Ruthe Stein

A needlessly complicated and confusing thriller.

In the riveting Transsiberian, a train of that name adds international intrigue to the mix.

Viewers will be swept away by the beauty of individual moments and by Ivan Barnev's extraordinary performance.

If you can still be entertained by a thriller that unabashedly borrows from others of its ilk and don't mind reading subtitles, you could do worse than District B13. It's over so fast, in a quick 85 minutes, there's scarcely time to get bored by the silly plot.

Akeelah and the Bee connects where it counts most, on an emotional level. Only a curmudgeon could watch this feisty but vulnerable youngster rack up victories against all odds without tearing up.

The Rainmaker has a mostly plausible story, an engaging young courtroom hero (Matt Damon, Hollywood's new cover boy), a giant insurance company as the perfect adversary and the best supporting cast of any movie this year.

A compelling, tightly made political thriller.

Nightmare-inducing.

It's a broad generality to say that French filmmakers have a particularly perverse sensibility, but it can be backed up by one import after another. The latest, La Moustache, is wonderfully odd in a minimalist kind of way.

Although based on a fictional story, it has the feel of truth and is a vivid reminder of the hell Mexicans put themselves through to live in the United States, even illegally.

Trumbo is welcome just to bear witness to the severe consequences meted out to one man who dared to do the right thing.

Both actors are so appealing, you root for the inevitable meeting to happen somewhere in the vicinity of Wonderland.

Quietly unsettling.

Powerful and moving.

Bouncy, informative and funny documentary.

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.

As bad as its title.

Lacks the marquee names and production values of big studio romantic comedies, but it connects on an emotional level most of them fail to do.

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

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

It grabs you from a symbolic opening scene of gang members rolling the dice -- the odds, it soon becomes clear, are stacked against them getting lucky -- and never lets go.

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

The title is all that's boring about director Michel Gondry's latest mind bender, as trippy as LSD.

By focusing on one family's dilemma, the movie brings home the messy Middle Eastern situation in a way easier to relate to than the headlines and opinion pieces.

The ending is predictable to anybody who's followed the trajectory of outsourcing. Outsourced humanizes those affected by it - even if the story sounds familiar.

I'm not denying that a 40-year- old woman might be self-conscious about going around with someone this young. But the subject isn't interesting or provocative enough to sustain an entire movie.

There's a manic quality to the film that may wear you down. But at least you won't be bored.

A very human story.

A disturbing drama about the dehumanizing and humiliating effects of war.

The movie is one big in-joke. It's watchable, but eventually wears you down with its over-the-top cleverness.

The biggest puzzlement about "What'' is what it's doing in major movie theaters around the country when it so clearly belongs on one of those small cable channels given to peculiar programming.

For all its dazzling computer-generated sequences, "Museum'' wouldn't be nearly the delight it is without the talents of some of the best comedians in the business.

Fascinating and impressively balanced documentary.

Woody Allen's strongest and most mordantly funny movie in years, even if it is also his bleakest.

A potentially great movie winds up buried inside a just OK one.

Entertaining in a pulpy kind of way, like the fight films of the 1930s and '40s, and more accessible than most of Mamet's movies.

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

As moving as some parts are, it's muddled by a script that tries to pack in too much. There's sufficient material for a couple of films and a sitcom.

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.

Mate swapping is so '70s. But Alan Rudolph, who wrote and directed Afterglow, avoids making it seem dated by presenting the menage a quatre as accidental.

A peculiar little film -- grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting.

I don't claim to have seen every entry from around the world, but it's hard to imagine five better than this deliciously offbeat comedy, as wildly inventive as anything Billy Wilder ever conceived.

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

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

Revelatory as well as unsettling.

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.

Overly long and not especially enlightening film.

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

Compelling.

The filmmakers succeed with an unexpected ending. It's as fresh as everything in the movie, which turns out to be about so much more than one youngster's resilience.

So cleverly constructed that it's easy to be taken in and believe these twins really rocked.

The humor manages to be simultaneously sophisticated, supremely silly and very dark.

