Lou Lumenick

Masterful, atypically political - and flawlessly acted.

The year's best foreign-language movie an absolute must-see.

Old-school filmmaking at its best.

Walk the Line superbly combines music and two of the year's most riveting performances to tell one of the screen's great love stories.

Tomlin and Elliot relive their characters’ pain and anger so deeply that they could very well both end up with Oscar nominations.

Summer hasn't even started, but you won't likely find a better catch this season than Finding Nemo, a dazzling, computer-animated fish tale with a funny, touching script and wonderful voice performances that make it an unqualified treat for all ages.

The best reason to wade into this (let's be honest) challenging but hugely rewarding film is Quvenzhané Wallis.

It falls to Hanks and his movie-star presence to anchor this ambitious enterprise, and he does some of his most impressive acting without saying a word.

Visually imaginative, The Theory of Everything is an unusually compelling true-life story about an extraordinary couple triumphing over adversity. It’s my favorite movie so far this year.

A heart-pounding experience that makes you think and contains a gallery of characters that will haunt your nightmares for years to come.

Like all great movies, 127 Hours takes us on a memorable journey. Which is not easy when 90 percent of the movie takes place with a virtually immobile hero in a very cramped setting.

Sorry, the beloved Singin’ in the Rain isn’t the finest of the legendary MGM musicals. For my money, it’s a close second to The Band Wagon, which has better music, better dances, better direction, more lavish sets and costumes and a wittier script (by the same writers).

You won't have a more viscerally emotional experience at the movies this year.

The first movie I've seen in a very long while that deserves to be called a masterpiece. It's such a stunning achievement in storytelling.

Denzel Washington dazzles in his best screen performance to date as Frank Lucas.

A thrilling, beautifully crafted, fact-based horse story that's not merely the summer's finest movie, but may well be the one to catch come Academy Awards time.

No film I’ve seen so far this year has provided the sheer moviegoing pleasure of We Are the Best!

Audacious, thought-provoking and ruefully funny.

Glossy, big-budget thriller that qualifies as the season's biggest and most rewarding surprise.

A truly superb courtroom drama. [02 Jan 2008, p.35]

A spare, exquisitely realized masterpiece about faith, redemption and boxing that beautifully illustrates his longtime philosophy that "less is more."

Everything a summer blockbuster should be but rarely is - a whip-smart, slam-bang piece of entertainment where we deeply care about the fate of the central characters.

Nolan blurs the distinction between dreams and reality so artfully that Inception may well be a masterpiece masquerading as a summer blockbuster.

Lee's incendiary and brilliant new film.

It's impossible to conceive of this ruefully funny entertainment without Bill Murray, who is nothing less than brilliant.

This spectacularly great reboot is surprisingly owned not by Hardy, who is fine, but by Charlize Theron.

Genius director Christopher Nolan reaches for the stars in Interstellar — and delivers a soulful, must-see masterpiece, one of the most exhilarating film experiences so far this century.

Well-meaning films like “Lincoln’’ and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler’’ merely scratch the surface compared to the deep and painful truths laid bare by 12 Years a Slave. It’s about time, Scarlett O’Hara.