Jennie Punter

It's a film that will both captivate and divide audiences.

While the visuals aren't nearly as eye-popping as those of the underwater movies, the film is more inspiring thanks to its human heroines.

All of the participating directors – save Balsmeyer and actor Natalie Portman – are known for features. So part of the interest is seeing how the short form puts their strengths, weaknesses, thematic interests or styles into sharp focus.

The beautifully photographed film is quite stylized at times...But it manages to steer clear of the stereotypes one might expect of a movie set in this time and place, thanks in part to the underlying and, mostly, underplayed themes of spirituality and the search for identity.

Jam-packed but never disorienting, Cool It will definitely get your head spinning.

Pitt and Damon deliver the best lines (wisecracks about the food chain, predators and evolution, etc.) but their characters also represent most of us.

It may be a slim story, but its gentle humour, natural rhythm and above all authentic performances make Tomboy beautiful, intimate cinema.

Surreal and hilarious.

Certainly a bizarre kind of virtuoso filmmaking, but it does not feel precocious or burdened with too many ideas.

Rodriguez, is a hack in the best sense of the term, often serving as producer, director, writer, shooter and composer – all of which come into play for Shorts .

While Mesrine: Killer Instinct certainly deserves a place among memorable French gangster films, Richet never delivers a clear theme here, let alone a plot.

Puss in Boots is essentially non-stop dazzling action scenes loosely connected by a thin, predictable story of greed versus good.

What makes The Grand a memorable comedy is that the main stories are really about families – how they screw you up and how they save you. And you don't have to understand poker to know the rules of that game.

Stacked against this summer's CGI-driven blockbusters, Attack the Block is definitely the fastest action ride (clocking under 90 minutes), and quite possibly the most fun.

A combination of timing, access, a visual aesthetic that reflects ATCQ's Afrocentric "surface philosophy" (as the crew's look is described) and, most importantly, story-conscious editing elevates the doc above the norm.

With its comic-book hues, crime-caper score, overly serious narrator, interior monologues and surreal touches, Wild Grass proves Resnais is still having fun with cinematic language.

Glodell never lets his creation spin out of control. Bellflower revs the engine of an exciting new maverick.

Designed to please all generations of irreverent humour-lovers, The Pirates! Band of Misfits may not be heart-warming (it is about nasty, scurvy pirates!) but it's breezy rollicking fun.

While the newer version's darker ending lends a more contemporary twist, overall 3:10 to Yuma is reverent to the original – a few more bullets and more spilled blood notwithstanding.

The summer's most lip-smacking movie treat.

This film offers a child's perspective on the ravages and complexity of war and is also a convincing testament to the healing power of creative expression.

Riveting and courageous documentary.

An unabashed crowd-pleaser.

Its rhythm is deliberate and unhurried, yet the film is rich with detail and with small, meaningful character revelations -- the running time of more than two hours feels just right.

Relentless, thorough and devastating.

A creepy, smartly written and very entertaining low-budget chiller.

For the most part he (Haney) lets the people and images of Coal River Valley speak for themselves – and that's what gives The Last Mountain its eloquent power.

Ever so subtly, Schock gradually transports us beyond the exotic and into gripping universal storytelling, aided all the way by the evocative music of Tucson songsmiths Calexico.