Scenes that should have been uproarious are weaker than many of the movie's smaller moments.

This bleak vision directed by Darren Aronofsky ("Pi") is pointless with good reason.

A persuasively feminine coming-of-age story.

Includes extensive performance footage but never drags, and it isn't exposé or self-mockery.

The leads, Denzel Washington and particularly Will Patton, are so good they occasionally make you forget the material is shameless.

Sally Field's direction is pedestrian, though she does manage to get winning performances out of Driver and Eisenberg.

In general, the dogs-as-mirrors theme--the crazy things people do with and in relation to their pets--is what keeps this going, and the laughs are sporadic but genuine.

Doesn't do much with its pseudosavvy characters.

This gently satirical farce is atmospheric when dabbling in religion--the chef turns to spiritual magic to defuse her passion for her husband--and moving during her heart-to-hearts with her friend.

My only reason to recommend this movie is that there's nothing quite like it.

In the manner of a southern gothic, they never fail to fascinate.

Has the enthusiasm and naivete of a first feature.

This sharp, convincing, and utterly contemporary political film calls to mind some of Ken Loach's work, full of passion as well as precision.

The luminous images--as much the filmmakers' as the painter's--are occasionally transcendent.

To my taste, the only serious drawback to this absorbing film is Harris's unimaginative adherence to documentary convention, which obliges him to "illustrate" the voice-overs even when the material matches the narratives only in fictional terms.

This comedy-thriller that has no particular motive for changing tones.

Much of this fractured drama and dark fantasy takes place inside the mind of Charlie (Futterman),

Slight but savory.

This has much of the warmth and feeling for adolescence that Crowe displayed in his first feature ("Say Anything"), though the slick showboating of "Jerry Maguire" isn't entirely absent either.

A lot of uninteresting and unpleasant people torture, abuse, and fire guns at a lot of other uninteresting and unpleasant people, in a repulsive, interminable would-be crime thriller.

Carax has a wonderful cinematic eye and a personal feeling for editing rhythms, and his sense of overripeness and excess virtually defines him.

Tavernier gives the children vivid, sharply delineated voices; working with a largely nonprofessional cast, he strips bare the characters' frailty but grants them a decency and honesty that redeems them despite the mounting hardships and tragedies.

People frequently cover the camera lens with their hands or refer to the "documentary" being filmed, as if to assure us that what we're seeing is real.

This offbeat and unpredictable comedy-thriller throws so many curveballs, one right after another, that I doubt I've had more fun at an American movie this year.

Despite a melodramatic score that at times seems almost facetious, the movie's tone is sober and sincere, its unlikely ending persuasive.

This thriller largely succeeds in putting quotation marks around its use of genre conventions, mixing subtlety and overkill to create a pensive mood that transcends the plot.

This gross sex farce actually has a point, though about half the population won't like what it is.

The wavering style and tone fragment the movie, undermining both characters' development, though each retains her power as a symbol.