with the ripples created by unlived lives.

Alamo buffs will be delighted, and everyone else will be treated to something that feels like Old Hollywood crossed with new sensibilities.

While Pfeiffer is a stickier subject, Clooney is so game he could have chemistry with a sandbox. [20 Dec 1996, p.61]

Leaves the viewer exhausted, jet-lagged from the effort of investing equally in competing story lines.

Winterbottom uses effective imagery to establish the horror and absurdity of war. [26Nov1997 Pg.39]

In the new, personal documentaries in which you pick up a camera to help get a grip on your own life, there is a queasy line between inspiration and therapy. Mark Wexler crosses back and forth over that line.

The movie is an actors' paradise, and absolutely no one disappoints.

It's a virtual clip reel of grandly comic moments that remind us what a good actress can do when parts are scarce.

Although rife with comic possibilities, The Personals develops into a somber tale of personal identity.

Turns out to be a thoughtful, beautifully acted story about feeling alive before it's too late to feel anything.

The movie turns choppy in the final third, but it is a monumental achievement nonetheless.

Seems like a genteel "Psycho."

Here's the downside, and it's not just me: You need a scorecard to keep track of the sisters, their brother, two husbands, a boyfriend, two (or three?) extramarital lovers.

This is another brilliant performance by Crowe, who is to body language what Meryl Streep is to accents.

A farce nearly as cracked as his previous "The Dinner Game."

A remarkable second feature from writer-director Yesim Ustaoglu.

What fans want are good movies. This one isn't particularly funny or romantic, but it's gripping and tragic. It asks some nasty, yet profound, questions about human desire and behavior.

It's weird and wonderful.

What has changed most dramatically over the years is the camera's ability to shoot as if it were stationed on the wall of those rolling pipelines. For some, this is the next best thing to being there.

Its leisurely pace and reliance on Ambrose's pale-lashed gaze make it more of an interior monologue. That may not please viewers who crave action, but those with patience will be rewarded.

This Canadian film is extraordinarily low-key, considering the explosive secrets the sisters unearth, but that is part of its strength.

Armed with a witty script, Winick and the actors so confidently ply the Oedipal waters that the comedy seems sweetly chaste.

An adorable family movie.

The central relationship here is curious but not engaging, except for the pleasure of watching Deschanel, making All the Real Girls just a filmmaker's exercise in impressionistic style and mood.

Time of the Wolf is grounded so deeply in the reality of society gone awry that the anxiety faced by Isabelle Huppert's character as she struggles to keep her family together transfers onto the audience and never leaves.

The actors are unknowns, but Ryan does a lot with her little downturned mouth. There are as many shades of anxiety as there are shades of blue in the sea, and Ryan manages to find them all.

This has all the ingredients for a top-notch thriller except one - a thrill.

An underwritten drama.

You'd never guess this just-off-center movie was directed by indie hero Gus Van Sant. Maybe, like Will, he's casual about his gifts and feels no need to trot them out.

The movie is fun, fun, fun.

Shangri-La is in your own backyard.

Enjoyable, intelligent little heist movie.

Hey, kids! Skip the job fairs and go directly to a screening of Me & Isaac Newton.

Any woman who wears more than a size 12 -- and that would be the majority of adult females in the United States -- will get buckets of self-esteem from Real Women Have Curves.

This winning documentary about fifth-graders who learn ballroom dancing is one of those movies that make the world a brighter place.

O'Connor plays Fanny with an appealingly direct, unflinching gaze.

Giddily inventive.

A neat, twisty little domestic drama about smart people, foolish choices.

An amazingly self-assured movie, it percolates with themes and ideas, all held together by the gift of the bull's parts.

Works on several playful levels. Most obviously, it is a horror movie in which life imitates art on a movie set.

It's a sad, rich story, full of misunderstandings, bad bargains, odd parallels.

The results are impressive. Maybe, as the U.S. falls abysmally behind other nations in the sciences, it will get kids interested in that field again.

Hell is sitting through a movie in which you have no respect for the protagonist and the "surprise" ending is as clearly lit as the exit sign.

The movie raises questions that are on plenty of minds right now, including whether and how much the rules should be bent to wage a war (in this case, on drugs) that cannot be won conventionally.

An entertaining, post-modern mulling of the nature of truth, and whether truth is ever so fixed that it can be captured on tape.

Movies about the dawning of female sexuality and its links to mother-daughter competition are tough to pull off, but Rain is a splendid example of how to get it right.

The results are amazing, though bittersweet, and demonstrate how complicated and expensive it is (though not impossible) to break the cycle of poverty, crime and lack of education.

This genteel confection skews toward older audiences - those who go for "Calendar Girls," "Ladies in Lavender" and "Mrs. Brown."

