The best artists - the ones whose work endures and matters and changes the world - are often troublemakers who challenge the status quo. Out of their defiance comes art. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, director Alison Klayman's riveting documentary of the esteemed Chinese sculptor/painter/iconoclast, is practically a handbook on social rebellion.

Indian Summer could have been just that kind of angst-fest. But writer-director Mike Binder (Coupe de Ville), a former stand-up comedian, nimbly sidestepped those maudlin pitfalls and, instead, made a frank, funny, down-to-earth comedy. [23 Apr 1993, p.G4]

Has the feverish intensity of a bad dream, leavened with a subversive sense of humor that is both sophisticated and cracked.

The Bank, despite its faulty finale, is a fun and thrilling ride.

Who would have thought a German comedy could be light, charming and devoid of intellectual snobbery?

The movie is visually stunning, expansive yet intimate.

Ashes of Time Redux is primarily a sensory experience that deserves to be seen on as big a screen as possible.

There's nothing offensive about Barbershop 2, and maybe there should be. But even if the film plays it safe, it remains a cut above other mainstream comedies.

Beverly Hills Cop is an old-fashioned movie; it's a star vehicle. And the star makes it worth the price of admission. [5 Dec. 1984, p.B1]

Slacker is not always so purposefully creepy, but it's often as darkly funny; none of its characters is what you'd call normal, but the film's off-kilter view is such that they seem utterly in tune with their odd lives and odder times. [29 May 1992, p.5]

The most suspenseful sequence of any movie I've seen this year comes near the end of Waiting for Superman.

The movie humanizes Tyson and brings him down to the land of mortals, making his achievements loom larger. And if the boxer hasn't entirely made peace with his troubled soul, Tyson suggests the struggle is going his way.

Handsome Harry has some shakily staged scenes and erratic acting, but it also has wonderful moments.

Like most of le Carré’s novel, A Most Wanted Man has a veracity most spy thrillers lack, and the suspense is of the intellectual, not visceral, kind.

The more you know about the 1912 tragedy, the more you will appreciate the sights of Ghosts of the Abyss.

A fat streak of melancholy courses throughout Young Adult - who would have guessed the sight of a Kentaco Hut, one of those one-stop conglomerations of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, could be this depressing?

There's something to be said about an old story given a new ending -- and making it work.

Breathless, on the other hand, earns its style -- it uses that style against its characters, so that the film's good looks serve as background while the characters, trying to live up to the scenery, grind themselves down. 18 May 1983, p.B1]

There's a lot more at work in this raucously entertaining movie than cross-dressing clichés.

Strikes out toward freakishly original territory after all. Fans of the off-beat, your movie has arrived.

Although the movie doesn't exactly romanticize the period, the film still generates a twinge of pride in viewers who lived in South Florida during that time -- and lived to tell about it.

Surprisingly sweet and, dare we say it, old-fashioned, with an engaging sense of humor that's a definite improvement on lame, lowbrow efforts such as "Little Nicky."

There's never any question how Rescue Dawn will end, but as conventional and straightforward as the movie is, it's easy to understand why Herzog was driven to tell this story twice.

Going Shopping can make a wonderful outing for girlfriends. It's fun.

The screenplay for 7 Boxes is a beautiful example of how to craft a tense and increasingly complex thriller out of a simple scenario.

Juno comes on all wisecracking and aren't-we-clever, but don't be surprised if you find yourself getting choked up -- with happy tears -- by the end.

The movie is a goofy, ridiculous blast, and yet Raimi means business: Even the precociously cute kitty isn't safe in this one.

Playful, effervescent comedy.