It is the boy's tough exterior and lack of self-pity that binds the narrative together, making this one of the Dardennes' most appealing undertakings.

The soul of the movie is Mia Wasikowska, a radiant young actress who captures with quiet precision the quandary of a bookish "good girl" suddenly roused to wider personal and experiential possibilities, and to their potential cost.

James keeps viewer attention the whole time, despite forcing unnecessarily sentimental music on his footage and chopping his scenes down to dramatic highlights rather than letting them play at length.

Forty-four years after his exciting debut feature "Fists in the Pocket," Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio continues his late-career renaissance with the passionate, beautifully crafted, period melodrama Vincere.

Jeon received the Best Actress at Cannes for her wrenching performance. She's the first Korean to receive an acting award at this Festival.

The romantic fable of love, marriage, art and second chances may not add up to all that much but the journey is exquisite.

An industry that's lost 90% of its silent films and which has consistently demonstrated - montage lip-service aside - a staggering lack of interest in its own history can hardly be trusted to transfer films from format to format and keep them intact, let alone in good shape.

Offers the kind of intimate, naturalistic look at human interaction that recalls the heyday of Eric Rohmer.

A feast for the eyes, Mysteries of Lisbon deals with 19th century passions, love affairs and escapades on a broad canvas. It might have made a lovely TV series, parsed out over several weeks, but at one sitting it's a challenge.

The kind of grim, character-based movie that needs a strong performer to anchor it. Director Derek Cianfrance has been fortunate enough to land two: Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling.

This is one of Denis's most provocative films and also one of her most compelling.

While director Sam Mendes, aided and abetted by a crack technical team, delivers big-screen action with panache and style, something about this Bond feels a little off.

The second half, though, simply descends into chaotic banality as the sisters await their fate.

Rather than take a broad-brush approach director Muntean boggs us down in the detail of an adulterous affair. There are some similarities with his previous outing "Boogie" in that the main character is a man having a premature mid-life crisis.

It's not much, but adult audiences starved for mature entertainment should be counted on to investigate this flawed, if admittedly heartfelt, work.

A coming of age story in which the children better the world for the adults, Kore-Eda's heart is in the right place.

It's a simple story that gets the gentle nudge it needs to reveal its greater purpose. Probably too subtle for most tastes, the novel's reputation and its unique idea should draw people to cinemas.

Alternately beguiling and actively irritating, Frammartino's second feature is too uneven to recommend whole-heartedly, but contains so many individually fascinating movies that attention should be paid.

Ang Lee's adaptation of Yann Martel's mega-selling novel Life Of Pi is technically adept, mildly engaging and thematically pedantic.

Gerardo Naranjo's fourth feature Miss Bala is one long slow burn with no final bang.

Bong's stylistic embellishment of the simple tale of a mother who will do anything to protect her son is breathtaking.

Like "Anvil," this is a crowd-pleasing triumph of the spirit, framed around a story so bizarre it sounds like an urban legend.

Curry also emphasizes the human drama of the kid drivers who face their own distinct challenges and setbacks in order to become champions.

The reinvention of this neighborhood may be in the cause of progress for New York's urban landscape, but sometimes you can't help feeling that the planners and the bureaucrats should leave well-enough alone.

The author's texts are used as biographical inventory, and they're not simply read, they're performed, sometimes to the detriment of the prose.

A true crime tale with added layers of intrigue and atmosphere.

The film engages sporadically but mostly fails to take advantage of its under-documented milieu.

The blistering tunes and unique animation compensate for the rather unconvincing central love story that works best as a Forrest Gump-ian device to highlight some legendary real-life musicians.