A nearly perfect piffle in an age when hardly any movie seems to know how to play the light notes well.

It's a film that triumphs in small ways and satisfyingly demonstrates how our human nature is based on both the eccentricity of our hearts and the quirky workings of our heads.

Director Jan Hrebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky ("Divided We Fall," "Up and Down") have crafted another well-observed tale, one with no heroes or villains, just people trying to make something of the situations in which they find themselves. And, with a nicely ambiguous ending, it's drama enough.

The whole thing unfolds with sadistic precision, but Edgerton's expert manipulation makes it a fun ride nonetheless.

A fair amount of traumatic stuff happens in 2 Autumns, 3 Winters... But writer/director Sébastien Betbeder's French seriocomic romance still feels light (or emotionally distant, depending), thanks to the film's fusillade of stylistic tics.

It's the most charming and buoyant film Spielberg's ever made.

Hold onto your hats, True Believers! This one's got the most massive, momentous montage of Marvel's merry mutants ever mashed into one movie!

As it stands, it entertains quite a bit, frustrates too much, and leaves you feeling slightly undernourished, like a meal of tasty but not filling hors d'oeuvres.

Compelling both as a chronicle of guerrilla filmmaking and as a son's movie about his father, it presents a clear-eyed, warts-and-all view of artistic obsession.

Trainwreck doesn't try to reinvent the wheel so much as rotate the tires of comedy.

The timing and cutting of the film are terrific, the build-up to an absurdly hilarious climax is just right, and the performances are near perfect.

A deep and extraordinary film that isn't afraid to look evil in the face -- or, for that matter, to acknowledge that evil can be more complicated and even attractive than we'd want to admit. It's very, very difficult to watch, but you shouldn't miss it.

A funny, puzzling movie ambiguous enough to be engaging and oddly moving.

A revealing, compelling, scabrous and funny look into a system characterized by through-the-looking-glass logic and Kremlin-style secrecy.

Directed, written by and starring Allen Baron, it's a totally absorbing picture: dark, curt, rancid and lean in the best noir style. [28 Apr 1998, p.C01]

A volatile film. But it's not a specifically political one. With only superficial alteration, it could be set in Cold War Berlin, or colonial Boston, or any time and place where the dynamics of power conspire to create an atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust.

Most impressively, "Rogue Nation" keeps the body count minimal.

Engaging characters, an unforced pro-girl agenda and amusing songs make this at least the equal to last year’s “Brave.”

Waitress is strange and sexy and personal and wonderful -- a weird little slice of pure feeling -- and it's horrible that Shelly never got the chance to see it delight a mass audience.

Even if Prodigal Sons is ultimately more buildup than payoff, Reed is a nimble enough filmmaker to roll with unexpected developments and make poignant connections between her family's unremarkable past and its extraordinary, wrenching present.

Wiig, following the big-screen breakthrough of "Bridesmaids," has dipped her toes into dramatic waters, but for Hader, The Skeleton Twins is a revelation.

Inventive, droll and sharp, the film is rich in comic darkness but quite humane and genuine as well.

Me and Earl is smart and appealing, but it spends way too much effort saying "I'm not like that" when it really is.

Director Douglas Tirola threads his way through a minefield of egos and grudges in his interviews and does some interesting stuff with animation in his presentation of some of the magazine pieces.

Moore's movies may not always be fully accurate in their details, but they almost always spur vital national conversation.

This is harsh and acid stuff, but it's exhilarating on a number of counts. For one thing, Jenkins moves with real authority between scenes of low life, tender intimacy and gripping violence; made on the cheap, her film has the iron certainty of the best art.

Takes a little while to find its way but becomes steadily more compelling as Lenny's character and considerable issues come into focus.

Lots of people have crazy stuff happen to them once or twice. Some people are magnets for crazy stuff. And then there's Joyce McKinney, who is like a factory where magnets for crazy stuff are made and warehoused.

Frankenweenie seems like a genuine effort to pass along this love to the next generation, and if one kid who sees it goes home and demands to watch another movie featuring a giant turtle, it will have done its job.

Scott superbly re-creates the sense of individuals facing astounding odds, with barely a few minutes' respite over a 12-hour battle.

