Clooney draws you in, but upon arrival there’s an emptiness.

He turns to the furry creatures as a metaphor for life in post-Communist countries. Just as the rabbits were discombobulated by their newfound freedom, so, too, were people, who found it difficult to adapt to life without Big Brother.

A raw mix of documentary and fiction, directed by Koji Wakamatsu, a veteran of soft-core porn ("Go, Go Second Time Virgin") whose anti-war stunner "Caterpillar" just played here.

Haywire is a wannabe, or rather a wanna-B, and that B is for "Bourne." As each imitator comes and (rapidly) goes, my appreciation for the best superspy franchise deepens. Even top directors - in this case Steven Soderbergh - can't figure out the trick.

Jeremy Allen White (“Shameless”) and Maika Monroe (“It Follows”) shine in this dramedy.

Ines Efron and Martin Piroyanski give strong performances as Alex and Alvaro, respectively. Debuting director Lucia Puenzo, who co-scripted, tackles a dicey subject with sensitivity and taste.

There's enough material here for a miniseries, but the directors keep the proceedings to 78 brisk minutes without making the viewer feel cheated.

Chappaquiddick is far from a love letter to the famous family. It paints them as a hollow dynasty of pretty faces hiding behind a powerful name, while real men of intellect and influence puppeteer their every move. Camelot, it’s not. And, as this terrific movie suggests, the American people fall for their polished BS every time.

Walken was largely typecast in quirky roles as a result of playing the title character's brother in "Annie Hall," so it's something of a delightful irony that 35 years later, Walken finds his most rewarding role leading a terrific ensemble in what amounts to one of the best Woody Allen movies that Allen wasn't involved in making.

Newcomer Friend, a Leonardo DiCaprio lookalike who can also be seen in small roles in "The Libertine" and "Pride & Prejudice," has a winning manner, but Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont is a terrific, long-overdue vehicle for Lady Olivier.

The film is passionate, but not exactly revelatory.

Full of action and silliness that will delight rug rats, but it's still hip and absurd enough to entertain grown-ups, too.

Sophisticated entertainment of the less-is-more school.

Open Range could easily have lost 20 minutes in the editing room, but its very casual pacing and beautiful vistas - gorgeously photographed in British Columbia by James Munro - are a soothing alternative in a season of movies seemingly aimed at sufferers of attention deficit disorder.

It's a drawn-out look at politics that's largely devoid of the trademark humor that long ago got New Wave veteran Chabrol labeled the Gallic Hitchcock.

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

So you had no idea what was happening in David Lynch's "Inland Empire." Take comfort in the fact that, judging from the documentary Lynch, the filmmaker was just as puzzled as you.

Provides a fascinating tour of the city's past.

The final shot of Apatow’s movie is the iconic Staten Island Ferry, bringing to mind “Working Girl,” “Manhattan” and countless other New York City classics. The King of Staten Island joins that list.

As Tears Go By doesn’t measure up to Wong’s later classics, such as In the Mood for Love (2000) and Chungking Express (1994), but it shows a master in the making.

It's not up to the high standard of the Clooney-Heslov script for "Good Night, and Good Luck,'' or what you'd imagine that, say, Aaron Sorkin could have done with this premise (for starters, sharper dialogue). Or what Elaine May did with the similarly themed "Primary Colors" 13 years ago.

Should make Polley, memorable in "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Go," into a bona-fide star.

This is a gifted director who actually has something to say and knows how to say it. We'll be hearing from him again.

Ultimately a moving, poignant tale about triumph in the face of the unthinkable.

According to Irene Salina's eye-opening documentary Flow, 500,000 to 7 million US residents are sickened by tap water each year.

The acting is first-rate, and remarkably there's no sense that the sometimes tough material (which barely skirts an R rating) has been watered down to make it more palatable for a wider audience. I just wish Chbosky had changed that terrible title for the movie.

The real thrills consist of one monologue brilliantly delivered by Manuel Tadros as a bar owner, and most of Gabriel Yared’s old-school orchestral score.

