Groening doesn't judge the monks' actions, nor does he tell us much about their reasons for choosing such a life. Yet the film brings us into their lives not as an observer but almost as a fellow hermit, making you realize how hard -- or easy -- it would be to commit yourself to such a life.

The emotional connection we develop with her as the movie unfolds pays off in the final 20 minutes, which is about as happy of an ending as anyone could imagine, except this one really happened.

With a light, sometimes hilarious touch, Look at Me deflates the pretensions and self-obsessed nature of a group of wealthy Parisian literati, but its observations about the effects of fame and success and our natural desire to fan them as high as they can go, apply to anyone within range of reality-TV culture.

Blue Jasmine, which is easily Allen’s best and most powerful movie since 2005’s "Match Point", is filled with terrific performances, including Hawkins as the sweet-natured Ginger.

The Dreamers argues that life must be lived, not dreamt. But it also remembers the confounding pleasures of dreaming with your eyes wide open.

Thanks to myriad animators, the characters cavort, laugh and struggle against stunning backdrops, from lush jungles to cascading waterfalls. Groovy? Absolutely.

Cotillard, who earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, plays the character as a woman hanging on by the barest of threads.

What makes The Rugrats Movie such satisfying family entertainment is that it knows how to please everyone. [20 Nov 1998, p.4G]

By the end, Turtles Can Fly becomes a lyrical and heartbreaking reminder of the human toll of war.

The casting of Hiddleston and Swinton was a stroke of genius: They emanate a particular sort of cool only they seem privy to, accentuating their alienation.

Director Arnaud Desplechin follows his characters on a languid excursion that is circular and, ultimately, probably pointless (which may itself be the point) -- but the trip is also funny, weepy and charming. Like Paul's life, the movie feels messy but beguiling, jumping from past to present, parading about so many look-alike long-legged, haunting women that it's hard to keep track of who's sleeping with whom. [24 April 1998, p.9G]

Dick Tracy is light on its feet where Batman clomped and wheezed, and it's fantastic -- that's the word -- where Batman was merely well designed. [15 Jun 1990, p.G5]

Tupac Amaru Shakur is riveting in Tupac: Resurrection. The rapper is a compelling, charismatic hero: articulate, well-read, politically radical, and movie-star handsome to boot (he in fact starred in Poetic Justice and Juice). Make that, was riveting.

This is an intentionally fanciful, gossamer movie, extremely personal and heartfelt, influenced in equal parts by Michelangelo Antonioni (although never so elusive) and Gus Van Sant (just not quite so self-conscious).

Monsieur Lazhar doesn't send you home depressed. Instead, the film leaves you hopeful, and even exhilarated, that even the most painful wounds can sometimes heal.

Leigh is obviously a major talent of the English film resurgence, which may already have peaked but nonetheless offers hopes of its own. His loose way of making films -- the wandering camera, the scenes that seem to invent themselves as they go along -- somehow accommodates a genuine comic intelligence, which usually requires the tightest of controls. [2 June 1989, p.7]

Waltz With Bashir isn't only a harrowing anti-war plea, it is also an eloquent and deeply moving argument that it is critical to never forget human atrocity, lest the past be repeated.

There's nothing about United 93 that qualifies as entertainment in the traditional sense: It is an unpleasant, wrenching experience, which is just as it should be.

A big, bold movie that gets at undeniable truths about the way no one, no matter how powerful, is immune from manipulation.

One of the scariest films I've seen in ages, although I cannot in all honesty explain exactly what the movie is about.

From its explosive opening sequence at a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border to a knockout climax on a stealth ship on the South China seas, Tomorrow Never Dies delivers what 007 aficionados demand: dynamite action, sharp one-liners and edgy style. [19 Dec 1997, p.4G]

By the end of the movie, when all your questions have been answered, you're left with the exhilarating high of having been manipulated by a gifted artist in a diabolically dark mood.

By shunning the clinical mumbo-jumbo, the movie allows the viewer's imagination to fill in the gaps, making Microcosmos a delightfully entertaining -- and often hilarious -- celebration of nature. [27 Nov 1996, p.4D]

It’s ABOUT something, which has become a rarity in Hollywood pictures. Sometimes, the smallest stories cast the largest shadows.

Broken English takes 30 minutes to do what most romantic comedies manage with a simple montage. That's a good thing, by the way.

This is a romantic comedy that makes the concept of romantic comedies appealing again -- that reminds you how resonant and transporting they can be when they're done right.

The movie isn’t a thriller, but it still generates a strange sort of emotional suspense - an incredibly intense drama that makes you hold your breath, and it builds toward a total knockout of a final scene in which the story is resolved with hardly a word.

She's such a fascinating, faceted character that halfway through "Christine" you almost forget about what's coming.

