It’s still an unusually good picture and worth the time (though you could skip the last 30 minutes and still get all you’re going to get from it). But if only writer-director Ruben Ostlund (“The Square”) had figured out a graceful way to end his movie at, say, the 100-minute point. He’d have had something extraordinary.

A curious thing about "Revenge" is that auto executives who might have been portrayed as villains in Paine's earlier documentary are likable characters here.

In the end, Let Him Go is like a Southern Gothic, only set in the Northwest. It’s just a genre movie that delivers the goods, but the restraint and emotional insight of the direction and the quality of the performances bring it up an essential extra notch.

A compelling Irish drama.

The film is a fascinating look at how a true event can become a media event — and how courting the media can have good and bad results so mixed up that it’s hard to know where the good influence stops and the corrupting influence starts.

Outstanding in support roles are Alison Lohman, playing a friend of Jerry's, and John Carroll Lynch, playing a neighbor who befriends Jerry.

A compelling and visually arresting drama.

The new John Waters movie, Cry-Baby, which opens today at the Kabuki, isn't daring or even daringly undaring. It's a spoof of those dull, corny musicals from the '50s and early '60s and is just as dull and safe as the kind of movie it mocks. I fell asleep, and I haven't dozed off in a theater since ''Dream Lover,'' a Kristy McNichol effort from 1986. [6 Apr 1990, p.E1]

Exciting, truly harrowing and smartly directed apocalyptic thriller from Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball"). It's the scariest zombie movie in many years.

Maria, despite being occasionally slow, is a weird, good movie.

Though it has merit and is recommended for the curious and adventurous, Joe Swanberg's film wears out its welcome about halfway through its 83 minutes. I'd say it doesn't go anywhere, but that's the point of these movies.

The result is a comedy that's low budget in all the right ways - so hilarious, testosterone-charged and yet cringe-inducing to watch that the result is almost exhausting.

The film takes its time detailing his mundane activities, often withholding the kind of information audiences usually expect, and it's Puiu's talent to transform it all into a highly disturbing portrait - both of an individual and a society.

An exceptionally perceptive film about what it's like to be 19 years old.

Always watchable, and occasionally great. And that’s probably more than even the most forgiving former Shyamalan fan ever thought they’d see again.

Like “Nobody” and “Nobody 2”, “Normal” is a satisfyingly amusing, get-in and get-out (all three films are about 90 minutes) piece of violent mayhem.

It provides unvarnished behind-the-scenes access to a presidential campaign, showing aspects of the process that we would never see otherwise.

It's a distinctly French feeling -- an air of caprice and light expectations -- and a perfect prologue to a delightful film.

It's the work of a very young filmmaker (Lerman is in his late 20s), promising if finally unsatisfying.

A delightful coming-of-age movie that teeters on contrivance but never topples.

From time to time, there are the requisite cutesy boy-and-his-wolf moments, but for the most part, the film is harrowing, suspenseful and gritty — and a perfect vehicle for impressive 3-D effects that bring to life an exquisitely beautiful but unforgiving land.

Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence are back together and give both of their careers some new life in this sentimental comedy.

L'amour Fou engages and moves viewers in two distinct ways. It engages us by showing us something we don't know about that's interesting. It moves us by showing us something we immediately understand, that has nothing to do with being a big shot and everything to do with being just another person at the mercy of time.

Chef Flynn seems more suited for an hour-long show on the Food Network. Its 82-minute running time, although short for a feature film, seems too bloated for this story.

Wondrous performances.

Between the lines, Scoop conveys, not only what Andrew most likely did, but what led him to assume that he’d get away with it.

An ambitious and exciting piece of work, a movie about sex and movies made by a filmmaker who understands the power of each to set off fantasy, create addiction, incite danger and transform the spirit.

Much as she did in "Little Miss Sunshine," Breslin imbues Kit with joy.

Lacks the marquee names and production values of big studio romantic comedies, but it connects on an emotional level most of them fail to do.

It's warm, witty and alive, with a fantastic cast and a belief in its characters that transcends its formulaic tendencies.

So here’s the case of a movie that is, in every way, nothing special — except for the way it’s made and how it’s done.

