Jonathan Foreman

Presents an intelligent, profound and at times heartrending slice of Taiwanese middle-class existence - as seen by characters at different stages of life.

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

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]

A far more impressive and affecting piece of filmmaking and storytelling than most movies put out by Hollywood this year, and offers, as a bonus, a glimpse into a fascinating, contradictory society.

Powerful, provocative and often surprisingly funny, this may be the year's outstanding documentary.

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]

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

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.

Revels in the sensual pleasure of music while capturing brilliantly the tension that grips any theater company before the curtain goes up.

Lacks even a trace of imagination. Its by-the-numbers plot is depressingly familiar, and each line of dialogue is so predictable that the script... could have been generated by a computer.

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

Director Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess") gets vivid, convincing performances from a fine cast, and generally keeps things going at a rapid pace.

It is not only an amazing technical accomplishment, it's also the wittiest and best-voiced animated movie to come along in years.

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.

The sequel's battle scenes -- especially the climactic assault on the Helm's Deep fortress by the armies of darkness -- easily put those of the "Star Wars" series to shame.

Rapturously elegant and deeply sexy in a deliciously restrained way. One of the most romantic movies I have ever seen, right up there with "Brief Encounter"and "Casablanca."

An extraordinary documentary about an extraordinary man that brings to urgent life potentially dry questions of American foreign policy in the 1960s.

Poetic but tedious and all but plotless.

Easily one of the most enjoyable big-budget Hollywood movies to come along in a while, Rock Star is an unexpected pleasure.

The latest episode of this ongoing masterpiece of reality TV -- which every seven years revisits a group of English people first interviewed as 7-year-olds in 1964 -- is every bit as enthralling as the earlier ones.

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.

A haunting, superbly made film. But it's also an unrelentingly sad and depressing experience.

Visually flat and uninteresting and too often feels like a (leisurely paced) filmed play.

Essential viewing not just for those fascinated by adventure, exploration and survival, but for anyone interested in the magic of leadership.

A beautifully shot, well-acted movie that manages to make a complicated, real-life story without much drama feel like a thriller.

This film is fighting the good fight, albeit in a rather heavy-handed way.

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.

Slight but affecting triptych.

It's a shame that, on top of everything else, the second movie version of The Quiet American -- Graham Greene's brilliant 1955 novel about the French Indochina war -- should be so visually disappointing.

One of those rare recent films whose emotional power resonates long after you've left the theater.

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.

A sophisticated, stylish, fast-moving piece of work.

That it is such a powerful and indeed beautiful film is simply extraordinary.

Resembles a period version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" - played dead straight.

If you have the patience, its almost endless silences and extremely slow pacing eventually pay off.

A terrific work of political and social satire set in a Nebraska high school that has the intelligence of (the less coherent) "Rushmore," while painting a much darker picture of politics and human relationships.

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.

A stunning achievement, every bit the equal of the classic moun taineering book which inspired it.

Isn't just scary, charming and delightfully unpredictable - it's also smarter and subtler than any new movie out there.

An extraordinary experience: an original and brilliant combination of comedy, action and sophisticated political comment -- the best American movie of the year thus far.

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.

It's a slow, exhaustive and exhausting process that takes a toll on the viewer, despite the intrinsic power of the underlying material.

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

For some reason, the people who make modern musicals don't like to let you watch dancers dance -- there are still too few moments when you get to enjoy choreography from a dancer's hands to her feet.

A predictable tearjerker whose main redeeming feature is that you don't actually see any of the angels in the title.

Uneven but occasionally hilarious teen comedy.

While the film contains some terrific, realistically bloody battle scenes, it has a distinctly Germanic feel, both in its epic heaviness and in the peculiar way it revises the history of the American Revolution.

Doesn't have the emotional heft of his "Children of Paradise," but it's still moving.

May be the creepiest and most original horror film since John Carpenter's classic "Halloween."

A bad film with some oddly charming moments.

