Merle Bertrand

A film that's every bit as odd, unique, and unnerving as its title character.

A black comedy that nonetheless manages to tap into the sense of alienation and unfocused rage so prevalent in today's kids.

An unusual tale about an often over-glorified era from our past, The Scoundrel's Wife exposes wartime America's sordid small town underbelly in a captivating, even entertaining manner.

If the fascinating, if disconcerting Our Brand Is Crisis teaches us one thing, it's that consultants, handlers, lawyers, and middlemen can always find a job.

Director Mike Bencivenga takes what could so easily have been a trite, cliche-riddled melodrama and instead, somehow turns it into...well, a wry and moving melodrama.

Unlikely but winning farce.

Draws an unspoken parallel with, of all things, beauty pageants, complete with unnaturally driven kids and nervously supportive parents desperately trying not to appear too pushy.

This white trash "War of the Roses" is a surprisingly engaging film.

An amazingly powerful piece of cinema. Actually, it's more an amazingly powerful piece of news journalism; the kind of in-depth stories told in all their complexity that such fluff American network "news" magazines as "Dateline" could only dream about telling.

Secretary, like the type of relationship it explores, is not for everybody. But it does what good films do best; that is to provoke us, push our buttons, make us think and maybe even entertain us in the process.

With his darker secrets hidden away, secrets that could have provided us with the final layers to this influential man, we’re left with an incomplete portrait of Bayard Rustin. But thanks to the documentary “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin,” we at least have that much. And for a man who’s as important and relatively unknown as Rustin was, an incomplete picture is far better than no picture at all.

An intensely moving and oftentimes haunting film; a compelling look at the unique life paths of three totally different women.

Yes, there is a very palpable lesbian erotic undercurrent pervading this film. However, the reason it's so palpable is because it's so subtly and deftly handled...AND it's only one thread of the film's storyline.

"We are who we are," is the mantra for this grim urban drama. That human escape velocity can be awfully hard to reach with all those bad influences hanging around.

Full of enough legitimate red meat to incense salivating Democrats who can't wait to tear into a pound of Bush's flesh in November. Yet, this film should truly frighten partisans on both sides of the aisle.

With Manito's raw portrayal of its characters and stripped-down cinematography, the undercurrent of impending tragedy is palpable.

Makes for an interesting close-up on an art form whose intricacies could all too easily go unnoticed.

Believe it or not, most of the empathy here is with Wand Jean's legal team. Yes, the lawyers.

Eisenstadt does an excellent job bringing the story of an ambitious young woman setting out to fulfill a dream full circle.

About as exciting as meatloaf.

The best thing about The Slaughter Rule -- is that the film refuses to succumb to the temptation of a glorious Hollywood feel-good happy ending.

By turns infuriating, charming, wistful and annoying, Kwik Stop winds up a touching, if frustrating film.

While certainly an entertaining and intriguing film, one simply can't get past the notion that we're watching semi-famous actors pretending to be their more famous characters.

Definitely designed to tug on its audience's heartstrings, a task at which it completely succeeds, In America is ultimately a solid, if unspectacular family film.

Hard-headed to the end, the three women in Face prove that if nothing else, stubborness and inflexibilty run in the family.

Though this rude and crude film does deliver a few gut-busting laughs, its digs at modern society are all things we've seen before.

Solid debut effort from Lisa Cholodenko.

Delightfully goofy.