Mike Clark

The "Age of Innocence" oozes anthropological dazzle, but Dazed and Confused may some day rate its own Smithsonian showings for clinically re-creating the High School Experience 1976. [20 Sept 1993]

Irritates in the early going when many of the current-day interviews are so intentionally underlighted that we can't see what the group members look like.

It isn't really dull (only dulled), and the leads are remarkable; one could, in fact, lavish a lot more praise if this labor of love weren't burdened by the year's dopiest movie wrap-up. [23 Nov 1990]

Mediocre terrorist melodrama turned even punier by real-life events, and that's before we scratch our heads at its lead-actor choice.

This definitive "life goes on" movie does what Altman does best: juggle 22 characters, deftly switch moods, and offer a comlex warts-and-all characters whose lives seem to extend beyond the screen. Few movies attempt this; Fewer succeed. [1 Oct 1993]

Like the first half of "Best in Show," the movie is so deadpan that sometimes you have to pinch yourself to realize how potently satirical it is.

And novel insights notwithstanding, this is a plain old good movie, too.

The plan in A Simple Plan grows exponentially complex once the first dollar is purloined, an act that makes this unpretentious parable one of the season's better 'what's-going-to-happen-next?' movies.

Here's an ''opened-up'' film of a fragile, sentimental play that doesn't overemphasize every dramatic point, and doesn't tromp on every minefield in the material. [13 Dec 1989, p.1D]

Impressive yet always self-conscious, Perdition has more class and less sass than any movie in a while.

The movie, which ends on an unexpected note of wistful humor, also gleans gentle and non-derisive chuckles out of Fin's physical state.

One of the most challenging movies in years.

One of the best football movies ever, Nights in the end celebrates the game.

With a half-dozen characters sorting out life's woes, the pacing is a couple of beats faster than languorous — just enough to sustain one's interest.

Federico Fellini's first film (co-directed with Alberto Lattuada) would make a compatible living room double bill with FF's 1986 Ginger and Fred...Pleasing all the way through. [17 Mar 1989, p.3D]

Lots of sand but no day at the beach for its characters -- and not, from all appearances, the actors, either. Among the best of director Sidney Lumet's movies not set in New York. [08 Jun 2007, p.8E]

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

Well, maybe some of the performances are more serviceable than all-out spirited, but this is certainly not true of the two crucial ones. As soldier Benedick and his spat-match Beatrice, director Branagh and Oscar-winner Thompson (sporting an attractive tan) are all anyone could wish for. If the classiest married couple in movies today can't make the Bard multiplex-accessible, it'll be time for Tom and Roseanne to suit up for Macbeth. [7 May 1993, p.4D]

Too lingeringly creepy to ignore. [23 Oct 1992]

At 65, Boorman flawlessly handles his actors and expertly orchestrates action in one of the widest-looking black-and-white Panavision frames since 1967's In Cold Blood. [18 Dec 1998, p.13E]

More than any other example in recent memory, Chicago shows how much the element of surprise is missing from today's movies.

Writer/director Julie Dash pours on sounds, music and costuming for a tone more impressionistic than dramatic - and more somnambulant than either. She might have gotten away with it for 80 minutes, but merciless Dust closes in on the two-hour mark, a structural shambles in the too-earnest American Playhouse tradition. [1 April 1992, p.6D]

Nil is harrowing and soul-sapping, a look into the heart of darkness of London's underclass.

The crucifixion is the strongest such scene of all time. [26 Aug 1988]

Set in mid-1944 France, it's a contest of wills between a Resistance railway inspector and a smooth Nazi general (Quiz Show's Paul Scofield) over purloined French art treasures. Filmed on location, often in inhumanly cold weather, the film eschewed the use of railcar models - running real trains into each other and off the track when the script frequently calls for it. [30 Sep 1994, p.3D]

Williams is only adequate, but nearly everyone else here is great, including Jerry Orbach (Ciello mentor) and Bob Balaban (hardball Justice Department creep). [25 May 2007, p.4E]

Emmerich might have had a masterpiece, but he'll have to settle for what comes close to being a must-see movie today.

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