Mike Clark

This has to be the raunchiest full-length animated feature since Fritz the Cat, which got an X rating in 1971.

Of all the pop-psychiatry movies from the 1940s, Spellbound survives its kitschy elements -- wallows in them, even -- to remain as fascinating as expected from a collaboration that was contentious. [04 Oct 2002]

As close as anything could be to a light Mamet comedy.

If there can be a best-selling novel with a cult following, Margaret Atwood's feminist-futuristic The Handmaid's Tale qualifies. I'm not sure if the screen version has the stuff to become a cult movie - but if so, credit timeliness, visual style and a few performances. Most of all, timeliness. [07 Mar 1990, p.4D]

Mostly, this movie is what Burton does best, though some of composer Danny Elfman's ballads make even 75 minutes seem padded. Yet the zingier numbers (the opener especially) are terrific - befitting a movie with a literally wormy villain Oogie Boogie, a ghostly pet, Zero, and a mayor who's literally two-faced. So forget Monster Mash, this is a monster bas. [13 Oct 1993, p.1D]

We accept the sincerity and altruistic motives of the aging loner he (Philip Baker Hall) portrays in this consciously spare Nevada-set sleeper. [13 March 1997, p. 8D]

The final third is slower until a somewhat contrived finale that's still the funniest thing in the movie.

Well acted by an ensemble that leans toward equality for all, Mile carries its long running time extremely well.

Few filmmakers of the past 20 years have mesmerized as much in their use of crisp, color-drenched photography.

This handsome movie works thanks to its lack of pretension and an atmosphere somewhat akin to the gentle wackiness of director Bill Forsyth's better works.

Time has marched on for the second ''best-picture'' Oscar winner, but this is still a seamy story about two Midwestern sisters (Bessie Love and Anita Page) singing, hoofing and (in Page's case) teasing their way to success. [24 Feb 1989, p.3D]

If it's not conventionally speedy, it is almost always gripping.

An unusually knowing movie from filmmakers of any age, both in its coldly clinical viewpoint and assured filmmaking style that even puts fresh spin on a routine police interrogation. [26 May 1993, Life, p.8D]

The finale, which utilizes vintage home movies to show us the real people we've just seen portrayed, packs a wallop. [19 February 1999, Life, p.13E]

However flawed, this film proves two things: Davis is still peaking as a lead, and Hanks is in a league with funny male leads of any movie era. [1 July 1992, p.1D]

The film's real heart is splitsville Pollack and Davis - he for the comedy his foolhardy fling provides and she for creating a complex character too direct to maintain marital harmony she may well need. It would be heartening if Davis, not scandal, were to be the film's ultimate legacy. Look for her to figure in the year-end supporting actress awards. [18 Sept 1992, p.1D]

As stuffed with beguiling performances - some of them unexpectedly good - as its script is overstuffed. And though even the beguiled may feel manipulated the next morning (or when hitting the exits), the players put it over by a nose. Happy holidays.

Clint Eastwood remains a competent, rather than distinctive, film maker, but he obviously respects the material. Bird is essentially factual, and we come to understand why so many other musicians thought shooting heroin might enable them to transfer [Charlie Parker]'s genius to themselves. [26 Sept 1988, p. 4D]

In the movie's high point, (Jeremy) Northam conducts an antagonistic interview with the boy, who eludes well-placed lawyerly traps.

Hollywood excelled at this kind of toughie from the mid-'40s through the mid-1950s, and you can see this film's equal every night on a cable movie channel. This summer, however, it's a jewel. [22 July 1992, p.4D]

Glossy or not, the movie is unflinchingly tough-minded, down to its Hollywood-weepy ending, which, if you think about it, may be the year's gloomiest.

There isn't any kind of dance you can compare to Robert Duvall's latest as an actor/director, though a slo-mo minuet might come close.

Like many frugally financed movies, director Ang Lee's charmer depends on characterizations, not flamboyant technique. [19 Aug 1993, p.4D]

The movie is more compelling than exciting with one exception: the kind of rocket blast-off sequence for which IMAX screens were seemingly invented.

This crumbled-caper comedy is the funniest movie ever from a film maker late in his eighth decade. [22 July 1988, Life, p.4D]

A minor delight but a delight just the same.

An enjoyably cast, superbly shot, jolt-generating device...It isn't art, but it'll crush your bones.

A strong first half has Jill Clayburgh oozing bile when weasel husband Michael Murphy dumps her. Writer/director Paul Mazursky's sexual-political screen landmark wobbles some when she takes up with artist Alan Bates. [13 Jan 2006, p.14D]