Kim Morgan

An erotic mystery of sorts, the film works because it's laconic rather than talky and its actors are all up for the material.

A family film, but it's a wonder if kids will really enjoy it. The picture is geared for older folks, people who'll be heartened by the message that sometimes, you can return to your passions.

Crowe understands what's interesting about Nash: He's not a feel-good figure. It's a pity the same can't be said for Howard.

It is aided both by fine performances by Auteuil, Aumont and Depardieu and by wonderful pacing.

A slow burn. A portrait of the mundane humor and horror of everyday life, it scalds nerves you may have never thought existed. And yet the film is funny, almost hilariously at times.

One of the most aggressively ambiguous pictures of the year. There is a certain power to that.

A little movie, fine, but a little movie with little in the way of character composition, cinematic panache or intelligent writing.

Quiet, sexual, disturbing, often beautifully melancholic, Rain, as seen through the eyes of a precocious girl, recalls a parental split-up with sobering accuracy. It reminds us why so many teen-agers go through a sullen phase -- and sometimes never shake it off.

Takes the typical detective-hunting-a-serial-killer story and twists it into a creepy, enigmatic bit of psychological terror that by its final ambiguous scene leaves you truly chilled.

In its own slightly disturbing way, this psychological thriller serves as an absorbing diversion without sapping brain cells -- almost the perfect summer movie for smart people.

Owning Mahowny may at times feel futile in its colorless, disheartening subject matter, but that's the point -- to see how barren Mahowny's life becomes. Hoffman gives the film relevance.

It's not afraid to be funny, tragic and decidedly female.

While breezy and fun, the film is also flimsy and sloppy in style and content.

The film isn't terrible, it's just trying too hard.

Peter Segal's film, a predictable, choppy affair at best, boasts an understated, likable performance by Sandler, but here we never feel, as we did with the original, invested in the outcome of the final game, or convinced of the redeemability of the movie's sordid protagonist.

It's a shame director Care didn't take more time with his characters, even making the film a bit longer to deepen the connections between them. Still, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a keen slice of teen angst and peril.

A hilarious, sad and sometimes-inspiring documentary directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the film is an all-out Tammy valentine -- campy, dramatic and, of course, makeup-smeared. And better than any melodrama you'll see this year.

Engrossing and unusual.

It's not an art film. The movie is as mainstream as it gets -- which is just fine; the picture is both great fun and gently satirical.

Eventually becomes tedious.

Not just love, but maybe an escape from a wretched world. We're not sure, but that's what makes Heaven so inexplicably, intriguingly soulful, even in its most remote and architectural instances.

A movie that will wear you out and make you misty even when you don't want to be. It's a gushy, sometimes-maudlin, often-charming movie that highlights the importance of little things.

Manages to be a solid, though not exceptional, heist movie with a good-looking cast and -- maybe -- even better-looking cars.

A film that merges cocaine, Ivy League, college applications, the Asian American experience, dark comedy and high school drama while maintaining a personal tone and likable lead characters is just too impressive to knock.

Intriguingly puts two distinct, strong women together as if to pose the question, just what is a strong woman? By the film's end, that question is tough to answer.

On face value, The Flower of Evil is pure Chabrol, but it lacks the power he brings to human relations and social classes, where often violent, masochistic themes are explored. But that doesn't mean he's done as an artist.

A slight, smartly dressed bit of melodrama that thinks it's gritty when it's really a bit of puff.

Manages to feel both obvious and oblique: You feel the need to watch it twice but wonder if you would actually be up for it. It moves like a breezy techno-thriller but tangles itself with duplicities and metaphors. You get it, and then you don't get it, and then you wonder if you even care.