Ruthe Stein

The new movie shrieks of motherhood - raising hot-button issues like biological clocks running down, the rights of birth mothers and whether to adopt or give artificial insemination a shot.

A compelling and visually arresting drama.

As good as family entertainment gets.

Much as she did in "Little Miss Sunshine," Breslin imbues Kit with joy.

Suffused with a golden glow, the movie looks and sounds like a fairy tale.

A quirky but surprisingly lighthearted dark comedy.

Bloody good.

A warmhearted film.

Like its singular central character, Before the Fall stands out from the pack.

Glatzer and Westmoreland live in Echo Park, and they have given their film a remarkable sense of place.

Boasts a collection of oddball characters, some more sharply written than others.

Don't little ones have enough to worry about without ecological concerns popping up in family entertainment? Happy Feet should have stayed light on its feet.

Filled with moments that will make you smile.

A frothy comedy with the most adorable buddies since "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

The film has aged gracefully.

To say it is about a debilitating disease is as reductive as saying "Little Miss Sunshine" is about a beauty pageant. Both are intimate stories of family ties that bind but sometimes also choke.

By creating likable characters and putting them in situations that seem plausible, if a bit of a stretch, the film succeeds where others of its genre fail.

Fun to watch although falling short of a real hoot, this latest in a barrage of family movies largely succeeds at keeping the kiddies entertained and their parents from nodding off.

Director Robert Mulligan exhibits the same sensitivity about young people and their foibles as he did in "To Kill a Mockingbird." In 1962. You never sense that he's making fun of Hermie or his pals. [08 Jul 2007, p.16]

It's doubtful that audiences go to animated features to hear movie stars talk. They go because a film sounds like fun and something their kids and maybe they themselves might enjoy. Bolt is all that and more.

Watching the film is like being at a freak show: You feel like a voyeur, yet you can't take your eyes off this Mommie Dearest or her childlike middle-aged daughter.

The director has a natural's gift for storytelling and eye for casting.

A solid WWII movie that's been lost among myriad others about the same war. [02 Jul 2006, p.28]

Caruso, a very visual director, serves up some surprises and scares, and he's paced his movie briskly. You're out of this disturbing suburbia before you know it, shaken and even stirred.

The casting, at least, is magical. Plowright shows both her character's strength and her heartbreaking vulnerability, sometimes at once.

A wildly entertaining fantasy thriller that propels Russian cinema into the 21st century.

One of very few films to accurately portray the experience of growing up male.

A breed apart from anything coming off the Hollywood assembly line or, for that matter, from the saccharine romances Britain has lately produced.

Heart-wrenching film.

With a strongly visual director, Ridley Scott ("Blade Runner," "Alien", the film really shows what's involved at this level of combat training.

Van Houten, a veteran of European TV, is in almost every scene, and her energetic performance keeps Black Book percolating despite an overstuffed plot that strains credibility and often tips over into melodrama.

A heartwarming, inspirational tale.

Attempts something startlingly original by melding light opera with soap opera.

A bit of fluff expertly made and a hoot to watch.

Deliriously original.

Sounds great and if nothing else should help diminish the stereotype, blasted by the film's subjects, of Gypsies as little more than pickpockets whom travelers need to be wary of.

Given the juiciest plotline, Tamblyn goes for it, turning in a hard-boiled performance that's a needed contrast to her co-stars' tendency to go for sweet.

Extremely pleasurable and well worth seeing.

An appealingly quirky thriller from Brazil.

Wise and wondrous.

Has an old-fashioned feel, as if it had been made in the period of its setting. I mean this as a compliment.

The key to enjoying the film is warming up to the heroine, Poppy.

Evokes grand emotions -- anxiety, sadness, joy -- sometimes within moments of one another. Broken Wings has heart and a poetic soul.

As uneven as I Think I Love My Wife often is, it still has an emotional resonance lacking in most films about relationships. By dealing with temptation in even a quasi-realistic way, it affirms that, like comedy, monogamy is hard.

This deeply moving and disturbing film derives power from being based on the true story of a black South African who does everything possible, no matter how degrading, to get by within an immoral system, but becomes radicalized almost despite himself.

Shot on the streets of New York and offering vistas of the city before all the glass and steel skyscrapers, The Naked City, which won Oscars for cinematography and editing, boasts an impressive pedigree. [04 Jan 2004]

It works as an intriguingly offbeat character study while offering Nicolas Cage a chance to show why he used to be considered one of the top actors of his generation.