The Rip is another one — efficient for what it is, but if it’s remembered at all it will be for Damon and Affleck’s matching beards and effortless way of appearing at home together onscreen.

The result is smart and witty, with just enough obvious nods to the present to serve as a capsule of this unstable moment in media, much as the first film captured for the waning golden days of glossy publications.

SubUrbia is depressing comedy -- the more so because director Richard Linklater's satirical picture of youthful alienation rings painfully true.

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

It gives fans what they want, while also working most of the time as pulse-pounding escapism. Even though he has almost nothing to do with the actual movie, the spirit of a “Speed”-era Keanu Reeves is present throughout.

A structure might have inhibited Aster’s impulse for meaningless excess. Instead, we get a movie that’s all talent and no discipline, which, in practice, is even worse than a movie that’s all discipline and no talent. At least the latter tries to please the audience; the former just pleases the filmmaker.

A Haunting in Venice is no downer. The script by Michael Green (“Logan,” “Blade Runner 2049”), who also wrote the first two Branagh Poirots, is at times ingenious, and he wrote a great part for Fey. As the mystery novelist Ariadne, a stand-in for Christie, she brings nice comic touches to a performance that threatens to steal the movie.

Megamind, it turns out, is a villain to root for.

The picture eventually collapses under the weight of its own gimmickry, but it's still an entertaining distraction for cerebral horror fans who want an appetizer before the B-horror feast that is "Diary of the Dead."

Doesn't add up to much, but it's fast and funny and lets a bunch of top-drawer actors exercise their comic muscles.

The movie is shamelessly manipulative.

In the end, it’s the ideas at work in The Matrix Resurrections, much more than the action, that keep us contentedly in our seats for well over two hours.

François Ozon’s Peter von Kant, about a film director toxically obsessed with a young actor, is much more than a remake. It’s a valentine.

Scorsese stuffs the film with heavy-handed art direction and piles on a ludicrously ominous soundtrack. The soundtrack is a constant reminder of the movie's importance and only highlights its unimportance.

Fascinating -- up to a point.

In Amigo, a story of the Philippine-American War, veteran filmmaker John Sayles allows his political convictions to get the better of him. The movie is a heavy-handed attack on U.S. imperialism with little to compensate in the way of character interest and genuine drama.

I liked this movie somewhat, even if I'm not sure exactly what it means. Possibly it has something to do with arriving home, in the broadest sense. But in a Maddin film, uncertainty comes with the territory.

Poysti’s subtle, layered performance conveys Tove’s complex dilemma with sweetness and pain. This is a portrait not of a lady on fire, but of a woman struggling to strike the match.

Spider Baby has built up a reputation as an offbeat gore thriller, depicting two children who have inherited evil blood and are slasher-basher- gasher murderers. [25 Oct 1992, p.35]

“Money Shot” is not for the squeamish. You can’t be the type to blush from late-stage capitalism or the daily life of an angelic webcam star who hangs her sex toys on a shoe rack and buys lube by the gallon.

It's reassuring to see Steven Soderbergh return to riveting down-and-dirty filmmaking with Bubble.

An emotionally charged coming-of-age saga that will make you laugh and cry, maybe at the same time.

The Lost Boys is a horror movie that's funny without making fun of itself and scary without trying to make you sick. [31 Jul 1987, p.86]

The problems with Thanksgiving are many, starting with the awful script by Jeff Rendell. Not only is the story — concocted by Roth and Rendell — predictable, but there is not one clever line of dialogue in the whole 107-minute film. The cast and characters are bland.

A clever and often riotous burst of cynicism that pushes some pretty questionable ideas.

There so much entertaining information in Art & Copy, a documentary about modern advertising, that it takes a while to realize we are being sold something

An extremely good picture that, with a little tweaking, might have been a great one.

Goes to all the places a sensitive character study might have gone, but more dramatically, convincingly and vividly.

Tequila Sunrise is a sharp-looking, tantalizing romantic thriller whose assets overcome a labored plot and several lapses into L.A. hipness that result in sheer inscrutability. [2 Dec 1988, p.E1]

Interesting and often compelling, and a must-see for organic food zealots.

