Jonathan Foreman

Unpretentious and often witty, it's emotional punch is weakened by spotty performances, especially from Karin Viard in the lead role.

Longwinded, slow-starting but moving film.

A powerful fable about love and addiction that manages to be darkly humorous when it isn't graphic or harrowing in the extreme.

East Is East is "The Full Monty" of 2000, a fresh, funny and poignant film filled with sparkling performances.

It's often hilarious, and there is lots of the zippy, apparently improvised dialogue that made "Swingers" such a pleasure.

The originality and intelligence that made Smith's "Clerks" and "Chasing Amy" such refreshing pleasures are all but absent.

But it's more than a crowd-pleaser shot at spectacular Rocky mountain locations -- it's almost revolutionary.

A clever, funny, extended joke about ruthless directors, method actors and the power of the cinema.

Despite many flaws...Romance is unquestionably an important film.

Before the slightly surreal (self-consciously so) climax, there are some fine set pieces, including a disastrous dinner party that amply showcases Rivette's wonderfully light directorial touch.

Despite its treacly sentimentality, predictability and gutless evasiveness about the power of the church in 1950s Ireland, Evelyn manages to be an enjoyable piece of family entertainment.

Gripping, smart and moving, without falling prey to sentimentality, it shows what can be achieved when mainstream filmmakers like Howard and Goldsman are genuinely inspired and determined to be honest.

Compelling but self-undermining documentary.

Visually accomplished and wonderfully acted.

Hilarious, acidic Brit comedy.

An exhilarating, sweeping epic that begs to be seen on the largest possible screen.

A lovely, intelligent film from Spain about recognizable human beings with real-life problems.

Energetic, often very funny comedy filled with sharp, vivid performances by a terrific ensemble cast.

The film's earthy frankness is refreshing.

Wilde's masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, may be the best play of the 19th century. It's so good that its relentless, polished wit can withstand not only inept school productions, but even Oliver Parker's movie adaptation.

You have never seen a movie like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon because there has never been a movie like it.

It's clever, cool fun and it looks great.

Shaft is what summer action flicks should be... thanks to superior writing, acting and direction.

They may not have made another "Back to the Future," but to their credit, the makers of Clockstoppers don't patronize or underestimate their pre-teen audience nearly as much as has become customary.

A triumph of intelligent adaptation. It shows again how well the great Victorian storyteller translates to film, and makes enjoyable use of a generally first-rate cast.

Still worth watching for Dong Jie's performance -- and for the way it documents a culture in the throes of rapid change.

Downbeat and at times strangely slow-moving despite all its beautifully shot high-speed ambulance rides.

Toy Story had a simpler, stronger story and the advantage of being the first of its kind. But it's quickly apparent that TS2 represents a major step forward in computer-animation artistry.

Atriumph on almost every level. It is breathtakingly stylish, wonderfully acted and its three interrelated tales of the "war" on drugs are brilliantly structured to form a cohesive, powerful whole.

But even if The Cat's Meow is unsubtle and overlong, in its jaundiced way it convincingly captures a fascinating period in Hollywood history.

Graham is funny and adorable in this endearing little romantic comedy.

Less an updated version of the Dostoevsky novel than an unusually somber Hollywood teen love story.

At first, it seems stagy and slow and even to verge on the pretentious, but the film steadily accumulates dramatic power as its carefully sketched characters reveal their internal lives. By its end, After Life has developed into one of those haunting movies whose scenes can pop back into your consciousness hours or days after you have seen it. [12 May 1999, p.56]

Bowfinger's terrific set-pieces... more than make up for the odd weak moment or thin performance.

It feels less predictable and derivative than it is, thanks to Gus Van Sant's deft direction and two fine central performances.

Quirky and good-natured, it makes the most of an unknown but able and refreshingly international cast. And for a low-budget indie, it looks remarkably good and moves along with real snap.

A languid but refreshingly real depiction of female adolescence.

If you've never seen a "masala" musical, you may find Lagaan hilariously bad. Cartoony acting, dreadful dialogue, obvious dubbing, and meandering but ultrapredictable plots are simply part of the Bollywood package, along with six musical numbers and a bizarre mixture of romance, comedy and melodrama.

You won't see any film this year as beautiful, and plain thrilling as Apocalypse Now Redux. Watching it after sitting through this summer's record number of dumb, dreadful movies is almost a painfully good experience. [3 Aug 2001, p.30]

It's frightening enough, to be sure, but too often it feels like a well-executed but rote exercise.

You can tell this is a smart take on Hamlet from the first wordless opening shots.

Initially amusing but finally sour sex comedy.

Powerful, important and refreshingly straightforward documentary.

The most effective moments in Taymor's gorgeous, surprisingly romantic Frida are those that evoke the visual world from which Kahlo's work was formed or the paintings themselves, often using clever animation and other special effects.

So filled with amusing, idiosyncratic touches and unexpectedly charming characters that you mostly don't mind its excesses.

The final result, shaped by the brilliantly nimble, pitch-perfect direction of Spike Jonze, and blessed by superb acting, is an extraordinarily clever comedy that falters only in the last 20 minutes.

One of the more entertaining documentaries to come along in some time.

Ghobadi (himself an Iranian Kurd) takes some gorgeous shots against the snow, but his storytelling is uneven and often slow.

There are a few ingenious zig zags in its otherwise by-the-numbers plot...but what keeps you interested... is the sheer movie-star presence of the actors in the lead roles.

