Never reaches the heights of "Short Cuts" or "Magnolia" -- two multi-story films that clearly provided inspiration -- but it's a thoughtful road trip well worth taking.

Capping off the year that transgender stopped being transgressive, the story of artist Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne) makes for one of the year’s finest films.

A riotous dark comedy in which a cute suburban get-together becomes a lethal nightmare.

The film is most effective when Geier, accompanied by a granddaughter, goes to Ukraine to speak at a school.

Short, sweet, raunchy and often screamingly funny.

Its "I see dead people" premise is shopworn, but Hong Kong brothers Oxide and Danny Pang manage to deliver real skin-prickling jolts with their minimalist horror film.

An energetic, feel-good blend of comedy, romance and benign drama -- with a side dish of social commentary -- that works despite its strict adherence to the culture clash/generation gap formula.

If it weren't for the estrogen-fueled action scenes -- choreographed by director Cory Yuen with wit and style -- So Close would be as disposable as the shampoo ad it all too often resembles.

Unfolds leisurely, in anecdotal style, with deadpan humor and a sense of the absurd.

A surprisingly upbeat look at that Middle East hotspot.

On the M. Night Shyamalan scale of stupid endings, The Prestige isn't as bad as "The Village" but it's comparable to "Unbreakable."

Like the Master of Suspense's best films, Double Take (which makes great use of Bernard Herrmann's haunting "Psycho" score) is an intellectual puzzle that also works as a thoroughly accessible entertainment.

If I weren't already being paid to watch this movie, I'd feel entitled to compensation for having to sit through this many product plugs.

No matter how well you know “Over the Rainbow,” you may never hear it as heartbreakingly performed as Zellweger sings it here.

Absent of any edge or layered characters, Wonka is at its most enjoyable when you forget the novel and classic Gene Wilder film and strap in for routine pleasantness.

T's formulaic interview style gives the proceedings a bit of a student-project vibe - perhaps understandable for a guy who clearly thinks artists should always be open to learning more.

Truth also ignores Rather’s famous showboating, pettiness and hubris. He’s worked in lower-profile gigs since, but trust me, there’s a good reason why no news organization will touch Mapes with a 10-foot pole.

After sitting a while in front of my computer trying to come with the right word to describe the Argentine soaper Family Law, I've settled on "diverting." You will be entertained, but you won't tax your brain.

A windbaggy film of Phillip Roth's novella "The Dying Animal."

A disarming but low-impact documentary that amounts to an odd dual biopic, Shepard & Dark can feel a bit like intruding on a conversation between two old friends.

It's the Food Network meets The Weather Channel meets . . . the Scary Doomsday Preachers Channel.

October Country doesn't really have a point, or a story, but it's an almost unbearably vivid portrait of four generations in a single working-class family.

A wicked little horror film in which nearly all of the violence takes place in your head, In Fear expertly builds terror out of not much more than two people driving around in a car.

A technical and performance success. The chemistry between Sosa and Lujan heats up the screen as their lives spiral out of control.

IF you like rap, you'll probably enjoy The Hip Hop Project. I don't like rap.

A movie bursting with nothingness.

an overstuffed, overlong epic with a tongue-in-cheek approach.

It's fascinating and moving all the same, both in its depiction of Iranian daily life and in its powerful portrait of female oppression.

This wacky former Andy Warhol superstar more than holds your interest in an offbeat documentary.

The concert footage is stirring, the recording sessions are intriguing, and -- on the way to striking a blow for artistic integrity -- this quality band may pick up new admirers.

A blood- freezing German thriller, a very stylish variation on "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven."

It's unfortunate that the people DuBowski profiles tend to be self-indulgent or otherwise unappealing. It's still more unfortunate that the film focuses more on relatively easy issues of acceptance.

At once, a joyful celebration of female friendship and an unusually honest look at newly responsible young women wistfully saying goodbye to the dreams of their youth.

For the first half-hour or so, this thing works like white lightning.

