Kevin Maynard

The film is never less than a satisfying mix of compelling entertainment and social critique. The performances are uniformly superb.

A new version of the greatest psychological mystery of all: love.

Together is unabashedly about people who need people. The film's satiric skewering of '70s liberalism works because it feels emotionally authentic.

Unfolds like quietly engrossing short fiction, reminding us that there are few things more pleasurable than being in the hands of a good storyteller.

This historical epic about the "virgin queen" of England's early life moves with the crackling urgency of a contemporary political thriller.

A funny, frenetic, and often quite touching microcosm of the Big Apple life itself, essayed by a pitch-perfect cast and boasting authentic urban flavors.

Stomps the summer movie competition with heart and humor.

Traffic is a riveting, semi-documentary drama, and yet calling it that is a disservice to just how suspenseful and stylish an entertainment it is.

Intelligently written, sharply directed, and beautifully played.

The most heartfelt tribute to women -- specifically, actresses -- he's (Almodovar) ever made.

A must-see for avid fans and a welcome primer for nascent hip-shakers everywhere.

Election is a bracingly intelligent adult comedy that shrewdly captures adolescence.

Will take you by surprise as a romantic, fast-paced, entertaining spectacle that deserves to earn back every penny spent to produce it.

John August's script is exciting, witty, original material, and this film's got the talent to match.

A profoundly moving human drama, a quasi love story about two lost men who form an unlikely friendship.

It's the funniest, saddest performance of the year in a film of uncompromising wit and heart.

Flock (don't walk) to the theater to see Chicken Run.

Cho is raw, uncensored, and side-splittingly hilarious.

That rarest of independent films -- it's risky and exciting.

A technologically marvelous animated movie that's just as funny and inventive as the first, but also more emotionally engaging than most live-action films. This is clearly a sequel in name only.

Even if the great debate that pits artistic integrity against corporate compromise doesn't thrill you, see Cradle Will Rock anyway. It's marvelous, provocative entertainment; art for art's sake.

Director Roger Michell ("Persuasion," "Notting Hill") has made his finest film to date.

Especially timely in light of the current escalation in Palestinian-Israeli aggressions, but this is one sad story that would pack a staggering punch in any political climate.

42 Up is filled with truth and poignancy as these people reflect on their first half of their lives, their goals, ambitions, and how they, for the most part, succeeded in reinventing them.

A fitting tribute to these displaced children because it so simply and elegantly personalizes their place in the most horrific chapter of 20th-century history.

An intensely involving, Ibsen-esque human drama populated by complex, sympathetic heroes.

Though frequently brutal and off-putting, Beautiful People is a must-see.

Moodysson's teen protagonists are more complex than both the high school stereotypes (the nerd, the jock, the beauty queen) in films like "American Pie" and the self-absorbed philosophers on "Dawson's Creek."

Russell has combined pathos, terror, and black comedy with a dollop of Hollywood feel-good patriotism to make one of the best studio efforts this year.

A uniquely personal, vibrant mosaic of the American dream, and like a dream, it evaporates beautifully before our eyes.

It's the sum of things not spoken, things too painful to express, that's the heart of this quietly moving drama.

The most poignant (if hard-hitting) depiction of childhood to show up this year.

Captures the emptiness of small-time lives as evocatively as Peter Bogdonavich's "Last Picture Show."

If you haven't seen his (Crudup's) work before, Jesus' Son could be the one that makes you his biggest disciple.

There are only a handful of great music documentaries ... but Temple's film deserves a place in the canon.

A hilarious and utterly faboo documentary...you'll be begging for more.

An exhilarating and at times operatic film.

The man (Apted) behind the excellent "7 Up" series has put a human face to science, making the seemingly abstruse both accessible and easily relatable.

This is certainly the best studio movie of the new year to date, and Douglas might even be remembered at next year's Oscars.

A gritty, well-acted urban drama with lots of humanity.

It's Zahn's heartbreaking performance that drives Riding in Cars with Boys.

The results are both savagely funny and poignant for anyone who's ever had a friendship that felt like their only connection to the outside world.

Mesmerizing entertainment, but it's also a cop-out.

Oy, it's such a pleasure that you'll be begging for Rush Hour 3.

The casting is sublime.

The results are far more real than MTV's The Real World.

Best of all is the supporting performance of The Jackie Robinson Steppers Marching Band, a real group of high-school musicians in which the three girls all perform.

The Spy Who Shagged Me is impossible-to-resist summer fun that left me feeling, dare I say, randy for more? Oh, behave.

Dares to substitute wit and warmth for the standard gay indie tropes in tackling its tale of an unconventional couple.

Liam is mostly an emotionally devastating chronicle of the disintegration of a family. The entire cast is superb, but Frears has cast two screen naturals in the lead roles.

