The film is ultimately an excuse to watch and enjoy Streep, Wiest and Bergen. Sometimes roles for outstanding actors who aren’t in their 20s and 30s anymore wind up being embarrassing misfires (see the cloying “And So It Goes” or “Book Club” for examples or, better yet, don’t see them). That’s not the case here. Let Them All Talk is a low-key success.

The film deftly weaves news and interview clips from Wallace's half-century on TV with the times he himself answered questions as tough as those he asked, fleshing out one of the country's last formidable journalists.

There is an honesty in this performance, a genuineness that really elevates the film. It’s not always easy to watch, and it’s certainly not a lot of fun. But it is impressive, and that’s what carries it.

Wreck-It Ralph is smart, funny, sweet and sassy. And that's just Sarah Silverman's character... The movie is a treat for kids and the parents they drag to see it. Or maybe it'll be the other way around. Either way. It doesn't matter how you get to it. Just get there.

As creepy as it is fun, and it's plenty of both, ParaNorman will delight fans of old-time horror movies.

There was a dark side to this complex man, and while it takes director Daniel Junge a while to get there, he does eventually in Being Evel, his entertaining and sometimes uncomfortable documentary about the daredevil.

What makes the movie so good is Williams' absolute refusal to play along.

In The Internet's Own Boy, writer-director Brian Knappenberger ("We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists") paints a portrait of Swartz as a martyr for the information age, but ultimately the story falls short of such mythic ambition.

When telling the story of real-life heroes, it’s easy to lapse into clichés. What makes the terrific Only the Brave such a powerful movie is its abject rejection of them.

Dark Money exposes the dangers of unbridled, anonymous political spending so expertly that it will make you fume with anger, practically quake with distress. Which is exactly why you need to see it.

Violette doesn't abandon that playbook, but it does a better job than most of putting the viewer in its artist's headspace.

While individually some of the scenes are terrific, they don't add up to much, making Hail, Caesar! one of the Coens' lesser comedies, better than "Intolerable Cruelty," say, but nowhere near the genius of "The Big Lewbowski."

The Color Purple is a spectacle with big ensemble numbers, powerful solos and duets that will pull on your heartstrings. At a whopping two hours and 20 minutes, it never drags. The music propels the story instead of interrupting. Meanwhile, the performances will have you gasping and cheering.

How much you enjoy all this will depend on how much you like Glazer. She’s funny, no question, and sometimes intentionally grating. But she also gives off a genuineness. Maybe she is just saying out loud what other people are thinking.

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.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a giddy homage to what’s come before it, but it also at least tries to go boldly where ... well, you know.

Throughout the film Famuyiwa, who also wrote the script, uses split screens and backs up the film and jumps around and freezes the action, but he's not showing off. He uses these techniques to tell his story, and doesn't overuse them to the point of annoyance.

At 2 hours and 17 minutes, the film is a little bloated, though the expansiveness and inventiveness of the filmmaking make that sound like complaining about too much dessert.

Monkey Kingdom is a delightful gambol, visually stunning and educational without feeling like it, with a propulsive drama about escaping one's lowly social class at its core that inspires reflection on some uncomfortable truths about ourselves.

Every image feels intentional, with nothing left to chance. (This results in some amazing images, many of them involving Stone’s face.) Along with the precision of the performances, this makes Bugonia one of the more enjoyably weird times at the movies in recent memory.

Even if its stunted ambitions come as a disappointment, Pieta nevertheless is an expertly crafted thriller and a fine addition to East Asian revenge cinema.

Bursts at the seams with wild creativity.

50/50 is a tremendous movie. It's also a really funny one, which doesn't mean it won't make you cry.

It is just a tremendous amount of fun.

It's very much an old-time moviegoing experience; the film could have been made in 1940, and that's a compliment.

This is the kind of movie about teenagers that an adult audience should embrace. It's simply that good, and Stone is nothing short of wonderful.

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

This is a challenging, brilliantly constructed film that, despite its patience and quiet tone, is engrossing from its first moments, especially an opening scene that encapsulates Jandal's poignant contradictions.

We don’t need to continually revisit every horror movie ever made. How many versions of “Friday the 13th” are we up to? Too many. But the best thing about this is that Candyman is not just another sequel. More like a revelation.

It’s not quite the triumph that the exquisitely excruciating “Listen Up Philip” was, but it’s another example of Perry’s behavioral alchemy that’s well worth checking out.

