Kevin Thomas

Timelessly elegant and charming 1957 musical with a Gershwin score. [20 Nov 1994, p.6]

A harrowing yet sublime work that has to do with the exceptionally cruel fate of an 11th-Century noblewoman, played by the incomparable Kinuyo Tanaka. [12 Aug 1985, p.2]

Grimly unfunny comedy needs all the help that it can get. It's so bad it doesn't deserve the boost a Hanks nomination for Big may give it.

Watching Marwencol, Jeff Malmberg's probing documentary on Hogancamp's undertaking, is an exhilarating, utterly unique experience.

It's handsome, large-scale escapist fare - and has as its costar the formidable, versatile Kristin Scott Thomas.

Dzi Croquettes is both a tribute and a terrific entertainment.

Instead of underplaying the story's escalating tempestuousness it pushes it over the top; time and again the film begins to catch fire only to be doused in silliness.

Anubhav Sinha's exhilarating fantasy Ra.One is Bollywood at its best. It has energy, spectacle and humor, song and dance, but razzle-dazzle special effects and action stunts never overwhelm its story of enduring love that unfolds amid an intricate and inspired sci-fi odyssey.

Replete with superior acting and visual splendor, the film is a fine instance of the overly familiar made fresh.

Silent Souls is a marvel. Fedorchenko's expressive powers and his visual prowess are astonishing, and though the film's conclusion is abrupt and confounding, it feels right.

Finding Joe is so centered on the self-realization of the individual that it provokes one to contemplate the millions of oppressed, imperiled people that haven't the luxury of pursuing such an inner quest.

Warrick finds subliminal messaging in political campaigns, military operations and even in the music played in big box stores. Warrick is also rightly concerned by the power of media conglomerates to manipulate the news.

Much in this wholly absorbing and poignant documentary is familiar from numerous previous Holocaust accounts, but Mago and her quiet sense of moral obligation provides a fresh perspective.

Special Treatment is a serious film, but Labrune allows a touch of dark comedy in her depictions of Alice's clients and Xavier's patients.

It has opulent, stylized settings of elegance, grandeur and scope, flawless special effects, and awesome martial arts combat staged by the master, Sammo Hung. Yet bravura spectacle never overwhelms either the plot or the key characters. Chang Chia-lu's intricate script bristles with wit and suspense; the film from start to finish is a terrific entertainment.

A rousing example of Bollywood-style pure escapist entertainment.

An exquisite, intimate film of restraint and delicacy.

First-time writer-director David Robert Mitchell tells a coming-of-age tale with such freshness and such bemused insight it's as if it has never been told before.

Singham is as boldly overwrought as an early silent melodrama, and its comic relief is extremely broad.

A beautifully structured and photographed film, John Turturro's rapturous Passione offers a vibrant exploration and celebration of Neapolitan music in all its grit and glory, presenting 23 musical numbers that encompass a millennium's worth of influences.

Despite a capable cast and attractive Baton Rouge, La., locales photographed by Bobby Bukowski, The Ledge suffers from a seriously flawed script that's just too implausible to be taken seriously.

It's an eye-popping wake-up call revealing how the USDA and FDA have increasingly waged war on America's small farmers even when they can prove they are contributing healthful products to our food supply.

Akshat Verma's script is imaginative and funny, the film's stars are engaging and Delhi Belly adds up to pleasing escapist fare.

Might be too much for some audiences, but it is a potent and surprising work.

The film is amiably silly, gaudy and even pleasantly diverting for the non-Hindi-speaking viewer who realizes that the verbal gags that elicited laughter in the original language tend to elude translation via English subtitles. The comedy, however, is also heavy on slapstick, pratfalls and crazy disguises.

In her vibrant !Women Art Revolution Hershman focuses on a number of the many women who created what has been called the most significant art movement of the late 20th century.

In its masterful use of evocative imagery and music, Road to Nowhere is flawless.

Has enough going for it to make it likely worth the effort for fans of Asian cinema, but it does seem an opportunity missed.

For all its poignancy, Spork never loses sight of its goal to be zesty, sharp-witted fun.

A flawless gem, a gentle yet ultimately ironic meditation on the power of art.

Alba gives such a focused, interior portrayal that she just might have managed to carry the movie had it been better.

Set in a noirish, gleaming Montreal, this handsome, captivating, well-paced and stylish film is fully realized in every aspect.

Not on the same artistic level as "The Last Picture Show" yet has its own integrity and value - and a fine array of performances.

