Whatever the unanswered mysteries of Jay’s personal life, just watching this magician’s hands at work with a deck of cards is positively mesmerizing.

The Wall winds up as a captivating fable, an end-times scenario that’s more about the survival of the spirit than the body.

Boasts a lovable ensemble cast, with a standout performance by Zaira Valenzuela as 14-year-old Paola.

A thought-provoking documentary that would go well on a double bill with Richard Linklater's fictional "Fast Food Nation."

I can't claim to have followed the story line of Paprika any better than I did "Pirates of the Caribbean," but this mind-blowing, adult animated adventure from Japan is half the length and maybe five times as much fun.

Much less mawkish and predictable than you might expect.

The titular abode in the Brazilian drama Alice's House is crowded, and its inhabitants dysfunctional.

Compelling.

A real nail-biter of a monster movie. The question is: Who’s the monster?

Soldini is able to take the shopworn theme and keep it interesting and fresh despite its lack of new ideas. He's assisted by strong performances by his two leading actors.

There’s not a bad performance in the bunch. Hendricks’ and Fanning’s Brit accents are nicely un-showy.

It’s a sympathetic portrait of an artist whose heart lay more with new work than old glories, right up to the end.

It’s a truly interesting slasher fest; in this one, the heroine gets to be both beauty and beast.

The movie's most exciting when the precision and jaw-dropping nerve of the gang holds center stage.

An affecting and beautifully realized documentary.

The fine cast, the elegant settings and the swoony title song somehow draw you in.

If there’s a flaw in Unsane, it’s that the screenplay by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer doesn’t play its hand closer to the vest. The pleasure here is in watching and wondering what’s real and what isn’t, but all too soon it’s spelled out for us. Nevertheless, it’s great fun to watch it all come together — or, more accurately, fall apart.

What a refreshing break from what usually constitutes an epic nowadays — mixing Ant-Man and the Hulk.

It’s a film heavily dependent on tone and atmosphere for its charm, the budding relationship shown through things like a lovely twilight bike ride down a hill to the shops below.

In this season of Hollywood blockbusters, small movies can get lost in the hype. Don't let that happen to Home.

Movies by Rob Zombie, the goth rocker turned cult filmmaker, aren’t for everybody. But he couldn’t care less. He makes movies exactly the way he wants to, with no thought of pleasing mainstream audiences. They can like it or lump it. His latest effort, The Lords of Salem, is true to form.

A tad slow by American standards, but so extremely well-acted and emotionally truthful, it's right up there with "In the Mood for Love" as prime romantic fare for the Valentine's Day weekend.

The awkwardness and drama of finding and losing love has rarely been portrayed so gracefully on screen in recent years.

No one will mistake But Forever in My Mind ("Come te Nessuno Mai") for something by Fellini or Visconti. But it is, in its own way, skillful and most entertaining.

Moves along briskly, with several laugh-out-loud moments.

Part urban thriller, part unorthodox love story, this well-acted portrayal of the shadowy realm occupied by London's illegal immigrants is buoyed by stinging social commentary and a surprising twist of intelligent humor.

While the slow buildup won't bowl 'em over at suburban multiplexes, the film should please Fessenden's loyal followers and win him new ones.

Works because they really are the focus - and they're excellently voiced .

The decade under discussion in this enjoyable documentary is the 1970s, a period that changed Hollywood forever.

It's an original, and a gamble, and one of those movies that works better than it should, despite considerable flaws of conception and execution.

Reitman directs with an empathy for mothering that never shies away from its darker side.

Taps into our worst fears of what could happen during a quiet holiday with heart-thumping realism.

Apologies to Charlton Heston loyalists, but War for the Planet of the Apes is a good example of how today’s movies sometimes beat the hell out of the oldies.

If director Tanya Wexler occasionally wanders into excess cutesiness...she makes up for it with a surplus of eye-opening historical details and a refreshing warmth for all her characters, even the ones whose views are clearly on the way out.

Writer-director Erik Van Looy keeps the action moving briskly. Danny Elsen's cinematography is stylish and the acting top-notch.