Too much of what we see feels contrived and ham-handed.

A familiar feel-good story told through an unseen perspective, Anything’s Possible is an overdue inclusion of trans youth in the celebratory innocence of the coming-of-age genre.

Definitely worth your time, if not your $9.50. In other words, wait a few months and definitely check it out as a rental.

Isn't vicious. It's just cheerfully mocking as it courses the canyons and flatlands of Los Angeles.

Anybody with a soft spot for fakers, who either identifies with them or just admires their chutzpah, is going to get a kick out of Happy, Texas.

Richly satisfying entertainment the way movies are at their best, when they prod you to think.

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

Oh, Hi! is that rare case, a movie that’s engaging and interesting moment by moment, but everything else is wrong with it.

Intimate, quietly illuminating documentary.

It's a sumptuously mounted melodrama that aims to make a big statement about big themes, but a stilted quality in the filmmaking drags it down.

Exactly one minute longer than its predecessor, but it's a dragged-out exercise, with no epic scale and no spirit worth talking about.

Still, “Lee,” based on Antony Penrose’s biography of his mother, “The Lives of Lee Miller,” is an interesting look at an artist whose true importance, unfortunately, became apparent only many years after her death.

The last half hour and the lively opening make us almost forget the movie’s so-so middle. It brings all the elements together, points to the future and keeps the action to a human-scale minimum. If you want to see Solo: A Star Wars Story, I wouldn’t talk you out of it.

Entertaining, but it's about one notch below being something anybody really needs to see.

Arizona Dream is an inspired, erratic goulash that ignores standard movie- making formulas.

Violent and nonsensical, with story elements in contradiction, it is lifted up by the efforts of the actors, who try to put a human face on the blockbuster machinery and almost succeed.

The cluttered, surreal, claustrophobic sets and gooey alien creatures look intriguing, sometimes shocking. But the story tries so hard to be imaginative that it congeals and sinks like lead.

The film, actually, is a little like Reeves himself: It starts promisingly and trails off into indistinctness and mystery.

Unfortunately, Stuart Baird's direction is so sluggish and Jim and John Thomas' script so padded that Executive Decision has no build. Instead of focusing on the mechanics of suspense, the film concentrates to a boyish extent on mechanics, period.

Call Jane doesn’t depict a radical transformation, just a deepening. And Banks makes it worth watching.

Mature, thoughtful and occasionally dazzling.

Set It Off blends action and urban drama effectively, but at times isn't sure which foot to lead with.

Director Anthony Fabian lets the story sell itself, and it does so partly on the strength of the lead performance by Sophie Okonedo.

A superior sports movie, dealing honestly with a great American story.

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 slow pace kills the sense of urgency, and the length and breadth of the film makes the story seem insignificant. Tarantino is still someone to watch, but Jackie Brown, before it's over, becomes a who-cares proposition.

Eventually comes into its own as a wacky commentary on the state of America in the fifth year of the Iraq war.

Despite some gruesome brutality, Totally Killer has a very light-on-its-feet quality. But as artificial entertainment goes, this one’s put together with ruthless care.

A sympathetic look at what it's like to be a Brazilian transsexual prostitute working in Milan.

This is harmless fun for the kindergarten crowd, but even they will notice that the "Blustery Day" video they've been playing at home is a lot better.

Everything comes up forced and predictable in the nostalgic overload of bongs, Top 40 rock and boys' bluster about sex.

While Stearns’ style is detached and clinical, he finds tender humanity in unexpected places.

What's particularly weird about Godzilla is that for long stretches, all it shows is destruction.

At heart, all documentaries aim to be important films. Few actually pull it off. Minor flaws and all, Jesus Camp is among the year's most important films, if only because it forces us to learn about an America we seldom see and seldom want to see.

A quirky but surprisingly lighthearted dark comedy.

If you ask too many questions about Jacob's Ladder, you're likely to burst the bubble. For all its emotional sizzle and spit, it leaves you hanging. Yet the ride to Lyne's middle-of-nowhere is almost worth it. [2 Nov 1990, p.E1]

The movie is an ideal blend of character study, deceptively simple plot twists, inspired acting, and travelogue.