It's that very rare feeling that you're settling into a movie whose individual elements are so finely attuned they fuse into a singular construct of pure entertainment.

For all its occasional long-windedness and visual dazzle, Brazil may be the "Strangelove" of the 1980s.

Egoyan's films have always been about the intricacies and basic strangeness of human relationships, rather than about plot or snappy one-liners, but a new moral urgency seems to invigorate this film.

This is a waking dream of truly operatic dimensions.

Stoppard's luxuriant, richly comic language cascades and washes over you, and, for once, more than keeps pace with the sprightly pictures.

Before Midnight manages to be an emotionally astute and tremendously enjoyable conclusion to this rather improbable trilogy.

A lovely piece of work.

Temple's wonderfully entertaining film brings the era back in all its confused and tentatively revolutionary glory, and bracingly demonstrates that the Pistols still have the power to shock.

Well-crafted scenes that carry a bracingly grown-up tang: unhurried, played in a low key, with plenty of time to savor the details of character and place.

Keeps you engaged in this story of a memorable anti-hero for our times.

Lore is a rare, wonderful film that works not just as surface entertainment, but has deeper historical meaning, as well as an even grander, more universal statement.

Minghella shapes Ondaatje's sprawling story into something miraculously cohesive, and at the movie's center is one of the most compelling love stories in recent memory.

Zero Dark Thirty is precise, definitive filmmaking, yet Bigelow refuses to hand over easy answers. Some people call that evasion. I call it the ultimate despair.

Feels like the first truly honest attempt to deal with the horrors of combat - and the terrible responsibility shared by all survivors.

Althea is a ferociously vibrant character, and Love goes all out to infuse her with a wildness seldom seen on screen. Love holds nothing back, and her energy and her heartache energize the movie.

It's like a madly inventive hybrid of "Dr. Strangelove" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."

Achieves a kind of beauty through its overlaying enigmas, and Carrey.

Benigni, with great help from young Cantarini, has crafted a work of such complexity that you may find both your brain and your heart simply overloaded. Which, of course, is the rarely achieved goal of all art.

Quentin Tarantino's latest movie puts an epic spin on a favorite genre, taking it to time-tripping levels rarely tested by its forerunners.

The convergence of storytelling mastery, acting virtuosity and star power makes A Civil Action one of the greatest films of the year.

With Before Night Falls, Schnabel has moved to an entirely new plane of cinematic achievement.

Writer/director David Mamet, who's built a career in both theater and film by being a hyper-manly sort of writer, has crafted a film that is laugh out loud funny and dinner-conversation smart.

One of the best films of the year. Queer in every sense of the word, it's poignant, laugh-out-loud funny and thoroughly provocative.

For me, the experience was much like seeing Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" and George Lucas' "American Graffiti" before the hype machines kicked in.

There are many films that rail against the inherent injustices of any given power structure. Much rarer are the documentaries like The Gatekeepers which expose that the faithful stewards of a certain foreign policy no longer believe in said policy. This is an important film, showing the constant reaction and counter-reaction of each side.

Wickedly funny, scathingly original new comedy.

That Nichols is able to orchestrate this entire journey with steady tension and lyrical imagery is a testament to his storytelling capabilities.

Van Sant and crew appear to have had a blast making this film, and I had a blast watching it. The subject matter is very dark and yet it is handled with a very light touch.

You'll treasure this movie.

The other key part is Schindler's Jewish accountant, played with self-effacing brilliance by Ben Kingsley, who gives the movie just the touch of warmth and sanity it needs.

One of the most troubling views of the human race I've seen in years. Luckily for us, its depressing, almost pathologically ironic vision is redeemed by the sublimity of Solondz' filmmaking. I first saw the film at Cannes last May and it's haunted me, both for its nastiness and its brilliance, ever since.

It always surprises, never bores. It's also just damn good, on every possible level -- so go see it. Now.

It was a bleak allegory -- a desperate, sullen, and moderately sick tale.

Uniquely fascinating.

Conveys not just a joy in music and The Beatles, but a joy in cinema.

A movie with the power and quality of dreams, where reality merges into symbolism and oddly juxtaposed elements crystallize into a single, electrifying whole.

A damn near perfect film.

A fantastic, sleek and fun satire.

A mix of forward-looking sci-fi, classic themes, deft plotting and superb writing and direction, Edge of Tomorrow may be the pure-pleasure blockbuster to beat this Summer.

The emotions the Shinoharas’ story inspire are all over the road. It is at times triumphant and warm, then sad and even enraging.

Like the best of fiction, it conveys greater truth about coming to terms with the world at large, and regardless of whether each individual scene is ultimately justified in its inclusion, the cumulative impact of seeing something resembling a life unfold over a mere two hours and forty minutes is overwhelming.

It’s a character piece, and one of the best and most understated movies I’ve ever seen about the grieving process.

Stray Dogs pushes Tsai’s cinema of laissez-faire long takes, performative observation and pangs of regret and loss to their extreme.

In a World… is pretty much a perfect movie, chock full of fun, endless laughter, realistic love and that all-important magical movie ingredient — originality.

