Kevin Thomas

The Cruise validates beautifully a life that is its own validation.

"Ashes" is glorious and ultimately wrenching, but it's a tough journey.

Beeswax has a rhythmic quality, and it eschews conventional plotting for sharp observation of human strengths and foibles.

The way I Went Down, with its lovely score, plays out under Breathnach's gentle, compassionate touch becomes wryly amusing, ironic and entirely satisfying. Its cast is a glory, adept at setting off a sly humor with a touch of pathos, and it brings to the fore Brendan Gleeson, so good in so many supporting parts, as a seriocomic powerhouse in the central role. [1 July 1998, p.F4]

Director Wayne Kramer and co-writer Frank Hannah pull off a sleight-of-hand trick here, playing a gritty surface reality against dark Vegas mythology and getting away with it through a combination of shrewd, witty characterization and sure-footed storytelling skills.

Alternately satirical and romantic, full of pain and humor, Buffalo '66 is a winner.

A beautiful, harrowing film of understated power and perception that affords Fernando Fernán Gómez, the Spanish cinema's great, weathered veteran, yet another of his unforgettable performances.

Handsome as all Allen films are, and it proceeds with the brisk, sophisticated air of throwaway confidence and lack of pretense that we expect from the contemporary master of grown-up comedy.

Hank is but the latest of Thornton's strikingly taciturn characters in a whole string of movies, but for Berry, Leticia represents a big-screen breakthrough.

As the film's linchpin, Falk comes across as a crummy, low-life Pied Piper with a stupefyingly irresistible charm. [18 Aug 1985, p.5]

The very title suggests that this compelling and provocative film is going to be different from other Holocaust documentaries.

This is one slam-banger that looks to connect with action fans at home as well as abroad.

Insightful and thoughtful.

A luminous, piercing film from the Elizabeth Bowen novel, richly evokes a world of privilege on the verge of disintegration.

The look and feel of the film is entirely beguiling. It is deliberately not a period piece, heavy with dated styles and fads, but instead evokes a sense of timelessness.

La Petite Lili itself is pretty good, but it is also assured to the point of glibness.

By the time this distinctive 1986 film is over we have been treated to a lavish fugue on the themes of childhood, wolves, eroticism and myth. [11 Jun 1989, p.2]

Splendid entertainment, young in spirit but accomplished in all aspects with the fullness of spirit and sense of ease that comes only with experience.

Not only is it Merchant's best directorial effort to date but also is among the finest films the Merchant Ivory company has ever made.

Kawalerowicz directs with briskness and vigor but cannot keep the first half of his film from slipping into tedium.

Abounds in psychological suspense and plays like a mystery film, even though the mystery at hand may be purely one of the human heart.

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

Live Flesh is an effortlessly articulated tragicomedy by Pedro Almodovar, a world-renowned filmmaker at the height of his powers. [30 Jan 1998]

The Hidden has enough smarts that it doesn’t need to be so total and unrelieved a massacre. The caustic dark humor with which it begins ends up drowning in an ocean of blood.

An appealingly wry little film that is as appetizing as its title.

A witty and delightful Christmas present for the entire family.

There is a wonderful natural quality to Jeong's storytelling that is enhanced by cinematographer Young-hwan Choi's graceful camerawork and by a dynamic, contemporary score from M&F.

A triumph for all concerned, it is especially so for the multitalented Chereau.