Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing presents a pleasant, simplified, heavily emphatic version of a classic text. [21 May 1993, p.C]

While it's a cliche to praise a performance requiring some harsh, fairly explicit on-screen behavior and interactions, Silverman's doing the opposite of grandstanding here.

It's basically an anger film, a catharsis for problems we haven't learned to solve. As that, it does its job well, with humor and surprising grace. [18 Sep 1987, p.18]

McConaughey is first-rate throughout, on top of every dramatic and blackly comic situation, even when the character isn't on top of anything.

What’s missing, even at its trim, tidy run time, is the sort of glancing realism and true nuance of a Paul Greengrass docudrama such as “Bloody Sunday.” What’s there, though, is enough for a consistently absorbing version of what the media did right and what it did wrong.

Timecrimes doesn't end as well as it begins. Then again, writer-director Nacho Vigalondo deliberately fudges the beginning and endpoints of his premise, which involves one of those nutty causal loops so dear to writers and consumers of science fiction.

It's not the plot--however enjoyable--that makes I Went Down so successful as a genre piece. Rather, it is the assortment of quirky and nicely-defined characters who crop up along the way, along with some of the sharpest screen dialogue you're likely to hear anytime soon. [1 July 1998, p.2]

What this movie is about, and where it succeeds best, is the primordial level of fear. The characters, for the most part, and the non-fish elements in the story, are comparatively weak and not believable. [20 June 1975]

A surprising and delightful romantic take on modern women.

A sometimes smart social commentary on Los Angeles characters who seek spiritual salvation when they can't buy every object they want. Judy Davis and Peter Weller play a trendy couple who look like they are from the outtakes of "Short Cuts" and "The Player."

A mix of drag comedy and inspirational road movie, Wong Foo is surprisingly, sometimes exhilaratingly good. [10 Sep 1995, p.4C]

A pleasing but overlong version of the Rocky story told through the character of a put-upon young high school student who learns karate from an old Japanese master to vanquish the local school bullies. There is no reason this simple story should run 2 hours and 10 minutes. Such a running time strains the good will generated by a cast full of likable performances. [22 June 1984, p.12]

What's striking about the picture, I think, is its lack of violent threat.

Chuck Norris takes a big leap in his film career with Code of Silence, a solid cops 'n' drug dealers picture filmed last year in Chicago. Norris' big step is that this time he stars in a much more realistic action film, one with a credibility only slightly undone by a few of his martial arts maneuvers at the end.

Very different than "Kids." Where the earlier film was exhausting in its nihilism, the latest retains a good-natured charm.

Part III has the more adult emotions of the original, and with the presence of Steenburgen it recalls the quality of her other fine time-travel romance, "Time After Time." [25 May 1990, p.C]

As a visual capture of a tour supporting an album, “Renaissance” may not hold a candle to her remarkable, 65-minute visual album “Lemonade” that appeared, more or less out of nowhere, in 2016. But it’s holding an entirely different sort of candle, or rather two candles. One’s a concert movie; the other’s a how-I-made-the-concert-and-this-movie movie.

From its first moments, the new documentary The Hunting Ground instills a sense of dread that is very, very tough to shake.

More thoughtful than advertised. And as a confection, it's less sweet and more flavorful than your average wedding cake. [20 June 1997]

This is a pro's movie, solid, taut and trim, done mostly with exemplary skill. That's its trouble, perhaps. This Getaway knows the score too well, entertains us too effectively, beguiles us too knowingly. [11 Feb 1994, p.A]

This faithful resurrection of the original "Willard," a twisted gem in its own right, also is funny.

The director and co-writer David Lowery has made nothing but interesting features, six so far, and while his latest (co-written by Toby Halbrooks) turns into a bit of a Lost Boy here and there in its brooding investigation of why Captain Hook, played by a happily camp-averse Jude Law, got that way, it’s a stirring adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s fantasy.

It's beautifully shot on Cephallonian locations by superb landscape photographer John Toll.

This movie lets you feel something. Like George's house, if not his life, it's built well and full of heart.

Porumboiu's picture, small and pungent, lacks the resonance of "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," Cristi Puiu's masterpiece of contemporary Romanian malaise released in the U.S. last year. But this one's less forbidding, and it has a satisfying shape and fullness.

It's not all that funny -- but fascinating in a weird, knockabout way. [28 Aug 1998, p.O]

Sir! No Sir! honors those who fought, then questioned the morality of that fight, then joined the national protest.

Besson is an accomplished technician, and his choice of shots-with an emphasis on bizarre, low angles, darting camera movements and large, abstract color fields-is consistently entertaining if not particularly expressive. [3 Apr 1991, Tempo, p.3]