Math buffs will appreciate the inclusion of a brief and witty anecdote they may already know involving Ramanujan and the number 1,729. Well done.

A semi-autobiographical tale of addiction, anger and domestic violence, Nil by Mouth is as blunt and unsparing as a fist to the gut.

With “Young Woman and the Sea,” Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle finally gets the movie she deserves.

Gainsbourg is always going through a little more than she cares to tell the audience about, but the connection her character makes with Samba — real, complicated and not typical — is one of the movie’s highlights.

It's the content that makes this documentary fly. The documentary's only stumbling point is its dearth of historical context.

It's fresh, unexpected and goofy. It's not a smart career move, just a film that its director wanted to make for some crazy reason, and he made it.

Fortunately, director Thor Freudenthal (“Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters”) eventually finds some truth, thanks to an exceptional cast headlined by two rising dynamic young actors, Charlie Plummer and Taylor Russell.

Fun to watch although falling short of a real hoot, this latest in a barrage of family movies largely succeeds at keeping the kiddies entertained and their parents from nodding off.

While the documentary isn't as compelling as its source material, Abbas tells an interesting story about his incarceration.

Director Robert Mulligan exhibits the same sensitivity about young people and their foibles as he did in "To Kill a Mockingbird." In 1962. You never sense that he's making fun of Hermie or his pals. [08 Jul 2007, p.16]

An exciting thriller with good acting and a story that holds a lot of surprises and the interest of the viewer, even if it doesn't quite hold water. Or possibly because it doesn't hold water. [24 Apr 1992, p.C5]

It's doubtful that audiences go to animated features to hear movie stars talk. They go because a film sounds like fun and something their kids and maybe they themselves might enjoy. Bolt is all that and more.

Quibbling aside, Free Fire mainly works, as an indulgence in cinematic overkill for moviegoers who realize that sometimes too much is just enough.

Writer-director Lorene Scafaria based the movie on her own mother, and the clothes that Sarandon wears in the film actually belong to Scafaria’s mother. They fit Sarandon well, and so does the role.

Actor Woody Harrelson is in his full activist mode in this low-key and loose documentary.

Though the movie clocks in at just under three hours, it is -- aside from an occasional slow spot -- fascinating and exciting.

It’s a testimony to how much this is a live issue in Indonesia that some of the credits are listed simply as “anonymous.”

Achieves a rare interweaving of the darkly poetical and raspy, cockeyed comedy.

Apocalypse Now is a mixed bag, a product of excess and ambition, hatched in agony and redeemed by shards of brilliance. The new Redux version isn't a better film, but for Coppola fans and film lovers, it's essential viewing.

Monster House was designed as a family movie and a scary movie. It may scare children, but it won't terrify them. So it's no scarier than it should be.

Goes Hitchcock one better by imagining what it would be like if the master had the advantage of digital technology.

A mostly superb cast, superior special effects, a sparkling musical score and a fantasy-filled plot .

There are extraordinary and beautiful things in War Horse, enough of them to make the movie a pleasure and a worthwhile experience, though not enough to trick the eye or get you believing this movie hangs together.

There's great pleasure in watching a movie in which the director has thought out everything beforehand.

In Graduation, Mungiu takes a scalpel and dissects life in modern Romania. He shows what’s wrong with the government and the impact this has on people’s relationships.

Watching the film is like being at a freak show: You feel like a voyeur, yet you can't take your eyes off this Mommie Dearest or her childlike middle-aged daughter.

The director has a natural's gift for storytelling and eye for casting.

Life in remote parts of New Zealand must forge hardy souls, judging from the characters in Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

After a month, no one will talk about this movie, ever again. Still, with a picture like this, there's really only one question: Is it any fun? Yes. Lots. Definitely.

A solid WWII movie that's been lost among myriad others about the same war. [02 Jul 2006, p.28]

Compelling and frequently entertaining.

What makes it interesting is the story that the viewer must put together, of a model who lives her entire life -- or at least what we see of it -- in front of the camera.

It's compelling, emotionally exhausting terrain, and Altman delivers it in cold, blunt strokes. [22 Oct 1993]

Caruso, a very visual director, serves up some surprises and scares, and he's paced his movie briskly. You're out of this disturbing suburbia before you know it, shaken and even stirred.