In fact, by ignoring its McCarthyist roots, The Crucible becomes more expansive and timely. This tale about the Salem witch trials of 1692 no longer seems harnessed to the now-quaint fear of communism that swept America in the 1950s: And its subject -- the power of lies and the dangers of conformity -- seems more symbolic than ever before. [20 Dec 1996, p.5G]

Almodóvar has never been shy about experimenting with plot structure, but Bad Education is the closest he's ever come to a metamovie, the sort of self-reflective, hall-of-mirrors contraption on which Charlie Kaufman has built his career.

By the end, the movie has pulled off a small miracle: You become absorbed in the lives of these people for who they are and not what they own.

A fiendishly subtle horror movie, a goosebump-inducing exercise in suspense that uses your own imagination to scare you silly.

Saraband portrays a sad vision of aging, yet the film is never depressing. For those inclined to search for psychological twists, the film offers plenty of Freudian situations capable of provoking lengthy discussions.

The Grandmaster sets aside traditional story structure in its last 15 minutes and becomes one of the filmmaker’s free-form visual poems, suffused with melancholy and compassion.

Impossible to resist.

Remarkably astute and devastatingly funny.

The film is far from a downer. If anything, more than any of the films in the trilogy, this one may be the most hopeful - and the most affecting.

It's a good, old-fashioned North Pole adventure.

A wild buckle-up-and-blast-off adventure that plunges every corner of kids' favorite subject.

Beauty and the Beast is so funny, exciting and suspenseful that its obvious moral (appearance can mean nothing; it's what's inside that counts) is engaging rather than perfunctory. [22 Nov 1991, p.G11]

Pay attention, Michael Bay: This is what thrilling summer movies look like.

The story of Paranoid Park may center on an extreme and unusual case, but it's Van Sant's understanding of -- and compassion for -- the hell of growing up that makes the film such a profound and lasting pleasure.

You feel terribly sad and angry at May's foolishness. Yet with so many emotions at hand, The Mother never fails to engage.

It is a masterpiece of design. The animated backgrounds are voluptuously illustrated, and the action often proceeds at dizzying speed, while an elaborate fabric of subtle visual cues steer the narrative. [25 Nov 1992, p.E1]

It's a small victory, but Punch-Drunk Love knows how to reap epic delight from the most precious of details.

Like his con artists are prone to saying, American Hustle works from the feet up, and the fun is intoxicating.

It is a riveting and memorable performance and Kingsley finds subtlety in Logan where there doesn't seem to be any.

There isn't a moment in the entire film that doesn't feel genuine.

Scorsese and Zimmerman seem to be building on Andy Warhol's proclamations about the nature of celebrity. What they've added is the sourness of it and the pointlessness, and their King of Comedy, for a while darkly funny, winds up being terribly sad. It's the most unpleasant fine film in years. [20 Mar 1983, p.L1]

Flowers is a quiet, eloquent movie about big, overwhelming emotions, and the constant presence of its eponymous plants, in all kinds of colors and shapes, is a metaphor for the ways in which we respond to what life throws at us, be it a sudden trauma, a perpetual state of melancholy or an unexpected opportunity for romance. Some people blossom and bloom; others wither and give up.

It's an eye opener to how quickly a society can switch from being open and tolerant to pointing fingers -- and worse -- at those deemed different.

This is an exciting, exceptionally well-made futuristic thriller that also happens to be loaded with lived-in touches and punchy ideas.

Director Ryan Coogler has pulled off a miracle: He taps into the beautiful simplicity and deep well of emotion of the 1976 original, capturing its essence and spirit while branching out into a new story.

A marketable counterpoint to last year’s "Boyhood."

An exuberant, appropriately cynical reinvention of the stalwart Broadway hit that deftly straddles the line between old-fashioned Hollywood musicals and experimental concoctions like last year's "Moulin Rouge."

The result is a gripping psychological thriller that, while lacking the power of "Funny Games," is still the work of a master.

What makes this sequel work is the charm of its story.

This is a fiendishly complicated whodunit -- or, to be more precise, a who-done-what-to-whom-and-when -- told within the confines of thoughtful, speculative science-fiction.

The film wouldn't work at all, though, if Sarsgaard didn't strike the perfect balance between snaky predator and love-struck fool.

The key to the movie's success is that it was made by people who know and doubtless even enjoy rock in all its infinite, often tedious variety. This distinguishes Spinal Tap from the usual run of spoof, created at a distance by bemused outsiders (Johnny Carson in a mop-top wig, etc.). Reiner and company actually understand the media they are lampooning; the result is not only funny, but lethal. [27 Apr 1984, p.D1]

There is not a moment in Goodbye, Children that fails to ring true. It's a beautiful film. [05 Feb 1988, p.C8]

Like "A Separation," which used the story of a dissolving marriage to illustrate the unexpected consequences of a rigid, inflexible society, About Elly turns what starts out as a breezy comedy into an engaging and substantial exploration of human nature and how sometimes, without intending to, we hurt the ones we love most — including ourselves.

This may not be Park’s best or gravest picture. But it might be his most entertaining.

