Based on a true story, the movie's best scenes involve its heroine breaking down barriers by force of will as much as by legal wrangling.

The small moments loom large in this moving, bittersweet and often funny documentary.

Well-acted and grounded in reality, Brick Lane is never overly emotional, even when it deals with the days after 9/11.

In Linden's assured hands, each character gets just enough time to contribute to the greater whole. They're all recognizable, not as clichés or stereotypes but as realistic individuals.

This alien high school sci-fi tale has clever wit, clever FX.

With more buckling than swash, The Count of Monte Cristo is a good-looking, poorly acted washout.

Glover, wearing his close-cropped hair in a pompadour and striking beady-eyed, furrow-browed poses that scare the hair off a tarantula, makes it as much fun as a rat revenge movie can be.

The incredibly moving post-9/11 drama Reign Over Me proves that behind the funny guy facades of former standup comedians Mike Binder and Adam Sandler are a pair of very serious talents.

All of that ends up making this movie — originally titled “Jeff,” in a telling bit of overpersonalization — feel like a late-night cable-news hack job.

Here's something dog people and cat people can agree on: The Secret Life of Pets is hilarious, sweet and as fun for parents as the brats they take with them to the movies.

Like the bloated channels it parodies, the movie stretches to find something to say, then settles for stupid.

While this gritty indie is light on plot, the world of bars, casinos, hospitals and gallows humor is real and heartbreaking.

While Lomborg is an engaging though sometimes smug subject, director Ondi Timoner allows a coterie of scientists to spend too much time puncturing Gore than propping up Lomborg - who comes off as charismatic and engaged but, ultimately, merely a contrarian.

The result: a dangerously cracked creep flick.

Built on dry one-liners, off-kilter timing and self-conscious nostalgia, The Kings of Summer seems expressly designed to delight quirk-loving Sundance audiences.

Brooks works overtime finding laughs more in line with his rambunctious kind of comedy...Only in Anne Bancroft's luscious, Lombard-light performance of Brooks' better (but parenthetically billed) half do you get a hint of this film's smart and stylish origin.

Both neurotic and endearing, it's so carefully accessorized you may not even notice that, at heart, it's a standard-issue romantic comedy.

Barrymore is a delicious opportunity to watch the great Christopher Plummer perform the role that won him a second Tony Award. But it's also a lesson in the pitfalls of personality-based minimalism. While Plummer acts his heart out, the script becomes one punchline after another.

Offering often-hysterical testimony to Vilanch's talent.

There are several small, startling moments of insight hidden amid the long, slow stretches of listlessness. But the balance is slightly off. We could have used a little more pleasure to get us through his grim adolescent unknown.

What the movie cannot take from the book is its dreamily descriptive prose and interior monologue. Perhaps because of that, the movie changes the focus from Ingrid, the more fascinating creature, to Astrid, whose clay is more malleable for the big screen.

The direction is still slick, but Matchstick Men gets most of its thrills from the unknowable in human interaction. This could be the biggest "scam" Scott himself has pulled off.

What they say, mostly over black-and-white stills from his early career and meandering footage of desolate Mali, could be said in 10 minutes. The good news is that much of the remaining documentary is devoted to Kar Kar's elegant voice and exquisite guitar playing.

Everyone thinks sex is easy to do, but that doesn’t mean they’re good at it. The To Do List is exactly that type of movie, one that thinks a sex-obsessed version of a John Hughes comedy by its very nature is hilarious. It’s not, but there are still some things to like here.

Fox stumbles a little at the end, which is unnecessarily exaggerated. He should have trusted his own talent - it's the attention to minor details that makes his work so memorable.

But where there is a natural poetry of motion in surfing movies, off-road racing is a herky-jerky pastime whose ­appeal is hard to fathom. I guess you had to be there.

Writer-director James Mottern's drama has a lived-in feel, but is notable mainly for Michelle Monaghan's glam-less turn as Diane.

As narrated by Mickey Rourke and with appearances from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, the movie captures the men who mix “sports, entertainment, art and a way of life” — as the former Governator describes body sculpting. It’s their honesty that looms large.

What Fast Times at Ridgemont High has is an attractive, personable cast, a bunch of young actors who are very easy to like. What it doesn't have is a clear point of view, something that would make it of more interest than leafing through a high school yearbook. Its final sequence, for instance, could just as easily come in the middle of the movie for all the relation it bears to what goes on before.

With destitute and disillusioned Mexican laborers much in the news lately, Star Maps is timely, and Spain is effective and affecting in the lead role. The movie's efforts at realism, however, are undermined by a cast of scenery chewers starved for attention. [23 July 1997, p.45]

Parents, who are more apt to be bored by the simple story line, are going to be amazed nevertheless by the smooth, convincing animation that lends Stuart his lifelike physicality and expressive facial gestures.