Outside of the leads, the acting is uneven, but The Tao of Steve has an unquenchable playful spirit.

The suspense is as tingly as jalapenos on the tongue.

A deeply felt celebration of the life force, as embodied in Girard's fierce performance as a man who may not have done all he could, but had an enviably great time on the way.

The movie mostly sustains its excitement of the hunt. But the real star is the panoramic, beautifully composed cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond. Whether he truly loved the African locations or is cursed with "a gift" doesn't matter; the dynamics of the story often flag, but the visuals lend a palpable excitement. [11 Oct 1996, p.49]

What could have been a run-of-the- mill story becomes a superb policier in the hands of writerdirector Joe Carnahan.

Tense, fiercely optimistic movie.

Alnoy's unnerving mood piece is spare and atmospheric, even funny. The movie is accomplished, but gets hung up on arty composition.

Uplifting and moving in a traditional Hollywood way, while also seeming as raw and unfiltered as cinema vérité.

The film, written and directed with an intimate, hand-held camera by Assayas, is notable for the details how love that is ended sometimes flares up in little brush fires, only to be banked down again; how lovers awkwardly balance the push and pull of new relationships; how things neither start nor end with any punctuality or precision. [07 Jul 1999, p.38]

The first two stories are so well-drawn you hate to leave them. But Miller's femaleempowerment anthology carries a smart whiff of other literary looks at ordinary, extraordinary women, such as Grace Paley's "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute."

A poetic and somber film that underscores the bum deal women usually get in any restrictive society.

Freewheeling and mindless.

An unexpected delight.

One of the most honest and harrowing depictions of female adolescence ever put to film.

You can't go wrong with an uplifting, anti-war story like this, but director Christian Carion trowels on the schmaltz, and the movie's emphasis on Christian values actually seems to spell doom for solving today's conflicts with the Middle East.

The direction is still slick, but Matchstick Men gets most of its thrills from the unknowable in human interaction. This could be the biggest "scam" Scott himself has pulled off.

David Cronenberg is one of the most intellectual film makers around.

A ­movie that takes impartiality to new places artistically. The film is infuriating.

Could easily serve as an instructional video for repressive regimes who have not yet learned you can get more with honey than with vinegar.

It makes sly sense to link female hormonal bursts with the lunar cycle of the werewolf, but the movie's final act is the usual matted-fur chase.

This one uses sweeping compositions of nearly solitary figures as a reminder of what individuals stood to lose, and an auction scene is horrifying -- some livestock and a basket of everyday items are exchanged for a man's future.

As pat as some of its conclusions may seem, this low-budget effort has charm, fine acting and one of the few realistic screen depictions of the awkward dynamics of a family trying to circle its wagons.

Without Crowe and Paul Giamatti, this movie would have little in its corner.

Maintains a light, dainty tone despite the heavy-handed metaphor, but in crossing the Pacific to the U.S., it is bound to leave most viewers dry.

Satires like this tend to throw a lot of stuff at the wall, and in Undercover Brother, a surprising amount sticks.

Like most Iranian films, it's a shaggy-dog story that builds so slowly you don't see the quietly shattering climax coming.

This movie hyperventilates with pessimism to the point of perversity.

It's a misguided, miscast remake of the 1974 Robert Aldrich classic.

A black comedy that features Renee Zellweger as the most adorable psychiatric-trauma victim ever.

It revives an innocently pleasurable genre - shades of Burt Lancaster and Errol Flynn - that combines lusty adventure, humor, the great outdoors and satisfying storytelling without having to concoct it in a special-effects lab.

The movie clearly portrays how the glory and salvation of being a team hero is ephemeral.

An unsubtle allegory about a way of life withering on the vine.

Refreshingly offbeat documentary.

The best performance is by Rampling. (The) camera hangs on her, knowing that nothing escapes those wise, sad-lidded eyes.

Viewers of first-time director Jeong Jae-eun's sober dissection of dismal day-to-day rituals may want to throw themselves into the brackish water long before the movie is over.

Parts of the movie play like French farce, but ultimately Hrebejk uses very simple cadences to unveil, movingly, the big picture.

This long-awaited movie has been unwisely chopped into two pieces -- the second is due in February -- when it really needed to be one long, delirious ride.

A story about people learning to know themselves through relationships to others -- delivered with gentle, offbeat humor.

Stoked supplies a unique perspective on the hazards of rock-star fame that went with the sport's explosion for a band of rebels who didn't see it coming -- or going.

Feels like any number of forgettable American teen comedies in which the nerd gets the girl and/or the money.

Omar Sharif certainly doesn't disappoint in Monsieur Ibrahim. The casting alone promises something extraordinary.

Even aside from the metaphorical aspect, this may be the first movie to give a precise sense of what drives people who self-mutilate.

A sobering documentary done in a whimsical style.