Ken Eisner

Overall, thoroughly delightful tale is stronger on character and texture than on plot, with Miyazaki’s masterful use of quiet spaces and expansive moods (especially in flying segs) offering a fresh contrast to hyped-up Yank toons.

By sharp turns poignant, disturbing and hysterically funny.

One-liners and dry sight gags still abound, but the ennui-sodden formlessness of "Slacker" doesn't fly as well in this $ 6 million, smoothly lensed package, which calls for shapelier narrative and resolution.

Superbly crafted documentary is strong enough to make believers out of non-metalheads, and inside enough to get the devil's-horns salute from the most diehard followers.

Not much happens in Bungalow, a deceptively low-key drama from Germany. But a series of mysterious offscreen explosions and general air of ennui express anxiety of the country’s post-unification youth.

An important and smoothly mounted meditation on moral choices within the entertainment biz.

A fine cast, speedy pacing and playful direction make this a solid contender for the Austen sweepstakes.

More a tribute than a remake, Steven Soderbergh-approved take on Argentine hit "Nine Queens" isn't quite as sharp or surprising as the original, one of the best scam pics of the past decade.

Riveting and timely.

Educational value aside, pic is exciting for its extended performance sequences, with the most notable finding Traore and Farke strolling with guitars through the acoustically amazing atrium of an abandoned mud schoolhouse.

Consistently amusing, candy-colored sex romp -- about romantic match-ups in Madrid that go both wrong and right.

Lovingly rendered talking-heads effort puts emphasis on basic tenets on basic human connection, not on sexual orientation or social attitudes.

A seemingly esoteric subject -- the launch of Russia's Sputnik satellite -- is exhumed and made exciting in this important slice of you-are-there documaking.

The helming debut of thesp Fisher Stevens, who mixes swell ensemble acting with eye-popping animation for a witch's brew of good sex, bad timing and very funny dialogue.

A leisurely and lovingly observed character study about a detective, his home life, and a crook who plays cat-burglar-and-mouse with the cop.

Hurt is quietly affecting as Dave Purcell, a fine chef but a lousy businessman whose sticksville cafe, the Auk, is named after a rare, possibly extinct kind of duck.

Track record of helmer Barry Alexander Brown, and scads of clever writing from scripting producer Dan Harnden, should help this little gem find a home, although it is probably too intimate and original to win more than a cult following.

In the end, helmers have some nifty tricks up their verite sleeves.

A thorny subject is handled with care in this meticulous reconstruction of life inside the East German police state, as boiled down to the experiences of just two ex-inmates -- one man and one woman --- of a notorious Stasi prison. Overall effect is poetically thought-provoking, not depressing.

Queen Latifah proves an amiably authoritative narrator, and is allowed more personality than most script readers.

Minnie Driver gets a showy workout in The Governess, a beautifully crafted, if ultimately opaque, study of art, sensuality and outsider status in early Victorian England.

Rambles into unexpected places, some more interesting than others, but it stays on track long enough to take auds somewhere special.

Well mounted, frequently gripping.

A fascinating portrait of an era, as well as of a unique public servant.

Combo of gorgeously shot Western settings (mostly in snowbound Idaho), memorably mismatched characters, and light-touch social commentary.

Thoughtful, surprisingly fast-moving documentary.

Starring an excellent Paulo Costanzo (late of "Joey") as a twentysomething uberslacker who is nonetheless willing to fall into accidental success, pic is seasoned with fine perfs by JR Bourne as a charismatic, creepy hustler and Steph Song as Constanzo's sexy potential love interest.

A soundtrack in search of a movie, Empire Records is one teen-music effort that never finds a groove.