Richly inspiring and informative documentary.

This endearing picture is proof that it is still possible for a major studio release to be fun, smart and heart-tugging and devoid of numbskull violence and equally numbing special effects.

Few filmmakers juxtapose cruelty and beauty as audaciously as Japan's Takashi Miike. A master director with great style and panache, Miike's latest, 13 Assassins, is a classic samurai movie, right up there among the finest in the genre.

Director Satyajit Bhatkai has brought plenty of energy to an imaginative and thoughtful script by many hands.

A lame, tedious comedy.

Posthumous albums and now this film are securing his legacy and enduring influence.

In only his second feature, Frammartino has found a fresh and ravishingly poetic and beautiful way to explore the relationship between the spirit, man and nature.

This impeccably made film is chock-full of enlightening and sometimes bizarre moments.

This fresh, highly original film, inspired by Oliveira's substantially different, never-filmed 1952 script, has been made with the greatest of ease and simplicity and with drollery and wit, yet its underlying impact is profoundly spiritual.

The Grace Card becomes increasingly involving and assured, yet when the inevitable moment of truth arrives for the coming-apart Mac, the film lapses into melodrama, contrivance and improbability.

Eventually, Immigration Tango throws away what little credibility it has in going for a finish of total improbability and silliness.

Having created rich roles for his actors, Basir elicits from them inspired portrayals. Well-crafted in all aspects, Mooz-lum is not only rich in nuance, but also an engrossing entertainment made with skill and passion.

aAn ambitious ensemble piece in which every actor is able to shine and every character is a master of the well-turned phrase.

Araki lets his absurdist imagination run wild, and Kaboom takes the time-honored gambit of gradually revealing that nothing is as it seems to delightfully cockamamie extremes.

It marks a subtle, assured and altogether distinctive feature debut for writer-director Rao and its radiant leading lady, rock star and stage performer Monica Dogra.

Landon's sardonic view of human nature and deft filmmaking skills - plus a raft of sharp portrayals - keep the viewer from pondering the preposterousness of certain situations and instead encourages going along with the fun.

Hosoda, who directed the cult film "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," has made a sophisticated yet poignant family entertainment with an appeal beyond Japanese animation buffs.

In a confident yet relaxed feature debut, Fuentes-León has created a wholly unified work of art.

Pastor and Naharro have written a great part for Dueñas and direct her with great care. In fact, her delicately nuanced portrayal is crucial to why this lovely film works so well.

A Marine Story overcomes some flaws in continuity and superficial characterizations to drive home its underlying message about the injustice of "don't ask, don't tell" and the way the controversial policy deprives the military of born leaders. A worthy endeavor.

Eichmann, in all its solemnity, needs to be more dynamic; the film's portentous score further weighs it down.

A quietly powerful, incisive portrait of Canadian Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallarme (Roy Dupuis), who was sent to Rwanda in 1993 on a peacekeeping mission as the ruling Hutu attacked the rebel Tutsi, yet he was hobbled by the U.N. leadership and faced with the indifference of the world's superpowers.

Consistently outrageous and relentlessly surreal, the Belgian film is, intentionally or not, frequently funny; it's also compelling and distinctive.

GhettoPhysics undercuts its approach with too much cant, too much rambling and too much that is self-evident.

The Exorcist III doesn't completely work but offers much more than countless, less ambitious films. [20 Aug 1990, p.F6]

Takes a darkly daring tack that pays off handsomely, providing wholly unexpected dimension that reveals the full measure of Bose's imagination and skill. Smartly designed and richly photographed, this film is an idiosyncratic charmer -- and a lot more.

A trite, incoherent tale.

Despite strong portrayals by Guttenberg and his co-star, Lombardo Boyar, and sequences that attempt to open the play up, it remains too much a filmed play, and worse, one that has not been effectively paced. As a result, it doesn't come alive until it's drawing to a close that's unexpectedly touching, if more than a little sentimental, but too late to redeem the preceding tedium.

Return to the Blue Lagoon, which was produced and directed by reliable TV veteran William A. Graham, who should know better, might make it with junior high audiences. The Fiji locales are gorgeous and the Basil Pouledouris score unashamedly lush.

A beautiful film that flows with a luminous ease and assurance.

A droll, dark Christmas treat for adults, a delightful alternative to the usual holiday-themed fare.

Has all the ingredients for a cult film success but most definitely is not for everyone. It's stylish, sophisticated, venturesome--to say the least.

