Steven Rea

The Conformist has a decadent visual beauty about it that's breathtaking. But as striking as Bertolucci's classic looks, there's even more powerful stuff in the storytelling.

Robert Burks' cinematography is outstanding, and composer Bernard Herrmann supplies one of his strongest, spookiest scores... A major influence on the movies and movie-making style of Brian De Palma (among many, many others), Vertigo has a dreamlike eeriness and a climax that is, well, downright dizzying. [29 Nov 1996, p.04]

What Touch of Evil is really about, though, is filmmaking: evoking a mood of sweaty despair, of sour, sinister doom, using the vocabulary of a crime picture and a group of remarkable talents, in front of and behind the camera. [Director's Cut; 25 Sept 1998, p.04]

An awesome cinema spectacle.

A crushingly sad, beautiful film.

Wondrously strange and just plain wonderful.

It speaks to the courage and resilience of one man, the savagery of many, and the potential, for both good and for ill, in us all.

It's a masterpiece.

It's inspired fun.

Remy, the little rat who stars in the big, beautiful, funny Ratatouille, isn't gross at all. In fact, he's adorable.

A smart comedy that serves as both bittersweet coming-of-age tale and '90s nostalgia piece, The Wackness has the feel of authenticity about it, even if some of its details (the ice cream cart, and the therapist's bong, for two) seem a bit much.

A wildly suspenseful zero-g tale of survival 350 miles beyond the ozone layer, Alfonso Cuarón's space saga is emotionally jolting - and physically jolting, too.

Amour arrives with plaudits and praise. But this is not hype, it is all deserved. This is a masterpiece.

Fused with paranoia and almost unbearable suspense, The Hurt Locker is powerful stuff.

A monumental achievement that documents a coordinated and complicated response to a monumental tragedy.

It's small. It's real. And it's deeply moving.

With rich, detailed, cinematic animation and terrific sound effects, WALLE pulls this unlikely love story off.

Mara and Blanchett are each extraordinary, working in the most organic and soul-stirring ways.

This is a movie that mines deep beneath the surface of human feeling. It will make you think - about love, about life, about two people who aren't real, except that they've become so for so many of us in this improbably successful indie franchise.

45 Years is a study in economy, in the beautiful symmetry of word and image and music.

Mr. Turner is no barrel of laughs. It's a barrel of life - an extraordinary one.

Shot in simple, elegant black and white, unfolding at a measured pace, The Wild Child is fascinating not only for its Tarzan-like true-life story, but also for what it says about the process of nurturing and educating children, and the tools we use - language, discipline, affection - to do so. [20 Feb 2009, p.W05]

Inside Out is the first psychological thriller that's fun for the whole family. Really psychological. And really fun.

The Return of the King is too long...The various story lines...come together in stilted, episodic ways. The narrative is less-than-seamless.

Some of it is wistful, some of it whimsical, but it's all wonderful, impossibly so.

Inside Llewyn Davis plays like some beautiful, foreboding, darkly funny dream.

Has to be among the worst movies ever made.

This is more than the story of soldiers grappling with stress and doubt as they reenter the "normal" flow of domestic life. It's about strangers bonding, about friendship and discovery, about the comedy and tragedy of the human experience.