John Hawkes has, until now, been known primarily as the skilled character actor who brought an earthy authenticity to roles on TV's "Deadwood" and the Oscar-nominated "Winter's Bone." With The Sessions, he makes his mark as a bona fide member of screen acting's elite. And he does it while barely moving a muscle.

The film that results from Jacquet's application is gorgeous and even inspiring, a tale of loyalty hard-tested and hard-earned, a sumptuous travelogue, and a reminder that some of the critters with whom we share the planet are, in ways, as complex in their feelings as any human being.

A riveting and impeccably researched documentary.

A tender and affirmative movie, if never a transporting one.

An exhilarating slap in the face, bracing and sexy, smart and visceral, stylish and raw -- the advent of a fabulously exciting new moviemaking talent.

It's a tiny story, told on an intimate scale, and it is rich in emotion, specificity and care.

Pride should leave audiences smiling and inspired. But it would have been a much more groundbreaking film if it had been released 30 years ago.

Cheadle's performance elevates Hotel Rwanda, making it a film that does justice to the tragedy it commemorates.

Rarely has a documentary subject projected such palpable fear and anxiety as Joan Rivers in Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.

The film is filled with fascinating, static set-ups, beautiful but never fussy or artificial.

It's so spry and lively and warm that you want to dance to it.

Uses a deft mix of archival footage and interviews with historians and some very articulate Panther veterans.

This is one of the Duke's better Westerns. [14 Oct 2005, p.47]

Here the homages/critiques of old craft and form are often laughably mangled, and nothing sexy, profound or illuminating results. For all its prettiness, it's the sort of picture that gives the arthouse a bad name.

Twisty pulp entertainment at its highest level.

If there's one thing missing, it's a sense of purposeful, immediate outrage. You can't help but wonder why this film wasn't made 20 years ago, when it could have saved these men some time behind bars.

Controversy aside, there's no denying that Kinsey was a pivotal figure in 20th-century America, and one whose fascinating story makes for a fascinating film.

If dissonance is your dish, you'll find Beautiful People tempting indeed.

Little spectacle but much bittersweet sensitivity.

It's all jolly bad fun, but the primo aspect of the exercise is the phenomenally intense performance by Kingsley as a careening sociopath who is every bit as dangerous to his friends as to his foes.

An engaging chronicle not only of a memorable game but also of an era that seems at once more innocent and combustible than our own.

The dose of reality is bracing and welcome after all the hothouse talk that preceeded it. Dear White People is a first feature, lively and intelligent and thought-provoking, by a writer-director whose best movies are yet to come.

An engaging exercise in mature poignancy, existential consciousness and deadpan drollery, Broken Flowers is a return by Jarmusch to the road movie structure of such films as "Stranger Than Paradise," "Night on Earth" and "Dead Man."

It's no insult to the rest to say that this is one of those films that sells itself on the strength of a single performance.

It's duck soup for cinephiles.

Like "Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers," it fills in our sketchy impression of that famously reticent generation of ordinary young men who were asked by a frightened world to accomplish an extraordinary feat. In this case, the homage takes the form not of a photograph or a statue but of a deeper, more sympathetic understanding of their experience. A finer tribute is hard to imagine.

Youth may be wasted on some of the young, but the two aspiring Norwegian novelists at the center of Reprise, director Joachim Trier's debut feature, try desperately to avoid that particular cliche.

A fascinating and frustrating film in turns, created out of scorching passions and built around a fascinating performance but rambling and choppy in the telling. It can overwhelm you and puzzle and repel you, sometimes within moments.

As the film accrues intensity and awakes the demon lurking inside its protagonist, you can see it as something more than a retro-cool crime story. Rather, it's a parable of good and evil and the nature of man.

It's a film possessed of its own force, wit and style, and it builds to a rousing climax that absolutely pays off in crowd-pleasing fashion. It knows what it is, doesn't try to be what it's not, and hits you with drop-dead force. In short, it's terrific.

Highly entertaining chronicle of a dream unfilmed.

It's a treat to be diverted by a film that actually has a brain.

The real star is Attah, a Ghanaian street kid plucked from obscurity, who imbues Agu with just the right mix of terror, brutality and the last remaining vestiges of boyish innocence.

Lacks the poetic and romantic resonance of "Crouching Tiger," but it's got kicks aplenty -- of both the physical and the sensational kind -- and it lands them again and again.

In the annals of monster movies, one name stands above all the rest, way above: Godzilla.

