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.