Solomonoff draws out vivid performances by Valeria Bertuccelli (Elena) and Ingrid Rubio (Natalia) that make up for the script's predictability.

Gronkjaer's cinematography is pleasing, with beautiful sunsets and tranquil snowscapes. I won't give away the ending, but it might bring a tear to your eye.

At heart a rather chilly and clinical portrait of four very selfish people.

If you didn’t know Kirby before this film, get used to hearing her name a lot. She’ll be nominated for every major acting award this year.

The poster art for Nanette Burstein's American Teen, which follows five students through their senior year at a high school in Indiana, is modeled after the one for "The Breakfast Club." So, to a large extent, is this ultra-slick and predictable documentary.

Neil Jordan’s Byzantium dares to rework “Twilight” with twice the teen moping and Robert Pattinson replaced by a guy with the sexual magnetism of a sickly Ron Weasley.

A buffet of dumb and degrading stunts halfway between Looney Tunes and Abu Ghraib?

I've had root canals that were more enjoyable than Margot at the Wedding, Noah Baumbach's hugely pretentious, ugly and annoying follow-up to "The Squid and the Whale."

May serve as a useful way to introduce teens to what World War II in Europe was like.

The inspiring story of Chely Wright, the first major country singer to come out as gay. Her decision was a brave one since the world of C&W music is notoriously homophobic.

Strikingly photographed, Maelstrom, which explores its nautical themes in non-linear fashion, is not for all tastes. But I, for one, was hooked by this fish's tale.

An intelligent work that avoids exploitation and cheap laughs.

A brutally funny deconstruction, a hybrid of “Watchmen” and “Superbad” filtered through John Woo. It’s a boisterously original piece of entertainment . . . that isn’t for everyone. Note the rating, which should be triple-R, as in Really, Remarkably R.

Rambling, mildly engaging micro-budgeted indie.

Overlong and grim to the point where some scenes are virtually unwatchable.

Basically a watered-down collage of scenes from "Heathers," "Clueless," "Sixteen Candles" and numerous other teen flicks.

Like a preoperative transsexual, Transamerica is neither one thing nor the other. It yanks at the heartstrings too much to qualify as an edgy comedy-drama, but it's far too bawdy to make it to the Hallmark Channel.

If you like your language blue and your humor coarse, Margaret Cho is for you.

Overall, it's a hand-tailored job in a marketplace filled with off-the-rack movies.

A sometimes glorious, sometimes disastrous folly.

Dumb Money, with a predictable script by Lauren Schuker Blum, Rebecca Angelo and Ben Mezrich, rambles on and on with an unwaveringly lethargic tone and zero buildup of energy or anticipation. All the while, the audience has little investment in this dud about investing.

The Good Dinosaur is no instant classic like its sublime predecessor “Inside Out,” but is modestly pleasing in its own way.

No matter your take on Merritt's persona, there's no denying that he's a unique musician whose songs -- such as "Papa Was a Rodeo" and "Living in an Abandoned Firehouse With You" -- are worth discovering. As is this film.

Miami Vice isn't an action flick but a neo-noir: tough, quiet, moody and hard.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many directors spoil the anthology film Paris Je T'aime.

Thanks to the extraordinary performance of Cotillard, who expertly lip- syncs to Piaf recordings and disappears into the part, few will regret seeing La Vie En Rose, named after a famous Piaf tune. Just brace yourself for a film of unvarying intensity that seems longer than its 140-minute running time.

There are probably enough moments to satisfy hard-core fans, but for the rest of us, this amounts to the Middle Earth equivalent of “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones,’’ a space-holding, empty-headed epic filled with characters and places (digital and otherwise) that are hard to keep straight, much less care about.

Even with a clever final twist straight out of "The Twilight Zone," this crummy-looking two-hander is a tough sit.

At 132 minutes, the film is at least half an hour too long. Nobody asked me, but the best solution would be to keep the action sequences (such as the robbery of a horse-drawn steam train, an homage to Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West''), and scrap the allegedly "witty'' dialogue and difficult-to-follow plot twists.

