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.

Sparkle is pure melodrama, but it's a high-powered, well-acted, entertaining melodrama. You may not always believe it, but you won't be bored.

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.

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.

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

Odd indeed. In a good way, mostly.

The metaphor is plain yet elegant: Ai is the clever cat busily devising ways to push through the barriers physical, cultural, mental -- that make humans less than free. And in China, of course, the biggest of those barriers is the one-party state.

The Queen of Versailles is funny, sad, infuriating, instructive. It's the American Dream inflated to ridiculous extremes, until it bursts.

Reality and fantasy become increasingly blurred. And if you want to enjoy Dark Horse, you're just going to have to go with it.

As with nearly everything else in The Campaign, a little goes a long way, until it finally just goes on too long, period.

A perfectly serviceable thriller, smarter than many, but it has too much of a reputation to live up to.

A charming film. Not a great one, but a good one.

Not even the snickering juvenile who lives in the deepest gutters of your brain will get a cheap thrill out of these antics.

A lot of talent comes up empty in Red Lights, a thriller that doesn't thrill.

Marvel at the audacity of Nørgaard and his cast, of how far they are willing to go for a laugh. It's a bumpy ride, but for those with the stomach for it, it's an entertaining one.

With a performance that is wide-ranging by necessity, Kazan makes Ruby immensely likable (as well as clingy, manic, sad, happy and whatever else Calvin wants her to be).

The best of the lot. It's not great, but the mean-spiritedness that permeated the first film and stuck around a bit for the second is mostly gone.

It's big and it's loud, but ultimately not much more than that.

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

Young is one of only a handful of artists from his generation still making vital contributions, or even trying to. Some of his efforts are hit-and-miss, but he's still in there swinging. He never stops moving, changing, evolving, and it makes him fascinating.

Unlike, say, Val Kilmer's Jim Morrison in "The Doors," Thomas makes no attempt to create a convincing facsimile of Hank Williams, which is just as well, since he bears little resemblance to the sinewy singer.

Along the way, Koichi and Ryunosuke grow up a little bit; Kore-eda isn't opposed to letting reality intrude on their lives. It's not sad, but more wistful -- the young actors make it so. They are delightful. So, too, is I Wish.

McCormick is particularly grating in upholding her half of the romantic duo. Sure, she can dance, but act?

It should be funnier. It should be better. Instead, it just sort of is.

It means to be an interconnected story, in which one coupling leads to another in increasingly ridiculous fashion, until you're not only no longer interested, you're grinding your teeth, hoping it will end.

Although it can be harrowing and disturbing, Joachim Trier's film -- and Lie's performance -- are so masterful that the movie seems more like a searing portrait of self-discovery and realization, with the understanding that not everything you learn about yourself will be pleasant.

The Dark Knight Rises brings the Batman story to a close in enormous, satisfying fashion, not just on the huge scale it builds for itself, but on a human level as well.

Freeman is back in Reiner's latest, The Magic of Belle Isle, which has all the pathos and saccharine of "The Bucket List" but little of the humor. It's earnest, predictable and disposable.