There is something, well, awesome about watching these vivid young women realize that music isn't always made on computers as they give their bands cool names like the Ready and get onstage after five days and ferociously sing earnest lyrics they wrote themselves.

There's something personal going on, something deeper than slapstick. It makes a sometimes flat film shimmer.

This is a beautiful, moving picture about a love affair between two very different Chinese men.

Agreeably entertaining, peppered with rich laughs and very nice actorly touches.

An exquisitely crafted film filled with little shocks and deep echoes of humanity. It'll stick with you.

Watching it is like filling up on baklava: Later you may feel really guilty, but you don't exactly complain while it's going on.

An impressive work in many regards -- the acting, the photography, the pace -- but it would've been even more so had Egoyan gone with his gut and been less indulgent of his brain.

A compelling examination of a complex topic.

A fascinating, masterly, frustrating film, it only passingly touches on the heart and sharpness of Anderson's previous work and rather brings to mind the famous complaint of the emperor in "Amadeus": "too many notes."

This isn't a crime comedy, exactly. It's a slightly absurd, minimalist noir, in the ZIP code of "Blood Simple" and "Fargo."

It's a thriller, and a large one, and it's got a couple of terrific performers in the center.

Graham is the most affecting character by far, having returned to India for the first time in 40 years to track down an old lover. His story unfolds in surprising, deftly handled ways, and could easily have justified a film of its own.

If your tolerance for envelope-pushing crudeness and deadpan delirium allows it, this crass comedy might be just what the gastroenterologist ordered.

What Johansson does in Lucy won't win her any prizes, but it establishes her ability to carry a movie that has some ideas, however half-baked, and has nothing to do with her obvious sex appeal.

Effortless fun: It plays like a giddy horror movie with its laughs wrapped in couture gowns.

The script's contrivances and the director's lax handling aren't enough to hold you.

It does a nice job of balancing stillness and action, but it hits weakly when it hits at all and falls short of the small grandness to which it aspires.

Works like a funnier "Austin Powers" -- you laugh just enough to want to see the whole thing again.

Slight but winning.

Pierce never pulls these pieces together satisfyingly, and the result is a botched effort to put a human face on a genuinely alarming situation.

It's contrived, but that doesn't keep it from being kinda nifty.

Really a vehicle for Dunst, which would be fine if only the vehicle were more inspired.

There's little that will surprise anyone who's seen or read Grisham's work before, but it plays with slick competence, and there's that killer-diller showdown in the middle as a payoff.

It's the type of film that may be forgiven its imperfections when they are compared with the vastness of its accomplishments.

There's almost nothing to grab onto. It's like a gorgeous graphic novel with a protagonist and story that vanish utterly from the mind as soon as the last page is turned.

In spite of its familiar outlines, director Rob Meyer's first feature benefits from an authentic script and performances.

At its more abstract moments, it's a treat for the eye and the soul.

Schlesinger's adaptation of Nathaniel West's classic novella, the Hollywood of the 1930s is decidedly as ruinous for its denizens as the Hollywood of the 1970s. [28 Jul 2000]