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.