A strange and lovely combination of cinematic nostalgia and offbeat (gay) love story.

Perhaps the primary reason A Room With a View is so involving is that Ivory has cast the film perfectly, and given each of the actors ample room to breathe. Even the characters you're not supposed to like are allowed their moments of vulnerable humanity.

More than a family saga, this is a family meditation.

Not a film for everyone. And though I deeply admire it, it's not a film that even I want to see again in the immediate future.

The fact that this film, so sensitive to woman's plight, was made by a man is perhaps cause for a little hope.

[Roos's] dialogue (including an on-and-off voiceover by Ricci's pregnant, runaway sociopath) has a ringing clarity, his satire is low-key but quite real, and his actors mesh so perfectly you'd swear they rehearsed for months before shooting.

An unassuming little film that packs a huge emotional and artistic punch.

Perhaps the most remarkable documentary project ever undertaken, and certainly the longest, is Michael Apted's Up series, which he began shooting for the BBC in 1962.

We marvel at the almost perfect realization of a character whom we're not necessarily meant to like.

MTV, comic books and gangster flicks are all in Lola's cinematic family tree; it's a heady, breathless ride.

Fruitvale is outstanding, a telling portrait and testament to the life of one man and the complicated relationships to race and class that still exist within America today.

L.A. Confidential is at the same time his (Hanson) most personal movie and Hollywood filmmaking at its best.

It's a masterpiece, a sublime tone poem that shows what cinema is capable of when it tries to do more than just tell a story.

A gorgeous dreamscape of a movie...one of the most exhilarating experiences of pure cinema that will be offered this year.

It's as wise and funny and revealing as anything ever created by Mike Nichols and Elaine May.

This is an ambitious movie that attempts too much rather than too little.

Leigh and his solid cast make sure that inside jokes translate to a broad audience, and that their rendering of the back-stage drama is smart, engrossing and often very funny.

Don't miss it.

Sure, the territory is not exactly fresh...but the chemistry between the two leads is so explosive yet assured, and the comic timing so perfect, that the cliches are given new life.

The titillating sense of out-of-controlness provoked by the camera is echoed in the film's narrative situations, and you simply, and deliciously, haven't a clue as to what he's going to throw at you next.

All but guarantees that you'll want to see Chicken Run more than once.

The movie on its own is great, but with this music it's sublime.

It's irresistible.

It makes us realize, suddenly, and with immense regret, what the rest of contemporary cinema so sorely lacks.

A multi-layered, experimental film, a film about storytelling, but the beauty of it is that it transcends the story at its center while still celebrating the virtues of a tale well-told.

Though a little long, the film takes us right inside both the creative impulse and the margins of American life. Its triumph is to show those two things as being deeply, wonderfully connected.

This is vintage Allen, his powers intact after a string of increasingly cranky, creaky films in the last few years.

Harron's adaptation of Ellis's novel is brilliant, probably better than the book itself.

I spent the bulk of Paradise Love mimicking Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a disturbing film.

Here is a pitch-black psycho-horror-comedy to restore one’s faith in the “What the eff did I just watch?” genre.

A dark film that raises more questions than it answers -- and it's meant to.

Audiences willing to wade knee deep in the muck and mire of the human abyss are advised to seek out Humanité at the local arthouse.

The film is so engaging because it's so damn funny.

He [Anderson] simply doesn't allow for dull moments, and his gifts for irony and showmanship are clearly appreciated by a collection of actors who have rarely been better.

Little Voice is that rarity, a filmed adaptation of a stage play that actually works.

A terrific piece of neo-realistic filmmaking.

Serkis’ Caesar gets more than his fair share of rip-snortin’ badass moments. He’s arguably the finest leader of men we’ve seen on screen since “Lincoln.”

Sweet and hilarious, a classic crowd-pleaser which elevates rather than eviscerates the homespun eccentrics who make up its cast of characters.

The extent to which Black and Louiso help make this film terribly witty and caustic and worth every minute of its almost two-hour running time is immeasurable.

Funny, expansive, and a delight to spend company with.

Director Gary Winick ("Sweet Nothing") ingeniously complements Draper's layered approach by modulating the film's energy in fascinating ways.

Entertaining as it often is, Outside Providence feels as if it were a collection of installments from an unusually raunchy television series.

An unleashed Raimi may be a more exciting moviemaker, but there's something to be said for the virtues of a good story well told, which describes A Simple Plan down to its last shivery snowflake.

Subtle, strange, off-putting, fascinating.

So meticulously acted that you feel you're reading the characters' minds.

Sure to become a classic; it taps into the fury of being a drone with a deeply knowing precision.

A superb tearjerker in between beautiful bluegrass ballads.

While this is arguably Greengrass’ best film, it’s almost certainly his most urgent.

Throughout the picture you understand the miracle and good fortune of finding love, and recognize the great changes in tolerance American society is currently (albeit slowly) undergoing.

Listen Up Philip is big, sprawling and tortured, if a little lacking in focus – while funny in parts, it isn’t really a comedy.

Boasting a compelling cast of characters, Wasteland” is a very smooth feature film debut from director Rowan Athale, and one that invites repeat viewings.

Nothing short of fascinating.

The film is brisk, funny, smart, and artful, a strong pairing of high concept and relatable storylines.

Post Tenebras Lux works so well because – even at its most random – it always feels like more of a single portrait of a man in crisis than it does an impish bouquet of provocative incidents.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier neatly and entertainingly puts into motion some big changes in the Marvel universe, while still sticking to its own charms — no easy feat, but one fit for a hero.

Teller manages a careful enough balance between painstaking technique and a larger cultural context over 80 brisk minutes to make even minor revelations feel like major moments.

An instantly and enduringly compelling documentary.