Director Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess") gets vivid, convincing performances from a fine cast, and generally keeps things going at a rapid pace.

The film's tongue is so firmly in cheek that, without being a spoof like "Dragnet" or "The Brady Bunch Movie," it has more in common with the "Austin Powers" films.

Tasteful and gorgeously photographed coming-of-age story.

The story, based on a best-selling novel, has familiar overtones; but Kormakur overcomes them with stylish direction - Iceland's natural beauty looks great - and a gripping performance by Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson.

Variously been described as a thriller, a muckraking exposé and even a satire -- and its refusal to fit neatly into a genre is only part of why it's so utterly disturbing.

Writer-director Imamura's film seems as deceptively simple as the eel, and yet generates deep emotional ripples. [21 Aug 1998, p.064]

It’s blessed with an ace comic foil in Theron, who out-snarks Rogen in scene after scene. The duo makes a terrifically fun on-screen couple, with the kind of zingy banter (thanks to Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah’s screenplay) found in black-and-white movies pre-dating the term “rom-com.”

The loose feel and sense for random comedy (as when a bore suddenly starts lecturing Coogan about the geological details of the cliff he is standing on) are spiffy.

Most experienced filmmakers wouldn't even attempt a film that's so blackly funny, that so rapidly shifts genres and tone, and that layers late '80s cultural references so thickly, from "E.T." to Smurfs.

The literal ghouls here take a back seat to the subtler ones, which are really where It shines darkly.

Fonteyne doesn't have much use for words. He prefers to tell his story via facial expressions and body language, much as filmmakers did in the silent era.

It's a must-see for Daniel Day-Lewis' charismatic, subtly shaded performance as Lincoln - and an even richer one by Tommy Lee Jones.

Bob Dylan would probably love I'm Not There, which may be all a Dylanist needs to know before seeing it. Non-devotees are in for puzzlement, if not exasperation.

Horvath has a sensitive eye and ear, mixing good-looking shots of the barren landscape with portraits of the land's eccentric inhabitants. It's a world (scary at times) that most New Yorkers have no idea exists. [25 Aug 2004, p.40]

Charming and mouthwatering.

So gripping and focused that it easily bests Hollywood movies with 50 times its budget.

This bizarre little movie is all over the place as drama - but genuinely compelling as a one-of-a-kind piece of public self-flagellation.

The Holy Girl ends without resolution, but one isn't needed in this mature, thoughtful drama.

Support the Girls is one of the sneakiest bait-and-switches at the movies this year. You come for the cheeky title and stay for the relevant, empathetic story about working-class women.

No classic like "The Big Sleep," another famously impossible-to-follow Los Angeles thriller. But for those willing to hang on for dear life, Lynch makes it worth their while.

Although the jokes aren't as consistently funny as those in "Lock, Stock," once again writer-director Ritchie demonstrates a deeply pleasurable combination of verbal flair and visual wit while conveying the genuine, intimidating hardness of the English working class and its love of language.

Half as long and twice as much fun as the self-important "Lincoln," Roger Michell's charming sex-and-politics comedy Hyde Park on Hudson is basically a frothy tabloid take on presidential history. And for my money, that's a good thing in a season filled with puffed-up prestige pictures.

For the most part, though, Luca is light and effervescent as a summertime Bellini, which is something parents can drink while the kids watch this.

For maximum enjoyment, see this on the enormous classic IMAX screen.

Lacks visual flair. But Kouyate elicits strong performances from his cast, and he delivers a powerful commentary on how governments lie, no matter who runs them.

Footnotes isn’t perfect, but at least nobody lectured me about jazz.

Gorgeously detailed animated adventure.

The story is also engaging and hip enough to make it a far easier sit for parents. And it's hard not to like a hero who takes public transportation to a showdown with the bad guy.

We know Paris never went anywhere, and the film’s a little too flashy and theatrical, with too-neat ironies. As a duel between acting talents, though, this is first-rate.

