Doesn't allow the story's considerable nostalgia and sentimentality to overwhelm it.

This is a slacker comedy with "festival" stamped all over it, so you can bet the consequences will be quirky.

At its heart, the film is about the intense connection between Valentino and his business partner of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti, the brains behind the branding.

That Sunshine Cleaning was made by women is best revealed in the filmmakers' willingness to let the story breathe on its own terms, without bringing in anything extraneous, unwelcome and exciting.

The remake of The Last House on the Left breaks the template, taking the 1972 original into an interesting new direction, with bold camera angles, good actors and a script that heaps on just as much character development as carnage.

Holds a lot of promise in its first hour and never completely falls apart, but it's ultimately not the movie it might have been.

Wow, when Disney misses the "reimagining" mark, it really misses.

Kurosawa's film is heavyweight fare: disturbing, slightly over the top, but satisfying, like a rich meal with a powerful aftertaste.

Part conscious and part unconscious, Watchmen tells us of a world without hope and then makes us wonder if we're already living in it.

It's a delicate, intelligent movie about modern parenthood and the pressures that children face, and it features a cast of talented actors who were clearly committed to the movie's message.

Artful filmmaking of the old school.

For those who've never before heard fado, Fados will be a revelation - a window into a music that (like blues music) can be poetic, heartbreaking, melodramatic and redemptive, all at the same time.

An experiment that rarely works this well.

No matter how bad things get, you can always be thankful for this: You're not on trial for murder in Russia.

One must be very, very, very, very, very interested in Yorkshire, circa 1980, to embrace and enjoy The Red Riding Trilogy. And yet ... there is something to be said for an enterprise this specific and uncompromising.

A mess.

If you're a fashion insider, you may find the entire film fascinating. If you're not, you may find it way too long.

A great movie.

This is a vision of hell conveyed in a simple, documentary style, far removed from the sumptuous American Mafia fables.

As in a good European film, shots are allowed to breathe. The focus is on character and human emotion. At the same time, the movie shows an American concern for pace and story development. The result is the best of both worlds.

The reboot of the "Friday the 13th" series is a pretty big mess - not particularly scary or interesting or even gory by 21st century movie standards.

Seems more appropriate for a science museum than the Metreon, but that's not the film's problem. The problem is that oceanic movies in actual science museums are far more interesting and nuanced than this documentary.

What a shrewd achievement for writer-director Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), to have made a movie that everyone will acclaim as beautiful, when perhaps the most beautiful thing about it is the sheer ugliness of it all.

Never soars, but it never flags. It remains brisk, engaging and pleasant throughout, and face it: If a movie this well made had Spanish or French subtitles, we'd all be talking about it as a searing examination of sexual politics.

The predictable script feels as if it were filmed right off the cocktail napkin it was jotted on, but at least the movie has an "Ocean's 11" sequel's worth of good actors, including Alfred Molina, Jeremy Irons and Jean Reno.

Two awful things about Push are at least interesting: The first is the way in which the story is confused. The second is that the story makes no sense.

It's a shame that "Confessions" doesn't aim higher because there is a great film to be made about the consumer bait-and-switch that has led so many Americans to live beyond their means.

Won't go down as an action thriller for the record books, but it's a pretty good one for right now. First of all, the villain is a bank. How's that for timing?

Uninspired and only faintly funny.

I won't tell you Taken is great, but it's great fun.

Won't make anyone forget "The Shining," but it's a nice throwback to the days when scary movies featured pretty good actors, a plot that holds together and a couple of creepy-looking ghost kids.

Zellweger takes an otherwise passable mainstream comedy and all but ruins it with her lack of effort.

Serbis has the feel of a documentary, but a documentary can't accomplish what Serbis does: Take us to a corner of the world where sex and regret are so intimately entwined.

If Stanley Kubrick filmed an orgy like the one in this film, "Eyes Wide Shut" might have been halfway tolerable.

Seemingly intended as a celebration of the power of books, it's an occasionally incoherent, sleep-inducing picture that reduces narrative to mere mechanics.

In its second half, Outlander falls apart completely, becoming nothing but a violent, mindless monster movie along the lines of "Alien vs. Predator."

The result is a warm and extremely thoughtful journey, with a deliberately bare-bones narrative.

More important is to be in a silly mood yourself. Without that - without a complete suspension of disbelief - Chandni Chowk to China is a drag to sit through.

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

It's no great shakes as a film, but its combination of mild comedy, slapstick, pathos, many photogenic canines and a positive message will make it irresistible to families.

A fawning bio-pic.

The action sequences are just as ridiculous as the romance parts, but at least James seems comfortable with the pratfalls and gross-out scenarios.

If you came to see two pretty girls in wedding dresses wrestle, you won't be disappointed.

Unfortunately, for those who do not subscribe to the notion that God's dust smooths a marriage's rough patches, but rather hard work by people do, the message rings hollow.

