Williams is so good, so natural, so believable in the role that it's easy to forgive her character -- or at least wish her well. That's no small feat, because she can drive you crazy.

Clemency isn’t exactly a good time at the movies, but it’s definitely an enlightening one.

It doesn’t all add up; it doesn’t even all make sense. Which befits a story involving a man lost in loss, desperate to regain what he cannot. Reality isn’t as important here as feeling something. If you give “The Shrouds” a chance, you will.

Where Assayas’ film really shines is in capturing that feeling, when adolescence is stumbling awkwardly toward adulthood, that the most important thing in the history of the world is the thing that is occupying your thoughts and emotions at this particular moment.

Life Itself is a joy for people who love movies or who love anything with an unwavering passion.

From its beginning, Mandy is an unsettling, acquired taste.... It's not afraid to let the camera linger on gore or draw out dialogue in creepy tones with ice-cold stares. And that's where this movie wins.

It's a sort of slow-boil Russian noir, if that genre exists, and if it doesn't, it does now. It's also a statement on class discrepancy in post-Soviet Russia. Arrogance, betrayal, crime and violence are all part of the story, directed and co-written by Andrei Zvyagintsev.

Set in 18th-century Denmark, it's an intellectual costume drama. It's a romance involving big ideas, the biggest ideas. It's long, it's serious, it's a lot of fun.

Damon's portrayal is perfectly understated yet powerful. It's also sneaky; you don't realize how invested you've become in it until the final act, when the characters' stories merge in what seems like too much of a rushed coincidence.

Oh, and the title? It could be an apt description for almost any character in the movie at one time or another. The satisfaction is in finding out who, if anyone, will be set free.

Frot's performance is so towering, so convincing, that it smooths out all the film's rough edges. It's a triumph.

While Diane is perhaps 96 of the most depressing minutes on film this year, its quiet honesty is compelling. treating aging and death with a respect to the inevitability of both.

If it’s not great — think of a sort of JV “Commitments” and you’ll have the idea — it is surely winning.

It's bold, nasty and gleefully disturbing, and will stay with you once the lights go up. For horror fans, those are all good things.

Yelchin and Poots are especially good.

The feminist subtext should come as no surprise given Larsson's lifelong advocacy on social-justice issues, but it also is a refreshing slant on the familiar character dynamics of crime fiction.

It's also perfectly content to be an insanely violent, funny take on an established genre. And in that respect, Kick-Ass lives up to its name.

More than anything, The Sisters Brothers is an exploration of how far you can take an anti-Western before it snaps out of the genre’s orbit entirely.

The movie plays to Fincher's strengths, with its dark elements and cool feel, combining for a bracing pop-culture experience.

This film is a wonderful act of imagination on its own.

Author Olaf Olafsson helped write the screenplay and you can feel his intentions throughout. There is a literary beauty woven throughout the film. He asks you to examine what it means to reach out and touch someone — or have someone touch you. Both the physical and the metaphysical are orchestrated wonderfully.

Negga is fantastic. Her eyes alone convey passion, the feeling that she has had enough. Words aren’t needed. Good thing, because neither she nor Richard use them too much. They’re living their lives, harming no one, and being harmed for it. It makes the story one of the best examples of making a universal situation personal.

Catching Fire is a great leap forward for the franchise. Seeing as it’s all about hope and what it represents, here’s hoping the next two are just as good, if not better.

Coppola's audacity in not only portraying the unmoored nature of Marco's life but immersing the audience in it proves satisfying over time.

This is the rare movie with no one to root against, a film filled with good guys and weird guys (and gals), all of whom you hope find what they're looking for, even if you know that's not possible.

On some level Moneyball is about loyalty: loyalty to an idea, loyalty to a partnership forged by desperation, loyalty to the values you believe in. Whether that was Lewis' intention in the book, or Beane's intention in taking the risk, doesn't matter. It's the formula Miller came up with for the film, and with the team of Pitt and Hill, it's a winning one.

Perhaps the greatest compliment you can pay Victoria is that while you go in knowing about the gimmick, it doesn’t take long for Schipper to make you forget it almost entirely.

A well-acted, nicely directed, quiet little movie.

It is a tremendous performance by Jones, who co-wrote the script with her own ex-boyfriend Will McCormick, who appears as a drug-dealing friend with surprisingly grounded advice for just about anything.

Brutal, sadistic yet well-made statement about how violence is portrayed in media and our reaction to it.

This is director Jake Schreier's first feature, and, working from a script by Christopher D. Ford, he creates an inviting world.

Bell lets the action onscreen tell a story that’s every bit as rousing as a Disney adventure.