What makes this film work is that it is exactly as advertised: a chaotic romp through a fantasy world that has enough structure to be believable. But the key here is that we don’t get bogged down in details over which race or land is which. We don’t care nor need to know all the details of this world. We just go along for the ride.

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.

Maybe there are no more stones unturned when it comes to the Beatles. Maybe The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years is not especially revelatory or earth-shaking. But the band was.

While Midsommar is too overwrought to be a masterpiece, it’s also too entertaining in its abject lunacy and assured in its craftsmanship to be considered a sophomore slump. Aster is a filmmaker still defining his voice, and despite the growing pains, Midsommar is an intriguing step in its evolution.

Lawrence takes up that challenge and then some, with a performance that could have been rendered in broad strokes, and sometimes is, but also relies on small moments, a look in her eyes, a quick movement, to draw us in and keep us there.

There is nothing erotic about it, nothing sexy, nothing but a brutish satisfying of carnal desires. Without an astounding performance from Michael Fassbender, it would be almost too painful to watch (and at times, too boring). With him, it's not exactly easy.

Derrickson’s use of computer-generated action is a strength instead of a strain, and it’s not just showing off; in the context of the film, the bizarre images make sense.

Eventually the film's subtlety gives way to a more straightforward conclusion. But Okuno and Monroe still make Watcher worth watching.

Like the Guardians of the Galaxy films, The Suicide Squad has a heart. Unlike those films, we actually see a heart pierced by a shard of glass from inside a character’s body. That said, Gunn cares about the characters, and it shows.

There are no princesses, monsters or castles in the sky, but that doesn't mean there is no magic.

Terri is almost an anti-teen-coming-of-age teen-coming-of-age movie. And it's terrific.

It's Moore who makes the movie worthwhile, who elevates it from disease-of-the-week fare to the role of a lifetime.

It’s delightful. Director Caroline Vignal infuses the film with just enough whimsy — but not too much. It’s not going to rewrite the rules of cinema or anything, but it’s not trying to.

Doesn’t plumb the depths of adolescent emotions and high-school politics so much as skims the surface in a psychedelic dinghy.

Settles for simply being goofy good fun.

Eileen is indeed a weird little movie, but it leaves a big impact.

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.

A tremendously entertaining take on film noir, with all the usual elements of the genre in play - crime, death, possibly murder and doomed romance.

The Invisible Man is a thrilling movie. If nothing else, it will make you question if that feeling you get of being watched is just in your head, or if there really is somebody else in the room.

The Batman is impressively made. The acting is first rate, and the chemistry between Pattinson and Kravitz is magnetic. It’s meant to be an important statement. It’s just not a lot of, you know, fun. Or as someone famously put it in another Batman movie, Why so serious?

Everyone in the film is good. Offerman and Megan Mullally (as the principal at Kate's school) do well in more-dramatic roles than we're used to seeing them in. Mary Kay Place is harrowing without meaning to be as Kate's mother. [25 Oct 2012]

When it's good, The Imitation Game is very good. Cumberbatch is terrific, which is not surprising, given the marriage of role and actor.

The latest Marvel movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is a rollicking, adventurous … wait, this is a Marvel movie? It is indeed, and all the better for not being necessarily immediately recognizable as such.

If this is a story told more broadly than what we’ve seen from Pixar the past few films, so be it. It may not be a masterpiece, but its message is one that can’t be expressed enough. Luca expresses it in a gorgeous, fun way.

There are some clunky bits in which the filmmakers aren’t attentive enough to details. And the CGI in some spots is laughably bad. But Midthunder makes up for it. She makes Naru believably tough and smart, the kind of warrior who might well stand a chance against an opponent seemingly impossible to defeat.

Searching is a thriller with a gimmick. The entire story takes place on screens — we see the action play out on devices like laptops and phones. But the movie never feels gimmicky, which is perhaps the neatest feat achieved by first-time director Aneesh Chaganty.

Mylod, working from a script by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, goes all in on the social commentary. Some of it is funny, some of it appalling, none of it as engaging as when Mylod uses food to make statements.

Pete’s Dragon is a good movie. But it could have used a little more of the magic its characters are searching for.

Despite the gore and the tragedies witnessed on screen, I left the theater hopeful.

Barsky’s film is light on biographical detail before Koch’s first term began, in 1978. That’s probably fitting. Koch obviously lived for the job.

