The terrific Hell or High Water is like a gritty new retelling of the Frank and Jesse James story — only with getaway cars instead of horses, and assault rifles replacing six-shooters.

Why are innovative educators met with so much resistance? And why is our system falling so painfully short? Perhaps ­because so many of us don't realize just how dire things ­really are.

“The Wire” meets the West Bank in this searing drama loaded with action and nuanced characters.

Even those who never joined the cult of A Tribe Called Quest will find this clear-eyed chronicle of their career irresistible.

We are left, after all the propulsive action, with great turns by Theron and Rapace, and a tightly wound turn by Fassbender, whose eerie, poetically impish mechanical man might have burst from Bradbury's conscience.

Though a notch below "Royale," Skyfall follows that reboot's lead, making a now 50-year-old icon as cool as when he began.

If only this were a media-fueled tall tale and not one poor creature's lifelong nightmare.

When Marilyn Monroe appears, things stop. She is, as portrayed by Michelle Williams, a strange and beautiful alien: Unpredictable, odd, magnetic.

A three-act story narrated by the affable John C. Reilly is grafted onto one “How’d they get that?” shot after another.

The stylish and engrossing reinterpretation of the mythological king's early years lacks character development, but makes up for it with swashbuckling, sword-fighting, beast-slaying fun.

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.

While the schemes occasionally seem strained, their desperate determination is never less than compelling.

Pahani’s films have become increasingly indistinguishable from his complex life, making them a challenging but often thrilling experience.

The script is surprisingly smart, pulling together all the subplots and cutting among all the locations. Chris Pratt’s Star Lord has some clever lines. Thanos is a far more complex villain than we usually get. And the movie ends on a stark and shocking note.

Where Whitecross succeeds is in the packaging of the whole story. With a running time of just over two hours, he manages to effectively compress the rather interesting story of the band’s inception and couple that with the explosive yet turbulent times of the band out on the road.

Full of smarts, sly insight and New York personality. As a feather in its jaunty hat, the movie also reinvigorates the art of screwball comedy.

Alfredson makes the most of every detail, carefully crafting an atmosphere of haunting alienation. These two lost souls may come together under unusual circumstances, but their connection feels universally human.

A fast and relentless hostage thriller that never stops.

Director Adam Leon, 31, has slyly and reverentially crafted a perfect New York movie, including the class tensions, relentless hustling and spontaneous connections that best define the exuberant strain of the city. The soundtrack, filled with mostly soul oldies, somehow feels exactly right for the sweaty New York summer of this scrappy kid-venture.

You would have to be practicing some pretty dark arts to not smile as you watch the iconic Millennium Falcon take off into battle one more time.

Steven Meyer's deeply affecting documentary, narrated by Laurie Anderson, takes us back to a camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, Majdanek, in order to honor those who left everything behind.

The picture is forceful, realistic and horrible. It is badly edited, since it is allowed to run for two hours and a quarter, but in spite of this, and a few other minor defects, the case of the crew against the insane cruelty and avariciousness of Capt. Bligh is so powerfully presented that the injustice done to the men gets under one's skin to stir up a variety of emotion.

Despite the real, bloody stakes, Cop Car keeps a boyish sense of action and adventure through to a twist ending. You have a right to remain thrilled.

The cast is a hoot, too. Tatum is full of easy charm but Adam Driver is even better as his brooding brother (clearly they’re sons of different mothers). There’s also a nice, out-of-character appearance by Katie Holmes, playing Logan’s hair-sprayed, hard-edged ex.

Busy British newcomer Bel Powley is extraordinary as the teen finding her identity in mid-1970s San Francisco.

After a summer of robots, mutants and explosions, the beautifully honest, grownup Love is Strange is a treat.

One of the reasons why the film works so well is because it imagines a path anyone who’s thought about escaping their lives — and hasn’t — could take.

From the company that gave us “Chicken Run” and “Wallace and Gromit,” this adorable tale about a sheep who leads his comrades on a big-city adventure is some of the most pure visual storytelling you’re going to see this year.

Directed with calm passion and controlled outrage, the movie — named after the amendment which outlawed slavery, but left a significant loophole when it came to criminal convictions — is a study in profits. And power.

Of course, the music is the thing and the sounds here earn Demme's reverence.

Among the actors, potential Oscar nominee Nighy is deeply affecting, but everyone in this rousing movie impresses.

