Jay Carr

This is classic Disney in the traditional mold - cute, but also pushing into dark territory, fueled by elemental passions. [21 June 1996, p.47]

The film's most remarkable achievement, in this culture of clamor, simply may be its decision to keep the volume down, drawing us in as opposed to pummeling us, as most films do.

This good-hearted but undersupplied ensemble piece is only appetizer-deep.

It's slick, sleek, and stylish, and if it doesn't quite redefine cool, it certainly offers a snazzy update.

A sweet screenful of quirky chaos.

It isn't often that lives of quiet desperation are served up with such pearly restraint.

This engaging ensemble comedy that could have been called ''Father Doesn't Know Best.''

Intoxicating fun.

Beverly D'Angelo, Rufus Sewell, Georgina Cates, Leo Bassi - tumble with zest through a daisy chain of sexual capers. But while warmly energized, their carryings-on also seem a little generic.

Frears makes every note count for a lot in this beautifully gauged microcosm of big emotions expressed in small gestures.

"Pulp Fiction" wannabes don't get much slicker or edgier than Go.

Warm, wry, endearing.

(Washington's is) an astonishing performance, partly because it's so devoid of histrionics, and it has Oscar nomination written all over it.

Bell is utterly persuasive as the boy literally yearning to leap beyond the oppressively apparent confines of his world.

Simple in outline, liberating and exquisite, The Secret Garden is loaded with meaning. [13 Aug 1993, p.43]

There's no dust on this snazzy new Hercules. It's got lots of muscle and lots of lift. [27 June 1997, p.C1]

It's rare that a crime movie achieves such emotional complexity, but this one is smartly layered.

While no individual plot strand is vividly compelling, their interplay makes for a hearty and humanistic mix, carried by the performances.

You won't see a more humane and delicately moving riff this year on the theme of getting clean.

On screen as on the page, The Age of Innocence is a stunning period piece filled with depth charges. [17 Sept 1993, p.49]

Can't outrun its very visible limits.

Charming and, compared with most Hollywood films like it, refreshing.

Down in the Delta, Maya Angelou's film-directing debut, strongly establishes her ability to command emotional authenticity and fashion-rich, beautifully wrought images that tap into the stabilizing dignity of family life. [25 Dec 1998, p.C7]

The genius - and there is a cockeyed genius permeating "The Brady Bunch" - is that it nails the entrapment and anxiety beneath the happy faces as unmistakably as the films of Douglas Sirk did the decade before. [17 Feb 1995, p.41]

This handsome remake has distinction, but isn't as wrenching, urgent or keeningly lyrical as that 1939 original. [16 Oct 1992, p.33]

Lacks the requisite sense of dread.

Whaley's self-effacing but strongly etched and wrenchingly effective film.

It plays like Scorsese's ``After Hours,'' but for higher stakes.