The best part of the film is early on, when Innis Dagg’s story is enlivened by beautiful color 16mm footage she took in the 1950s and ’60s.

If you can buy the film’s unlikely core premise, you’ll be rewarded with persuasive speculative fiction in all its other aspects. Penna and company make it easy for audiences to do that, while putting four people whom they’ll come to really care about through all kinds of hell.

In his feature director debut, Grant Singer (previously a music video director who’s worked with artists from Sam Smith to Skrillex) adopts a measured pace that lends the movie a somber, mysterious aura. But he breaks that up with smart, psychologically insightful cutting.

You know how I realized I actually liked I Melt With You? I kept talking about it, and at one point, in the middle of mocking it, I accidentally referred to it as "a good picture." That's when I realized, yes, it really is good, albeit in ways that are different from other movies.

At its heart, The Babadook is a story of mother and son, whose relationship ultimately determines whether they survive the demon — or die trying.

The tone is low-key, and Franco never presses the audience. Instead, he lets scenes happen, avoiding close-ups and all other means of exaggeration or emphasis.

Miss Juneteenth, a Texas-shot film appropriately made available to stream on Friday, June 19 — the date of Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States — is a rich story of broken dreams, family struggle and emotional triumph that puts black Texas women in the center of the frame.

Portrayals of transgender people in movies and television are a vast and complex subject, but Netflix’s new documentary Disclosure does an admirable job of covering many issues and contradictions a century of mostly insensitive screen depictions have raised.

A remarkable treat. It contains information about the writer heretofore unknown, and though it’s a dramatic feature and not a documentary, it claims to tell the truth, without embellishment. Even better, it was written by someone who saw the events depicted firsthand.

Enlivens the classic premise of innocent-in-the-city by moving its archetypal characters in unexpected directions.

Turning the comic game slightly on its ear and injecting it into a romantic Western setting, Maverick, inspired by the old TV show, plays its ace for all it's worth. Ace, in this case, is fun. [20 May 1994, p.C1]

From the movie’s first minute, viewers will know they’re in the hands of a sure-footed storyteller.

A film that, despite its slight intentions, offers several lovely moments.

Once the focus switches to Venus, whatever is going on with Richard becomes secondary. In her scenes on the court, Sidney is able to convey the double quality of a killer in embryo and a vulnerable kid.

This is the second-best Spider-Man movie yet made. In the previous trilogy, only "Spider-Man 2" surpasses it.

The casting, at least, is magical. Plowright shows both her character's strength and her heartbreaking vulnerability, sometimes at once.

Hillcoat and Cave give us more than an action story. They create a world.

For sure, this is a cause movie - sometimes it even feels that way - in favor of charter schools and against the teachers unions. Still, Won't Back Down is reasonably fair in its approach.

The Truffle Hunters takes us to a part of the world where time appears to have stood still.

Riveting.

The film is sweet. Its observations of life in the aftermath of death ring true, especially for anyone who's traveled the contours of mourning. And although it doesn't rank among Crowe's greatest films, it's a better, tighter, more disarming piece of grief work than his baggy and zigzaggy "Elizabethtown."

In performance and rehearsal clips, Heymann’s saturated cinematography captures the raw physicality and emotion of Naharin’s work, and the way he cajoles, demeans and seduces his dancers.

The mix of comedy and drama is winning; Costner couldn't be better, and the little girl is a find.

A spirited adventure with generous romantic and comic charms.

The series suddenly springs back to life. It's delightful and exciting, with good jokes and fun characters. While it might lack the freshness of the first installment, the formula isn't stale, just familiar. And familiar in a cozy and pleasant way. [25 May 1990, p.E1]

The movie is a rendering of the internal landscape of a contemporary cowboy, with the complexities and ambiguities left intact. It’s a kind of parable, delivered in a manner that has nothing to do with preaching.

There are odd comic moments, but this is a bleak, nighttime, nightmare world, where the couple seem to have about the same chance at a happy outcome as the accident victims.

Walks a sometimes-shaky line between tenderness and schmaltz.

McKay doesn’t take sides in the immigration debate, although he is clearly sympathetic of these hard-working young men who experience great indignities to work jobs most of us would not want. His approach is more cinema verite than high-stakes drama. It is almost a gentle, sweet film.