It's such a sensory experience; in its best moments, the film washes over you like a fever dream.

Nolan's engrossing, backwards-ticking noir will run you so thoroughly in circles that you'll need to see it at least twice for maximum enjoyment.

The politicizing is intense, but the actual game footage is even more engrossing; Carlson uses both digital video and 16mm film to put us squarely in the midst of the gridiron brouhaha.

In spirit, 101 Reykjavík is so Almodóvar that it could melt the polar icecap.

Optimistically explores how vastly different people can come together, and how any journey is more about what happens along the way than simply getting from one place to another.

It's a pleasure to watch these unhurried, character-driven vignettes when such great actors are anchoring them.

Never less than riveting.

Whenever Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon resorts to flying fists or soaring sword battles, the Force is definitely with it.

A sentimental slice of 1950s Italian-American life that doesn't soft-pedal its characters' simmering prejudices within their insulated community, or pander to their dreams of getting out.

A riveting, unsentimental tragedy of unrequited love.

This one's still worth checking out -- especially for the naturalistic performances by the feisty Touly and the rest of the young cast.

Smith and Fitzgerald are funny, feisty, poignant, and altogether realistic. Will they end up lovers, friends, side-by-side corpses? Their sharp performances make Series 7 as frighteningly addictive as crack, or even "Survivor."

Offers effortless charm, wit, and originality in spades.

Basically one elaborate joke about male modeling and all the vanity, emasculation, and fatuousness that attend it. Fortunately, it's a good joke.

A literate, dialogue-driven treat delivered by a cast that truly savors the script's wicked wit.

As talented as Polley proved herself in "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Go," this is her best work yet.

This is such seductive entertainment that you might as well stop grousing and give in.

Not all of the jokes hit, but enough of them do that anyone who's ever filed, collated, or played Mixmaster DJ with the transcribing machine will find cathartic giggles in this breakout debut.

Pie has some nice surprises and is enjoyable in a smutty, sitcom way. It offers up the outrageousness of "There's Something About Mary" without wallowing in cruelty.

Though similar thematically to "Anywhere But Here," Tumbleweeds is a breath of fresh air that busts the cliches of dysfunctional mother-daughter sagas.

Some moviegoers are bound to take issue with the trick, "Sixth Sense"-style ending (or cynically see it coming), but The Others is mostly spooky fun, and a strong calling card for Amenabar.

Agnes Browne hums along as a series of pleasant vignettes, only frantically shifting to a single narrative track in its third act for the sake of an unbelievably upbeat ending.

Though unflinching in its savagery, Amores Perros is always compulsive viewing.

While both leads are appealing enough, it's the stuff on the sidelines that keeps All Over the Guy entertaining.

American History X is a crash course on how to make a message movie that resonates with crackling power.

A meticulously mounted film that retains the author's ambiguous characterizations yet is still emotionally accessible.

Too poignant and funny to be dismissed.

Actually, it's a childhood "A Clockwork Orange," a reverent realization of the late Stanley Kubrick's final obsession.

There's nothing more incendiary than the reopening of a forgotten chapter of history --nothing more incendiary than telling the truth.

The flutes soar a little too often, but Yimou's film is genuinely moving.

Goran Visnjic is such a sensitive, non-menacing gentleman that any woman would want him as her own personal blackmailer.

Most tenderly, the film deciphers the true meaning of its corporate-speak title in Franck and his father's impassioned struggle to ensure each other's welfare.

A cross between a Hogarth painting and an MTV video, Plunkett & Macleane cuts quite a swath.

Lynch's faith in the kindness of human nature has been renewed, yet thankfully he's never maudlin. Instead, he wins over our emotions with the film's understated beauty.

A fast, funny film that goes down like a cyanide-spiked piña colada.

There's lots of sweet music to savor in this snide industry satire.

Croupier should please people who take their noir straight up -- with plenty of twists.

Yields beguiling nectar.

It's got enough hilarious moments that, all in all, the film's bite is as toothsome as its bark.

Worth navigating for its refusal to play to the crowd. There's certainly nothing safe or sweet about Weaver's performance.

Reed's manic direction rarely lets up between show-stopping cheer numbers.

The entire ensemble is first-rate.

Faithless, filmed mostly during Sweden's endless winter, will chill you to the bone.

The year's first sure-fire Oscar nominee has arrived with flying colors.

Contains more than a handful of big laughs and a highly charismatic cast that knows how to put them over.

An entertaining but insubstantial romantic thriller loaded with Euro-chic trappings and no small amount of sex appeal.

All in all, she comes off as quite a complex creature.

Doesn't come close to the pulp beauty and complexity of classic noir.