For all its depiction of a descent into drug addiction, Candy is filled with surprisingly sweet moments and goes down more easily than seems possible given the subject matter.

Adapted from a French play but never seems stage- bound.

A revelatory independent film whose moments of incredible sadness are offset by the same state of grace that blesses its astonishing title character.

A subtly rich performance by Dillane and a fine supporting cast make this Holocaust drama worth seeing, even if you don't think you can bear another one.

Richard Jenkins gives the standout supporting performance, worthy of Oscar consideration, as Josey's father, a miner unable to conceal his anger at his daughter for having a child out of wedlock and, now, creating dissension at his workplace.

An argument could be made that too many bad things happen to the good members of this sisterhood. The movie does occasionally teeter on the brink of soap opera, but then, so does life.

Karyo -- a big star in France but little known in this country -- has Steve Martin's knack for keeping his dignity while doing outrageous slapstick.

Fascinating and distinctly politically incorrect.

Like a soap opera, but most of what glitters is gold.

Wondrous performances.

The star's amusingly inventive performance keeps your attention through predictable early scenes when "Ohio" repeats familiar material on women's sexuality. It's like a continuation of "The Vagina Monologues" to see Liza Minnelli, as a New Age orgasm coach.

A tearjerker that earns its sobs with heartfelt emotions.

Dunye's engaging personality quickly wins you over. She deserves to be a character in a movie; she's more interesting than most.

An enjoyable if fairly predictable film.

You're under the thrall of a new peculiar couple. Both actors appear to be having fun outmaneuvering each other on the ice and onscreen.

An engrossing new drama from France.

Extremely amusing.

An unusual look at love and how it can unexpectedly develop. Those for whom the concept of an arranged marriage is foreign will get a little history lesson on the immigrant experience watching this sweetly engrossing film.

One of those quirky little movies that you marvel ever got made.

The Visitor, is, if anything, more imaginative and touching than his first.

An extremely good picture that, with a little tweaking, might have been a great one.

Frothy and exuberantly entertaining - in part because of the sexual innuendoes - it's the best romantic comedy so far this year.

Deeply affecting, "Blade'' portrays an oddly elegant way of life that will soon be like the era in that other movie, "Gone With the Wind."

An emotionally charged coming-of-age saga that will make you laugh and cry, maybe at the same time.

A spellbinding Australian Western.

An intriguing exploration of New York theater at the height of its glory.

Powerful and moving.

There's an edge to this exemplary family movie, just as there is in the story.

Sad yet offering glimpses of hope.

A slow seduction.

Exhilarating and enchanting family picture. It's the best I've seen this year and highly recommended for girls and for boys, too.

Often is on the verge of spilling over into melodrama, but that doesn't bother me because life is the same way.

Offers a brew of wondrous chimera combined with the wonders of human nature.

The thrills in Spike Lee's singularly savvy thriller are in small unexpected moments.

Mehta has created the perfect guide to this strange female world.

Unlike Sean Penn's demagogue in "All the King's Men," you're able to forget that Whitaker is acting. He embodies the role. When clips of the real Amin are shown at the end, it's almost shocking to realize the extent to which Whitaker has become him.

Block's hypnotic documentary, among the finest of the year.

It tells the amazing, but mostly true, story of a late-18th century aristocrat who made an indelible mark on English society akin to that of her direct descendant, Lady Diana.

Brosnan and Moore display a knack for fast delivery of smart dialogue both in court and in bed. Their verbal sparring is the main attraction of Laws of Attraction and helped me overlook plot holes of massive proportions.

The sooner you let yourself go with Kim's flow, the more likely you are to come away satisfied. Think of it as South Korea's answer to "Memento," just don't think too hard.

The movie has a sweetness and innocence that makes it near perfect entertainment for its target audience.

Columbus' schizoid approach works more often than not.

Like a Christmas present you didn't know you wanted but are delighted to receive.

A marital comedy as perceptive as it is delectable.

Daring in its affirmation that a dowdy woman in her late 60s still can let go of her inhibitions and exhibit a lascivious side.

Heart-wrenching.

A solidly above-average thriller.

Offers another way into these complex indigenous people, through storytelling as haunting as their artwork.

Like its low-key star, Hamlet 2 is more likely to elicit quiet chuckles than raucous laughter.

Utterly enchanting.

A compelling Irish drama.