Sparse of dialogue and plot (think Andrei Tarkovsky), the import - named best first film at Cannes 2005 - has to do with Sri Lanka's unending civil war and it's devastating effect on residents of a barren no man's land.

So deftly does Turn Me On, Dammit! approximate the experience of small-town teenagerhood that occasionally its slowness can frustrate.

Deeply mediocre and ultra-predictable.

In disturbing detail, we see these aimless kids, who often appear to be 10 years old - or younger! - as they beg for money and food, sniff glue, sleep under bridges in cardboard boxes and fight off predators.

It's not much fun to watch people go to raves. And it's even less fun to listen to people talk about how much fun it is to go to raves.

Despite its shock value, Thirteen rises above dysfunctional-family-drama cliches, thanks to the truthfulness of its script and the keen eye of a sympathetic director.

Refreshingly flirts with a very un-Disney political incorrectness.

Succinct yet detailed storytelling, evocative cinematography (by Ellen Kuras) and arresting central performances add up to a trio of engaging character portraits.

Disney's best comedy in years.

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

Frustratingly superficial.

Ultimately, Sleep Tight makes a sounder case for nocturnal Webcams than the "Paranormal Activity" franchise ever could.

An intense but fairly brief battle scene near the start reminds us of the unique horrors of this war. But the hokey music played over it hints that the film is going to try too hard to touch us. And it soon does.

Weisberg is nonjudgmental, allowing his subjects to deliver the message that, for far too many people, the American dream is more of a nightmare.

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 example of style over substance. There's lots of slo-mo and jittery hand-held camera work, and references to the French New Wave (especially François Truffaut), but little depth.

At its best, the film just sits back and lets the weird times roll.

Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar offers up a grisly Halloween trick-and-treat in his first full-out horror movie, an eye-popping and genuinely shocking gender-bending twist on Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo.''

Curse of the Golden Flower could also be called "Curse of 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.' " In other words, it is yet another attempt to cash in on the success of Ang Lee's 2000 martial-arts epic, which will go down in the history books as one of the most overrated films of the decade.

Features crisp dialogue and understated humor, played out by an attractive young cast. Audiences bred on Hollywood romances might find the film too chatty and contemplative. To them I say: Get over it, kids!

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

The exhilarating documentary Sunshine Superman, which melds gorgeous aerial photography of Boenish’s jumps with sublime musical cues, finds in Boenish a kind of poet-adventurer, equal parts pixie and desperado.

Enlightening.

A gentle comedy, brimming with hope and faith in human resilience.

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.

Watching it is like being the only non-stoned person in the room as someone tells a long, long story.

Chiara Mastroianni, whose mom, Catherine Deneuve, starred in Demy's "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964), appears here as Julie's sister. Vive la New Wave.

Tackling serious issues with humor and understanding, the film portrays Mona's woes as a microcosm of the entire mess in the Middle East.