Jay Carr

Nair, to her credit, doesn't succumb to any special pleading, which deepens her film's impact. Time and again, you sense that she and her subjects come from a place that believes in film, as "Salaam, Bombay" specifies its world and compels us to inhabit it. [15 Sep 1988, p.68]

It is Close's performance that gives the movie its oomph and will leave adults with smiles as wide as the kids'.

Space Cowboys does achieve liftoff.

Give your brain the night off, and Myers will make you smile too.

Snazzy visuals, of which she (Moss) is one, carry The Matrix past its klutzy script.

It's too circumscribed and polite for the story it's telling, curiously deficient in the unexpected.

Mother has a slyly subversive premise and a terrific and commandingly comic role for a woman - which immediately sets it apart from most other American films - and Debbie Reynolds pounces on it with such savvy and self-assurance that it reminds us how funny self-possession can be in the right hands. [10 Jan 1997, p.C3]

I know it's not "Citizen Kane," but it pushes my buttons. [25 March 1994, p.47]

Nobody's going to think of The Score as trail-blazing, but there's nothing small-time about its dramatic and acting payoff.

But Skin Deep hasn't the energy level or the inventiveness to sustain the demands of sex farce. There's only one sight gag as funny, involving glow-in-the-dark prophylactics. There's also only one role that's sympathetic. As usual, it's the Julie Andrews role of long-suffering wife, played by Alyson Reed. One last complaint: In the guise of being unflinching about dancing on the edge of outrage, the film reveals a mean streak involving cruel things done to dogs. Skin Deep spends what seems like a lot of time living up to - or is it down to? - its name. [3 March 1989, p.47]

Harris means to give us a realistic look at contemporary African-American women and succeeds impressively. [09 Apr 1993, p.46]

For all the care and craftsmanship that have gone into Hoffa, it's a superficial film. [25 Dec 1992]

As he proved in his screenplay for Moonstruck, John Patrick Shanley has an ear for New Yorkese and a soft spot for eccentrics. Both are in evidence in The January Man, but what could have been an offbeat, original cop movie fails because Shanley can't meet the more conventional requirements of the genre, such as plotting, characterization and suspense. [13 Jan 1989, p.47]

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

Microcosmos is a microspectacular. [08 Nov 1996, p.C6]

Light It Up isn't a great movie, but it's a cut above most so-called urban thrillers.

A film that begins with a train wreck and then, figuratively speaking, becomes one.

In the end, Holy Smoke crashes and burns.

In short, Permanent Midnight is about what you would expect from a mild-at-heart movie that wants to titillate with a fallen artist story that has a wholesome outcome. [18 Sep 1998, p.D9]

Alice isn't one of the best Allen films, but it's one of the better ones, generating more than enough whimsical fantasy to surmount its tacked-on moral. We're talking choice fluff here. [25 Jan 1991, p.29P]

It's a surprisingly sweet underdog immigrant coming-of-age story set in 1961. [24 Oct 1997]

Catchy and unobtrusively assured, it's both hip and innocent, stylized and natural, charming its way through a conventional hey-kids-let's-have-a-party plot with bright comedy, great dancing, and on-top-of-it rap. It even manages to send a few messages about responsibility without being boring. In short, it's the best teen genre movie in ages. [23 Mar 1990, p.43]

The triumph of La Cienaga lies in Martel's way of fashioning the kind of ensemble performance that draws us in by convincing us we're watching behavior, not acting.

A warmhearted, hardworking little comedy that owes a lot of its charm to its modesty.

It rates a resounding yes because it doesn't insult our emotional intelligence. [23 Nov 1983]

Black comedy and film noir are around one another smartly and wickedly in Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave, a tense, twisty Scottish-made thriller that's going to break out of Glasgow in a big way. [24 Feb 1995]

There are three main reasons for seeing Someone Like You - Ashley Judd, Ashley Judd, and Ashley Judd.

A sweet, visually handsome sermon, but it's too dramatically bland to convert even the converted.