Kevin Spacey gives a bravura performance as superlobbyist Jack Abramoff in George Hickenlooper's uneven but often loopily entertaining Casino Jack.

Karsin doesn't adequately detail the political complexities of the struggle, but how can one not respond to someone like tribal leader Flor Ilva, who declares, "We women are warriors, not with weapons, but with our thoughts and through raising our children."

Has a sense of emotional urgency and deep-dwelling grief.

Despite its deficiencies, and the inadequate screen time allotted to Theron (who's quite good), Sleepwalking has a core of feeling. It's about a do-gooder who, lacking all skills for it, does good anyway. His emotional odyssey has real poignancy.

Adaptation is sort of like the mythical Ourabouros mentioned in the screenplay -- the snake that eats its own tail -- or like a series of mirrors repeating their images to infinity.

Grim and sordid though it often is, the film has a steady flow of visually absorbing images. It's an art movie for the masses.

John Sayles's offbeat western shows how public controversies often overlap with private grudges and conflicting memories.

The dialogue and acting are stagy at times, especially in the early scenes, but the characters are compelling and the Indian atmosphere is vividly sketched.

It's been a while since we've had a good monster movie, and while Cloverfield probably won't give you sleepless nights, it will certainly keep you awake in the theater.

A high-class weepie for adults who disdain the lower forms of four-hankiedom.

The battle scenes and a few of the human vignettes are powerful, but too often the film falls back on conventional plot mechanics.

Its best moments are as exuberant and insightful as anything the screen has given us this season, and its passionate concern for believable characters in a recognizably real world offers a refreshing change from the current spate of feel-good fantasies.

Frankenheimer doesn't recapture the magic he once created in movies like "The Manchurian Candidate," but he does cook up an effective thriller in the "French Connection" vein.

Taking great commercial risks, director Martin Scorsese avoids movie-star performances and the psychological storytelling that Hollywood movies normally thrive on.

Sometimes disturbing but consistently fascinating.

Wittily written and deliciously acted, Lonergan's debut film is a clear cut above the average.

The comedy is often crass and crude, but it makes telling points about how much of "race" is more about the words and gestures we use than the actual colors of our skins.

The sensitive directing of Richard Benjamin and the exquisite cinematography of John Bailey give the comedy and drama a special glow, as do the strong performances by Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage and the stunning one by Elizabeth McGovern. [03 May 1984, p.29]

Quirky, heartfelt acting makes this a superior entry in the perennial teenage-misfit genre.

The best moments in “Parnassus” are not otherwordly but worldly. It’s a movie about a dying magician and the death of magic. This is a subject that obviously means a lot to Gilliam, and he makes us feel it in our bones.

An eye-opening movie, both socially and politically.

What goes on inside the mind of a terrorist who is willing to blow himself for the cause? The War Within is one of the few films that attempts to deal with this subject in a nonexploitative way.

Nature specialist Carroll Ballard directed this eye-dazzling family film, which has superb airborne cinematography to compensate for some soggy spots in the story. [13 Sep 1996, p.13]

Eastwood's performance is a built-in metaphor for Wilson's ungainly effort to be what he isn't. Seen in this light, it's a daring and moving piece of work. And so, despite flaws along the way, is the movie as a whole, which was directed by Eastwood himself. [13 Sep 1990]

More thoughtful and varied than the average Hollywood cartoon.

The action is talky and philosophical but in sweet celebration of everyman going nowhere.

Mos Def makes it work. It's a truly daring piece of acting because it skirts racial stereotyping and is so out of key with everything else in the movie. But that's just why it is so good.

The movie is enriched by its fine acting and by its creative respect for an innovator whose influence still permeates contemporary art.

Add marvelously imaginative directing -- finally Yakin fulfills the promise he showed in "Fresh" almost a decade ago -- and you have a colorful, creative, deliciously frolicsome romp.

This intensely topical satire tackles a wide range of important issues, from corporate whistle-blowing to the toll sexual license takes on stable family structures.

