Maitland McDonagh

Offbeat and ravishingly beautiful.

Rough around the edges but rock-solid in its sense of place and its depiction of real people overreaching their apparent limitations.

Diop Gaï's performance is equally beguiling: She's both bold and mysterious, a femme fatale bursting with life.

Mamet's jabs at Tinseltown's silken ruthlessness are quietly pointed, and the ensemble cast -- even the brittle and sometimes annoying Pidgeon (Mamet's wife) -- is brilliant.

This taut crime thriller is a welcome antidote to brainless action extravaganzas in which the mayhem is the message, and rests on two shrewd, perfectly modulated performances.

It's probably not the last word in WASP angst, but it's eloquent, witty, graceful and as sharp as can be.

Kassell's visual influences are evident -- she's clearly a fan of the down-and-dirty films of the '70s -- but the consistently fine performances smooth over the rough patches.

Like the original "Fantasia's" eight segments, the results are a mixed bag.

Spare and quietly heartbreaking, this French-Canadian feature uses a fine brush to depict a teenage girl in the midst of a quiet crisis.

If you ever wondered why they call it "the curse," this movie will enlighten as it entertains.

Its minutely detailed revelations work their way under the skin like slivers of glass.

The wonder of it all is how bitterly funny the complications are, especially as filtered through Dedee's monstrously self-centered voice-over.

(Fugate's) portrait of Valentine/Baker is rich and compelling.

Funny, thought-provoking and, yes, touching.

Both genuinely funny and authentically horrifying, it puts the average horror comedy to shame.

Eastwood's slow-building story of loss and deliverance is a fine, understated piece of storytelling that earns every emotional body blow it lands.

The film's measured pace may put off impatient viewers, but the brilliantly underplayed ending is worth the wait.

Roberts fans will, of course, be delighted to see her in a role that plays to all her strengths -- fresh-faced looks, charming gangliness, air of infinite approachability -- and neatly sidesteps her glaring inability to act by having her more or less play herself.

An enthralling, suspenseful documentary about spelling bees.

The result is a beguiling mix of the familiar and the exotic, vivid proof that a good story can withstand endless variations without losing its fundamental vitality.

Catches you with a creepy sucker punch.

Actor-turned-director Andrey Zvyagintsev's feature debut is haunted by an elusive past and suffused with dread about the future, and it's all suggestion without explanation.

Despite its scant 48-minute running time (which many viewers will find frustrating), the film sets up a provocative equation between vampirism and American involvement in Asia.

If the ending isn't conventionally happy, it's certainly deeply satisfying.

Culkin's Alig has the face of a debauched cherub, but the former child star never quite captures the charisma everyone swears was an essential component in Alig's success. Green's St. James steals the picture out from under him (poetic justice of a sort), and the supporting cast is nothing short of amazing.

Shot on location in Manhattan, the film is steeped in understated New York City ambiance and discreetly tinted by Jeffrey M. Taylor's subtle score.

For what could easily have been a slickly vulgar variation on "American Pie" or "Porky's", this libidinous comedy explores some unusually complicated territory, and benefits greatly from Verdú's unpredictable performance as Luisa.

His epic reworking of their lurid conventions proved so long that it was divided into two parts, and this one ends on a hell of a cliff-hanger.