The film is at once of its time--simultaneously the fullest flowering of the French New Wave and the shattering of its male chauvinist tendencies--and utterly timeless in its perception of love, sex and human nature.

Not as inspired or amusing as it might be, leans heavily on the considerable charm of its three young and attractive principals. Their charisma and the film's larky spirit, English locales and elaborate cons might be just enough to divert easily satisfied date-night audiences.

An elegant Merchant Ivory production, it is too slight and perhaps too precious. But it will be a witty pleasure for admirers of its grande dames: Dianne Wiest, Jane Birkin and Bulle Ogier.

There's probably sufficient energy and violence in RoboCop 3 to satisfy undemanding action fans, but it's as mechanical as its cyborg hero.

Late Marriage will assuredly rank as one of the cleverest, most deceptively amusing comedies of the year.

Armstrong, screenplay adapter/co-producer Robin Swicord and their colleagues have got everything just right. [23 Dec 1994]

My Twentieth Century (Times-rated Mature for sex, complex style and themes) remains on the whole buoyant and beguiling--and is surely among the most distinctive films to arrive this year.

A campy, hopelessly amateurish vanity production.

Once Bitten is that extreme rarity, a youth movie that's made the grown-up discovery of how sexy and amusing a situation can be if you leave things to the imagination.

In its first two-thirds, My First Mister, which marks Christine Lahti's feature directorial debut, looks to be a winner. But it takes a disastrously wrong turn toward the end that all but destroys the good work that's come before.

They never generates any real fear until its last minutes, by which time it is too late to redeem the dull events that preceded them.

Rifkin has spun a pitch-black fable of show business at its sleaziest and most ephemeral.

Crisp and provocative, and no small amount of its pleasure derives from Channing's dazzling performance.

Proves as appealing as its title.

If you don't go expecting the depth and subtlety of a Mike Leigh working-class film, The Full Monty can be heart-warming fun with more serious undertones than you might have expected. [13 August 1997, Calendar, p.F-5]

The dehumanizing aspect of pimping is what's scariest about the Hughes brothers' investigation--so powerful the filmmakers realize they need only to record it.

The film is an engrossing and original police procedural of bleak, steel-gray images and high style. But be warned: as part of its complex, ever-unfolding plot, it is punctuated with some grisly images.

A teen comedy that actually puts a priority on intelligence and values and spans generations in its appeal, emerging as a special delight for anyone for whom high school was something less than nirvana. [29 Jan 1999, p.6]

Zeffirelli has created an amusing yet touching high adventure and an unusual coming-of-age tale.

A tiresome addiction drama.

It must be said that, stuck with a script full of plot holes, director David Price doesn't flinch. Both he and his key actors are clearly up to better material than Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice.

Secret Ballot, which has a rich, spare score by Michael Galasso that blends Eastern and Western motifs, is funny, provocative, well-paced and leaves a memorable bittersweet aftertaste.

Commands attention from its very first frame and never lets up right through the fade-out. It is a splendid example of classic screen storytelling with no false steps, and Gansel's understated approach pays off with resounding emotional effect and meaning.

For all his mastery of his medium, Lee is no less effective in directing actors than in creating images.

A gorgeous film with a vision strong enough to sustain heart-tugging, heightened by San Bao's romantic score, that verges on the sentimental.

Alternately heart-wrenching, dismaying, raw and even funny, Solas is ultimately a wonderfully warm and embracing experience.

The film is no more than a tedious, over-long Bollywood soap opera.

Made from a sophisticated European perspective, this is a light summer entertainment with an able, highly attractive cast.

The result is a film that is at best highly uneven and perversely at odds with itself. Luckily, Wilde's delicious sense of absurdity and peerlessly witty dialogue are pretty indestructible, and "Earnest" itself remains a peerless comedy of manners.

Take this picture literally and you're in trouble; better to view it as an allegory on youthful despair in which Araki deftly scores serious points without taking himself too seriously.

Although you could certainly wish that Seagal and his writers, Ed Horowitz and Robin U. Russin, could have found less preachy ways to express themselves, On Deadly Ground is otherwise lively entertainment for action fans.

Although the film's narrative line sometimes proves hard to follow, and some of the songs heard on the soundtrack seem to have little to offer beyond sheer noise, Kill Me Later is a gem, even if a little rough around the edges.

A triumph of stylish, darkly absurdist horror that even manages to strike a chord of Shakespearean tragedy - and evokes a sense of wonder anew at all the terrible things people do to themselves and each other.