Visually, the film is a stunner, dotted with psychedelic colors and many shades of red -- one battle is fought with red laser-gun sights -- some looking realistically like blood. When gangsters open fire, their falls are choreographed like a ballet. The problem comes when the cast opens its mouth and Elizabethan dialogue tumbles out.

A well-deserved 2003 Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film.

A richly satisfying and darkly funny movie.

Heart-wrenching.

It's a serious subject handled with humor -- not the ha-ha kind, but the hard laughter that comes from recognizing parts of yourself in the Perelmans.

A richly textured and compelling film.

Keeps you riveted through parts that might otherwise be difficult to watch.

Good in their individual scenes, Yakusho and Kusakari are magical together. They convey so much yearning -- not so much for each other as for that extra something to give real meaning to their lives.

A tearjerker that earns its sobs with heartfelt emotions.

Vincente Minnelli's lavish and hugely entertaining adaptation of the Gustave Flaubert classic leaves little doubt that Emma (Jennifer Jones in an over-the-top performance that works surprisingly well) has found satisfaction for the first time in the arms of wealthy rogue Rodolphe (a perfectly cast Louis Jourdan). [26 Aug 2007, p.N44]

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

Another art film that's more pretentious than it needs to be.

An appealingly quirky thriller from Brazil.

The offbeat drama The Seagull's Laughter is the kind of movie I appreciate because it never announces where it's headed.

Wickedly funny.

Bloody good.

The film version is gorgeous to look at and contains amusing performances from Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett in the title roles. But it fails to get inside the minds of gamblers as Peter Carey so admirably did in his Booker Prize-winning novel.

While the documentary does a credible job of pointing out the magnitude of the problem, it skirts the issue of what can be done about it and by whom.

It says something about this movie that Redford is at his most compelling playing opposite a nag.

Known for his visual images, Jordan outdoes himself in "Breakfast,'' a feast for the eyes.

Except for an ending that's so implausible it might have derailed a less solid work, Twelve and Holding is a realistic and sympathetic portrayal of what it's like to be young and confused

Hits a bulls-eye.

The Pillow Book sometimes seems like three different movies, each one an eyeful but together too much of a good thing.

This is by no means a polished film. But it has an energy lacking in thrillers that cost hundreds times more to make. It should be viewed as a calling card from gifted and resourceful filmmakers whom I hope some Hollywood producer will have the sense to sign up immediately.

Passes by like a dream.

That the film succeeds as well as it does despite a series of coincidences that strain credibility is a credit to a fine cast and a joie de vivre that pervades even the most implausible moments.

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

Much about Living Out Loud is pretty far-fetched, but at least it accurately portrays the dating possibilities for newly divorced women of a certain age.

Schizo offers not just the proverbial window into village life in Kazakhstan, but a panoramic view.

At its exhilarating best, Following Sean is reminiscent of the lauded British documentaries that began with "7 Up.''

A film that must be seen to understand the sad truths of our times. It's been made with a sensitivity and creativity that's come to exemplify Winterbottom's work.

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.

Overall Freedom Writers is a noble effort. At a time when New Year's resolutions to change already are falling by the wayside, you can't help but be moved by a group of young people who followed through on their resolve.

Each time Something New touches on something controversial, it quickly retreats to some silliness.

Mitchell may be another Russ Meyer -- a dubious honor -- but he's no Tony Kushner.

For all the filmmaker's good intentions, Fast Food Nation isn't a particularly good movie. It doesn't hold together or grip you the way a documentary might have.

Annoying, soporific and singularly humorless.

Funny, original, occasionally poignant and almost all of it too dirty to repeat in a newspaper.

Wise and wondrous.

Vitus is likable enough and definitely suitable entertainment for young people willing to read subtitles.

The film's ambitions are laudable, and it manages to be touching, funny and true to life. It seems ungrateful to ask for anything more.

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.

Intermittently funny.

While dinner and a movie is in theory a great idea, I'd avoid eating before taking in Lunacy.

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

A compelling Irish drama.