Walter Addiego

The documentary Watermark is close to the cinematic equivalent of a coffee-table book. It relies heavily on visuals and offers minimal context. The project has a pro-environment feeling, which comes across implicitly, not through browbeating or preaching.

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

Among the film's more intriguing revelations is the key role California's almond crop plays in the nation's bee industry.

If you have even a passing interest in outsider art, you owe it to yourself to see Marwencol.

A potboiler but entertaining enough to rise above its flaws.

This nightmarish revenge drama from Korea is grueling, intense, cruel -- the very definition of extreme cinema.

The film perhaps shines brightest when it depicts two telling relationships Nannerl has outside her family. The first is with Louis XV's 13-year-old daughter, Louise...The other relationship is with Louise's troubled brother, the dauphin.

The film bolsters its case with plenty of facts, charts and expert testimony - evidence typical of this sort of advocacy documentary. But what makes the movie compelling is its focus on a handful of victims, who make the statistics painfully real.

The movie deals with themes of secular and religious love, of how they may intersect and diverge, that are suggestive of Bergman or Carl Theodor Dreyer.

A gentle comedy.

This Belgian crime thriller makes compelling viewing out of a "you can't be serious" plotline.

It’s a master class with a director who profoundly loves the movies, and, in his best work, has shown dazzling skill at making them.

Haakon VII is a hero in Norway, and The King’s Choice tells us why.

Doesn't allow the story's considerable nostalgia and sentimentality to overwhelm it.

It is stark, realistic and resolutely downbeat. Yates' work is lean, and he has a nice way with action sequences. [17 May 2009, p.R28]

The film takes its time detailing his mundane activities, often withholding the kind of information audiences usually expect, and it's Puiu's talent to transform it all into a highly disturbing portrait - both of an individual and a society.

If nothing else, you'll surely relish the extravagant rhetoric used by Ali Mahdavi, the club's artistic director, to describe what is basically a tasteful nudie revue.

The acting is good, particularly by Faour, who plays the naive, zaftig heroine as warm and appealing despite her troubles. It's also nice to see veteran Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass ("Lemon Tree"), who plays Muna's sister.

Despite some cumbersome moments, the film delivers a to-the-point message about how the sins of the parents can be visited on the children.

Gook is at its best when detailing the interactions of the three in the shoe store, but it strikes a more urgent note when the riots break out and the store comes under threat.

Intriguing and educational. For partisans of Bertolt Brecht, it's mandatory.

Graizer takes his time and never feels the need to spell everything out, and The Cakemaker is a testament to what filmmakers can achieve when they trust the audience.

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

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.

The filmmaker works with economy and has a knack for creating a sense of foreboding, which is good because the plot is simply a working out of the old saw that violence begets violence.

Nothing groundbreaking, but there's an easy charm in the movie.

A mostly compelling documentary about that rarest of breeds, an appealing politician.

In all, it’s a relaxed portrait of a likable fellow.