Has to be called one of the year's best movies. Credit goes partly to the built-in fascination of its subject and partly to its excellent cast.

The subject and the film clips are great, although the documentary as a whole is a bit gimmicky.

The story is a sort of "Stella Dallas Meets Slums of Beverly Hills," helped by heartfelt acting from its talented stars.

Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston give mature performances as the bereaved parents, and David Morse brings an offbeat touch to the basically decent man who traumatized their lives.

Sail to the box office, swashbucklers. Dumas is back in style.

The timing is slack and the jokes repetitive. But, like most Will Ferrell movies, it has enough riotous moments to carry you through the dull stretches.

Even when its emotions run a bit out of control, Kramer vs. Kramer is a strong and positive film. Its performances are first-rate, from Hoffman and streep down to Howard Duff (as a divorce lawyer) and a terrifically talented lad named Justin Henry, who visibly matures in his portrayal of Billy, the contested kid.

If Baron Cohen is going to continue making scripted comedies, he needs to work with directors far less slapdash than Larry Charles. He can be one of the funniest people on the planet, but he needs a real dictator – I mean, director – calling the shots.

Anderson's cinematic style gets more adventurous from one movie to the next, and he begins this story with bursts of originality that leave his respected "Rushmore" far behind.

Janeane Garofalo and Uma Thurman make a bright-eyed comedy team in this romance.

It probes the attitudes of French men and women toward love, sex, and promiscuity through the story of a self-centered intellectual who strays from his middle-class girlfriend to pursue a nurse with unconventional ideas about relationships. Jean-Pierre Leaud gives one of the most memorable performances in his remarkable career. [19 Dec 1997, p.13]

The movie morphs into a deconstructed remake of "Indecent Exposure" and it's downright riveting, with Campbell doing her best acting to date.

Truly, Madly, Deeply takes on grief. It is a hard picture to watch at times, because the grieving protagonist is so convincing.

Blends compassion for individuals with explanations of the socioenonomic factors that influence them.

Harry comes through loud and clear as a conflicted, edgy, avid young man. He's turned into EveryTeen.

Contains quite a few grisly and ghastly images.

Best not when it is preaching to us but, rather, in those moments when both King and Riggs drop their public faces and reveal the roiling underneath.

Exhaustingly action-packed.

The acting and directing are uneven, but many scenes have strong emotional and political power.

Obviously a movie made by smart and talented people but sometimes you can outsmart yourself.

Too much of Wild is broken up by flashbacks that tend to dissipate rather than enhance Strayed’s trek. At times she is swallowed up almost to the point of vanishing by the immensity of the vistas.

Worth seeing for the expert archival selections, but a decidedly mixed bag for anyone familiar, or unfamiliar, with the times.

It's intermittently amusing, and Bening actually gives a performance instead of a star turn, but the claws should have been sharper.

Must-see viewing if you're not quite sure the sun really set over the British Empire.

The movie has a lush mysteriousness that represents a bygone, almost antique style of romanticism. It bears almost no resemblance to the current crop of mostly rat-a-tat movies. To view it is to enter a time warp, and there is some pleasure in stepping back into the languor.

Lovely to look at, if not very deep in its thinking about relations between humans and their animal friends.

If you can handle its horror-comic grotesquerie, you'll find an enormous amount of cinematic imagination at work.

Offbeat tale, which tackles weighty themes. But sentimentality overtakes intelligence.

The movie is well acted, deeply moving, and unlike some love stories, it doesn't feel forced or contrived.

You can blissfully zone out on the director's pretty pictures, which is a permissible indulgence when the pictures are as delicately alluring as they are here. Also, the performances of Kikuchi and Hatsune are first-rate.

Its greatest assets are imaginative camera work and top-flight performances from Pam Grier as the heroine, Samuel L. Jackson as the deadly boyfriend, and Robert Forster as the bail-bondsman who falls battily in love with her.

In Aviva Kempner's affectionate documentary Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, Berg, who once polled second only to Eleanor Roosevelt as one of America's most respected females, is given her due. Or at least her showbiz due.