Inventive and bold, Jesus, You Know will especially resonate with people, like this critic, whose strict Catholic upbringing (some might call it brainwashing) inalterably shaped their lives.

The contrived script lacks subtlety, rendering most characters as stereotypes.

The film is full of baffling choices, like the EKG machine that beeps for the first 40 minutes, so loud and so maddening that the great words barely register. Mumblecore is not a good look for Ibsen.

Fascinating though it is, the movie is thin on historical materials.

The upstart Sapphires are a smash to watch as they cover soul tunes like “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “What a Man” and “I Can’t Help Myself.”

Behind the glitz, Hollywood is sordid and disgusting. Quelle surprise!

Has an unusual intimacy and lack of condescension.

A fanciful little indie brimming with emo music and curious little vignettes, marks a self-conscious but very promising debut for "Scrubs" star Zach Braff.

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.

Yousef’s story, which he retells in the documentary The Green Prince, is one of unimaginable courage and moral awakening.

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

It's an engaging piece of filmmaking on its own, beautifully shot and acted.

The movie is stolen by 11-year-old Daniela Piepszyk as tomboy Hanna, one of Mauro's new friends. She has a face in a million.

Though Water Lilies endlessly teases the audience with its sapphic subtext and young female flesh, Sciamma seems most interested in showing how extremely cruel adolescent girls can be to each other.

Both Venice and Bouquet are photographed to ravishing effect, and like the city, Judith is meant to suggest something trapped into being a fantasy for others.

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.”

Anything can happen when Michael Cera wanders around Chile without a script on a mission to get high on mescaline. Or, in the case of Crystal Fairy, nothing could happen, too.

A sweet and charming treat.

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

Despite James Wan’s capable direction and very game cast, the whole thing goes increasingly wobbly like a bad axle, until it’s just a tangle of metal and bullets and yelling.

A chipper documentary sure to please seniors.

"This Is Spinal Tap" took the mockumentary up to 11. Brothers of the Head brings it back down to about four.

The movie is a gentle British ensemble comedy much like "Four Weddings and a Funeral" - minus the four weddings and four-fifths of the wit.

If it’s overstuffed in the way of most sequels, well, at least it’s stuffed with good cheer.

Jacquot's lavish décor and costumes are like the perfume the women use instead of bathing: They may cover up the willful carelessness at the center of the project, but it's still there.

A passable French homage to the American crime epic, The Connection has plenty of visual style to go with stock characters.

In The Life of Chuck, the pieces come together much too obviously. And the takeaways — that a person is the product of experience, and don’t judge a book by its cover — are well-tread to the point of total flatness.

It has a pleasing smallness -- it's cinematic chamber music -- that almost makes you overlook its inability to really explain its subject.

There's little sense of the Carol Channing beneath the overdone makeup - if there is one.

Jealousy has a quiet melancholy that’s very pleasing.

As an addiction memoir, it works well enough; there are a handful of deeply felt moments.

Jon Stewart’s filmmaking debut Rosewater has much in common with “The Daily Show” — it’s blaringly obvious, it’s naive, it plays to the cheap seats and it’s enamored with cheap jokes.

A boldly original undertaking: It's the first movie ever to come up with the idea of remaking "The Truman Show."

Given the rarity of such movies, and such opportunities for an actress like Clarkson, Cairo Time earns some indulgence for a pace that Westerners may find languid.

Damsels contains much that's familiar to fans of previous Stillman films such as 1990's "Metropolitan": looping jokes that build on one another, allusions to art and literature, characters who are proudly out of step with the times.

Running in the footsteps of the last two entries directed by Christopher McQuarrie, “Fallout” and “Dead Reckoning,” No. 8 is another high-voltage, gargantuanly envisioned test of Cruise’s bodily limits. Only this franchise can make wincing fun.

Unlike previous glossy docs such as “The September Issue,” Gospel is far more than a dressed-up Vogue infomercial.

