Really a perfect family movie.

There's more to it than a black-and-white political conclusion, and the laundry list of California documentary heroes in the credits suggests this film is humanist before it's agenda driven.

Burns captures the look and spirit of the times with perfect detail.

Fiennes' technique is extraordinary in its simplicity, balancing a literal prowl throughout his immense sculptural environs with a respectful observational distance.

Frank Ross' newest film, Audrey the Trainwreck, is at once utterly down home and completely philosophical.

Mission: Impossible 4 is so well-made and smooth you may need to see it more than once to truly appreciate its brains and nerves and blood.

This film stands out as one of the year's best.

Drive dynamically merges a terrific film noir plot with a cool retro look, evoking '60s classics like "Point Blank" and "Bullitt."

Ford is hilarious and brooding, deeply wrinkled and deeply intimidating. He's got the best lines, courtesy of screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (of the repellent "27 Dresses" and the much better "The Devil Wears Prada").

Azabal is superb, conveying Nawal's fiery presence, determination and mounting bitterness. The impressive cast includes non-professionals from Jordan, where Incendies was filmed.

Will appeal to upscale adult audiences with its mix of gorgeous Chinese locations, splendid dance sequences and compelling personal story.

A charmingly lo-fi love story.

Like Carrie without the telekinesis, this horror movie replaces the supernatural with blunt brutality and dark humor to terrific effect.

Ondine is Injected with a heavy dose of magic and has a lot going for it: an endearing performance from star Colin Farrell, Christopher Doyle's evocative cinematography and a captivating-if thin-story.

Every frame of silent, lip-biting, pent-up tension in the series has been holding its breath for this -- a 600-minute soap opera suddenly exploding into a Grindhouse slasher.

Paul is a close encounter with the comic brilliance of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost that makes going to the movies fun again.

It's the best 3D horror movie ever made, as much for its superlative technical merits as for its satisfying thrills.

It's Cronenberg's most willfully weird movie since "Spider," and it should prove a tough sell despite Pattinson's ample star power.

A highly entertaining original movie that's funny, touching and real.

This is purely warm, wonderful, wise and hilarious family entertainment that is fantastic movie fun for everyone.

Kids will fall in love with it as a movie treat full of heart, laughs and fantastic songs, and it could have crossover appeal as a Valentine date night treat thanks to all its pointy-hatted romance.

Troll Hunter may be a relatively low-budget fantasy but the film looks epic in all the right sequences.

Breillat directs with her characteristic flair for getting under the skin of her protagonists while taking a particular pleasure examining sisterly bonds and feminist concerns within the context of a fairy tale.

Why is Emmerich elbowing his way into the conversation about Shakespearean authorship? Because the debate is explosive - and he can't resist packing on a few more pounds of dynamite on his confident drama of incest, greed and beheadings.

This intense and almost operatic Italian family melodrama recalls the best of Douglas Sirk.

Journalist and director Allison Klayman doesn't mask her awe of the man, who comes off as a cross between a wise Buddha-figure and Santa Claus - he's made for history, and he's making it.

Uproariously funny.

The director of quirky fare with a rabid cult-like following has made a charming, magical and really funny new work about two unique young kids discovering love over one unforgettable summer, and it's the director's most accessible movie yet.

Sure it's fun - and painful - but it's not thin.

Think of it as someone making a peanut butter and chocolate swirl of Mad magazine and The New Yorker - two unique tastes making one great treat.

This over-the-top sequel caters to the lowest common denominator in the best possible way, and it's so fully committed to brainless bombast that it muscles audiences to applaud by sheer force of will.

Ultimately, the film is made for longevity, like all the best Disney titles are. However, it's also a ready-made Broadway show, with numbers, dialogue and even drama-club histrionics all pre-packaged for immediate adaptation to stage.

An impressively dark and well-crafted crime tale about, of all things, cattle farming and "the hormone mafia underworld."

A beguiling cross between fiction and non-fiction, Alamar regards the relationship three Mexican males have with the sea.

