Ruthe Stein

Often amusing but lacks the necessary bite.

Immediately has you in its thrall and doesn't let go -- a reminder of how powerful and moving cinema set in wartime can be when all the elements align.

Showing the intricate dynamics of family relationships is something Mira Nair does as well as any director working today.

Instantly captivating.

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

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

An emotionally satisfying example of a genre whose sketchiness can be off-putting.

As the title character in Lady Chatterley, Marina Hands does the most persuasive job of feigning sexual pleasure since Jane Fonda in "Coming Home."

A highly amusing combination period film and mockumentary.

Sly, near-perfect comedy.

Reprise has a smart and knowing script and will compel audiences to reflect on themselves at that age.

An engrossing new drama from France.

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

The movie harks back to a time before state-of-the-art technology when writers and directors had to rely mostly on imagination.

Blanc is completely without vanity in showing the physical deterioration wrought by addiction. Her performance is as chilling as Lee Remick's in "Days of Wine and Roses.''

Wildly imaginative if extremely strange.

The young people in Nowhere spend a lot of time worrying about the world coming to an end. Watching these sour characters abuse themselves and one another, the more immediate concern becomes: When is this movie going to end?

The humor is all over the place, veering from light to dark and from broad to subtle -- as if an "I Love Lucy" episode had been retooled by Woody Allen.

Noirish thrillers live or die by their plot twists and dialogue -- talk literally being cheap compared to action shots. Unfortunately, the script by first-time filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson fails on both counts.

Vivid and madcap but fails to connect on any emotional level.

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.

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

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

Lumpy.

The least appealing of the trilogy.

Suffers from Resnais' inability to open it up and give it the look and pulse of a film.

A slow seduction.

A hauntingly lyrical study of sexual awakening.