Panahi, who defied a filmmaking ban from the Iranian government to make this, is a director always worth supporting.

A Woman in Berlin, which is based on an anonymously written memoir of the same name, serves also as a testimony to women who put men in their place.

Credit the disarming cast, especially Oshri Cohen as the boy and Arie Ellias as his eccentric grandfather. They help turn what could be a standard comedy into a life-affirming, enjoyable one.

There's extreme brutality, gore and violence, scads of severed body parts and oceans of squirting blood, as the brave -- and buffed -- people of Bang Rajan fight to the death.

The highlight of this package of 12 recent animated shorts from around the world is Australia's "Ward 13."

Ritchie is tops when it comes to getting a group of guys (and, occasionally, gal) together to complete a bloody, belligerent task. And this is as taut an ensemble of his as ever.

Often darkly funny and very well acted, it's a pleasingly subtle, Hitchockian thriller with dark comic overtones.

Gibran’s book was huge in the 1960s, and it feels fresher here than it has in ages, although the visuals are stronger than the music.

What kind of hellspawn might result if "Saw" bought a copy of "Let's Go: Europe" and went backpacking across Europe to have a one-night stand with Dracula? Something like Hostel.

Songbird Bjork and artist hubby Matthew Barney team up in Drawing Restraint 9, and the spectacular result is exactly what should be expected from these one-of-a-kind creative oddballs.

At 162 minutes, American Honey may test some viewers’ patience, but for this one, it paid off with an unflinching portrait of middle America, a love letter to the open road and a dynamic newcomer in Sasha Lane.

Most of Ultimate X is comprised of truly exhilarating footage of men -- and one woman -- pushing their bodies and their nerve to the edge.

Bank's discursive but oddly riveting documentary, Last Dance, offers a glimpse of what was probably the most important, and conceivably the most bitterly contested, collaboration in Pilobolean history.

It manages to be both kinetic and dream-like at the same time -- "Run Lola Run" by way of David Lynch.

As North Korea undergoes a highly publicized change of leadership, The Front Line proves timely. In fact, one of the movie's army commanders looks like the north's new baby dictator, Kim Jong-un.

John Maloof’s documentary has an opening both apt and witty: Talking heads, one after the other, struck dumb by the mystery at hand.

Fascinating, beautifully photographed portrait of a vanished community.

Willis, who at 52 looks great in an intensely physical role and can still spit out wisecracks and insults with the best of them.

Wood, like fellow mega-franchise star Daniel Radcliffe, has found a comfy home in indie films. And he has the perfect presence for this one, in particular.

Expect a fast-paced, beautifully mounted and well-acted soap opera with overripe dialogue that plays fast and loose with history - just like they did in the '30s, '40s and '50s - and you won't come away disappointed.

The two youngsters are not polished performers, but that's actually part of the subtle charm.

Winslet and Brolin have wonderful chemistry together, and Reitman makes well-worn metaphors like steamy weather and pie making (the film has been embraced by the American Pie Council) seem newly invented.

Doesn't have the emotional heft of his "Children of Paradise," but it's still moving.

Pity the crowds expecting another cute comedy like "Date Night" who wind up at Crazy, Stupid, Love. It'll be like asking for a burger and getting served escargot.

While Murphy never manages to make this crazy quilt dramatically credible, he does hit the mark for laughs and has written some juicy scenes for his excellent cast.

Leonard takes advantage of one of Rylance’s greatest strengths — the ability to instantly switch from weak to strong. Behind every tiny smile is ferocity.

Scrappy and unsettling, V/H/S puts the majority of today's mainstream "scary" movies to shame.

Commendably, Carrera steers clear of preachiness in his exploration of a timely and relevant issue, and Bernal's transformation from naive priest to tortured adulterer to hard-nosed careerist is riveting.

More amusing than laugh-out-loud hilarious, but is never boring.

It is a phenomenal showcase for Ronan, who dares to be unlikable for the rare time in her career. Her natural charm and whimsy we’re used to from “Lady Bird” and “Little Women” is but a glimmer in Rona’s eye — and that little light is why the viewer roots for this troubled woman as hard as they do.