Yonkers Joe is incoherent, succeeding neither as an exciting gambling ride nor a touching family story.

You can see this Danish offering as a sardonic update of familiar noir material, or simply as the story of the midlife crisis of a guy who wishes - or dreams, or dreads - that he's living out a grand drama. There are pleasures to be had either way.

A film filled with beauty and pain that moves at the pace of molasses and snails. That is to say, some of it is in real time. Audiences would be advised to stay caffeinated.

As a drama - an epic drama, no less, clocking in at 137 minutes - its fascination is diffused, and the movie becomes something of a long slog.

The best American film of 2008.

The best movie of 2008? The most revealing war film ever made? The greatest animated feature to come out of Israel? All these descriptions could apply to Waltz With Bashir.

The movie's excruciating length is without dramatic or thematic justification.

Throwing your $10.25 down a storm drain is a better idea; at least that way you won't feel the added self-loathing of wasting more than an hour and a half of your life watching Eva Mendes in the worst acting job of her career.

A fun bit of escapism that's even tender in spots.

Witless banter might have won Ginger Rogers for Fred Astaire, but Thompson is too smart for that.

This love letter to man's best friend will make dog fanciers roll over and do tricks. It's so warmhearted, you'll want to run out and hug the nearest big, sloppy mutt. And while you're watching it, have your handkerchief ready.

The history itself is the main appeal here.

Intriguing and educational. For partisans of Bertolt Brecht, it's mandatory.

May not be a classic, but it still has a lot of class.

This is the most realistic film about teaching that you're ever likely to see.

Underscores that choices in love are rarely clean and easy, and more often than not, are poignantly funny.

A spiritual successor to "The Pursuit of Happyness," but darker and more oblique.

The comedy, to the extent there is any, consists mainly of Carrey's verbal asides and strained reactions to people. The script gives him very little to work with.

The movie has the simplicity and confidence of a Johnny Cash song.

A fine new rock documentary.

Maybe this mixed-up and weird, awful but awfully likable movie is what Dirty Harry had coming to him, after all.

If Soderbergh's ambition was to make us feel just how dull it would be to a woods-dwelling communist guerrilla, he succeeded.

Overall, it's a nice melding of sci-fi and a crime story.

How can this movie not be fun?

There seems to be something about the story itself that's better suited to the stage than the screen.

Like a Christmas present you didn't know you wanted but are delighted to receive.

A film made with high aspirations and more than the usual commitment but one that, after an arresting beginning, changes into a passive rumination.

A film that might have seemed faintly academic six months ago becomes an anxious expression of its historical moment.

Artful, beautiful in parts and unbelievably brutal in others, and no less honest for its stagecraft.

A satisfying combination of great songs and strong dramatic performances.

A dreary little thriller that irritates more than it thrills.

Assuming you can appreciate the high level of gore and assorted sadistic weirdness, the action is satisfying.

Morgan finds the right elements of action and character through which to make history leap off the page.

It's compassionate but unblinking.

This is a movie of excesses that doesn't know when to settle down. It aims to be a slapstick comedy, a romantic comedy and a plain old romance but falls short of each goal.

With Milk, a great San Francisco story becomes a great American story.

The fight scenes are lackluster and the plot is needlessly complicated. If you're making an action film that centers on fast cars and fast women, it's usually best to keep the rest of the story simple.

Twilight has a few gory plot turns - mostly offscreen - and one near-sex scene that may offend a few Amish people, but the rest is maybe 33 percent less wholesome than "High School Musical." It's almost certainly less risque than what you were watching when you were 14. (Cue the soundtrack to "Risky Business.")

A riveting works of humanism.

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.

A respectable and fairly decent movie.

Riveting.

Australia shows all the signs of having been a labor of love for director Baz Luhrmann. One problem: It's his love, and the audience's labor.

After the heights of "Casino Royale," the series falls back into routine with this above-average thriller, filled with over-the-top action, familiar Bond atmosphere and a story that's impossible to follow - and why bother anyway? Daniel Craig is still the coolest man in the universe. That definitely helps.

With Desplechin, it doesn't ever feel as though he's straining to show us things. It's more like we're just hanging out. We're in this house, and by some strange coincidence, every time we turn around, something interesting is happening.

A compelling Irish drama.

A remarkable cast for a small, non-mainstream effort.

Doesn't hit its stride until the last 30 minutes, and by then, it's just a little too late.

A funny and twisted movie from beginning to end, closing with an emotional payoff.

A shrewd satire about stardom and the cult of celebrity.

Told from a different angle than any other Holocaust film I've seen.

A nice surprise, surpassing the quality of the first film.

This illuminating film by director Gini Reticker and producer Abigail Disney is a much-needed attempt to put the spotlight on a moment of history that still inspires, especially because that moment led to Taylor's exile and to Liberia's election of Africa's first female head of state.

Needless to say, Soul Men has a lot to overcome in its effort to be funny.