Watching the movie, I was reminded of the documentary "Crumb"...There is a line that sometimes runs between genius and madness, sometimes encircles them.

It contains risk, violence, a little romance, even fleeting moments of humor, but most of all, it sees what danger and heartbreak are involved. It is riveting from start to finish.

Children of Heaven is very nearly a perfect movie for children, and of course that means adults will like it, too.

A contagious enthusiasm runs through the heart of Jon Angio’s Revenge of the Mekons, a documentary that celebrates and explores the evolving ethos of the seminal British punk band The Mekons while also proving that some of rock’s most interesting stories come not from success but survival.

Though set in a real place and occurring within a historically accurate framework, The Nightingale often feels like a journey through Hell itself. It’s that punishing. That bleak. That horrific. That haunting. It’s also a powerful, gripping, masterfully filmed tale.

What is remarkable is that this film is based on a true story, and filmed on the actual locations. These are hard, violent men, risking their lives to save an animal species.

At times Grandma overdoes it with the stand-alone scenes in which crusty ol’ Elle causes a scene or sticks it to some jerk. It’s a little too neat. Mostly, though, Weitz’s screenplay strikes sharp note after sharp note.

Everything we witness in this film is literally seen through the point of view of a spectral presence, but it’s the machinations of a deeply dysfunctional nuclear family that makes it all so intriguing.

The experience is frightening, sometimes disgusting, and (if the truth be told) exhilarating. This is very skillful filmmaking, and Mad Max 2 is a movie like no other.

I, Tonya is kitschy and smart and funny and insightful, and sometimes sobering.

There is a jolting surprise in discovering that this film has free will, and can end as it wants, and that its director can make her point, however brutally.

Not an easy film and is for those few moviegoers who approach a serious movie almost in the attitude of prayer.

Nunez has a gift for finding the essence, the soul, of his actors.

Both impressive and disappointing. From a technical and craft point of view it is first-rate; from its standing in the canon of the two directors, it is minor.

Body Heat is good enough to make film noir play like we hadn't seen it before.

It was produced, written and directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who also wrote American Graffiti, and it has the same sharp memory for those specific moments when young people suspect they are doing certain things for the last times in their lives. So it is bittersweet, of course -- bittersweet, that indispensable street you travel through adolescence on.

Maestro is sure to garner multiple Oscar nominations, and deservedly so.

There are a couple of moments in Jerry Maguire when you want to hug yourself with delight. Both of those moments involve the actress Renee Zellweger, whose lovability is one of the key elements in a movie that starts out looking cynical and quickly becomes a heartwarmer.

A collision at the intersection of farce and tragedy--the apocalypse as a joke on us.

Relic is the feel-dread movie of the year.

Ruby in Paradise is a breathtaking movie about a young woman who opens the book of her life to a fresh page, and begins to write.

It’s a shattering, thunderous wake-up alarm, a call to lay down arms, a gutsy social satire and a highly stylized work of fiction that sometimes feels as accurate and sobering as the crime reporting you see on the front page of this newspaper.

This is a pure comfort-viewing experience, filled with authentic characters who talk the way real people talk, even when the situations stretch credulity.

It's also interesting to see how little screen time the final disco competition really has, considering how large it looms in our memories.

Though the film is fitted with a basic, teen-rebel plot, its true substance comes from Mark's commentary. His observations are generally interesting and witty, and they almost always have the ring of truth. [22 Aug 1990, p.37]

It’s the kind of film that grabs you from the opening sequences and holds you in its grimy grip all the way through the closing credits, when the s- - - is still hitting the fan.

Jarecki's film makes a shattering case against the War on Drugs.

It's a movie about characters, primarily. It cares more about getting inside these people than it does about solving its crime.