Lou Lumenick

This movie sends you into the night thinking, maybe even a little afraid. Bravo, Mr. Fincher.

Hilarious sweet and sour David Mamet comedy.

Cannily weaving cross-cultural comedy with we-can-do-it humor in the spirit of "The Full Monty," the film builds to a rousing climax.

One of the year's best.

Another remarkable addition to Eastwood's directorial canon.

A gut-wrenching, politically neutral documentary that spends more than a year with a platoon of American GIs in a valley that's been called the most dangerous spot on Earth.

Overall, this gorgeously designed and photographed movie artfully depicts the immigrant experience in ways that transcend its setting, melding Hollywood and Bollywood storytelling techniques to weave a tale a large audience will relate to.

One of the year’s warmest and most crowd-pleasing surprises.

Less grim than it sounds, Southern Comfort ends on a note of triumph for its endearing, gender-bending hero.

A head-clearing, mind-blowing blast from the past - one of the year's best.

Is torture ever justifiable? A twisty, compelling, brilliantly acted (if sometimes difficult to watch) thriller, Prisoners, asks this question not in the usual contemporary context — anti-terrorism — but instead as a gruesome option deployed as a response to every parent’s worst nightmare.

This superb documentary about the Catholic Church's worst pedophile scandal is in many ways far scarier than any fiction.

Director Paul Greengrass - who directed the superb "United 93" between the second and third "Bourne" installments - knows how to stage and edit bravura action sequences, generating almost unbearable suspense while deploying a superb cast.

As much a study of prehistoric art as archaeology, this documentary brings in experts to speculate about the mysterious artists who made these paintings, some quite elaborate and others intriguingly abstract.

Such astounding computer-generated effects you'll suspend disbelief and root for the hero, a 3-inch talking mouse.

Charlotte Rampling, Geraldine Chaplin and Mathieu Amalric contribute cameo appearances in the The Forbidden Room, a visual feast that may be a bit overwhelming for those unfamiliar with Maddin’s work.

That still makes Broken Embraces superior to at least 99 percent of the movies released in 2009. Run, don't walk.

Splendidly spectacular, intelligent and very well-acted.

Quite unlike anything I've ever seen before.

ParaNorman is probably the year's most visually dazzling movie so far, and the stunning climax centering on an 11-year-old witch (Jodelle Ferland) is too good to spoil.

Winslet (Mendes' wife) once again demonstrates why she's one of the best actresses working today.

You might not want to watch all of "The ABC of Love and Sex Australian Style," "Turkey Shoot" or "The True Story of Eskimo Nell," but the clips on view in "Not Quite Hollywood" are a hoot.

The kind of stand-up-and-cheer movie Hollywood is supposed to have forgotten how to make.

Smart, funny and ingeniously detailed with terrific vocal teamwork.

As Kym, Hathaway runs an astonishing gamut of emotions, from anger to fragility and from hurt to regret - without ever seeming actress-y, like Nicole Kidman. Start clearing that mantelpiece, Anne.

Like the Master of Suspense's best films, Double Take (which makes great use of Bernard Herrmann's haunting "Psycho" score) is an intellectual puzzle that also works as a thoroughly accessible entertainment.

Gut-bustingly funny.

South African director Gavin Hood (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine’’) pulls off some really tricky tonal shifts.