A must-see for Nicholson's mesmerizing performance, which would probably hold interest even if the sound were turned off.

Why has She chosen to end her young life with a senseless act of mass murder? We never find out - which is a good thing. Too much information would only get in the way and lessen this compelling film's evocation of dread.

Mia Goth is as fine a name as can be imagined for the actress playing a creepy, hollow waif in A Cure for Wellness, and her name is practically a tag line for this fantastically eerie movie: “Me a Gothic!”

According to rumors swirling on the Internet, an English-language remake is already in the works, possibly directed by David Cronenberg.

An unconventional movie that requires an unconventional mindset to appreciate.

One of the oddest movies I've seen in a while - and that's a good thing.

The acting and story are solid, but the real star of Tulpan is the gorgeous, never-ending landscape -- flat and arid, and home to camels, goats and lambs, and hearty people who live in tentlike yurts.

Halle Berry’s latest vehicle is old-fashioned as a leisure suit, but better-looking and a lot more fun.

Nicely acted and stylishly photographed.

Side by Side is an eye-opening, comprehensive look at the biggest technological revolution in Hollywood history. One huge irony is that digital formats are evolving so rapidly that the only foolproof way to archive and preserve a movie shot on video for future generations is . . . to transfer it to film.

Miller is wincingly good at playing up the innocence.

The meditative Swedish movie The Anchorage takes minimalism to the maximum.

Steamy and solidly entertaining.

This is powerful filmmaking for discerning viewers.

The film’s reckoning, when it comes, is fully as heartbreaking as it should be.

On the whole, it’s a pitch-perfect love letter to “Ab Fab” devotees. As for newcomers? My advice: See it after a couple of Stolis, darling, and you’ll be just fine.

The title is to be taken figuratively, not literally -- is a top-notch study of family angst.

An absorbing documentary.

There's also enough laconic humor, warming camaraderie and hopeful stabs at dignity to keep the story from assuming the glum gunmetal gray of its setting on the coast of northwestern Spain.

Perplexing but pleasing.

Lighthearted and smart enough to be one of the best Altmanesque ensemble comedies of the last couple of years.

Meet Peter Berlin - the man whose eccentric life style has earned him the title the Garbo of gay porn.

Ever wonder what "Scrubs" would've been like if Zach Braff's fledgling-doctor character was psychotic instead of goofy? I get the feeling John Enbom, screenwriter of The Good Doctor, has.

A love letter to the technology and movies of the 1980s as well as celebrating the DIY ethos of the YouTube generation.

Overall, the film is not quite up to "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid" from the same directing team of Ron Clements and John Musker, not to mention the recent string of masterpieces from Pixar.

A deeply pleasurable, old-fashioned blood-'n'-guts adventure film.

An impressive screen debut.

Kane was nicknamed "Killer" because of his playing style -- and New York Doll has a killer surprise ending that may leave even hard-core punkers reaching for the Kleenex.

The crowd-pleasing St. Vincent provides Murray with his first comic vehicle in years. It’s a tour de force and a cause for major celebration.

Instead of trying to make Austen's life entertaining by pretending it was just like her work - as in the dull recent French movie "Molière" - Becoming Jane has a more astute appreciation of how Austen, or any fiction writer, works. There's a bit of stealing from life, lots of exaggeration, some wish fulfillment, mix-and-match character assembly.

Keough is riveting as the vulnerable Grace.

Laugh-out-loud comedies are so rare that you shouldn't casually pass up Super Troopers, which is essentially a smarter and much funnier version of the old "Police Academy" flicks.

The stunning visuals in DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 3 surpass the high standards set by its predecessors, but storywise, the latest adventures of goofy Po the panda break no new ground.

Especially worthwhile for the chemistry between Bell and Myles.

It's a long way from the carefree days of "Breathless" and "Band of Outsiders," but then the world has changed since Godard made those movies 40 years ago.

It's a story that says a lot about the stupidity of war.

