Jonathan Foreman

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.