Magnificent if overlong and oddly structured surfing documentary.

Like "Beneath the Veil," it gives a human face to those who have suffered from the Taliban's tremendous cruelty, and those who have been maimed in the war to end their rule.

Thanks to a superb performance by Isabelle Huppert, it's compulsively, gruesomely watchable.

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

Despite the high quality of the acting, Spring Forward is for the most part sleepy, long-winded stuff.

A charming, (mostly) briskly unsentimental love story, written, directed and acted with remarkable assurance.

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

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.

The very effectiveness of After the Life's depiction of its main characters makes its immediate predecessor seem that much more of a waste.

The film's earthy frankness is refreshing.

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.

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.

A visually stunning film.

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

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

Never much more than hagiography that lets the context of its hero's death remain confused.

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

Transcends ironic grunge-glamour and achieves a beguiling combination of dark comedy and genuine sweetness.

Boasts some genuinely intelligent and funny sequences and some nicely painful scenes of domestic tension - as well as surprisingly strong performances from actors like Neve Campbell and Donald Sutherland.

May well be the first film ever to show people having sex while wearing gas masks.

It's hard to remember a film that mixes disparate, delicate ingredients with the subtlety and virtuosity of Sofia Coppola's brilliant The Virgin Suicides.

A languid but refreshingly real depiction of female adolescence.

What makes 8 Mile transcend the formulaic nature of its plot is the way it makes these rap competitions compelling even for those unfamiliar with rap music, and its scrupulous, loving rendition of a grim, wintry Detroit circa 1995.

Though On the Run is a welcome reminder that effective thrillers don't have to be noisy or dumb, the film does contain slightly jarring moments of inadvertent humor.

So daring and unsparing in its depiction of the psyche and experience of adolescent girls that it's hard to imagine an audience that wouldn't find it deeply provocative despite a slow pace.

The most enjoyable western comedy since "Blazing Saddles."

The filmmakers' smug Bay Area bigotry is all too obvious in gratuitous, mocking swipes at Heidi's Southern background.

Partly a schmaltzy, by-the-numbers romantic comedy, partly a shallow rumination on the emptiness of success -- and entirely soulless.

Sheer delight. An ensemble comedy-drama that recalls Robert Altman's best work.

Hard-core chick shlock, weakened by odd shifts in tone and a slack pace, but elevated by a luminous performance by Natalie Portman.

In fact, for long stretches, especially during the first hour, it's as soporific as watching a bank of security cameras.

Bleak, demanding stuff, and its hand-held documentary-style photography is harder on the stomach than "The Blair Witch Project."

Unfortunately, you are often distractingly aware that you are watching re-enactments of real events.

Agonizingly slow-moving and talky, it consists primarily of conversations between two men in a truck.

Almost too creepy to be poignant, and generally funny only in an uncomfortable, squirm-in-your seat way.

This film of mistaken identity, murder, class envy and (bi)sexual tension doesn't live up to its own promise.

It's actually the surprisingly compelling plot and the often hilarious dialogue that keep you watching this tale of passion and murder in a Samurai militia unit - not the beautiful scenery or the elegant color palette.

Vastly superior to the small and independent films that have come out during the last six months.

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.

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

Undeniably powerful, grimly fascinating.

Fascinating, beautifully photographed portrait of a vanished community.

Often darkly funny and very well acted, it's a pleasingly subtle, Hitchockian thriller with dark comic overtones.

Essentially a feature-length commercial for both the growing sport of competitive cheerleading and ESPN2 .

With its endless takes of characters silently waiting, say, or getting out of bed, this is the kind of film that can be seen only after a full night's sleep. But it is also clever, funny and sometimes moving.

Hilarious, acidic Brit comedy.

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

Thereare moving moments in this over-hyped satire by the Israeli-Arab writer-director-actor Elia Suleiman, and it's fascinating to get a picture of daily life in prosperous Palestinian neighborhoods.