Walter Addiego

The film is honest enough not to exaggerate the beneficial results of Parvana’s courageous act.

Mainly for those who already know and like Jodorowsky’s work.

Waste Land is a film about recycling, but it's far more intriguing than the average eco-documentary.

The film refuses to soft-pedal Dickinson’s heartbreaking descent into bitterness and near-misanthropy, but sometimes operates with a heavy-handedness that’s certainly at odds with her poetry.

A potent and troubling meditation on the state of Western society.

This is contemplative moviemaking, with its deliberate pace, often static scenes and emphasis on direct sound. The director keeps the dialogue pared to the bone.

An old-fashioned prisoner-of-war movie that becomes much more because of writer-director Werner Herzog's admiration for the remarkable true story of its protagonist, Dieter Dengler.

The image that finally lingers is one shown repeatedly: a close-up of fingers gently pressing a piece of fish onto a handheld oblong of rice, painting it with a single brushing of sauce and laying it on a plate, after which the preparer steps back. We're left to contemplate the pristine creation and envy Jiro's lucky customers.

Suffice it to say that this is good family fare with plenty of decent gags (visual and otherwise), and it’s nicely acted by all the principals. In addition, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi and Jim Broadbent turn up in smaller but still lively roles.

Nunez's style is quiet, simple and deliberate, but the film never drags.

Except for Patekar, the main actors are nonprofessionals, which works nicely here.

Not a great picture but an entirely entertaining one. [02 Nov 2008, p.N34]

Jia is passionate about his characters, but that never compromises his considerable artistic control.

Funny enough that it could make buddy pictures respectable again.

Presenting Princess Shaw looks and feels like a DIY project, which is fine because the documentary is really a hymn to self-reliance — although bolstered with a modest amount of plain old luck.

There are more enigmas than answers in Jauja, an artsy South American Western directed by Lisandro Alonso, an Argentine filmmaker who delights in undermining movie conventions.

Aronofky gets exactly what he needs from his top-notch cast. Lawrence is appealing and never allows herself to be reduced simply to a howling victim. Bardem, Harris and Pfeiffer are menacing in their own varying ways, with Bardem capable of turning on the charm at key times that makes us wonder if we haven’t misjudged him.

You might hope for a bit more depth on the kids Dellamaggiore profiles - perhaps she could have homed in on, say, two of them - but this is really nitpicking. The film is well made and genuinely inspirational.

The most amazing act in the Gran Circo Mexico doesn't take place in the ring - it's the grind between performances.

This is grim material, but director Hilary Brougher -- working from her own script that won a Sundance award -- examines the lives of these two suffering women without sensationalism or preaching.

Less ambitious than the highly successful "Secrets & Lies," Career Girls has its own modest merits - a real sense of wit, much of it expressed in Hannah's sharp verbal sallies, and a melancholy truth that both women realize.

Cunningham's work is about seeing and teaching us how to see, and that should be plenty for us.

Like Someone in Love is best suited to viewers already familiar with this extraordinary filmmaker's better work.

The film boasts an original score by Cuban pianist and composer Bebo Valdés, who was featured in "Calle 54."

This was obviously a labor of love for Soderbergh, and a fitting memorial to the artist.

Living in Emergency is sobering, in part because it powerfully conveys that, despite the group's heroic efforts, its impact is "a drop in a sea of oceans." There's never enough time, supplies or volunteers, but, as one of the doctors notes, "the demand is pretty much infinite."

Miserly on food porn but not on prefab characters, it's well short of a cinematic feast.

An austere rural landscape, festering hatred, class tensions, terse dialogue - these are common currency in indie movies these days. Shotgun Stories uses them all, but manages to stand out from the crowd.