At once a deeply personal film and an important historical document, The Man Nobody Knew leaves us with an incomplete portrait of a man. Did Colby have a moral core? Did he know what was truth, and what was a lie? Did he sanction assassination plots? Did he love his family? Was he even capable of love?

A crowd-pleaser of immense proportions.

The tone is surreal, at once visceral and clinical, making Bronson an unsettling experience: savage, disturbing, and yet somehow fascinating.

This beautifully taut and terrifying thriller is faithful to its source in just about every way that matters.

For its intended audience, Horton's agenda is overt: Listen, be a friend, and most important - have fun!

Enormously satisfying.

If Macbeth comes off at times like a Classics Illustrated comic-book adaptation (there is one, from 1955), it can also be quite moving, quite troubling, haunting, even.

The two leads, Edgerton and Hardy, pull off their respective roles - rising above the cliches and the melodrama - with ferocity and focus.

DuVernay has confidence in her actors that is reciprocated in kind. Richardson-Whitfield gives a remarkably empathetic performance.

Aronofsky has fashioned a chilling vision that lives up to the caustic irony of its title and gives us a nightmare that is not lightly forgotten.

So gin-and-tonic dry, so deceptive in its deadpan-ness, that it's not always clear that Julian Fellowes is having fun. But he is.

A satisfyingly moody, melancholy, madcap live-action romp.

The structure of Lelouch's pedal-to-the-metal story commands attention and suspense. The three principals are enormously engaging, and Gérard de Battista's succulent cinematography creates the sense of actually being there.

A bit of a one-joke wonder.

Although the pervading mood of Twin Falls Idaho - a beautifully shot, noirish thing - is one of sadness and loss, the Polishes' film is playful, too.

Searing and hypnotic docudrama.

Foxx makes what he does look effortless. He's the reason to see Collateral, as he walks into the frame and walks off with the picture.

Remember the name Shohreh Aghdashloo. The heartbreakingly fine Iranian actress is only a subsidiary character in House of Sand and Fog...But she is the soul of this pungent film.

Like its music, the film's emotions proceed from lament to screaming screed to chorus of hope.

One of the most suspenseful, terrifying, and devilishly original horror pics in recent memory.

Training Day has the best performances and worst third act of any movie you're likely to see this year.

Spinney comes across as a man whose warm spirit is literally at the core of the loving, if loopy Big Bird.

Part of its appeal lies in the truth and specificity behind the clunky presentation.

Best of all is the ride through the architect's own domestic space in Santa Monica, dubbed by locals "the house that built Gehry."

This Santa Claus story is for a midnight movie crowd, not the kiddie matinees.

A super-taut and superbly acted three-character piece.

Black Book doesn't let the grim facts of the Holocaust get in the way of some ripping pulp.

Those who give into its spell will find this a gentle, moving, and deeply intelligent portrait of the awkward, fumbling steps teens make into adulthood, and the promise of first love that draws them on.