The combined effect is, as I say, small but sincere. McCarthy may prove to have something bigger in him, or he may be a miniaturist content to build little stories and fill them with all the humanity they can bear. If that's the case, there are far less worthy ways to spend a career.

There are more compelling stories to be found in the comic book world, and there are more expressive directors than Jon Favreau. But on the bases of wit, verve, spirit and whiz-bangery, it's pretty tough to find fault with.

Impressive and engrossing as it is, the reality alone is not what makes Salaam Bombay so compelling. Nair tells an interesting episodic story, and her leading lad is a natural actor. [05 Nov 1988, p.C06]

Plot takes a back seat to style and attitude, as it often does in Jarmuch's world, which can make the last half-hour of the movie drag a bit. But when that means getting to hang out with two fascinating creatures of the night, played by two fascinating performers, that's a perfectly valid trade-off.

The sense of visual texture is vivid. The cast performs as openly and energetically as if they were making the film for a Western audience. [03 May 1991, p.21]

Bell does a fantastic job of telling a thoroughly feminist story without being strident or didactic.

A film this heartfelt and intelligent about social justice will never be unimportant, but it feels especially relevant today.

The black-and-white cinematography and silent-film feel are haunting and nostalgic, and Aurora's story encapsulates a broader, bittersweet truth about the perils of tinted memory.

The length and delay of the project is evident from Brian Eno's participation. He composed and produced the subtle, evocative musical score for the film. [31 March 1990, p.C08]

The apes and the special effects team are the real stars of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Searing, intense and unrelenting, Affliction moves to the deepest centers of experience and desire and brings its characters to unflinching life.

It's a moderately compelling historical record, but of far more interest as an artifact than a film.

It proves the power of a good story, both to entertain us and to allow us to process unpleasant truths.

The film moves with strange, creepy energy and is populated by characters who delicately walk a line between charm and grotesquerie. It's a treat.

The clichés at its core make Metalhead something less than a full-bore, head-banging triumph. But it does perform the service of reminding us that even Judas Priest is capable of saving souls, and any film that features a cross-generational dance-off to Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" can't be all bad.

To follow up his superb "The Host," director Joon-ho Bong has crafted a remarkable film about love, faith, determination, guilt, and honor, a full-blooded, constantly inventive movie that enthralls, entertains, horrifies and never lets go its grip.

That rarest of movie biographies: a warts-and-all exploration of the life and times of its subject.

A vibrant, multicharacter film that entertains, disorients and enlightens.

It doesn't break ground like "Seven" or "Fight Club"; it's not a thrill ride like "Panic Room." But it's a mature, thoughtful and full-bodied movie that compensates for the demands it makes with the rewards of craftsmanship, rigor, skill and art.

This much is guaranteed: You won't leave thinking you've seen the like before.

Whether your tastes are delicate or coarse, whether you prefer the ballet or horror movies, there is plenty in the film for you.

A drab, gloomy drama that doesn't provide any real enlightenment about why something so awful could happen.

There seems to be less acting going on and more being, which not only makes this an enormously affecting penultimate performance (Gandolfini’s final film, “Animal Rescue,” will be released next year), but reinforces the brilliance of the darker work for which he will no doubt remain best known.

I give the slight edge to the first movie because I prefer Boyle's craft to Fresnadillo's, but the action is more intense here, and I greeted the thought of a third film -- virtually assured in the closing shots -- with a little yip of "Yes!" Likely you will, too.

About as good a movie as you could have hoped for. Really good. Hole-in-one good.

Anderson, possessed of an eerily Edwardian aspect, is superb, luminous and knowing and convincingly proud and desperate as the situation requires.

Can a movie about such a fellow and such a fate be lovely? And can it uplift? Control is and, in its artfulness, does.

The film and characters aren't really down on men. They're in a desert. Almost everything that's good or useful is somewhere else. What is in the desert in ``Gas Food'' is a fractured family that is a great experience for the viewer. [9 Oct 1992, p.AE15]

Fact is, Starting Out is pretty dry stuff as a movie, even as it's enlivened by vivid acting.

Intense, well-acted love story.