While it's visually stunning, the pretentiousness makes it hard to take seriously.

Feels less like history than a bad episode of "Mission: Impossible."

Characters do little more than run around the same track incessantly, leaving us waiting for revelations that never arrive.

Mostly, though, Hayek's problem is one of physical miscasting. She's so tiny next to the tall, rotund Molina that she looks like child in their scenes together. And despite a fake caterpillar brow, she's just not believable as a woman bemoaning her disfigurements.

An intriguing idea undermined by a lackluster follow-through.

Once in a while, a little reality can be a welcome antidote to our increasingly outsized film fantasies.

Ristovski needs us to feel his nation's torment, and he succeeds.

There are laughs in Magic Mike XXL.... But the real eye-openers are the moments of sex-positive, woman-positive and emotion-positive contemplation.

It's no surprise that first-time director Scott Cohen is a nature photographer by trade: he's made one of the most gorgeous movies you'll see this year.

The movie is so glacially paced and underdeveloped that it often feels as numb as its grieving hero.

It's hard to talk about The Soloist without falling into cliches, because this well-meaning but ham-handed drama is full them.

Ultimately, Dance is unable to connect the many threads of his rather flimsy script, leading to an abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. But the journey is worth taking, thanks to the company of its stars.

Dilutes the idea some by giving every four-legged hero a story arc. And there's not enough of the first movie's super-erudite monkeys. Yet the sitcom-style silliness is still there, and it's nice to see that the old "grin or frown as you wave a hand across your face" joke still has cross-generational, and cross-species, appeal.

Both charmingly retro (dig that swingin’ score!) and confidently modern (girls run the world!) it’s a hip heist movie with a few laughs and some lovely fun.

Though Julia Leigh's surprisingly dull debut is meant to present the mysteries of a troubled young woman, you're more likely to wonder why its star, Emily Browning, is drawn to such demeaning roles.

Nicolas Cage does such a persuasive job of portraying Chicago TV weatherman Dave Spritz as a train wreck of a guy that you wonder whether this might actually be a training film for a psychoanalytic convention on hopeless cases.

Director Mateo Gill's autumnal movie has elements of other late-era Westerns in its blood, but it isn't easily pigeonholed. There are shootouts and standoffs, as well as great scenes like one between the grizzled, perfectly cast Shepard and Rea discussing the cost of criminality and the changing morals of old men.

Nachmanoff fills the movie with a sense of gripping, '70s-style grittiness that helps undercut the web-of-evil tone.

Gilliam's first fully equipped playpen and if he musses it up -- I mean, really musses it up --well, prodigies will be prodigies.

Fun and frivolous, packed wave to wave with gorgeous young creatures reveling in their physical prowess.

The movie is filled with sweetly funny moments, but its exposure of class, income and cultural differences makes it an uneasy charmer right up to its violent denouement.

It takes us about half the film to adjust to its quirkiness, and we leave the theater with both laughter cramps and the feeling that it should have been funnier a lot longer.

Here's one movie you'll want to see with an audience of squealing, excited, terrified kids, their arms extended greedily to grab, squish or ward off all things exoskeletal and beady-eyed. It's gross, but in the nicest way (meaning no roaches).

A deeply felt, if occasionally amateurish, journey through some very affecting terrain.

An underdevelopment of a bad idea that is entertaining, so far as it is, because of McDormand's totally unselfconscious performance. This wonderful actress is never less than interesting, and even as a caricature of a stereotype, she's fun to watch.

A lovely little coming-of-age story, this Taiwanese romance was directed by Chih-Yen Yee with a skillful subtlety enhanced by his young cast.

Empathy for the all-too-real plight of the working poor drives this heavy but bold indie. Sadly, though, it falters under the weight of too much drama.

Too bad its wide net ultimately results in diminishing returns.

Wallace layers on some era-specific meaning to Chenery, who seems to be simply following her lineage, thanks to Lane's quietly dignified performance. Malkovich is more fun, though Laurin isn't as outrageous as the movie thinks he is.

Offers a chillingly effective look at the ease with which a suicide bomber could wreak havoc on U.S. soil - specifically in Times Square.

Here we go again. Danish director Lars von Trier has pumped out Nymphomaniac: Vol II just a few weeks after “Vol. I” came out. And the results are the same: zero stars.

Thanks to Grant's script and direction, the exotic Swaziland location (a film first) and an engaging cast, this smartly crafted drama radiates a gently comic pulse.

Lingers too long on wordless, symbolic shots of the wall itself. But there's no denying the power of seeing two cultures standing so helplessly on opposite sides of a single fence.

“Let’s go for a little ride,” teases Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto at the start of Fast & Furious 6, an amusingly mild suggestion that’s also the only moment of understatement in two dizzyingly high-octane hours.