Guerrero's attitude toward the teenagers - understanding and affectionate, without being cloying - is what holds your interest.

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

A daunting work that will please movie lovers willing to invest their time and intellect. Now I look forward to Fiennes' next project, a feature about Grace Jones.

Sometimes dull and mostly uninspired, it's much less a satisfying reboot like "Batman Begins'' than a pointless rehash in the mode of "Superman Returns.''

Stakes aren't the only problem with this sloppy thriller, which combines careening images with turgid storytelling.

This genre flat-lined a long time ago. Why won't it stay dead?

By the time the closing credits roll, you'll be ready to run out and hug a tree.

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

In attempting to dramatize their harrowing story in the film Thirteen Lives...the director doesn’t make quick, from-the-gut decisions the way that the intrepid team did. Instead, he takes a chill ride on the Lazy River.

Warm and charming and often witty, it's as good a romantic comedy as has come out for some time, with an endearing, perfectly pitched central performance that's a four-square triumph for Zellweger.

Combines big laughs, a big heart and thoroughly winning characters to become the first big surprise of the fall season.

Has enough heart and smarts to recommend it as one of the season's worthier family entertainments.

A muscular, endlessly twisty homage to film noir capers like "The Asphalt Jungle."

Ferrell's manic, overgrown-kid energy sweeps all before it, announcing him - after his standout turn in "Old School" - as a major leading-man talent who can charm as well as amuse.

Stirring as it frequently is, The Way Back is a good movie that should have been a classic.

This Morgan Freeman-narrated documentary doesn’t stray much from the nature-doc formula of making its stars look frisky and winsome while sprinkling in a few info-nuggets about the critters (they’re older than dinosaurs!). And that’s just fine.

If there is a poetry to losing, then this film has as much as the collected works of John Milton.

Though the story may be cut from the same cloth as the female-empowering "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," it's never as cute, cloying or overbearing as that movie eventually became.

Like many movies that premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, The One I Love has plenty of story — for a 30-minute TV episode, in this case of “The Twilight Zone.”

Though deeply well-intentioned, director Kasi Lemmons’ film never really breaks free of conventional biopic mode.

Directed with visual splendor by Wes Ball, the meaty film’s combo of flawless zoological effects (unlike this year’s inferior primate picture “Godzilla x Kong”), superbly crafted characters and a timeless story of emerging civilization and the fight for survival is remarkably riveting for what sets the groundwork of a whole new trilogy.

Unfortunately, the cast of characters you’ll find here is a pale imitation of her Hogwarts heroes.

The best kid-friendly movie of the holiday season is Nénette, a portrait of an orangutan.

The script is cliché-ridden and ends on an overly sentimental note.

This film loves its characters, but loves their ideals even more.

Mainstream audiences will be put off by the lack of a straightforward narrative, but adventurous moviegoers will find pleasure in the hypnotic originality of the images.

Beyond the requisite lessons, there are some witty touches.

The recent trend in political documentaries is for filmmakers to heap ridicule and sarcasm on people they don't agree with, a la Michael Moore. Waiting for Armageddon (which has nothing to do with the 1998 Michael Bay movie) demonstrates that sometimes it's far more devastating to simply point the camera at your subjects and let them talk.

Fairly entertaining, if hardly surprising, results.

Misleadingly billed as a Fallujah documentary, Occupation: Dreamland covers a six-week period when not much was happening there.

Though dated and unsophisticated compared to the much cooler Bourne spy thrillers, M:i:III will probably hit the sweet spot at the box-office - and give Cruise a whole new reason to start jumping on couches.

A fascinating history of how blowing yourself up became a popular hobby in the Muslim world.

If the plot of the Argentine soaper Puzzle seems familiar, that's because it's nearly identical to the story in the French movie "Queen To Play."

As a work of historical documentation, The Source suffers from Workman's wholly celebratory take on the movement.

Engaging in a soap operatic, rather glib way.