Arnold's newest testament to passion and squalor strikes a tone somewhere between Cary Fukinaga's emo "Jane Eyre" and Sophia Coppola's revisionist-hip "Marie Antoinette."

It may be difficult for the youth-obsessed American culture to appreciate the quiet joys rendered in this Italian charmer. But, given the increasing dominion of the Baby-Boomer Generation--hungry for life-affirming images of old age--Mid-August Lunch could prove a sleeper-in-the-making.

Though Warrior excels at the big stuff-fighting sequences and rousing crowds and victories that all but force audiences to stand up and cheer - the film is at its very best in the small moments, the little looks.

What makes Forte so funny is that he stalks through the flick cocksure and utterly deadpan.

For the most part, though, Who Do You Love does a marvelous job of recreating the times and the music and, most of all, of bringing to life this behind-the-scenes giant of the music business.

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is a sweet surprise, a funny, touching terrific and quite wonderful movie that gets it all right about the joys and heartbreaks of growing up circa 1991.

Easily one of the year's best films and one of the best ever in the well-worn cop genre.

The results are so funny and irresistible audiences are bound to be swept away into this kitty's universe.

The Tillman Story illustrates the amazing lengths the Pentagon went to in order to hide the details of that killing.

The entire cast is superb. Crowe's an ideal Robin Hood-born to play the role-he's fully in command but human to the core. He owns it.

For all lovers of old style animation it should build up the same cultish following as "Triplets."

Lovers of deliberate kitsch should seek it out and make it a part of all celebrations of bad taste. Lovers of “The Godfather” films and new age mafia types like the “Sopranos” have always been into bad taste and so won’t get this.

Not to be overlooked are the film's wealth of fine supporting performances and technical contributions-the always wonderful Emily Mortimer, Martin Ruhe's extraordinary cinematography and Kave Quinn's incisive production design each playing a part in what must be considered one of the very best films of the first half of 2010.

Films have punctured The American Dream before, but rarely so devastatingly as The Company Men does.

Leyser has done his job with this, his first feature, burnishing Burroughs' legend and making manifest the enormous shadow he still casts over writers and artists of all stripe.

What this predictable tale lacks in surprises it more than makes up for in charm, good music and the indelible performances of Alessandro Nivola and Abigail Breslin as father and child.

The absorbingly bittersweet result ranks as one of the best non-fiction films of the year.

The Dish and The Spoon boasts the efficiency and tidiness of early American indies like Rob Nilsson's "Heat and Sunlight," while it relocates its foreign film-like emotional landscapes to more native climes.

Uncomfortably tense but worth savoring, particularly because of Tilda Swinton's devastating lead performance.

It's a stirring mix of sports and human drama that exudes an almost earthy sense of genuineness.

What Foy and his team discover is unbelievable. More importantly, their adventures will prove popular with street art buffs as well as documentary fans.

Europe's Most Wanted is so full of laughs and great characters, it's easily the best in the series. Like "Toy Story 3," the Madagascar gang just gets better with time, and this new adventure is funny, exciting and heartwarming.

With a tour-de-force performance from James Franco and an imaginative shooting style that relies on two cameras and inventive angles, what could have been static and deadly dull comes blazingly to life in this powerful and compelling story of one man's will to survive.

This drama is something of a miracle itself: a film dealing with religion that is refreshingly free of dogma.

The script does not provide that much illumination, yet the power of the acting and the quality of the visual imagery carry us along.

Filmmakers Luc Côté and Patricio Henriquez don't use flashy tricks to tug heartstrings-instead they put faith in the story they're telling. And what a story it is.

Smart, empathetic and wholly believable.

I'm Still Here does leave us with one big question mark: What will Phoenix do next? How will he top such a flamboyant caper?

It may take some time but Nicole Holofcener’s latest effort gradually grows on you. Partly it’s her obvious affection for her oddball collection of characters; partly it’s the performances of the likes of Keener and Oliver Platt as her wayward husband.

By way of remarkable sleight-of-hand, Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike both is and is not the freewheeling, fun-loving, male stripper extravaganza its trailers peddle.