This film is always pleasant to watch. It shows us that life has little detours, all the way to the end.

An inventive and caustic comedy that really does look like the thing it's mocking.

A wildly entertaining fantasy thriller that propels Russian cinema into the 21st century.

Director Joseph Kahn and writer Alex Larsen exhibit tremendous glee in their takedown of everything that even smacks of political correctness, though at two hours, that excitement causes much of the dramatic tension in the plot to dissipate before the climactic battles.

Though it becomes flimsy toward the end, it's a ripping yarn.

Twilight’s Kiss is a fragile film of quiet moments and tender feelings, and although it runs out of gas near the end, it takes us on an engaging journey.

An extraordinary and heartfelt film.

If this isn't the single best performance ever by a preadolescent male (Osment) in a motion picture, then it's tied for whatever is first.

There's a case to be made for The Real Cancun as a document of the mating dance as well as an unintentionally poignant film about the brevity of youth.

Refreshing and worth seeing.

Respect is not something viewers will find much of in The Wedding Ringer, nor propriety, nor any of those things that make for respectable family viewing. It’s just a funny, impolite, very not-for-kids romp that goes there.

It doesn’t ascend to the sky. It’s not profound or great. But Vigalondo takes Colossal to all sorts of unexpected places and then brings it home, intact.

A highly effective, psychological horror thriller.

It's warm, spontaneous and heartfelt. Zeffirelli cared about his memories, and he's done justice to them.

This is better than any of the "Twilights." It features a functioning creative imagination and lots of honest-to-goodness acting by its star, Jennifer Lawrence.

Phoenix is the perfect instrument for Aster’s bleak and self-destructive view of humanity. Consider “Eddington” a warning.

Shot primarily in Africa over the past year (primarily before the coronavirus pandemic swept the world), the big-budget film plays out like a collection of opulent music videos. It’s not a live concert film, but it does take cues from the theatrical pacing of Beyoncé’s tour performances.

An Irish drama that's a lot more sly and a lot less straightforward than it appears on the surface.

At its best, The Great Hack will alarm you, infuriate you, and — hopefully — activate you.

Maleficent imparts a feeling of enchantment. Here is a world that's strange and beautiful.

It does provide audiences with the satisfaction of seeing and hearing an important truth expressed, and that's better than making you feel good. That's making you feel something.

So there’s a lot going on here, and director Joel Crawford and his teams efficiently keep the story moving along. There’s a wonderful “Flintstones” versus “Jetsons” vibe, the characters are, as usual, appealing.

The casting is carefully considered, as well, from Willis, whose Old Joe is even more dangerous than Young Joe, to Emily Blunt, who goes American this time and plays a young mother with a winning warmth and vulnerability.

The script stays on safe, formulaic ground, but it’s effective — and somehow breathes new life into a franchise that had become a junk heap.

It's a generous tale, told through big performances by a talented cast, presenting a range of colorful characters that only Dickens could have created.

Thirteen Lives deserves to be seen. The only question is whether audiences will be up for it. I saw it on a huge screen and had to occasionally remind myself that if it got really overwhelming, I could always close my eyes. It’s that intense.

Brought off with such skill and commitment that there isn't any time to snicker at its obviousness.

Koolhoven is able to strip away both visually and mentally our idealized cinematic notions of how the resistance fighters lived. It's a lonely existence. It's stark and it's scary. And it makes for a compelling movie.

Costner and Lowther are a winning pair, and Eastwood, an elegant director, takes his time telling the story, seasoning it with frequent humor and avoiding the logistics of the manhunt. [24 Nov 1993, p.E1]

Devotion earnestly tells that story in a stolid, straightforward manner, flying admirably high while knowing when to remain grounded.

The action scenes are imaginative and elaborate without seeming fake. Nothing is belabored, and the stakes never stop escalating.

This movie is not recommended for people who need to know what's going on. The Woman in the Fifth, an English and French language film from the Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, is watchable and enjoyable, but it's fairly impenetrable, and it gets more peculiar as it goes along.

Smart, sedate and well acted.

What Sweetgrass lacks in context it makes up for in voyeuristic camera work that reveals a gritty beauty in the landscape, along with the human and livestock characters.

Ends up musing perceptively on the American dream of wanderlust and its unintended consequences.