Segel and Nicholas Stoller, who made "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" together, wrote the screenplay for The Muppets with obvious intent: to return these icons to their former glory.

Along the way, the movie documents a movement while deftly skewering a cynical media and ever-gullible public. So whether we're being had or just enlightened, Banksy's definitely found a new medium in which to create his own works of art.

Payne's observational humor and attention to detail yield something emotionally epic. Everything from beachfront jogs to hospital confessions reveals layers of humanity and absurdity.

Even with all the CGI effects, this darkly emotional movie feels like the anti-"Speed Racer." Sure, it's a big-budget spectacle. But it's also the kind of grandly old-fashioned entertainment we don't get enough of anymore.

This is very much Brand's movie, with Hill playing a surprisingly subdued straight man. Still, the strong supporting cast - including Rose Byrne and Elisabeth Moss as the guys' girlfriends - easily holds its own.

The charming, soulful Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a movie that loves movies — which is great, because you’ll love this one.

A fast-moving, rock 'em-sock 'em movie that continues the man-vs.-machines series begun 25 years ago.

Leoni and Kinnear are charming, and Koepp keeps the mood appropriately light. But really, this would be just another disposable comedy if it weren't for our unassuming star.

A psychosexual thriller that lures its viewers into a woozy nightmare.

All in all, Spielberg has come up with another rousing piece of entertainment.

The good news is it comes very close, and does it without sacrificing its soul. Despite its sense of been-here-slayed-that, director Francis Lawrence expertly delivers thrills, ideas and spectacle.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a misfit loner as confident as Olive, who bears her considerable tortures with remarkable grace. But Stone is so funny, smart and sweet that we relate to her anyway.

Affleck keeps the film as fluid as the "Mystic River," and never forgets that Renner is his ace in the hole. The "Hurt Locker" star charges up every scene he's in with feral power, and is rewarded with one of the most exciting sequences seen in any action movie this decade.

In this film, a single word is worth more than all the expensive effects imaginable.

It's that happiest of surprises: a multiplex movie that genuinely respects its young audience.

This is a role that the Julia Roberts of 1999 couldn't have played, and that's fine. The one we have here is much better.

Whew! It’s shocking - a horror film but extremely well done by producer Jerome Hellman and John Schlesinger, the British director who uncannily captures the feeling for tragedy in this locale, the forced gaiety of some who have sunk to the lower depths of despair and sympathy for the two disillusioned protagonists.

Stone relies on his leads to guide us into this hyper-charged inferno, and they fit his juiced-up approach like James Woods and Woody Harrelson did in Stone's equally hopped-up "Salvador" and "Natural Born Killers." He gets us high on what they're selling before it goes south.

Many great docs have been made about The Who (including the ecstatic “The Kids Are All Right”), but Lambert & Stamp gets closest to the band’s fragility and unlikely story. It captures the real-life mania that surrounded a group whose music came to embody it.

The movie is crammed with excitement and good humor.

Film enthusiasts especially will appreciate this wonky but fascinating documentary about the process of making movies.

A little miracle, Azazel Jacobs' lovely story of a life lost and found tackles big issues -love, maturity, fulfillment - in deceptively modest fashion.

It sounds a little too clever, but it's not. It's just clever enough.

Ultimately it's Sheen, finding new facets of his character in every scene, who shoots and scores.

As vital as the best war chronicles to come out in recent years, this is one every American ought to see.

Though consistently engaging, Redford’s latest directorial endeavor does feel like a plea. You can almost hear him coaxing us to learn from the past, even as we rush into the future.

As the couple’s life becomes more and more insular, Costanzio subtly builds the drama into suspense that’s utterly natural and smart.

Here, the actor (Di Niro) dials it down and wins us over.

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.

To eavesdrop on Bernardo Bertolucci, Stephen Frears, Ken Loach and John Sayles, as they talk politics; David Lynch and Todd Haynes, discussing inspiration; and Catherine Breillat, Agnès Varda, Richard Linklater and Liliana Cavani as they riff on controversy and aspiration, even for a little while, is a real treat.

Most of all, she (Zemeckis) brings generosity and compassion to the Hiltons’ tragic story.

The way she (Blanchette) anchors this superb dramedy is a thing of beauty.

As in "Purple Rose," the film works best when tweaking the disparate worlds thrown together, though "Midnight" is frothier, and so Wilson shines.