This time the movie really is — as the old theme song promises — sensational, celebrational and Muppetational.

The resulting jolts add up to one unforgettably surreal nightmare. Just be sure your heart can handle any surprises headed your way.

The entire cast, in fact, seems to be having fun, with Affleck and Koechner cheerfully stealing each one of their scenes. And the jokes come often enough to leave us consistently amused and occasionally delighted.

Where on the evolutionary scale of wacky-dudes-learn-to-grow-up movies does Role Models fall? Certainly less evolved than "Meatballs," but head and hairy knuckles above "Daddy Day Care" or "The Benchwarmers."

The Stockholm syndrome, that strange psychological malady by which hostages bond emotionally with their captors, is the central theme in this intimate melodrama.

This is an eye-opening story that doesn't quite hold together as a movie, but it deals with honor in men's lives in ways rare to mainstream film.

The movie is fast and fun. Best of all are the actors, who likewise seem to know they've lucked into a rare good gig.

Has a simple but exceptionally powerful and uplifting emotional lure.

There are no surprises here, in other words, but there aren't supposed to be: This is a comfort film, the on-screen equivalent of mac and cheese - though with a splash of truffle oil to class things up.

Hafstrom never finds the shades in his morality tale, so while Wilson is an intensely charismatic actor, all he can do is respond to relentless, escalating tortures. It's immensely unpleasant for him, and, frankly, not a whole lot better for us.

Roth and Hurt glower semi-engagingly, and while Norton's scrawniness works, he seems intellectually disengaged, despite his helping to craft Zak Penn's script.

In a film that deliberately recalls 1970's "Five Easy Pieces," Dano's performance as a lost dreamer running from adulthood resonates beautifully.

As its defiantly bland title suggests, Fighting is a bare-bones effort that tries just hard enough to keep us watching. By making good use of its New York setting, Montiel does bring a certain indie grit to the generic story.

One drawback: While the swooping and careening visuals capture the depth and darkness of an arena experience, the sound doesn’t. As burly as the acoustics in a theater may be, they’re spindly compared to the sucker-punch fans prize at an actual Metallica concert. Luckily — for its visuals alone — “Through the Never” has enough grit and power to deserve two fists up.

Feels like an old-fashioned movie in the way it deals with bold sacrifices made in the name of love, while its setting and chary view of the era's political machinations mark it as distinctly modern.

Certainly there are people who will welcome this kind of "wholesome" family entertainment, but it feels false.

Movie love is usually so idealized it ennobles behavior that ordinarily would be considered stalking. Enduring Love deliberately smudges the line between what is bizarre and what is simply human nature.

It's a shame neither actress can truly "go for the jugular," as Alan says at one point. This is a work that would allow for it.

A frisky, feisty heist flick with brains and charisma, the movie may make a few errors, but they’re forgotten in the blink of an eye thanks to all the twists, turns and close shaves.

I didn't feel the love between the flowering idealist and the ruthless killer. If I did, I would have given the movie four stars. Everything else is wonderful.

A classic Michael Bay mega-movie. Interested in plot and character development? Move along. You're blocking the view.

Machado establishes a realistically seamy environment for his erotic triangle, and there are some surprisingly tender moments amid the squalor.

Makes a fine date movie...thanks to its life-affirming view of friendship, love and honor.

This Norwegian zombie flick is perfect for those who just want a few good jolts and whole lot of gore.

With many of McAleer's facts coming from casual Internet searches (backed by boring shots of the computer screen), the accuracy of this crowd-sourced documentary - funded by small donations on Kickstarter - seems as reliable as a Wikipedia entry.

Surprises, repulses and provokes. It's also brilliant and infuriating, wise and naïve, outrageous yet unforgettable.

Most notably, Bahrani offers an emotional depiction of American farming that will leave viewers troubled, as it should. But he loses his footing when it comes to the story itself.

Despite an admirable effort to explore topical concerns, both director and actor are obviously overwhelmed by the immensity of the subject matter.

The introduction isn't as smooth as it could be, but eventually everyone settles into the right groove.

Unfortunately, Elysium devolves. It doesn’t address the ramifications of making everyone healthy for eternity, or what it is on Earth they’re making or digging up that fuels whatever economy is left on the space station. For such a well thought-out premise, there’s not a mention of how capitalism works in this futureworld.

While Seidelman deserves considerable credit for making the rare romantic comedy about seniors, it's a shame the movie itself is as bland as a low-sodium diet.

The movie includes a postscript about her (McKinney's) loss, blaming it on more dirty tricks. That may be true, but it doesn't put the steam back in the film.

Utilizing copious film footage of her puckish subject and new interviews with Haring's contemporaries, gallerists and mentors, director Christina Clausen makes her fascinating movie as big-hearted, city-centric and energetic as its subject.