The real draw of Arthur Christmas is simpler: It's really funny.

The directors include interviews with descendants of the original settlers and with later arrivals — too much so, actually, as the lengthy scenes interrupt the flow of the mystery. But they don't derail it. The story is too lurid, too rich, too compelling.

More than anything else, Freaky is a lot of fun. Just enjoy it.

Lawless is one of those movies that feels like it's trying to say something more important than it really is. It could have been better, but with Hardy and Pearce on board, it's plenty good enough.

As Kumaré plays out, both Gandhi and the film become something else, something much more thoughtful and moving. It is, as he puts it, the biggest lie he has ever told and the greatest truth he has ever known.

The perfect movie for fans of "The Daily Show" who actually stick around for the second-half interview. A cinematic memoir based on the one-man show by Mike Birbiglia, it is the aesthetic intersection of Comedy Central and public radio.

Sound City is a music geek's dream, a rollicking look at a dumpy California studio where a lot of musicians found magic. It's also a bit of a mess, like all good rock and roll ought to be.

It’s a heartfelt film, and Squib, finally leading a film at 94, makes it that much better.

A Love Song is, no doubt, a small movie (it only lasts 81 minutes), a miniature study of a life. But it is an oddly compelling one. And Dickey and Studi masterfully make the difficult look easy.

Sherriff doesn’t offer any great answers here. It’s not like his play ended wars. But it’s a timely reminder that for all of the talk and negotiation and blustering and posturing, war means death, and “Journey’s End” brings that message home.

A documentary that delves into what happens when the ghost stories you told as kids, the stuff of urban legends, seem to come true.

It’s terrific. This was something of a surprise, as it seems almost impossible to tell this kind of story without a treacly narrative and clichéd notes of inspiration — against-all-odds kind of stuff, which so easily slips into melodrama.

There isn't a cynical bone in this film's achingly sincere body. And it's not really a horror movie, unless the "horror" in question is the all-consuming awkwardness of young love.

It's outstanding work (Carell). It's also a really funny movie.

Her (Williams) performance is so engaging and complete, it's worth all the other shortcomings.

It's always entertaining to see a genre tweaked, at least when it's done so with the proper mix of respect and madness at work in Slow West.

Director Susanna White keeps things low-key and absorbing, as the action moves from Marrakesh to London to Paris to Switzerland.

Engagement with the enemy isn't a possibility here. It's a certainty. The unit will face fire daily, sometimes as often as four or five times. The stress is incredible, the courage displayed even more so.

In a movie with uniformly outstanding performances, Rockwell, as ever, is especially good. So is Carell, playing against type. But what makes The Way, Way Back stand out is Faxon and Rash’s obvious familiarity with what Duncan is going through.

It’s a sobering reminder, during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, how undervalued Black lives have been, and for so long, in this country.

If a heartfelt summer comedy feels like something that the doctor ordered, then a healthy dose of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is just what you need.

The movie relies on the chemistry between Reynolds and Smith plus nostalgia, but it works well. This might be the best video game-based movie yet. So when it comes to tickets, movie-goers gotta catch 'em all.

Count Captain America: The Winter Soldier as another success in the Marvel line. Thanks to the chemistry between Evans and Johansson and a willingness to shake things up, it's more than just a placeholder between "Avenger" films.

Manipulative, overly sentimental, sometimes ludicrous and almost completely irresistible.

The movie belongs to Gleeson, commanding in every scene, even when he's sitting silently, listening to another sinner go on about what's wrong with everyone else.

Kapadia does an outstanding job of getting at what Senna meant to Brazilians and to his sport. The man himself was a tougher nut to crack, but maybe that's best. A little mystery suits a good story, and Senna is definitely that.

The film is leisurely paced, as many French films are, and not much actually happens, but as a character study, it feels true, and ultimately moving.

It’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately, in her slavish devotion to creating the world of schlocky, B-grade sex-infused horror films, she recreates the good and the bad, the latter including some boring stretches that could’ve been lost in the two-hour running time. But it’s all quite enjoyable and a knowing take on patriarchy besides.

As an encore for Brand's Aldous, it's a welcome return. And for Hill, it's a chance to really shine.

As in “The Searchers,” some of the motivations are questionable and murky. Yet the pain of losing someone you love is just as palpable.

Prometheus is a good movie, sometimes very good. It's just not a great movie.

Igawa is almost a magical presence, projecting a calm in Ozu that is infectious.

It’s a powerfully sensual movie, gorgeously lensed colors and textures conveying its characters emotional states while thoughtfully exploring the range of human sexuality through Adenike’s experience.