This film's only real stumble is its ending, which is so predictable it seems like a bit of a copout.

Young Adult may at times be stuck between emotional gears, but that's by design. Like its heroine, the movie refuses to pick up after itself.

Benjamin never questions his fate and ­never actually gets to enjoy being a kid. At least there's a thoughtful middle part, where the enigmatic Blanchett comes alive and Benjamin seems haunted by life -- someone we recognize, and not just a vessel tossed about by time.

It still marks Del Toro’s strongest work since “Pan’s Labyrinth” 11 years ago. It is an homage to classic cinema, albeit a slightly quirky one.

Nichols approaches his subject with thoughtful empathy, and while his themes are enormous - he's addressing no less than the state of our nation - he wisely underplays even the most important moments.

Here, in his best performance since "Spider," Fiennes plays the snarling, entitled general Caius Martius Coriolanus, whose bloody brow and bald head are stained with what's left of his soldiers.

Has a mature tapestry of characters, a welcome sense of humor and, most crucially, a lovely Juliette Binoche.

Blunt has never been more relaxed, and she and Segel have a believably warm chemistry. It's also nice to find a romantic comedy with so much respect for both its leads.

Delightful proof that money and fame have nothing on ingenuity and wit, Safety Not Guaranteed is worth a million meaningless blockbusters.

These characters are stripped bare in every sense, reflecting an extreme degree of inner confusion, vulnerability and fear. Betrayed and broken as children, they now have to define and rebuild themselves as adults...Sissy turns a nightclub rendition of "New York, New York" into a heartbreaking plea.

For those who enjoy the goriest of thrillers, there is plenty of red running through Green Room.

As the cracklingly cool The East shows, they’re the real deal. It’s not easy to make a thriller where brains and guts are so clearly in cahoots.

Margaret - titled after a poem - reflects its adolescent subject with striking accuracy. It can be frustrating and self-important, clumsy and naive. But it's also passionate, curious and filled with insight, so unafraid in its ambitions that even the flaws are interesting. Every bold vision requires respect; a few deserve celebration. This is one of them, imperfections and all.

Rahim and Arestrup are both so outstanding that if this were an English-language film, they'd probably be nominated for Oscars, too.

The actors click into high gear, and Premium Rush delivers.

Gibney puts mystery back into a story we thought we knew.

There can never be too many stories of human grace and perseverance like those of Nova, or Nate, or Adam, all teens who've been encouraged to channel their resentments and desires into art.

For the Love of Spock is ultimately as much of a love letter to other Trek fans as much as one to his own.

The late King of Pop delivers.

Right now, he's the perfect "Avengers" antidote.

Creed packs a mighty punch.

Eddie Redmayne’s enthralling star turn as a transgender pioneer in The Danish Girl affirms his status as an ace cinematic chameleon — a transformer who rivals Optimus Prime. If only the movie wasn’t quite so polite.

“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.

The result is a visual treasure that successfully blends deadpan quirkiness with a wry realism rarely seen in any film, let alone one for children.

Arnold generally steers clear of cinematic melodrama, and Jarvis infuses the entire film with the sort of kinetic spirit that heralds a new talent.

This fact-driven doc is eye-opening and at times thrilling. A sequence following a chopper pilot trying to get his family to an American aircraft carrier is like a short film unto itself.

Intoxicating, and at times maddening, to watch.

The historically essential document they’ve created here pulses with an immediacy that will leave you simultaneously enlightened and stunned.

Cooper and Lawrence could so easily have stumbled over the logistical bumps and clichés strewn across Russell's defiantly dark script. Instead, they glide right over them, creating an edgy romantic dramedy that suits our anxious times.

Musical biopics usually replicate a star's rise and fall in depressingly predictable fashion. Hurray, then, for Mat Whitecross and his vibrantly eclectic take on what should feel like the same old story.

The slick but moving Saving Mr. Banks transcends its corporate pedigree to become a great Disney movie about making a Disney movie.

The movie respects a viewer’s intelligence, which should also serve as a warning; don’t be lulled into a stupor. Keeping sharp will allow all the fun and menace in this terrific thriller to seep into your head.

So clear your calendar. There’s no better time to get to know a character so obnoxiously stubborn that not even his own creator can shake him.

Tractenberg, evidently a fan of lingering close-ups, lets the audience marinate in a claustrophobic vibe.