You won't soon forget it -- if you have the guts to see it.

The first half hour or so of Enchanted is brilliant.

Bob Nelson’s original script, a sort of unlikely cross between “The Last Picture Show’’ and “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,’’ offers a biting satire of Midwestern life that Payne sometimes allows to border on condescension.

Its personal, newsmagazine touch will make your heart ache for its cross-section of humanity.

How English is this movie? As English as a cold, rainy day at the beach. As English as the politeness that masks hostility, as English as a pie that contains meat, as English as secretly wishing you lived in some other country.

The eye-popping and entertaining The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader offers a merry seafaring jaunt together with plenty of adventures led by magically empowered kids.

Rising star Michael Shannon makes a riveting shamus hired to chase a runaway husband in the quiet but resonant little noir The Missing Person.

You don't have to have ever seen any of their movies to enjoy It Came From Kuchar, directed by one of George's former students, Jennifer M. Kroot. But you'll probably want to catch up with their work afterward.

Hats off to Elisabeth Marton, who has taken a bunch of dry facts and fashioned them into the gorgeous My Name Was Sabina Spielrein.

The new film's strongest point is the assured performance by Schubert, who's in nearly every frame. Elegant cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, one of Austria's most sought-after lensers, gives Breathing added depth.

In the film’s most visceral scene, as the trio stands on the site of a mass grave in Lviv, Ukraine, von Wächter still can’t bring himself to admit his father’s direct culpability.

There’s also a broader commentary here on the treatment of women, both in arranged marriage and in testosterone-heavy thrillers. Apte’s character stays largely an enigma throughout, but her palpable frustration with the men and culture around her — plus the chance to vicariously visit Goa, that jewel of an Indian seaside getaway — makes The Wedding Guest worth an RSVP.

Patrick Stewart knocks it out of the park as a Juilliard School dance teacher forced to spill his biggest secrets in Match, which playwright Stephen Belber effectively directed and adapted from his own Broadway play.

An enjoyable mix of tragedy and comedy.

This movie takes its sweet time wrapping together three related tales set in various regions of North Carolina -- to ultimately devastating effect.

Spacey does his best work since "American Beauty'' as a tired middle-aged corporate warrior whose greatest compassion, in the end, is reserved for an ailing dog he has to put to sleep.

It’s slightly tough to get onboard with the regal Naomi Watts sporting badly sprayed hair and frosted lipstick; surely there are more flattering shades at the Walgreens?

Director Uberto Pasolini (“Machan”) has a gem in Marsan, a virtuoso actor who plays the role delicately where another might have laid on the pathos too thick.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth doesn't offer easy conclusions.

A powerful, decades-spanning epic about that country's fight for independence centering on three brothers.

Dunkirk satisfies as a brisk, gripping survival story. At only 107 minutes, it’s also astonishingly short in an era when most movies needlessly run on long beyond the two-hour mark.

None of this is ever quite as great as it is in Spielberg’s work, but it’s reasonably close; the worst you can say about the movie is that it sticks to a highly potent formula.

The film is empty-headed good fun that’s blessedly under two hours and has just enough character development to make you kind of care when someone gets bitten.

The violence in the existential gangster poem Sonatine is as flat and matter-of-fact as the antihero's face. Kitano, the Japanese Harvey Keitel, is a bullplug of a man whose very presence has gravity. [10 Apr 1998, p.048]

The way-too-neat ending of The Brave One especially strains credulity, but it's worth watching for Foster's fiercely arresting performance.

The extremely well-acted The Company Men ends on a hopeful note, but Wells examines the repercussions of a layoff-based economy with devastating precision.

Now this is how you do a female raunch comedy. Equal parts crass, heartfelt and goofy, Girls Trip manages to hit all the right notes.

A moving documentary about poetry inspired by combat.

A worthy addition to the growing canon of Holocaust documentaries.

This intriguing film is the best variation on "Vertigo" since Brian DePalma's far more polished "Obsession" (1976), which ranks with the best Hitchcock knockoffs of all time.