Top Gun: Maverick is a movie-star movie with great action pieces best seen on the biggest screen available. It’s a modern take on old-fashioned fun.

Air isn’t a documentary, it's better — a brilliantly acted, fascinating true story.

It's all a seedy, sordid mess, and it only gets worse -- and more and more intriguing. Layton engages in re-enactments of some parts of the story, a tactic that is either helpful or annoying, depending on your appetite for such things.

With its lush look, uniformly excellent acting, slow cadences and unhurried unspooling, We Are What We Are rewards your patience without skimping on the goods.

In Interstellar, Nolan has created a universe where ultimately the possibilities are endless. At its best, the film feels the same way.

As a documentary about Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic, City of Gold is more or less an entertaining valentine to an interesting guy. As cultural archaeology, unearthing the relationship between food and a city, food and a critic, a city and a critic and a swirling stew of all the above, it's fantastic.

"Whitey" paints an ugly picture, but a compelling one nonetheless, and one that will put every Boston crime movie you see in a different light.

Everybody Loves Somebody doesn’t reinvent the rom-com, but it manages to take the formula, shake it up a bit, and come up with something that feels fresh and inventive.

The Meddler is one of those movies that surprises you by being something it’s not.

Make no mistake, Daniels is gunning for awards here; the movie has that sheen, that Big Important Feel. But the performances keep it grounded. Let someone else decide winners and losers. Just enjoy “The Butler” for the sometimes-moving experience it is.

The Richardsons’ thought-provoking journey leaves you pondering not just the pain and turmoil created by the criminal justice system, but the incredible life-giving strength of love.

Perseverance is the theme of Life, Above All, a drama that is deeply affecting, if also overwhelmingly bleak.

Sometimes a feel-good story hits the spot. CODA is one of those times.

As much as his admirers praise him, they also say they don't know much about him or his private life. Press opens a small window into that world.

This is unhinged genius, an amazing piece of acting. Brutal, yes, but magnetic all the same.

It is intended for an audience that is willing to take a journey without knowing the destination.

The acting in Black Mass is tremendous.

The world Bell creates in In a World ... is so agreeable and inviting you’ll enjoy the visit.

We are daily reminded of the importance of a free media, of free speech. The Dissident is a reminder of how far some governments will go to suppress it.

Peele’s visual audacity is at times breathtaking, and always serves a greater purpose. There is a beautiful overhead shot of the family walking along the beach, carrying their supplies, casting long shadows. There’s no way to know in the moment you’re admiring this that it carries meaning that informs the rest of the film. That’s just terrific filmmaking.

This is a really good movie made by a terrific talent, stunningly shot and confidently directed.

Ma is one loony little horror film, and Octavia Spencer has a grand old time being the craziest thing in it.

Christopher Robin takes a classic story with characters people know and love and breathes new life into them, delivering an important reminder to balance life and all its qualities through strong symbolism.

The heists are bigger, the illusions are flashier, and the pace is quicker. Even the cast is livelier and more fun. Perhaps best of all, the movie captures the first film’s twisty ability to twirl an audience around, so you’re never entirely sure what’s happened until everything is explained.

Even more than an expose of bad reporting and social hysteria, The Witness is an intimate exercise in grief and healing

Dunne's performance is quietly assured; Sandra's strength may waver, but it never falters. You root for her. You root for the movie, something that Lloyd purposely makes difficult to do at times. That’s going to throw some people, no doubt. But she resists easy resolution, making “Herself” a satisfying experience.

It’s clear that Samuel has seen his share of Quentin Tarantino movies, and some John Ford and Sergio Leone ones, as well. There are influences all over the place. But The Harder They Fall is also its own film, familiar in some ways but wholly original. And a whole lot of fun.

It’s a zombie movie that, amidst the giddy bloodshed, allows room for philosophical questions about our fundamental responsibilities to one another. It may not be something we’ve never seen before, but it’s something we can benefit from seeing again.

Rodriguez and Taylor are terrific. Their confidence is infectious, yet they never let us forget the challenges their lives offer.

Winocour has crafted such a tightly coiled film that once violence finally erupts, it's more of a letdown than an emotional release. But the movie still works, both for its bracing ability to keep a viewer on edge and the sheer force of Schoenaerts' performance.

Indignation sneaks up on you, and that may be its greatest difference from the blockbuster mentality. Its explosions are quieter, but just as destructive.

Individually Christmas and Robinson are outstanding. Together they are even better, making Morris from America an unexpected treat.

As a substitution for the tour that never was, this concert film within a documentary does a brilliant job of bringing "Western Stars" to life.