Every aspect — acting, writing, special effects, score — is a notch above its superhero peers. In the best possible sense, you forget you’re watching just another Marvel movie.

It's strange enough to be raised by your aunt. For young John Lennon, things get stranger still when he finds himself dating his mother.

Basically "Jumanji" in outer space -- and even without Robin Williams, this is still a singularly loud, charmless and overbearing family movie that could use a hit or two of Ritalin.

A slow train to Dullsville that makes all local stops. You know a film is in trouble if the most interesting thing in it is the luggage.

Good grief! This painfully sincere animated feature seems aimed less at contemporary kids than nostalgic adults who might buy toys marketed for what is being billed as the 50th anniversary of the Peanuts gang for their children and grandchildren.

A sour, plotless and witless comedy-drama based on the final Mordecai Richler novel, wants to remind you of "Sideways" and its forlorn drink-moistened soul search. Giamatti is an ideal casting choice, but even this talented actor can't sell a lovable-jerk

It's "Saturday Night Fever," Johannesburg-style.

The film slows to a crawl when the topic turns to computer science. The deadpan humor carries it, though, as with the German composer who records the mold’s vibrations and says, “Slime mold is very happy. This is happy melody.”

If they were still making Looney Tunes, they'd look a lot like Over the Hedge.

There's enough wit, intelligence and theatrical intensity at work in Larry Kramer to overcome an occasional tendency toward politically correct smugness.

Perfectly captures the cultural and emotional wasteland that is suburban Jersey.

A head-clearing, mind-blowing blast from the past - one of the year's best.

Though it boasts excellent performances by Anna Friel and Michelle Williams as bosom buddies whose lives meander over three decades, it plods on with a wearying predictability and some truly terrible dialogue.

It would be easy to mock or patronize them. Cinemania does neither. They seem quite satisfied with their lives, which is more than can be said for a lot of people with more conventional lifestyles.

Much more rewarding than its earnest title or its very modest production values -- it's basically an ambitious home video -- would suggest.

You can tell this is a smart take on Hamlet from the first wordless opening shots.

When it comes time for a Hollywood remake, Depp would make a great Mels.

So beautifully made (everything in it is understated except the gorgeous good looks of its stars) and turns out to have such real cumulative power that it is worth holding out to the end.

Seeing what Hitler's propaganda minister saw, hearing only his diary entries and what he heard, we effectively live inside the monster's head.

An occasionally amusing but strained fable about the dangers and delights of sibling rivalry that asks us to believe (for instance) that soccer scouts roam Mexico looking for 30-year-old recruits.

Fight Club badly wants to be "A Clockwork Orange" for the millennium - and succeeds to a surprising extent until director David Fincher ends up sucker-punching the audience.

The editing (by Kitano) and lensing are stylish and guaranteed to keep viewers hooked through the final rubout.

The longer director Jan Hrebejk's film goes on, the more complex the relationships become, until the film becomes little more than a talkathon.

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.

A hilarious Parker Posey provides her customary blast of brittle energy in Price Check, an engaging corporate comedy.

Neither a concert film nor a documentary but a ghoulish “event” offered just in time for Halloween, This is It is sadly -- and reprehensively, if you ask me -- the movie equivalent to the National Enquirer’s infamous post-mortem shot of Elvis Presley.

It might take a while to figure out what is happening, because Khoo provides no expository dialogue. But viewers' patience will be rewarded as the stories come together in a moving fashion.

Although it has affecting moments, the film can't quite decide whether it's about aging or about the effects of war on the home front.

To compete with the quintessence of nullity that is Sofia Coppola's insufferable Somewhere, imagine a film called "Wanna See Me Crack My Knuckles?" or possibly "Let's Learn How Long It Takes This Shallow Dish of Liquid To Evaporate."

Had me watching through misty eyes, at least for the first half.

A worthy addition to the cinematic canon, which, at last count, numbered 52 different versions.

A heartfelt, beautifully acted film that suffers from its similarity to countless other movies.

A documentary mosaic of kooky Americana.

An oddity: an upbeat film about a cemetery.