The film is 148 minutes long. Many of those minutes are good, some not so good. But one of them is great. Unreservedly so. Redemption and catharsis arrive in a single fleeting moment that wonderfully and succinctly ties up everything Watts is attempting. Truly one of my favorite scenes in a movie this year.

It’s a bit of a letdown, though still entertaining.

And now with Tangled, a delightfully fresh spin on "Rapunzel," the entertainment powerhouse delivers its first classic-caliber computer animation outside the Pixar family.

Edge of Tomorrow repeats itself without being repetitive, takes itself seriously while providing some laughs and offers plenty of action without short-changing us on the intelligence front.

[Gibson's] talent as a filmmaker, Desmond’s story and Garfield’s understated performance make Hacksaw Ridge a good movie, a straightforward story of faith and courage whose complications arise not in the story, but in the telling of it.

22 Jump Street is, ultimately, a celebration of the silly and the sweet, a combination that's welcome again and again.

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.

Young Adult is a horror movie disguised as a dark comedy.

An intriguing look at the effects on one man's life; whether they're worth the cost is something Steinbauer leaves up to us.

As mysteries go, writer-director Aaron Katz hasn't really created an effective one. Gemini is entertaining, but Jill isn't much of a detective, and the big puzzle at the center of the film just sort of falls together. You never completely check out of the plot, but don't feel fully invested, either.

What’s so terrific about Stiller’s performance is that we never question his genuine love for his son. He’s just got to work through his love for himself to get there.

It’s squirmy good fun — agonizing in places, in exactly the ways you want it to be.

Naharin’s dances, amply illustrated from decades’ worth of film, is visceral, emotional and sometimes shocking.

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

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

There are some funny bits here, and younger comics like Sarah Silverman push the limits even farther; to the minds of some, they cross them.

One kudo to this lazy effort: The climax does have a real end-of-a-trilogy feel, making further sequels less likely. Silver linings, folks.

These are characters for whom true belief in a cause has probably become impossible; they know how much that costs. Marsh does a compelling job of illustrating that for the rest of us.

It's clear that de Wilde adores Emma, for all her challenges, just as much as her fictional admirers. And audiences should fall in love with her again, too.

This is not a flat and lifeless biopic in which a creation loses a bit of its wonder in the dissection of its inspiration. “Becoming Astrid” sidesteps that pitfall by focusing on the writer’s painful passage into womanhood, telling an intimate and unhurried story of quiet triumph over pain.

[Kurzel's] vision of what he wants his Macbeth to be never wavers. And he has the actors to make it happen.

It's a surprisingly moving film. While the fight scenes are unquestionably thrilling, the movie's best bits are not about winning and losing but about pain and, ultimately, forgiveness.

Director Thomas Vinterberg and Carey Mulligan, who plays Bathsheba Everdene, bring exciting life to the story.

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.

Animals may be the kind of story we've seen, but it's told in a way that makes it worth seeing again.

Aubrey Plaza is brilliant in Ingrid goes West, Matt Spicer’s smart, satirical and sometimes scathing takedown of the vapidity social media sometimes injects into life.

RBG, Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s engrossing documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is clearly meant to praise the 85-year-old Supreme Court justice, and it does a fine job of it.

Alvarez puts us in the interesting position of rooting for the bad guy, and continually changing our ideas of who that is, a genuinely intriguing idea. Don’t Breathe doesn’t always live up to that potential, but for much of the movie it comes close.

Most of the complexity in the film comes from its structure, as we go back and forth in time with Bloom. It’s an entertaining journey, especially if you like to listen.

"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.

The movie is fascinating when it looks at the mechanics of Big Bird, which are physically challenging.

Strongman is a documentary Diane Arbus might have made: These are the wretched of the Earth, and our peeking into their lives feels intrusive.

You don't have to love Bruce Springsteen with the all-consuming passion of Sarfraz Manzoor, the U.K. journalist whose memoir was adapted for the screenplay of Blinded By the Light, to find the film both deeply moving and utterly charming.

The beauty in Maines’ script, and in the performances, is how perfectly modulated everything is. Maines clearly gets some digs in at the Catholic Church, and Catholic education particularly. It’s really funny.

The no-holds-barred comedy generally works, largely thanks to a game cast that plunges into the raunchy material with gleeful abandon.

This is a wonderful movie.

It’s another showcase for Streep — nothing new on that front, but still enjoyable.

It actually is quite funny. It is also warm and empathetic, though a viewer's reaction to the film might vary depending how they view the subject of assisted suicide.