Gone Girl is a rare bird: a tricky, weird mystery that benefits from people knowing its twist from the outset.

A bold film anchored by Weigert's impressive lead performance.

A knowing take on movies and maturity alike, The World’s End is just as thoroughly thoughtful as those which came before it, and maybe more than ever, you’ll find yourself laughing to keep from crying.

[Brie Larson's] performance is something of a quiet revelation, and in turn, the same could be said of the film itself.

The first half of “The Congress,” while still fascinating, does suffer a bit from keeping its focus on the gripes and accusations between Hollywood actors and producers...Once the Philip K. Dick-meets-”Inception” second half kicks in, the implications grow more universal.

It is a shaggy dog road movie, and a drug-hazy one at that, but beneath the silliness and character-based gags, Crystal Fairy is, I feel, an unusually insightful look at self-imposed false identities and group dynamics.

A masterfully queasy blend of dark humor and darker humanity.

I recently heard someone describe Gloria as a midlife-crisis drama, which stunned me. In the most convenient terms, I guess that’s what it is. But what Lelio and Garcia pull off here is so delicate and sturdy that it defies such easy categorization.

It transcends the usual biopic limitations to tell a specific story about some well-known people with larger, universal implications.

Bluebird is undoubtedly a remarkable achievement, especially for a first-time filmmaker.

Palo Alto is one of the best movies ever made about high school life in America (admittedly a low bar), blurring the lines between how unique it is to be a teenager, and how universal it is to feel like one.

If the word “epic” has lost its meaning in the throes of recent summers, Man of Steel forcefully redefines it.

Rush is one of those rare sports movies that’s compelling as both a drama and a spectacle.

Among the stronger American horror films of the year.

Uncharacteristically loose and deceptively frivolous, The Bling Ring is as much of an attack on The Hills Generation as any of Coppola’s previous films were an exercise in self-pity, which is to say not at all.

A feral and staggeringly well-conceived revenge saga.

The Past is just about as good as a relationship drama is ever going to get. The plot is teased out with deliberate grace, the performances are sublime and the revelations, even the most melodramatic, feel right and true. It’s big canvas stuff painted by a new master.

Ejiofor’s tightly clenched conviction perfectly embodies hope and righteousness against all odds. He gives the best performance of his career to date, and what’s more, he gives “Slave” its bruised, beating heart with every scene.

A well-polished production with a remarkable soundtrack.

Bonello's decision to show rather than tell keeps the audience on its toes.

Particular credit must be given to Samuel L. Jackson’s voicing of Whiplash and Paul Giamatti’s work on the voice of Chet. The chemistry between the two is awesome, hilarious even.

The kid performances are impressive and the subtext of a region still shaking off the effects of a long-ended war gives seed to some much needed discussion.

When Allen conceives of a character this great, it’s hard not to wish for him to slow down and maybe write that extra draft to refine his creation, but Blanchett – at once both repellant and eminently relatable – uses the casual tone to her advantage, the same way that monster movies use miniatures for scale.

It’s all about the performances. McConaughey and Leto don’t just give voice to the disenfranchised of the 1980s, but all people suddenly faced with impossible challenges.

There are countless clever dialogue parries as well as some quite outstanding rants. It definitely takes the movie outside of the world of pure realism, but the theatricality is well worth it.

[An] unusually unromantic approach to music education is one of many noteworthy things about Whiplash, a funny, exhilarating drama — bordering on psychological thriller.

Some Velvet Morning is a horror film with no blood, with words the only weapon for 98% of the picture.

The human imperative informs every aspect of After Tiller, resulting in an unexpectedly warm film.

White Reindeer concedes that much about Christmas is funny — its notions quaint, its fixtures cliched. But it proposes that beneath this sometimes lurid veneer lay something to cherish all the same.

Good luck finding a modern martial-arts epic that can even hold a candle to it.

Rarely a moment is ever wasted, a consequence ignored, and though the climax is a corker, the final shot is even better. Prisoners requires and rewards your attention in equal measure. Be ready.

Dark Skies is about the fragility of family, a muted meditation on how precious it is...it does affirm that genre filmmakers who work with their eyes, their hearts and their brains still walk among us.

As willfully oblique as his first film was densely foreboding, a rumination on the perils and pleasures of interpersonal connection that would seem to refuse any easy connection with even the most curious of audiences.

Park allows this macabre coming-of-age tale to be defined by mood and style above all else.

LUV is partly a story about drugs, guns and street crime, the legacies we pass on to our children despite our efforts to do otherwise. But it’s also about the things we pass on to our children with love: How to tie a necktie, hold a steering wheel, shake another person’s hand. And it’s about the hope that those things will win out in the end.

No is anything but a somber political tract; it’s a little bit of a thriller, and more than a little bit of a comedy.

If Broken City – the first film to be directed solo by Allen Hughes, one-half of the Hughes Brothers directing team – is a little flawed and cracked itself, it still squeaks by as a reasonably thoughtful piece of big-screen entertainment.

A true New York City movie, alive every minute. There’s some Woody Allen in its veins, but it’s driven more by the free-for-all spirit you find in pictures like Peter Sollett’s 2002 “Raising Victor Vargas” and Spike Lee’s 1986 “She’s Gotta Have It.”

The kids’ performances are effective and strong, with little touches that bring them to life as recognizable types of smart young people.

With a jaunty musical score by Alexandre Desplat and a pleasant visual style aided by Marco Onorato’s colorful cinematography, Garrone delivers a story that’s part fairy tale, part religious allegory and part scathing indictment.

Levine – whose last picture was the intriguing, if only partly effective, cancer comedy “50/50” — is going for something more here, exploring what makes us human by contrasting it with a character who has lost all the basics and is desperate to get them back.