Introduces a new Ferrara -- sophisticated and restrained. It's a look that becomes him.

Doesn't quite live up to the promise of its opening sequence, but it's still an audacious offering during a season of brain-dead blockbusters.

The eloquent narration forSaint of 9/11 is delivered by Ian McKellen.

Smart, funny and good-looking animation.

Most of DC Comics’ dreadful movies deserve to be violently squished, but not Blue Beetle, a refreshingly spry new film featuring the lesser-loved, bug-shaped superhero who’s been crawling around in some form since 1939.

Eventually turns somber, with stark depiction of mass graves and suffering refugees. The final scene will break your heart.

Somewhat leisurely paced, by American standards, especially in the beginning, but it's well worth sticking around for the payoff.

Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne gives a smoldering performance as Jeanne.

The film takes awhile to get going -- the depiction of homophobic 1950s suburbia has a familiar feel. The movie hits its stride only when eyewitnesses to the events at the Stonewall tell their stories.

The story has been brought to the screen twice before (once by Tsui), but this version is the first in IMAX 3-D, which is the main reason to see it.

Not for all tastes, but it demonstrates Loach's skill as a poet of gritty semi-documentary filmmaking.

The Devil Wears Prada 2, the sequel to the 2006 comedy that’s not at all about Anna Wintour, is a good time, even if the high-pressure world of Vogue, er, Runway magazine is no longer the epitome of New York luxury and glamour it was back in the aughts.

Although envisioned before the world economy went to hell, Tokyo Sonata is relevant to the mess we're in now.

Set on the seamy side of Barcelona, Biutiful may not be a feel-good movie for this time of year, but it's well worth your time.

A raunchy, endearing and often hilarious cross between “Back to the Future” and Reagan-era cheese-fests such as “Hot Dog: The Movie.”

Has no profound statements to make, but it does provide warm and fuzzy comfort.

The Way, Way Back is balanced, satisfying, wholesome. Dig in.

It's nice to see a love story that deals with mature people. We're not likely to get anything like it from Hollywood. So enjoy When the Sea Rises while you can.

The Siegels make the Kardashians and Donald Trump look like tasteful pikers when it comes to egregiously conspicuous consumption, sheer hubris and utter refusal to take responsibility for their actions.

We may not need another IRA movie, but even so, Ken Loach's Brit-bashing historical drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley, winner of the top prize at Cannes last year, raises hard questions about Ireland's uncanny ability to kneecap itself.

The Coens, so cutting to so many of their characters, are gentler with Llewyn, inviting us to wander and wonder along with him as he ponders why he must forever play the jerk.

There aren’t enough movies in which Tina Fey fires an AK-47 while grinning maniacally. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot turns out to make excellent use of her established skills while revealing new ones: It’s “30 Rock Me to the Casbah.”

Hard-hitting and biting.

I walked out of Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects thinking to myself, “Finally, a mainstream 2013 movie I can whole-heartedly recommend’’ — then quickly added, “well, except that it will probably piss off a sizeable portion of the target audience.’’

The way the tightrope works is vague, but what the exercise shows is straightforward and marvelous.

Few directors make action movies with the pizazz of Hong Kong's Johnnie To, although his films rarely get runs in New York. That's all the more reason to see his Vengeance.

The well-acted, pleasantly lensed drama doesn't recall Hollywood's generic approach to fragile couples, and that's just fine with me.

Although this version is some 30 minutes longer than its predecessor, anyone looking for new story twists or, say, an inspiring backstory for the antelope that gets eaten, will probably leave disappointed.

An offer you shouldn't refuse: It's laugh-out-loud, side-splitting funny.

In an era when documentaries are looking more and more glossy, it's almost refreshing to see the austere approach taken by veteran Frederick Wiseman.

A smart, funny, stylish and very violent British gangster movie.

This is a smart, vivid, thrillingly real gangster picture that nevertheless resembles many others.