Excerpts from Schroeder's long video documentary about him, and from the flawed melodrama "Barfly" they made together, add more variety.

This is not a happy tale, and its ending will have moviegoers reaching for every handkerchief they can find. But its compassion is as clear as the talents of the folks who made it.

There are some virtuoso moments (the discovery of the mutilated corpse is extremely well done and blessedly ungraphic), but overall the result is much less than prime De Palma.

The conceit of the movie is that everyone is obsessed by something and never really tunes into anybody else.

Directed by newcomer Todd Field, who has a sensitive eye and a knack for storytelling.

In sum, this is hardly an "Iliad" adaptation for the ages. But if you're hankering for sand, sandals, and swordplay, this could be the movie for you.

Tom Hanks makes his directorial debut with this likable comedy, which shows that while pop culture is a business like any other, enthusiasm and high spirits can lead to satisfaction even if major success proves elusive.

The story is surprising, the screenplay is witty, and the animation is wonderfully creative. A super sequel.

The movie's somber message is worth heeding, and the acting is mostly excellent.

Dumont's methods are radical, but there's a fascinating method to his seeming cinematic madness.

The real love story here is between Moore and his bullhorn.

The Mexican writer-director Fernando Eimbcke attempts to give this story a melancholy overlay, but its main interest is in its confirmation that teenagers are pretty much the same everywhere.

Lots of brilliant filmmaking and high-spirited acting, at least until the story turns repetitious and formulaic in the last 30 minutes.

Crystal Skull is a fun ride, but if we have to wait 19 years for the next one, that's OK by me.

The stars of The Bear are compulsively watchable. Just the way they move their bodies is endlessly fascinating. Ditto for the magnificent Canadian scenery. [08 Nov 1989, p.11]

It's an engrossing and inventive drama despite its flaws.

Writer-director Ray Lawrence, well regarded for his two previous films, "Bliss" and "Lantana," expands Carver's work into an indictment of colonialism and an examination of the chasm that supposedly exists between men and women over matters of the heart.

The story is amusing and the animation is first-rate, but there's less sparkling originality than in "Toy Story."

Its discussions don't go very deep, and moviegoers with strong religious values may wonder why it comes down for humanism over spirituality.

Debrauwer brings crisp conviction to what might have been an overly sentimental tale, filming it with a straightforward style and good-natured sincerity that ring consistently true.

If you’ve ever fantasized about busting up somebody’s nuptials, this movie is for you.

Without her (Kelly Macdonald), the generally well-acted The Merry Gentleman would descend into terminal lugubriousness.

The parallel stories don't always dovetail with each other smoothly, but the acting is strong and the atmosphere is powerful.

Watts is wonderful, and the story's forsaken-child theme still has plenty of horrific power.

Her social activism often left her children, some of whom are interviewed, in the lurch. It’s a contradiction the film could have more sharply explored.

The entire enterprise ultimately seems designed to turn Austen into a self-help guru.

Like its subject, the movie is a tad overzealous, but often fascinating and revealing.

The saving grace of Queen and Country is that its nostalgia is not laced with sentimentality. Even working in this conventional mode, Boorman doesn’t try to strong-arm us into blubberiness.

Best performance, minute for minute, comes from Adriane Lenox, whose cameo as Michael's drug-addled mother is the film's standout.

Smart and engrossing, if too heavy on the symbolism at times.

Carrell has stated in interviews that his accent "falls someplace between Bela Lugosi and Ricardo Montalban," and that's about right.

Suspenseful and psychologically rich.

It captures their magic with a freewheeling spontaneity that became a model for later pop-music movies.

The veteran rock musician Nick Cave wrote the screenplay and John Hillcoat directed, both somewhat in thrall to Sam Peckinpah. The bonds of family are the centerpiece of this highly uneven, hyperviolent film.

While Jaoui's film is interesting to watch, it dawdles enough to lose its storytelling grip.

Emmerich's screenplay gains emotional punch from its sincere concern for family values, but science-fiction fans may be disappointed by the limited exploration of its fascinating time-travel premise.