Walter Addiego

Because of age and illness, Varda is losing her sight, and Faces Places, which she co-directed, could be her last film. If so, she’s going out on a high note.

As French crime thrillers go, this is about as good as it gets.

That the movie works so well is also due to the exceptional talents of leads Simonischek and Hüller, who hold nothing back — especially the former, whose Winfried is one of the oddest ducks in recent movies.

Stagecoach both revived and elevated the Western.

A documentary with a keen eye, a playful sense of timing and an inquisitive soul.

It’s a testimony to how much this is a live issue in Indonesia that some of the credits are listed simply as “anonymous.”

Ida is a rarity, a film both intensely grounded in painful historical reality and genuinely otherworldly.

This Is Not a Film isn't just a film, it's a strong one. It's also an act of political defiance, a moving personal document and a meditation on what film is and can be.

A gentle comedy.

The director has said that, though the story was inspired by the deaths of his parents, he hoped to make a film "brimming with life." He's succeeded.

What Mackenzie has crafted here is a crowd-pleaser with undeniable art-house elements.

The old “Shirkers” is gone, but long live Tan’s new version.

This is a vision of hell conveyed in a simple, documentary style, far removed from the sumptuous American Mafia fables.

This is the heart-rending true story of a man with a seemingly benign preoccupation that turned into something close to madness and brought him to a terrible end.

Despite the increase in seriousness, the film's mood is buoyant, as it's impossible not to root for these appealing if flawed youngsters.

Both as writer and director, Farhadi is skilled at depicting the spiraling growth of social malignancies, as duplicity and uncertainties beget confusion, fear and anger. It’s an incisive portrait of a particular society, but it should resonate everywhere.

The actor suffered deeply, and however much he’s responsible for that, it’s hard not to feel some compassion for a bright and sensitive artist who, at least early on, seemed full of life.

Its brazen mixture of the comic and dramatic, the high and low and the emotional and intellectual is positively Shakespearean.

A gripping documentary about the most exacting and expensive scientific experiment ever conducted, and one that may be among the most significant.

It's fascinating stuff, but secondary to Ebert's genuine passion for the movies, which, if anything, grew toward the end of his life. He saw film as a great civilizing force, "a machine that generates empathy," as he says in the film. If that idea appeals to you, see Life Itself.

A film of great sadness, but also a galvanizing depiction of heroism.

It may be as emotionally exhausting for the viewer as for the participants.

The Great Escape is great entertainment. [06 Jun 2004]

Art history lessons don't get much better: Cave of Forgotten Dreams presents the world's oldest paintings captured by one of film's great visionaries.

One of the charms of The Red Turtle is a chance to savor the joys of clean and simple animation suggestive of the old hand-drawn school, which is part of what makes the film, a quiet, humanistic fable, one of the best of its kind in memory.

This is a film that’s likely to stick with you because of its exceptional intensity. You may find yourself wondering, long after the credits roll, what on Earth is in store for Boris’ unborn child?

The movie examines the possibility of maintaining one's humanity in a truly oppressive society.

If you know Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita," you'll be unable to watch The Great Beauty without thinking about it. This gorgeous Italian movie, like its predecessor, balances pungent satire and a more melancholy mood in portraying the dissolute world of the upper crust in contemporary Rome.