The action is fast, tough, energetic and extravagant. It is smoothly and stylishly made but more inscrutable than intended. [28 June 1989, p.D05

Pennebaker, a veteran documentarian who has filmed concerts (``Monterey Pop''), Bob Dylan on tour (``Don't Look Back'') and political showdowns (``Crisis,'' about the battle between John F. Kennedy and George Wallace over desegregation at the University of Alabama), works in purist cinema-verite style. Camera and sound record what happens, the film is edited, music is added, and that's it. There's no Voice of God narrator, and not much in the way of context. When this technique really works, it can be as raw as life. When the filmmakers aren't so lucky, it comes off as sketchy, focused more on sensations than information. [6 Feb 1994, p.B01]

Precious can’t be endorsed as entertainment: the circumstances and incidents and emotions in the film are far too dark and painful. But there is exhilaration in its daring, in its craft and in the powerhouse work of its principal actresses.

You might not be able to picture yourself in such a life, but you'll be glad that it persists.

Even the finest troupe of thespians would be wasted without Allen's guiding hand as writer and director. But Blue Jasmine, which might rank among Allen's 10 best films, shows what can happen when it all comes together.

The sheer volume of amazing things that del Toro is able to mine from his unconscious and render plausibly on the screen is remarkable. Hellboy II feels pretty sequel-y, as these things go, but there's a lot in it that has no precedent of any kind, anywhere, ever. That stuff makes it worthwhile.

There are laughs and moments of pain and many instances of embarrassing (and deeply human) behavior throughout, but there's also delicacy and grace.

The film is masterful in many ways, and brilliantly acted by its lead player, Eriq Ebouaney, but it's often overly dense and fast with information, background and ideas.

The results are inspiring, demonstrating that an artistic eye is an innate thing.

Only in its final moments does Breathe extend its reach beyond experiences that most, if not all, teens (and ex-teens) can relate to. When it does, it might just leave you breathless.

Anderson delivers a satisfyingly quirky, cinematically masterful valentine that contains more seeds of truth about the human heart than a hundred big fat Greek comedies.

Director Bent Hamer ("Factotum") keeps things drily amusing throughout.

Don't let its age fool you -- Wings is no rickety antique. Wellman' s aerial battle scenes remain impressive, even in the digital age. Bow is charming and terribly funny, especially when trying to rescue Rogers from a Parisian brothel. The boys are quite good, too, but their efforts pale next to a brief cameo by Gary Cooper, who positively smolders as the existential rookie who makes his own luck.

The clues keep leading to increasingly darker thickets. [27 Apr 2001]

While terrific entertainment, The Counterfeiters fails to stir the soul.

I wish Zenovich wasn't forced to skate surfaces when it comes to Polanski's perspective -- his interviews are vague and archival -- but she skillfully works around him to craft a maddening look at one of Hollywood's most infamous trials.

It's a riveting character study/soap opera.

The Dark Knight Rises is reasonably accomplished as a gigantic superhero movie; as a meditation on capital and its personal and social discontents, it's strictly from the funny pages.

A profoundly anxious picture that from its first frame holds you, clenched, never able to let go, even after its unresolved coda.

The film has visual and verbal flair, spry energy and deep wit.

This smart crime story from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier avoids wading into the waters of righteousness that drown many violent movies.

To dismiss Ex Machina as just another robot movie would be like calling the Grand Canyon a hole in the ground. It's one of the most original, smart, thought-provoking science fiction movies of recent years.

Startling and amazing -- a cinematic hammer to the skull.

In Morvern Callar, the subject matter may be morbid and unappealing, but the director handles it with a visual poetry and an eye for hidden beauty that marks a filmmaker of the first order.

Snipes and Sciorra give fine matched performances. They make the impulse and the complex following relationship credible so that it matters what happens to these pawns in a game beyond their grasp. [7 June 1991, p.B06]

We've seen documentaries with more daring themes, greater drama, sharper craft and timelier subject matter. But few have been as affecting as The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

By an order of magnitude --- the strongest (or at least the most mature, subtle and emotional) entry in the series thus far.

You will be surprised by the film's poignancy when the winner is announced. You may even get choked up. You will care that much.

In the rather weak ending, we aren't sure what will become of Peter and Santino.

Set entirely in a police station, the play shows both the drama and routine of police work. Kingsley made them all eloquent in a snappy-patter way. Kirk Douglas gives a powerhouse performance as the detective who is wound too tight for his own good. [26 Sep 1997, p.34]

It's a pleasant, engaging version of probably the closest thing to a sitcom the Bard ever penned.

Shot on location in New York by director Ted Tetzlaff, it's tense and fresh and, at 73 minutes, remarkably taut. [14 Sep 2012]

What's different here is the setting: Instead of modern-day misogyny, the heroine of The Last Mistress is up against its 19th-century version.