The best stuff in Wild is the simplest. The movie is at its strongest when it's just Strayed out in the wilderness, seeing what there is to see and finding the strength to keep going. Witherspoon is excellent in the lead, delivering a contemplative performance and appearing comfortable with just being by herself.

There's a wonderful chemistry between them -- though the film wisely allows Duplass and Delmore an equally intimate connection. Choices like that enable the modest Humpday to capture the lives of its protagonists more credibly than any Hollywood-manufactured comedy of recent vintage.

By presenting murderers as actors and then filming those actors discussing their sins, the line between performance and soul-searching blurs in unnerving ways.

Polisse won a jury prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, but it's only a patchwork success.

If the movie is largely familiar, its passion and craft are noteworthy.

This is the first full-length movie about his painting and his being that gets anywhere near close to comprehending both.

It's not life-changing stuff, but it's brisk and clever and funny and avoids some of the predictable pitfalls that hobble so many films of its ilk.

It's a remarkable, thoughtful achievement that will make you want to watch it twice. You should.

Warm, winning and clever.

This is a deeply felt work of art in the form of a big, brassy movie-movie.

If you think the "Star Wars" prequels are a disease, then Serenity is the cure.

For Whitaker's performance alone, Last King is a substantial piece of work. Otherwise, the film is estimable but not quite great.

With its weary introductory and concluding passages, it announces itself as the most typical of fare, a real letdown after that stirringly fresh central part.

Powerfully explores the struggles faced by those whom DNA testing has exonerated after years behind bars.

Reaches truly terrifying heights as it becomes clear how possible the worst outcome can be. Like "Pan's Labyrinth," this is a movie about children made very much for adults.

Finely etched and acted but too often limpid and punchless in its impact.

It's not deep for a second -- indeed, it repels depth deliberately as if allergic to it -- but it's as swell a swell time as grown-ups could want at the movies.

If you feel, like me, kinship with this essential building block of music, you owe it to yourself -- and to the Ramones -- to see this film.

One of the most joyous, diverting and original mainstream American movies in years.

Invigorating, blistering and chilling.

The result is a solid film, but one that remains more interesting than intense.

Some movies uses make-believe to make you squirm or cry or rise to righteous anger. Bully does all of that with reality.

This is a violent, romantic, beautifully shot and performed film -- with brutal battle scenes and charisma-bomb performances by Asano as the future Khan and Honglei Sun as a rival chieftain and brother-in-arms.

With its protracted storytelling, its fuzzy philosophizing and its less-than-compelling leading man, it's far less gripping than the subject matter deserves.

It's a film with a silly story, and it's been dubbed laughably into English. Yet it's a transporting bit of fluff, full of zest, miraculous physicality and cheeky humor.

Like "The Reader," this film treads unsteadily over the terrain of German guilt.

The film, built around McKellen's magnificent performance, is a sleek and deceptively artful work, a bio-pic that manages to encompass the whole of a man's rich life by concentrating solely on the final months of it.

Ultimately, though, this is a story about a conflicted, intelligent, flawed, moral woman making her way through her life.

Hitchcock has fun playing with Grant’s suave onscreen image, pulling the rug out from under our expectations, only to keep replacing it and yanking it over and over again.

As the eye-opening documentary Stonewall Uprising shows through interviews and frequently horrifying old footage, homosexuality in this country was once a highly illegal behavior, widely viewed, at the very least, as a mental disorder, possibly even psychopathic.

It’s disappointing that, with such talent and seriousness of intent, the movie ultimately doesn't have much new to say. To paraphrase “The Simpsons”’ Milhouse, it started out like "Bonnie and Clyde," but instead it ended in tragedy.

One of the great achievements of In Darkness, is in creating a sense of life in the sewers.

How pleasant to report, then, that a new romantic comedy -- small, smart, funny, tender and dear -- should emerge from a pair of filmmaking brothers still in their 30s and with a distinct indie film pedigree that informs, while not dominating, their work.

It's almost numbingly sad, but you won't regret watching -- and you'll surely never forget it.

Bounces along magnetically even when the storytelling goes a bit flat.

This is more Errol Morris' or Truman Capote's territory than Herzog's, and his patient, determinedly respectful interviews with members of the American underclass bear a whiff of European condescension.