For those willing to lock into Reygadas’ mad wavelength, the beauty is worth the puzzlement.

This midsummer crowd-pleaser from the ateliers of Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard is still a great deal more rip-roaring fun than, say, the campy movie version of "The Wild Wild West."

Meier's tight focus on her primary characters pays off: Seydoux brings a strong array of emotions to a highly unsympathetic part. And Klein, whether plugging his ears with cigarette filters or suddenly embracing a woman he barely knows, is heartbreaking.

Despite having no previous film experience, Kare Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson give evocative performances as Oskar and Eli, respectively.

The entertaining movie from director Rose Glass, whose first feature was “Saint Maud,” is unsparing in its graphic depictions of violence, abuse and extreme aspects of the body. Many will find all of that stuff gratuitous, but it fleshes out this unsavory world and ratchets up the plot’s tension.

The movie's title might sound like a splatter-fest by Rob Zombie. But despite the theme, “Eddie” goes easy on gratuitous gore. What we get is a cerebral horror movie and a satire of the art world.

Top performances by Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, though, make the film emotionally rich.

Conforms to many of the tropes of a formula thriller but, aided by an evocative Philip Glass score and Tim Orr's beautifully naturalistic cinematography, it transcends the genre.

You don't have to be crazy to sing like Larry "Wild Man" Fischer -- subject of Josh Rubin's reverential documentary Derailroaded -- but it helps.

Comedy with a light-hearted flair. The cast is charming, and Garcia is especially easy on the eye.

Butterfly doesn't require much knowledge of history to appreciate, but it really isn't suitable for very young audiences either.

Rampling has a relatively small role in Lemming, but the 60-year-old star proves the high point of the suspenseful black comedy from France.

The reason Waititi’s films (yes, even “Thor: Ragnarok”) are so resonant is that they’ve always placed love and humanism at the heart of their humor. “Jojo,” despite going to some very dark places for its laughs, is no exception.

A compelling portrait of a matchless man, who's still going strong at 72.

Its tactile feel for the dirt and labor of a farm, and tender regard for the young protagonist, are immensely endearing.

The film is built from moving, frank interviews with survivors from two families who hid, speaking over and around extensive re-enactments. Passages from the memoir of one family matriarch, Esther Stermer, in many ways the heroine of the tale, also are used as narration.

A nifty piece of entertainment that says a lot about American society.

There have been many untraditional film adaptations of Shakespeare's, but few have been as unorthodox as this one.

Wojtowicz was a folk hero thanks to the movie, and he cashed in on his celebrity by signing autographs in front of the bank he tried to rob. He also retained the love and support of his wife and his doting mother, both of whom are interviewed with him in The Dog, until his death in 2006.

Arriving two days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Steven Soderbergh's Contagion is a serious all-star thriller about the rapid worldwide spread of a killer virus that's easily the scariest of the disaster films that have followed the attack.

The evidence Jarecki amasses against the drug wars in The House I Live In is more than strong enough to withstand any excess rhetorical zeal.

Makes "Training Day" -- which was admittedly pretty tough -- seem like a Disney cartoon by comparison.

Imagine "Clerks" director Kevin Smith with a background in poetry and painting instead of comic books and bestiality jokes, and you'll have an idea of what to expect from an exciting new filmmaker named Sean Ellis, whose terrific debut is called Cashback.

In the compelling but slow-moving Iranian film A Separation, a downbeat family drama of no particular distinction gradually turns into a mystery that raises painful moral questions. There may be several guilty parties.

Truth is, this story of the out-of-control director and his inexperienced, enabling studio heads -- who allowed Cimino to lock them out of the editing room, hoping he would deliver another Oscar winner like "The Deer Hunter" -- is more compelling than Cimino's long-winded epic.

The Japanese anti-war drama Caterpillar is difficult to watch. But it's directed, acted and photographed well, and it's worth seeing even if it makes you uncomfortable.

A wonderfully acted, strangely low-key prison movie.

A lively score by Danny Elfman and some of the most dramatic sound-effects work since the Three Stooges only add to the appeal of Deep Sea 3-D.

An excellent way to teach children that movies don't begin and end with Hollywood blockbusters.

