Jami Bernard

A marvelous cross between "Secretary" and "Lost in Translation."

Don't let the slow, deliberate pace fool you. A lot is going on in David Cronenberg's masterful A History of Violence, and you'll miss it if you blink.

The startling documentary Daughter From Danang cautions once again to be careful what you wish for.

There was no burning need for a remake, but this one is respectful of its predecessor. It incorporates the technology and acquisitiveness of the intervening quarter century since Romero's vision. It even features a metrosexual, something unheard of in 1978.

The combination of the ancient tinted footage and Butler's crisp, sweeping vistas of the same areas provides a breathtaking recap of one of history's most stirring rescues.

With its cheerful hailstorm of anachronisms and classic-rock soundtrack, there's nothing medieval about it.

Nachtwey's pictures tell a tale of grief and suffering, and Frei's you-are-there approach gives those photos startling immediacy.

A psychosexual thriller that treads a thin line between art and exploitation. The mere fact that it manages this queasy high-wire act is what sets debut director David Slade's slick mind game apart from the drooling pack.

With its intriguing relationships and sacrificial acts, Alice is a good alternative to happily-ever-after fluff.

What a treasure - a funny, tart, romantic comedy about tweens suffering the pangs of first love. It makes the cityscape an essential part of the romance, like a junior, vintage Woody Allen.

The plot is formula all the way, but Lawrence has found a way to incorporate the physical techniques of the great silent stars with his standup comic's arsenal, and it's a pleasure to watch him at work.

A remarkable second feature from writer-director Yesim Ustaoglu.

A plague of child kidnappings in Italy during the '70s provides the background for this chilling, deceptively simple tale of a rural boy who unearths terrible family secrets and rises to the moral challenge they present.

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

The production is fantastically funny, high-energy camp, punctuated by Trask's infectious score and by Mitchell, dressing in a succession of wigs twice the size of his body.

The remarkable footage includes damning evidence of how the media, the people and the army were manipulated. Which leads to that eternal question - if it's not on TV, did it really happen?

Sometimes veers off into preciosity. But it offers something rare in the bond between Andrew and Sam.

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

With its colorful embroidery, Monsoon Wedding feels pleasurably grounded in a reality about which most Westerners haven't a clue. This may be their only engraved invitation.

A fascinating, somewhat frightening documentary.

The jokes are wild, raunchy, surreal and dead-on.

It's a wonderfully silly family movie that holds its audience in high regard.

Seems like a genteel "Psycho."

Gentle, funny and full of the lessons one expects from the scions of the late Jim Henson.

A satisfying chick flick that follows all the usual rules of the modern romantic comedy except one - it's not stupid.

A comedy hit, but its secret is that it delves deeper than the usual summer fare.

Jacques Audiard's amusingly stinging A Self-Made Hero toys with the subjectivity of historical truth by presenting one Albert Dehousse (Mathieu Kassovitz), loser, cipher, liar. But a brilliant liar. [12 Sept 1997, p.44]

Forces the audience to rethink the riots in new and difficult ways, to find empathy and revulsion where it might not have known they existed.