Joe Neumaier

Film enthusiasts especially will appreciate this wonky but fascinating documentary about the process of making movies.

Here, the actor (Di Niro) dials it down and wins us over.

A frisky, feisty heist flick with brains and charisma, the movie may make a few errors, but they’re forgotten in the blink of an eye thanks to all the twists, turns and close shaves.

To eavesdrop on Bernardo Bertolucci, Stephen Frears, Ken Loach and John Sayles, as they talk politics; David Lynch and Todd Haynes, discussing inspiration; and Catherine Breillat, Agnès Varda, Richard Linklater and Liliana Cavani as they riff on controversy and aspiration, even for a little while, is a real treat.

The way she (Blanchette) anchors this superb dramedy is a thing of beauty.

As in "Purple Rose," the film works best when tweaking the disparate worlds thrown together, though "Midnight" is frothier, and so Wilson shines.

Young Adult may at times be stuck between emotional gears, but that's by design. Like its heroine, the movie refuses to pick up after itself.

Benjamin never questions his fate and ­never actually gets to enjoy being a kid. At least there's a thoughtful middle part, where the enigmatic Blanchett comes alive and Benjamin seems haunted by life -- someone we recognize, and not just a vessel tossed about by time.

Here, in his best performance since "Spider," Fiennes plays the snarling, entitled general Caius Martius Coriolanus, whose bloody brow and bald head are stained with what's left of his soldiers.

Has a mature tapestry of characters, a welcome sense of humor and, most crucially, a lovely Juliette Binoche.

As the cracklingly cool The East shows, they’re the real deal. It’s not easy to make a thriller where brains and guts are so clearly in cahoots.

The actors click into high gear, and Premium Rush delivers.

Gibney puts mystery back into a story we thought we knew.

The late King of Pop delivers.

Arnold generally steers clear of cinematic melodrama, and Jarvis infuses the entire film with the sort of kinetic spirit that heralds a new talent.

Intoxicating, and at times maddening, to watch.

The slick but moving Saving Mr. Banks transcends its corporate pedigree to become a great Disney movie about making a Disney movie.

The movie respects a viewer’s intelligence, which should also serve as a warning; don’t be lulled into a stupor. Keeping sharp will allow all the fun and menace in this terrific thriller to seep into your head.

More than just a one-name star of pop culture’s alternative history, Divine’s story — terrorized by bullies, embraced by the outré, where he finds a home — stands for “all the outsiders,” as Waters says (between hilarious anecdotes).

Warm memories of one school under a groove and a moving ending that no screenwriter could improve upon.

Filled with striking images and the ghosts of lives lived in hardship and war, Incendies is tough but impactful.

This superb, cerebral film about unchecked belief is a fictionalized and cutting drama hinging on the origins of Scientology. Scratch around a bit, though, and its wider indictments become clear.

A measured and thoughtful meditation on a leader who, this terrific movie believes, inadvertently made the world as roiling as his soul.

Murray is always a delight, but his films with kids (“Meatballs,” “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums”) give his unencumbered playfulness even more room to roam.

Ferguson doesn't aim to entertain; he wants answers, and talks to many of the enabling weasels.

The man-versus-the-natural world story is in Weir's wheelhouse, and Harris and Farrell get into a scene-stealing duel. Worth the trek.

Kung Fu Panda 2 plunks down squarely in the spot marked for "chop-socky action with heart."

What the movie captures overall looks like a scene from a sci-fi, postapocalyptic nightmare.

Fast-moving, exciting and contains more twists than a tunnel under Checkpoint Charlie.

The cast is strong, and Damon is a dependable center for all this, a classic American good guy wanting to know what's rotten and why.

Norton, too, keeps us guessing, though his pseudo-tough-guy line readings (and cornrowed hair) are initially distracting. But his scenes with De Niro -- who fills every twitch or glance with Jack's long-buried guilt -- are the guts of the movie.

The result is a paper-thin alliance between the old-school Cal and the new-media Della. Crowe, husky and whisky-voiced, is warm amidst all the plot mechanics, and McAdams, perky and efficient, is a smart foil for him.

Directing the film of Doubt, Shanley is able to put an even finer point on his Tony-and Pulitzer-winning play about suspicion and guilt at a Bronx Catholic grade school in 1964.

Too bad its wide net ultimately results in diminishing returns.

The film ends up wrestling itself into a corner, though it's saved by a corrosive central performance from Ryan Gosling and a disconcertingly hypnotic feel.

This often-witty baby-of-"Broadcast News" tries hard to be liked, like the TV fluff it's built around. The news is that, often, it succeeds.

Freeman is so in-tune with the former South African president's persona you can't take your eyes off him.