It's mainly about a supremely annoying French-born LA clothier who became a hugely successful artist without pausing to consider his utter lack of originality or talent.

Those with a high tolerance for violence and gore — at one point, Rama battles assassins labeled “Baseball Bat Man’’ and “Hammer Girl’’ simultaneously — will eat up The Raid 2.

Dong, who is gay, does his best to stay objective. Just how these families interact may surprise you.

The Heat, which provides enough opportunity for wholesale mayhem as well as laughs, is pretty much a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

In Zhang’s capable hands, their love story — in which Yanshi masquerades as various workmen in order to see his wife and attempt to jog her memory — is elegantly touching, as is the slow repair of the relationship between father and daughter.

“Old Man” isn’t hilarious or sleek. It’s mellow, like a campfire tale, or your grandpa’s stories set to whiskey. Redford’s voice never becomes louder than your average therapist’s.

Using a hand-held microphone, Mahurin captures the burly, middle-age, salty-tongued cook philosophizing nonstop as he individually prepares mouth-watering high-cholesterol meals from a 900-item menu over a stove he has put together himself.

An atmospheric and subtly engrossing relationship saga, which wowed the critics when it played on British TV and is just now getting a theatrical release.

Yes, it’s the middle chapter and feels like it, but it’s never dull.

Van Sant's audacious, poetic and emotionally distanced film doesn't even have a plot. It's just a random series of incidents one day at a suburban high school.

That rare commodity: a film with only good things to say about public schools.

Smart, scary -- and at times very funny -- horror movie.

It's an odd, initially jarring mixture of style and subject matter that works better as the film goes along.

Octubre has the feel of something Jim Jarmusch might have made in his early years -- lots of dark humor that you'll think of in the middle of the night, and laugh about.

Excellent performances are given by all, with Alidoosti, who has the face of an angel, once again a wonder.

Like the film itself, it’s simple but well-executed enough.

Harris, a talented comic actress who looks more like a real person than a Hollywood facsimile of one, makes every scene she's in shine.

In their refusal to be up-to-the-moment, the Narnia movies are bound to age beautifully, perhaps much more so than the two Shrek films Adamson directed.

A quietly compelling documentary that is refreshing in both form and content.

You may call the film blingsploitation but its fun-loving hoodlums know who's fooling whom.

Beware of blood-sucking Mormons! At least that's the tongue-in-cheek message in Trapped by the Mormons, a campy sendup shot as a 1920s silent movie.

Bloody horror flicks need not be anemic when it comes to intelligence. The victims of You’re Next, as well as their slaughterers, are reasonably smart and resourceful. Their clash may not be as nasty as the battles of academia, but there’s a lot more common sense involved.

Don’t let its sweet title fool you: Director Noah Baumbach’s latest may just be the best war movie of the year.

Overly long and uncomfortably intrusive, but never less than compelling.

Nostalgic for those bad old days, The Wackness was shot at a time when it actually looked like "America's Mayor" was going to be in a position to perform a similar cleanup on the entire country. That, of course, turned out to be a pipe dream.

Comes closer to what a Bond movie should be and once was.

Oddly undramatic.

In an attempt to understand this phenomenon, Ziv interviews leaders of terrorist groups like Hamas, failed hit men now in jail and relatives of those who died carrying out these attacks. The effect is frightening.

Huppert is, as usual, superb, proving yet again that she is the finest actress working in France today.

Pulls no punches - blood flows very freely (including the ear-cutting scene) and black humor abounds.

Reichardt doesn't so much tell a story as paint a finely detailed portrait of human suffering in this miniature marvel.

A treat for aficionados of oddball movies.

Bleak, demanding stuff, and its hand-held documentary-style photography is harder on the stomach than "The Blair Witch Project."

It is often as powerful as it is elegantly shot. Unfortunately, Szabo tends to tell this rather predictable tale in an obvious yet uneven way.

This black comedy is a small gem.

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

The story is good-natured, but Panahi's message is serious: That ludicrous rules turn Iranian women into third-class citizens. And what better way is there to get that point across than through sports and laughter?

The documentary takes no sides, but its bleak message is all too clear.

The film, like the man, is never boring.