Steve Persall

Guilt and obsession combine to create the most personally revealing effort of his career. [Restored version; 13 Dec 1996, p.5]

Moonlight is a modest masterpiece, and quite possibly the best film of 2016.

Hoop Dreams is what sportwriters would call "the total package:" intimate and illuminating in its depiction of two Chicago high-school basketball players and their goals, while never allowing an audience to forget that these boys and the families who support their struggles are part of the American fabric which hasn't received its due. [13Jan 1995, p.6]

No other movie has so masterfully conveyed the folly of nuclear warfare, or poked such savage fun at a military that wages it. Stanley Kubrick's coal-black comedy has a timeless quality that will probably extend beyond disarmament. [6 Aug 1995, p.2B]

Toy Story fully understands the limitless potential of childish fantasy, and the computer animation style fashions dreams into a glossy, fantastic reality. [24 nov 1995, p.3]

There has never been a movie like 12 Years a Slave, which is Hollywood's shame. Miss it, and that mistake is yours.

Manchester by the Sea is a gracefully coarse ode to lives knocked down and if not bouncing back at least not splatting at rock bottom. There are also glimmers of humor shining all the brighter because of the darkness they cut through.

The greatest animated film of all time...one of the truly monumental cinematic accomplishments of all time. Each frame was lovingly hand-drawn, rather than the stylized mechanics of computer animation that brought back the art form in The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. The effect is astounding, especially when the animators' attention to detail and four years of painstaking effort is considered. I'm not ashamed to admit that at a recent screening - right around the sound of the first "Heigh Ho" - I wept, awed by the artistry and savoring a rich historical and emotional experience. [2 July 1993, p.8]

Fonda's comedy instincts are in top form as a herpetologist duped by a con artist (Barbara Stanwyck) in a screwball comedy from director Preston Sturges. A vintage example of pratfalling into love. [16 May 2002, p.11W]

Gravity is a game-changer like "Avatar" in the realm of digital 3-D special effects, inventing trickeries to be applied by future filmmakers and possibly never improved upon. Yet its spirit is closer to Avatar's smarter descendants, "Hugo" and "Life of Pi," with the gimmicks embellishing, not driving, the material. Less Cameron, more Kubrick.

This is a remarkable film for more reasons than its antihero, from the cyberspeed wisdom of Aaron Sorkin's screenplay to Jeff Cronenweth's camera prowling the excesses of youthful genius gone wild.

With Amour, it's the rare feeling of watching a masterpiece unfold.

The last thing we see in Zero Dark Thirty is Maya's face and it is also ours, silently crying tears of reflection.

It's a mystery wrapped inside an enigmatic nation, flawlessly acted and difficult to predict. I'm always impressed when a movie informs about a foreign culture while it entertains, and this one is powerful art in that regard.

Hoffman's eye for detail isn't matched by his jolting way with a narrative, which an extra year's preparation and editing from its original planned release didn't help. One comes away with the suspicion that Restoration should have been a longer movie, and feeling somewhat relieved that it isn't. [02 Feb 1996, p.5]

Haynes designs a perfectly nostalgic sensory experience — something like a Manhattan department store window — needing a suppler story to sell.

The movie at times resembles a screenwriting workshop, with Delpy and Hawke trying to shoehorn every shade of this shifting relationship into a single scene. It doesn't feel genuine; certainly these two would know each other better by now.

Dunkirk is a staggering feat of filmmaking, as Nolan's fans are accustomed. Van Hoytema's cinematography conveys death trap closeness even with IMAX cameras on a vast beach. Hans Zimmer again proves himself a masterfully dramatic composer, turning violins into the sound of spiraling aircraft. The performances are solid as such Nolan's vision requires, including pop star Harry Styles briefly.

The surprises are plentiful and seamlessly connected.

Call it what you want but this movie is an instantly fond memory.

La La Land is a trove of references to musical milestones, not derivative but truly inspired. A more joyful movie for grown-ups can't be found this season.

The Coens fashion an atmospheric descent for Llewyn, a meticulous re-creation of Greenwich Village's folk scene in 1961, around the time Bob Dylan hit town.

Spotlight is a rare movie about the profession — and just enough about people in it — that simply feels right, speaking from the inside.

The Florida Project is a very funny, incredibly warm movie about what amounts to child endangerment. It earns its laughs, gasps and tears honestly, almost always keeping the kids distanced from unsavory situations. When that gap is bridged by a violent or protective act, the effect is devastating.

Toy Story 3 isn't merely the best movie of the summer -- even with summer just kicking in -- but an immediate candidate for best of the year.

So many things could go terribly wrong with Spike Jonze's Her, and it's a small cinematic miracle that nothing does.

Superbly directed by John Huston and acted with extraordinary charisma by Caine and Sean Connery. [14 Mar 2002, p.19W]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi launches the franchise to another level of action and humor thanks to incoming writer-director Rian Johnson, whose imagination seems boundless as George Lucas’ 40 years ago.