Fan finds the delicate balance between broad socio-political themes and a single family torn between centuries-old traditions and the desire to succeed in the capitalist world.

Bad Teacher is a worthy successor to the benchmark black comedy "Bad Santa" (without being at all the same).

This smart and sophisticated romp takes surprising directions as it examines the creative process of writing, the delicate balance of relationships, and the mysteries of men and women.

Instead of venturing into mournful "Terms of Endearment" territory, the film - and the filmmakers - commit to a relentless determination to live.

Savages is one of Stone's best movies with a ménage et trois love story giving some human dimension to its three young leads.

Daddy Longlegs is a discovery destined for year-end top ten critics lists and comparisons to classics like Vittorio De Sica's "Bicycle Thieves" are expected. Hopefully, Daddy Longlegs will also introduce the Safdie brothers to the larger audiences they deserve.

A stirring, unforgettable motion picture experience, a superbly acted and courageous story of one woman who made a difference.

Likely to resonate with a generation of young people to whom "When Harry Met Sally's" orgasm scene seems downright quaint.

Ultimately an inspiring, stirring and unforgettable human drama in the face of a horrifying war. It is highly recommended.

On the heels of another revelatory turn in True Grit, Bridges is sensational again, here in a groundbreaking performance.

Gripping, offensive and bewildering, Tabloid is a mean-spirited masterpiece.

Arguably the best creative decision Jacobs and Siskel make in the film is choosing their talented subjects.

With the woes of Wall Street constantly in the headlines, Oliver Stone could not have picked a better time to reignite Wall Street.

This intelligent, emotional drama should resonate strongly with fans of character-driven stories and those interested in tales of American political struggle.

Some points are driven home over and over again and that repetition robs the doc of a bit of its power, but overall Countdown to Zero is effective and frightening.

Beautiful Boy is a discerning film lover's off-season tonic, regardless of where, when or how it's seen. What matters most is simply that it be seen.

A whipsmart twist on a particular kind of romantic comedy.

With bubbles of nascent arousal frothing at the film's feminine surface, Moth Diaries' commercial potential is likely to hinge on whether or not audiences can stand to be confronted with the confusion they felt as adolescents.

Has a stirring elemental feel and constitutes filmmaking at its most basic and transfixing.

Relatively light-hearted for a Polanski film (no one dies), Carnage is fun verbal warfare cleanly filmed.

When a filmmaker like Guggenheim is capable of doing that with a topic as complex as the public education crisis, you know you're watching the work of an extraordinary storyteller.

A fascinating, deeply felt film of wild, untamed emotions and probing insights.

A gripping new documentary that's essential viewing for anybody who believes that the impact of global warming is tomorrow's problem.

A highly entertaining and heartfelt action comedy that ought to steal more laughs than any other film this holiday season.

Dogtooth will begin to open the door for U.S. specialty audiences to discover Lanthimos as a new master and anticipate his future films.

The film is really a valentine to the fans.

This is not really a biopic of the great President as the title might indicate, but rather a fascinating, savvy look at the inner-workings of the political process and how things in the White House get - or don't get - done.

A "Good Evening" indeed at the movies.

With first-rate performances from Sean Penn and Naomi Watts and a compelling script, this suspenseful, taut drama should keep audiences nailed to their seats.

A clever movie premise based on an obscure comic book has been turned into, okay we’ll say it, a fanboy’s kick-ass wet dream of a movie that could be a surprise Spring smash.

What really distinguishes Captain from the other superhero movies of 2011 (and quite frankly, the majority of the others released in the last several years) is a romance that feels like an integral - not incidental - component of the plot.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the intellectual action flick of your dreams.

Meet the new face of superheroes: Marc Webb's totally teenage and totally fun take on the Spider-Man franchise.

Red Hook Summer begins as a gentle character comedy and then erupts into a sudden reversal that is possibly the most powerful and disturbing sequence Lee has ever created. It's a film that makes you laugh, weep, rage and gasp, and, love it or hate it, you will definitely talk about it afterward.