Nolan takes big chances with his actors, his action scenes, and his pacing -- you'll feel all 169 minutes in your backside -- and the payoffs come slowly and sometimes not at all. It's frustrating because there's so much to look at, so much money well spent in every frame, but Interstellar wears out its audience long before it ends.

An unforgettable experience.

The central figure in The Attack is the very picture of a tolerant, integrated future for the Mideast. When a horrific blast kills 17 people and sends dozens of wounded to his hospital, he's elbow-deep trying to save the victims, even the one who refuses help from an Arab.

Intimate, funny, moving and incredibly rousing -- even if you're allergic to sports movies.

This is decidedly not for everyone, but many consider it an offbeat classic. [03 Nov 2006, p.45]

It's fun to watch The New Girlfriend the way it's fun to drink a glass of Champagne, and about as memorable.

Appropriate music, lovely cinematography and stellar performances by both a subtly moving Neill and a likable, barrel-chested super-American Warburton.

This is some of the finest acting you will see on-screen, maybe ever. Single-handedly, Washington turns The Hurricane from so-so to must-see.

An exquisite, ecstatic film, crude in its characterizations and plotting, yes, but extraordinary in its capacity for elation and its hard-earned sentimentality.

By today's standards the sexuality is fairly discreet, the color cinematography is brilliant and the sense of absurdity marks this as one of Meyer's bust, er, best, efforts. [22 Oct 2004, p.39]

The result is a genuinely pleasing kung fu movie that kids and grown-ups can enjoy.

As you can reliably expect of a work by Alan Bennett, The History Boys is bubbly, witty, sneaky-smart entertainment with the additional virtues of heart and cunning.

The most striking thing about it is what it's not...a richly atmospheric film that races surefootedly through complexities of data and emotion like a spy movie and not at all like a sentimental sob story.

Long and slow, granted, but it's so peppered with moments of realism and nuanced craft that it continually rewards careful viewing.

It’s not a great film, but parts of it are outstanding.

The juvenile performances are impressive, as they usually are in foreign films, and Spiridonov handles some grueling material with impressive maturity. But the movie comes undone with an abrupt and preposterous finale.

The performances are solid and subtle, with Depardieu growing nicely into the brooding, smarter-than-he-looks roles his father tackled for years.

Convincing performances from Hemingway and the charmingly crabby Johnson and an unhurried pace ensure that Baker's film achieves its modest goals.

The result is a true conundrum: You can't say for sure if a scam is in play or if a genuine genius is being smeared. And the brilliance of the film is that it doesn't let you feel secure in choosing either side.

Phoenix makes an interesting case of Leonard's twitchiness and mooning, but neither Paltrow nor Shaw is particularly credible as a Brooklynite, and Rossellini and Moshonov seem like they've wandered in from another film altogether.

Some things in Sin City are almost too much to watch: the violence, the cruelty, the irredeemable evil. But it's irresistibly magnetic because it serves as a barely distorted mirror to our world.

Neil Young Journeys is the third documentary/concert film focusing on the great Canadian songwriter that director Jonathan Demme has made since 2006, and it's the weakest of the three, even as it sporadically charms.

A lovely film that requires a leisurely sit to think, Shower is not so much a shower as a bath, and a refreshing one at that.

The miracle of Some Kind of Monster is Berlinger and Sinofsky's ability to make us root for these self-absorbed man-children.

This is hair-raising, clever and winning entertainment. Even if his protagonists aren't entirely what they seem to be or think they are, Mr. Jones is, it's increasingly clear, the real thing.

Joe works better as a study of character and environment than as the thriller it tries to become in its final act.

That it's based on a true spying case seems almost incidental. The heart of the picture is the human drama.

Parker jams South Park with so much comic "stuff" that the effect is dizzying, at least for those who haven't left the auditorium in a huff before the end.

Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, a veteran of low-tech Dogme films, work wonders with a digital camera, pausing to take in the beauty of the countryside or an eerily empty London…It's virtuosic without ever quite being showy.

Collette proves herself worthy of carrying a movie with a performance that runs the gamut of human emotion without striking one false note.

It's a wonderful debut, despite all the pain you may feel watching it.

Thirty-five years later, Rene Laloux's surreal animated film remains a singular psychedelic experience. For the uninitiated, think Yellow Submarine but way more arty, trippy and funky. Highly recommended.