The Company Men recalls 1946's great post-World War II drama "The Best Years of Our Lives," and the reason isn't simply its trio of protagonists.

A slow, solid movie that, like Rita, sneaks up on you with its intelligence and pluck.

While it stops before sliding too far into the darkness,Observe and Report hits a lot of bull's-eyes by aiming for the gut, not easy belly laugh.

Though this well-observed, wry drama is determined to be quirky, its most endearing quality, like that of its heroines, is a willingness to wallow in foul moods and come out the other side.

Once Franco's on his own, everything is played across this terrific actor's deceptively goofy face.

Hawke - continuing an evolution toward stronger, more intense acting than anyone might've predicted from him 20 years ago - drives the movie. He makes Sal a jangled, edgy presence, his conscience torn several ways.

The three icons ham it up, do some verbal towel-snapping and have fun, which also describes most of this self-conscious adventure movie.

While the climactic dinner is a bit too much like a circus audition, Roach -- who helmed the "Austin Powers" movies as well as "Meet the Parents" and "Meet the Fockers" -- knows how to enjoy each sideshow.

The movie may wear its shagginess on its sleeve, but Stiller knows exactly what he’s doing.

Makes the most of its format, soaring when its young hero rides on his winged reptilian pal, and full of heart and heroism even when its action is grounded.

Drag Me to Hell is an eyeball-gouging lesson in how to make a genre flick and live to tell about it.

The cool cast includes casual drop-ins from Sam Rockwell, Melanie Lynskey and Sam Elliott. The actors give off the feeling that we’ve wandered into the middle of a conversation among friends. This being a Swanberg movie, that’s kind of what is happening, complete with tiny epiphanies and people you want to hear keep talking.

This is a mother's tale, and in Swinton's expert hands, Eva must ultimately deal with the fallout from an uncomfortable truth: She just never liked her kid.

Like a more personal, less pretentious version of Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Babel," this spiraling dissection of circumstance, choice and fate is more about thoroughness of vision than tricky storytelling.

The twists and turns involve a high-level assassination, corrupt cops, squint-inducing violence and plenty of fearlessness.

Though Bloom feels like he dropped in from another movie, it all spins on screenwriter Thornton's charismatic performance, which also accounts for the survival instinct inside the film.

Fans of PBS, history and a certain kind of old-fashioned moviemaking may fall in.

Wiseman films it all without comment, letting the rhythm of the place tell the story.

Even the youngest viewers, not to mention their parents, will appreciate the buffoonish villainy of the dogcatchers (still useful villains more than half a century after "Lady and the Tramp"), and the movie's nice anti-kill shelter message is as it should be.

The laughs are what keep the film together, even when the conceit feels been-there-done-that.

This is a terrific time capsule with a resonant message.

Amid all the hokey hill stuff, Lawrence's hard eyes and manner draw us in.

Acclaimed director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's meditative, at times maddening expression of human mystery and barren landscapes is gorgeous to look at, intriguing to think about and, at times, hard to sit through.

In a film that deliberately recalls 1970's "Five Easy Pieces," Dano's performance as a lost dreamer running from adulthood resonates beautifully.

His story, like the current release "A Separation," shows a glimpse inside Iran of everyday reversals of fortune, and how easy it is to get caught in the crosshairs of bureaucracy, bad judgment and bad luck.

Though every frame is great to look at, Bolt's script - by the co-writers of "Mulan" and "Cars" - lacks the wit of its closest Pixar relative, "The Incredibles." Rhino and some goofy pigeons provide the few laughs once the tale goes cross-country.

Wallace layers on some era-specific meaning to Chenery, who seems to be simply following her lineage, thanks to Lane's quietly dignified performance. Malkovich is more fun, though Laurin isn't as outrageous as the movie thinks he is.

There are dull spots, as with any other day, yet "Life" aims to be, and occasionally is, like a YouTube-y "Our Town," giving a sense of what it is to be alive on planet Earth.

Fred Schepisi's sly, stately comedy-drama that will please fans of BBC melodramas. But even on its own merits, its mild manner has sneaky stings.

This isn't a therapy session on film; it's a visually stark, lively, organically engrossing movie with a very real handle on the mental processes, and interpersonal demands, that come with issues of life and death.

Utilizing copious film footage of her puckish subject and new interviews with Haring's contemporaries, gallerists and mentors, director Christina Clausen makes her fascinating movie as big-hearted, city-centric and energetic as its subject.

A pensive and searching drama that explores how deep into the national psyche these murders in the Katyn forest went.

More deft than it first appears, director John Crowley's gentle-but-not-sappy drama features another late-day masterpiece-in-miniature from Michael Caine.

The serious-minded result has many super-cool moments. But when it gets clunky, it’s super-meh.