Pearce, who's in every scene except the Sammy flashbacks, dominates the picture through his feral performance.

Handsome and competently acted and prettily shot and all the other things critics say when what they really want to scream is "Aaaaaaaargh! No more Jane Austen adaptations, ESPECIALLY not Pride and Prejudice.

The result is one of the twistiest thrillers in recent memory.

He (Chomet) keeps us waiting for a narrative payoff that will equal that visual splendor, and he makes us think that many small inspired touches will add up to something memorable. But when he opens his hand at last, there's nothing in it.

Cinematographer Cesar Charlone, whose burnt-orange view of the favela made "City of God" striking, conveys Africa's slums with equal force in somber browns and simmering yellows. At times, the inhabitants seem to be on fire in their surroundings, a fitting image for a land consigned to a hell of unhappiness.

Lanthimos and Filippou have thoroughly imagined their world.

The results require immense patience but also reward it immensely.

Squid keeps you on your toes, but payoffs will have you smiling - maybe in rueful recognition of the truth - in scene after scene.

Somewhere inside "School" lurks a heartwarming or hilarious movie, perhaps both.

A picture from an old man working at the top of his game.

It settles into the typical reflective mode of Iranian films, but something IS happening: A human being is slowly, sullenly, silently approaching his combustion point.

Marty is full of magic; all through the show you find yourself thinking, "That's me up there." [15 Aug 1955, p.4B]

In an era when most scripts are written by committees of monkeys, hearing one man's intelligent voice is an almost forgotten pleasure.

Careful casting adds to verisimilitude. Nobody carries off a chilly authority figure like Tilda Swinton, who represents the chemical company; Pollack, who has more or less stopped directing, now embodies urbane amorality as an actor; Wilkinson, whose career has mostly been devoted to repressed or depressed characters, enjoys his turn as a bright-eyed fanatic.

Has an honesty few movies seek or achieve these days.

The most violent scene is dreamlike, and more direct killings are often seen at an angle or from a distance. The camera placement is thoughtful and effective, never titillating.

Gibney also made the Oscar-nominated "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," and he gets remarkable access to people you wouldn't expect to talk to him (including U.S. interrogators charged with crimes at Bagram).

Warms the heart while chilling the bones.

The two leads don't have sexual chemistry together, but that's part of the point.

Melissa Leo is one of America's most underrated character actresses, and Frozen River confirms that opinion.

The movie ends so abruptly you might wonder if a piece is missing, and it relies on one extraordinary coincidence I couldn’t swallow. Yet scene by scene, I found people I knew or wish I knew: Ben’s romantic advice to the straight but awkward Joey would give any boy confidence about himself.

If you used this guy's umbilical cord for fishing line, you could land a world-record marlin.

Reflective, touching, intimate portrait of a samurai facing action in his waning years.

As we bounce over rough seas on the Maersk, we know just what will be lost if the Somalis don’t keep their trembling fingers off their triggers. As the title suggests, this is not a movie about an incident: It’s a movie about a man who stays very real to us.

So wild an approach demands straightforward performances that don't draw attention to themselves, and that's what the actors supply.

A documentary that's as chaotic, rude and funny as the band could be.

Making a film with fine performances, adept direction, first-rate photography and a doltish screenplay is like starting a rock band with no drummer. The result may yield satisfying, even memorable moments. But every time you try to build momentum, the project falls apart.

He (writer/director David Gordon Green) fired his arrow straight at a worthwhile target, but it fell a little short.