The girl you see stabbing and shooting prisoners and fellow trainees makes the killer from "La Femme Nikita" look like a wuss.

An unusually well-written and satisfying multilayered drama that conveys the feel of urban India with more vivid accuracy than anything made in the subcontinent in recent years.

Vulgar and lewd and raunchy like you wouldn't believe, and absolutely hilarious from beginning to end.

Inside Beautiful People, . . . there's a terrific film trying to get out.

The marvelous Burtonic gothic/nightmare production design -- scenery, weaponry, costumes, etc. constantly pleases the eye without ever distracting you from the plot.

There are times when the urban dialect is so thick, you wish the film came with subtitles.

It's only when you're leaving the theater that her spell wears off and you realize just how bad the movie, directed by Andy Tennant, really is.

As a horror movie, even one inspired by the kitschy Hammer horror films of the 1950s, it's disappointing.

A visually stunning film.

The whole film could use a jolt of caffeine, and a lugubrious woodwind score doesn't help.

Crimson Gold has been likened to an Iranian "Taxi Driver," but it's nothing of the sort, though it is powerful in a quiet, minimalist way.

The thing that makes Haneke’s Code Unknown so enjoyable and effective is that that he says it in such a wonderfully restrained and light-handed yet suspenseful way.

A witty, well-acted, visually gorgeous ensemble drama.

Indeed, for all its jokiness, this isn't the film for anyone who suffers from even the mildest fear of ugly, scuttling, jumping creatures with spindly, furry legs that have a habit of hiding in your shoes.

The result is a remarkably beguiling documentary, on a number of levels.

Sweet, often poignant little film.

Culkin is superb - he makes you forget that Igby is a spoiled brat who actually deserves the beating he gets.

A poignant, graceful little film.

No "Crouching Tiger." It lacks the richness of theme and performance that made Ang Lee's film so emotionally satisfying. In fact, watching Iron Monkey makes you realize just how Western and literary the sensibility of "Crouching Tiger" was.

So beautifully made (everything in it is understated except the gorgeous good looks of its stars) and turns out to have such real cumulative power that it is worth holding out to the end.

Magnificent if overlong and oddly structured surfing documentary.

Structurally flawed, occasionally shlocky, but written with unusual intelligence and subtlety.

An engaging, bittersweet tale.

So minimalist in characterization and dialogue that the plot all but evaporates -- and so does any dramatic power.

Slight but affecting triptych.

Its bawdy honesty eventually gives way to convention, sentimentality and a frustratingly silly ending.

An uplifting, crowd-pleasing film in the tradition of "The Full Monty" that could easily win Oscar nominations for both its 11-year-old star, Jamie Bell, and first-time director, Stephen Daldry.

The film is almost worth seeing just for the extraordinary scene in which a stark naked Mortimer has her movie star lover (Dermot Mulroney) deliver an exhaustive critique of her body's flaws.

But it is Thurman who stands out, with a marvelous, full-blooded performance, her best in some time, as tragic Charlotte.

Intelligent, moving and often beautifully photographed, Aberdeen boasts superb performances.

A sweet, lushly photographed but occasionally slow film.

Ed Radtke's film-fest favorite does at least boast some fine acting, excellent photography and an authentic feel for life on the highway.

Though Human Stain is sometimes too chaotic and sometimes too neat, it boasts some of the best acting of the year.

A real pleasure, a sweet, funny, ensemble comedy...utterly authentic.

It ranks among Robert Altman's best work ever, and that its many satisfactions derive in large part from a superbly written screenplay by Julian Fellowes that has no equal this year.

Essential viewing for anyone who cares about American popular music and its roots.

Meanders along in a confused, confusing way for what feels like hours.

It's an odd mixture of an unsentimental, darkly humorous take on mental illness with the usual Hollywood loony-bin cliches.

As the plot loses steam, director Mark Pellington (whose paranoid thriller "Arlington Road" was one of the worst movies of 1999) tends to rely on cheap tricks to maintain suspense, although the final catastrophe is very nicely done.

The filmmakers have an pleasurably accurate sense of the embarrassments that darken early adolescence and of the amazing cruelty of teenage girls.

This oddly cheerful, decreasingly dark comedy actually works and can boast some of the most enjoyable performances of the year.

Its abundant laughs are heavily reliant on the chemistry of stars Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson - who show once again that they're as fine a comic team as Hollywood has ever produced.

Slight but entertaining and occasionally touching.

This bizarre, original and brilliantly crafted documentary about the Sex Pistols is funny and at times moving -- despite all the ugliness and stupidity it depicts.

If you're starved for on-screen nudity and sex garnished with art-film trappings -- The price you'll pay is putting up with the director's relentless Euro-pretension, manifested in a tediously contrived plot crammed with absurd coincidences, clunky symbolism and soap-operatic melodrama.

By far the best single performance in the film - and it is really, really terrific, utterly believable and moving - is by Emma Thompson. To the extent that there is genuine feeling in the movie that doesn't feel slickly manipulative, it's in the scenes involving her character.

There are affecting scenes, and not all of Cacoyannis' additions to the Chekhov text detract from the effect of its moving brilliance.

Isn't Allen's finest work by a long shot, but an undeniable part of its fascination is trying to figure out what -- if anything, even unconsciously -- he's trying to say about how he treated Farrow.

It's fascinating and moving all the same, both in its depiction of Iranian daily life and in its powerful portrait of female oppression.