A pre-pubescent "Boys Don't Cry" with a much sweeter tone, this thoughtful French comic drama follows Laure (Zoé Héran), a 10-year-old girl who yearns to be a boy.

Ironically, what's lacking in Howard's stark, often brutal, late 19th-century chase drama is emotional punch.

A sweet, science-fiction family film with a loud environmentalist message (speaking of “Avatar”) that’s good fun. It’s also nicely self-contained.

Demonstrates that sometimes letting subjects and the facts speak for themselves can be quietly devastating.

Take the real-life 1979 assassination of Park Chung-hee, the despotic, hedonistic, seal-testicle-loving president of South Korea, and stage it as if the Marx Brothers were running the country, and you might get The President's Last Bang.

A splendidly photographed IMAX 2-D film, takes us breathlessly through the process of designing Spirit and Opportunity, the two plucky Mars rovers that have been sending images 300 million miles since they hit the Red Planet in 2003.

Dog Days has much in common with "Code Unknown" -- both dart among several characters who may occasionally cross paths.

One of Miike's most violent and sadistic movies, filled with squirting blood, throat-slashing, limb-hacking and other forms of mutilation too gruesome to describe here.

Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and a host of other notables sing the praises of the estranged siblings, whose work is illustrated by copious film clips.

Does a first-rate job of remembering.

If you were among the many who thought highly of "A Prophet," the French prison drama that played here last year, you'll want to see the brutally realistic Danish thriller R.

Unless you are offended by a little female nudity, The Silence Before Bach will shock you not. But it will provide gorgeous lensing and art direction and some of the world's most beautiful music.

An overstuffed menu from a master chef who's trying way too hard to please himself.

The oddly compelling documentary Moving Midway is an engineering tale combined with a family history and a ghost story.

Forsaken in a cruel wilderness, a man looks to God and pleads for help. Receiving no answer, he says, "F- -k, I'll do it myself."

A small-scale charmer that provides a tailor-made role for Malkovich, who is always fun to watch.

Should please die-hard fans as well as viewers who have never heard the band and its anthem, "Kick Out the Jams."

This small gem takes a basically optimistic view about the struggles that generations of immigrants have endured.

The story is fascinating, infuriating and even laugh-out-loud funny at times.

The kind of lush, epic romantic weepie that Hollywood used to deliver on a regular basis for packed matinees at Radio City Music Hall.

A far more impressive and affecting piece of filmmaking and storytelling than most movies put out by Hollywood this year, and offers, as a bonus, a glimpse into a fascinating, contradictory society.

Following his triumphs in "The Constant Gardener" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," Fiennes is superb as Todd.

More than just a musical primer. It's also a valentine to the city on the Bosporus, the strait that separates Istanbul's Asian and European sides.

Sharper and far more entertaining than most political documentaries.

This featherweight comedy from director Ben Palmer (“The Inbetweeners Movie”) is a lot more fun than many heftier, supposed rom-coms, thanks to the timing and chemistry of its leads.

The result is a finely plotted, stylishly photographed and brilliantly acted whodunit that clocks in at 2 1/2 hours but never seems long.

Intermittently brilliant, intermittently hilarious -- and occasionally tedious.

It doesn't measure up to Schlondorff's 1979 Oscar winner, "The Tin Drum," but it's compelling nevertheless.

You just know something terrible is going to happen. But when it does, you're entirely unprepared

Penn makes us take the leap required by Kristine Johnson and Jessie Nelson's screenplay -- you end up deeply caring about Sam and Lucy.

Harden and Pantoliano (especially) can be two of the most over-the-top performers in the business, but they don't strike a false note in Canvas - and neither does this heartbreaking movie.

Scott Thomas' reserve as an actor - which probably helped keep her from top stardom after an Oscar nomination for "The English Patient" (1996) - makes her perfect casting for this French film, the auspicious debut of director Philippe Claudel.

France's Declaration of War has it all: comedy, romance, fantasy, musical interludes and a child with a brain tumor. Wait - what?

It's an exciting, charming and often quite funny family film.