Serial Mom is one of the most consistently funny films in years, moving from one hilarious set piece to another just when you're sure it has nowhere left to go. [15 Apr 1994, p.G5]

The Wind that Shakes the Barley is a multi-layered story, and the more you see those different aspects, the more you'll enjoy the film.

Harrowing and grueling, Lebanon ends on a gentle, hopeful note.

It is a comic love note, a bouquet with a squirt-bulb, a joyful romance in which the message seems to be: Laugh all you want, pal, just don't go home alone. [24 Dec 1982, p.D2]

My Life as a Dog is sad. And sweet. And sublimely funny. It shouldn't be missed. [11 Feb 1987, p.D8]

Things Change is David Mamet's Moonstruck. It is not a romance, but it is a movie made with a similar giddiness as it celebrates the redemptive powers of friendship. Bravissimo! [21 Oct 1988, p.E1]

Won't appeal to everyone, of course, particularly those who blush easily. And parents who take children to see it deserve to have their heads examined. But for those who don't mind a little bile in their eggnog, it's the perfect antidote to all that prefab Christmas cheer.

A script that deftly fleshes out characters and mimics reality shockingly well.

The magic of the movies is never more evident than with stop-motion animation, and nobody does it better than Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park.

Politics in Three Times is as subtle as the stories being told. The film is probably too slow, too silent and too long for most audiences. But look beyond the quietness, and you'll discover a three-gem jewel.

More than once during The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat), it's easy to forget you're watching a movie.

Knocked Up is filled with comic exchanges and bits of business that, while not essential to the central plot, keep the movie's comedic energy chugging (like Debbie's throwdown with a doorman at a popular nightclub who won't let her in because she's too old).

A seductive blend of mystery, psychology and soap opera. [14 Nov 1982, p.8]

Shine a Light provides the clearest and most intimate viewing experience of the band to date. It is also a happy circumstance that the group, now in their mid-60s, have rarely sounded tighter.

Thanks to the self-revealing insight of its subjects, and to the unobtrusive compassion of its director, it is unforgettable. [30 Aug 1991, p.G11]

DiG! is raw, just as the band members themselves.

Rising above simple sentiment to explore class differences and the enduring clash between East and West with wit and wisdom.

This rich, emotionally complex movie finds Almodóvar venturing into trickier, more fascinating territory, even if his themes.

The movie has a longing melancholy that leavens the humor — it’s a surprisingly sad, gentle comedy.

The whole four hours or so of the two films is as handsome a package as France has produced in years. [30 Dec 1987, p.D6]

The real trick, of course, was casting the perfect child actor to carry the heavy load, and Tremblay is a wonder. The smart camera work helps highlight Jack’s perspective, but Abrahamson has also coaxed a genuine, marvelous performance out of the kid that’s key to the film’s emotional weight.

An overwhelmingly tactile experience. Scott brings you so close into the action, the grit and smoke and blood seem to spill off the screen and into your head.

Ceylan examines human relationships with an eye for details and a soul for the big picture.

This is the rare breed of Hollywood studio production that has the brash spirit of an independent picture and the sharp wit of a stand-up comic.

The movie fares less well when the plot and Simon’s neuroses come to the surface, but there is some tremendous suspense in the movie’s final scene.

A dreamy, passionate ode to freedom -- of thought, of expression, of every person's innate right to simply be.

Unlikely as it seems, considering the source, Hope and Glory may be John Boorman's most affecting film. It is surely his most entertaining. [27 Nov 1987, p.D1]

Places in the Heart is set in another time and place. But it becomes universal because it is also a personal story of an artist turning from the safe confessional platitudes of Yuppiedom to a more mature confrontation with the complexities in his own past. [05 Oct 1984, p.C1]

That Burton darkness, gentle and sweet though it may be (he's David Lynch through a Disney looking-glass), was said to be the one element that kept Batman Returns from becoming the most popular movie of all time. Maybe so. But this time, it's simply perfect. [22 Oct 1993, p.G4]

Platoon lacks the sweep, the heroic (and anti-heroic) vision of Apocalypse Now, and it lacks that film's signal strength, which was its evocation of the visceral appeal, the sheer romance of war, at least to those not fighting it. Some of Coppola's images in Apocalypse Now were among the most beautiful in contemporary film. Platoon is merely terrifying. [16 Jan 1987, p.6]

A League of Their Own is as exhilarating as a double- header at Chicago's Wrigley Field. It captures all the familiar baseball sensations, with a curve: the hollow crack of the bat connecting with the ball, the electric tension before that crucial ninth-inning pitch, the team's camaraderie as they spit and adjust their skirts. [1 July 1992, p.E1]

The cast is uniformly spectacular, infusing the characters with nuance and complexity.

The experience of watching Funny Games, be it the original or this version, is never forgotten, whatever your ultimate impression of the film.

Virtually everything Americans know about Ellis Island they've learned from the movies, and virtually all those movies were American. Golden Door offers the other side of the story, the one that ends at Ellis Island instead of beginning there.

An excellent legal thriller elevated to superb drama by the actor's (Clooney) central performance.