The fact that Cuarón’s film strives to be something more than thoroughly harrowing — no small feat in and of itself — solidifies its existence as a marvel of not just technical craft but sheer imagination as well

Only Lovers Left Alive is an exhibit A example of how to use style to enhance substance, not overwhelm it.

The genius of Kikuchi’s performance is that – by the end – her slow descent into mania humanizes Kumiko precisely when it would have been so easy to reduce her into caricature.

It proves that the screen is the place where a memory can be reborn.

Chandor delivers pure cinema. Thrilling and adventuresome, this is a career highlight from the uniquely sympathetic Robert Redford.

He’s taken what, on paper, boils down to an extra ridiculous episode of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” and passes it off as high cinematic art.

At 76 minutes, Caesar Must Die is more of an art piece than a thick steak of a feature film, but it maintains a fascinating hum from start to finish.

Some provocative filmmakers seem intent on irritating or turning off the audience. With Haneke, I get the feeling that once you understand what he’s up to, he’s glad to have you in on the joke. He certainly goes about executing it in a masterful way.

[A] blend of classic sci-fi fare and current pop-culture irony is what rockets “Guardians” into the stratosphere.

Stars the cult celebrity Om Puri, widely considered by cinephiles to be one of the best actors in the world.

Cage again proves himself the most fearless actor now working in movies.

One of the things that makes Traffic so very good is the wry humor that's laced throughout the film. It's a funny movie.

One of the best films seen in many years about the mysterious workings of time and memory.

What's best about the film is not the hot romance, but the coldness that lies at its heart.

What leaves you breathless, though, is the knockout acting by the cast.

One of the best films of this year...unlike anything you've seen on the big screen.

One of the best pictures I've seen all year. Funny, touching, even inspiring at times.

(Thornton) does a remarkable job in all three categories, but what you're likely to remember most clearly is his performance.

The engine that drives Jerry Maguire is Cruise, giving the kind of performance that all but deconstructs his recent series of glib leading-man roles.

Runs on wit and creativity.

It simultaneously wows you with the stark beauty of its images, a beauty that leads to another, related kind of truth that is equally crucial. It's not to be missed.

Certainly one of his (Scorsese's) most profound works.

The film has smarts, but what really makes it fascinating is its huge heart...and the film soars because of that.

What makes the film so special is that while tickling your postmodern funnybone, it never forgets to make you care for its characters, in a welcome, and almost traditional way.

Levinson is at the top of his game with Liberty Heights, his instincts acutely cinematic, his purpose clear.

Irrespective of whether Pollock, as a movie, is any good -- and it is very, very good -- it's clear that Ed Harris was born to play the lead role.

Though issues of politics and philosophy are touched upon, this is a film about the people inside the uniforms -- a story of human beings under pressure, forced by circumstance to make choices both impulsive and, on occasion, heroic. It's also the new year's single most satisfying movie experience thus far.

The Punk Singer is a perfect storm. It is a love letter to Kathleen Hanna, to feminism, and to the fans, but it’s also just a damn good movie.

Clear-eyed and open-hearted, The Straight Story (which is based on reality) tells a simple tale, and it does so with a rare, blessed simplicity.

Eye-popping, exhilarating and occasionally a bit stomach-churning.

An exquisite trio.

It's a superb example of the genre of the self-expressive documentary.

Part of what’s so invigorating about A Touch of Sin is its refusal to betray the depth of its intellectual ambition, deferring when needed to generic convention and relishing the entertainment which follows.

Man, I just can't recommend this enough.

Director Barry Sonnenfeld captures Hollywood in sunny tones, with fluid camera moves providing maximum comic effect.

Show Me Love has the pulse of teen life down-pat, shaming its many sleek and glossy American counterparts at every turn.

An appalling masterpiece.

Funny and wise, lively and contemplative, intriguingly postmodern and powerfully moving, all at the same time. It's not to be missed.

There's a sense of ease and contentment to it that has never been so prominent in Allen's work before.

Hilarious, slightly sick, and super-edgy ...the acting of its two principals, Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey, is so sublime that it's worth seeing on that grounds alone.

Directors Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews create a great framework for the epic nemesis battle, but also know when to pull back to keep the movie grounded in reality.

There's a shrewd satiric method to LaBute's madness, and a payoff in comedic gold.

The Walt Disney World-set Escape From Tomorrow is both a great gimmick-dependent story and a remarkable piece of filmmaking. It is a radical, transgressive departure that exploits new technology in heretofore unseen ways.

Will test your powers of attention. The effort is worth every minute.

Their (Sarandon, Penn) performances and Robbins' drive to ask questions without offering easy answers make Dead Man Walking a thought-provoking drama not to be missed or dismissed.

A film of elegant small moments and complex, bittersweet motivations.

Everything clicks here.

Could be called the "Red Badge of Courage" of World War II movies.

An especially compassionate look at human frailty that also never loses sight of the inherent ridiculousness of "the human condition." Jesus' Son is one of this summer's best movies.

A rich and challenging variation on the serial-killer genre.

In his finest, funniest, most poignant film to date, Tim Burton plays cinematic alchemist, turning drive-in schlock into movie gold.

