Riddled with sores, his lips locked on a crack pipe, the "sub-basement"-dwelling subject of this cult-rock doc initially seems plucked from an episode of "Intervention," or maybe "Hoarders."

The result is quite a ramble: Leacock talks about how equipment influences filmmaking, the making of a custard and the wanderings of his cat. Through it all, happily, his company is a pleasure.

The hugely enjoyable second entry doesn’t lift the franchise to new artistic heights, a la The Empire Strikes Back, but Part II is every bit as good and scary as its predecessor, and the characters, especially the kids, go to deeper and braver places.

A crowd-pleaser of the first order.

The film thwarts any pat expectations you might glean from the town's bad economy and these checkered backgrounds. The teenagers are refreshingly gentle and clean-living; they don't drink, they don't swear and they certainly aren't having sex. All three are religious, a fact that is neither emphasized nor underplayed.

Tom Hardy gives an amazing performance as Peterson, who took on the nickname Charlie Bronson, after the "Death Wish" actor.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is, as you'd expect, rubbish, but the word is slightly too kind. The David Fincher film (like the very similar Swedish one - released in the US just last year! - and the book) is not even good rubbish.

The Outpost really is not a movie of wit or soaring inspirational speeches, but of no-holds-barred emotion. A story of young men in their 20s, with dreams and loved ones back home, who had the courage to risk it all for each other.

The newest “Dragon” adventure, once again written and directed by Dean DeBlois, achieves real visual artistry.

Still, the proceedings move so quietly and thoughtfully as to be occasionally somnolent, though they’re punctuated with spasms of the violence that marked the Troubles.

Strictly for art-house types, particularly those familiar with the director, who makes no concessions to mainstream audiences. You have to abandon any preconceived notions about movies and allow your mind to be seduced by the mystifying, occasionally humorous world of a one-of-a-kind filmmaker. You might even find yourself becoming a fan.

Frequently charming, beautifully drawn and far more faithful in spirit to the source material than those dreadful Ron Howard-Brian Grazer productions.

The supremely talented Florence Pugh has rapidly rebounded from the “Don’t Worry Darling” debacle with The Wonder, a creepy new Netflix drama that’s unusually strong for the streaming service. For once, it’s the characters who endure hardship — not the audience.

De Wilde has a good grasp of Austen’s sense of humor, and she plays it up with some amusing bits

Horn bookends his documentary with clips from "It Came From Outer Space."

Boring.

Despite the underlying wretchedness, though, the characters exude a sense of having so little interior life that none of this, or anything else, fazes them. That’s disturbing, too.

You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy Divan, an absolutely charming first-person documentary about a young ex-Hasidic woman determined to re-connect with her roots on her own terms.

So potent, it could change the mind of even the most staunch defender of capital punishment.

The labor of love of South African brothers Craig and Damon Foster, who directed and photographed this intriguing documentary.

Lately, the Shakespeare plays on film tend to be either too self-consciously irreverent on the one hand or too stodgy on the other; Kurzel’s Macbeth takes a point of view without betraying the Bard.

A cheap exploitation picture wrapped in miles and miles of stale would-be Oscar scenes.

Vinterberg aces the metaphor-heavy scene in which Troy demonstrates his swordsmanship for an inexperienced, dazzled Bathsheba.

It's a tribute to Birbiglia's storytelling chops that the most engaging part of the film is when he's talking directly to the camera. The fleshed-out story, with its first-rate cast, almost feels like gilding the lily.

An amazing portrait of the great filmmaker Ingmar Bergman in his later years.

A powerful fable about love and addiction that manages to be darkly humorous when it isn't graphic or harrowing in the extreme.

A soufflé that begins promisingly but never quite rises.

The subject may be serious, but Ghobadi's approach is mostly light and humorous, at least until the final scenes. Hamed Behdad is especially funny as a streetwise promoter who fast-talks his way out of jail and 80 lashes.