A delight to the eye, ear, and mind

Kat's English assignment, which provides the movie's title, is a sweet finish to an entertaining movie -- and makes 10 Things I Hate About You quite likable.

An offbeat delight.

This is a beautiful, surprisingly uplifting movie, made by someone who actually understands people.

One of the best films of the year, a polished, contained piece of provocation.

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.

It does a marvelous job at giving us an impressionistic taste of horrific circumstances without using them to beat us into submission.

This picture isn’t as showy or obvious as one of his (many) masterpieces, but it is quite good and deserves your time and respect.

From a distance The Spectacular Now is mere soap opera, but it is one of those films that grow more fascinating upon inspection.

Under the Skin is a deliberately oblique piece of work that prizes rhythms and textures above hows and whys.

Just plain funny, loaded with joke after joke and pun after pun.

While the final act might not surprise or stun, it does feature some classic le Carre movements, some trademark Corbijn ease, and a terrifying Hoffman bellowing at the sky – not so bad for just another spy film.

A Place at the Table is a fairly no-frills effort, but the ideas behind it are sound.

Downey, Jr. remains a rightfully cherished smartass figure, having as much a ball with Black’s one-liners as he had in “KKBB,” and he sells Tony’s newfound post-traumatic vulnerability more credibly than the film does.

Anderson has abandoned a bit of his whimsical nature for the later portions of the film, but the film’s first half hour presents one of his most darling settings yet, until, of course, it all crumbles into murder, mayhem and bad renovations.

In a film about how hard it is to know what you want, and then to express it, Swanberg gets to the heart of the matters of the heart with disarming doses of both charm and wisdom.

It’s clean, lean and smart.

Superbly written, handsomely made and full of terrific performances, Laggies is Shelton’s best film to date.

Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy might have the scariest ending of any film ever made.

It is amazing, given the modesty of its scope and means, how much Manakamana is able to achieve.

Heartfelt and haunting, sympathetic while still aware of the limits of sympathy, Wild incorporates beautiful direction, smart writing and brave acting.

A potent encapsulation of how fame and finance beget fear and grief.

The Visitor might be a hot mess, the byproduct of tailspinning egos and the best drugs movie money could buy in the late 70s, but it certainly isn’t an accident.

Frank’s film is much more of a noir outing than a straight action feature, and Neeson slips right into the tone and feel of the hard-boiled detective offering. Neeson may have been treated to a big career resurgence thanks to his knack for big action, but he’s great as Matt Scudder, and the darker charms of the film suit him wonderfully.

It's an Egoyan film, and therefore by definition worth seeing.

The boy (Osment) has an uncanny ability to suggest Cole's secretive, haunted soul, and he seems to have inspired Willis to give perhaps his most self-effacing performance.

The landscape is a definitive presence throughout the film, which has almost no music and very little dialogue. The film is short (approximately 80 minutes) and maintains a good sense of dread throughout.

It's swell when a film really does capture a book in some exactitude.

Simply put, Sightseers is a deliciously inappropriate and hilariously weird comedy.

Despite the first-rate acting, the narrative is the star of this show, so much so that you feel yourself occasionally losing interest in the travails of the characters. Instead, you hang on every word and every tiny object, every cut and bruise in the frame, looking for clues that will help you make sense of what's going on.

Rohmer's trademark dialogue...is as poetic in its plainness as ever.

Abittersweet fable about the raw joys of human revival.

What makes Hit and Runway uniquely fun, however, is the unapologetic extent to which Livingston and Cohen turn it into an index of beloved Woody-isms.

Altman lucked out when he cast a singer, Ronee Blakley, in a major role in "Nashville," but he has not been as fortunate here with Annie Ross and Lyle Lovett, who lack Blakley's soulful dramatic presence.

22 Jump Street is a success, as there is a little good ol’ fashioned “heart” beneath its post-modern veneer.

Don't be misled by claims that you've seen this one already. You haven't, and you should.

Has a charm that keeps you involved throughout.

Chan's glorious madness.

An energetic mix of Scream-like dark comedy, senseless violence, satisfying surprises, and good old-fashioned mayhem

A very funny film that never sacrifices the lives of its characters to the needs of its story.

The most faithful cinematic depiction of adolescence in recent memory.

I'm not sure how elaborately I could defend Pola X, but I loved watching it.

Cage, not one known for subtlety of late, is truly great in this sad, funny and tender role.

Craven creates his savviest and most frightening movie since the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" by spoofing the horror cliches and simultaneously reinventing them to scare you all over again.

The bleakness of the material ought to make Ratcatcher a depressing experience, yet Ramsay's power as an image-crafter transforms this grim universe.

The dialogue is sparkingly witty, and Phoenix and Winslet are excellent in what are, after all, meant to be fairly one-dimensional roles.

They Came Together is a very fast, often very funny riff on a very tired Hollywood formula.

A good-natured farce. It's also really, really funny.

Opinionated magic and mayhem

If McCulloch can draw this much humanity out of his actors, and do it in comedies with a deceptively easygoing poignancy, he's definitely a director to watch.

Don't be fooled by the WB appeal; if you've ever been in high school, Cruel Intentions has the wiles to seduce.