Director Gabe Polsky masterfully documents Fetisov’s triumphs — and sorrows.

The Post is on safe ground when it focuses on Streep as Graham — tentative, slightly affected, but growing by the day — and with Graham’s relationship with her gruff, hotshot editor, Ben Bradlee, played by Tom Hanks, against type but winningly. The movie’s challenge is the journalism story, which is not as clear-cut as Watergate and is therefore harder to dramatize.

The movie feels more like a thriller and a mystery than a documentary. Perhaps someday, someone will be inspired to dramatize this astonishing story.

In Cunningham, the presentation is riveting.

It's a film with impressive elements, though taken as a whole it's pop entertainment that doesn't fully deliver on the entertainment end.

A powerful document of cruelty and sadism.

Toback has found a documentary subject as tragic and ridiculous, as bizarre and driven, as the heroes of his other films.

[Branagh] shows an understanding of the medium worthy of a veteran, and an intuitive grasp of how to make Henry V not only comprehensible, but compelling for contemporary audiences. [13 Dec 1989]

A thoroughly entertaining film by a director at the height of his ability.

Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar imbues his tale of academic maneuvering, misunderstanding and mystery with the zest of passion and the zing of intrigue, It's a vivacious film, having its little fun with suspense-flick conventions (including Amit Poznansky's bouncing score) that build to a climactic finish.

The result is a beautiful void, a structureless emptiness buoyed by some good scenes and performances.

Engrossing documentary.

The first feature by Rose Glass, Saint Maud delivers shocks with confidence.

[Scorsese's] latest, “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger,” is a personal guide to the work of a one-of-a-kind directing duo who continues to influence filmmakers today.

The impressive film not only underscores the clash between traditional and modern values, but also provides inspiration for deciding your own fate, even when the world seemingly doesn’t give you a choice.

An unusual and imaginative romantic comedy that takes the central idea of “Groundhog Day” and builds on it.

As for the movie’s ultimate resolution, nothing specific can be said here, except that it borders on inexcusable.

Is That Black Enough for You?!? is the noted film critic and author’s ode to Black contributions to American cinema — reaching back to the silent era but focusing on what he considers the apex of Black Hollywood, a wild and energetic period from 1968-78 that revolutionized the art form.

On its own, Driveways would be a sweet, understated masterpiece, simply told, of human connection. But with the death of longtime distinguished stage and movie actor Brian Dennehy on April 15, director Andrew Ahn allows us to say a proper goodbye to the big fella, who gets the final six minutes of the movie all to himself.

A film that is at its best onstage.

What looks good on paper contracts doesn't guarantee results. Stylized but spasmodic, this "Sweeney" seems more interested in distancing than captivating an audience.

Few thrillers create as much sheer joy and happiness as Charade, in which Cary Grant spoofs his Alfred Hitchcock persona, Audrey Hepburn exudes her usual magnetic charm, and Paris is as scenic as ever. [18 Jan 2018, p.E4]

The veteran filmmakers, siblings Lisa and Rob Fruchtman, accentuate the positive, while acknowledging the obstacles. They also realize Rwanda's trauma can't be denied - a handful of women recount harrowing stories of their experiences during the genocide and its aftermath. Some have parents or husbands still in prison for war crimes.

Although it's told in the light, piquant style of his best comedies, there's a sadness at the root of Federico Fellini's Intervista. [31 Mar 1993, p.D3]

Cinema is not about special effects, but about human emotion and a face in close-up. For those in doubt, Locke is the proof.

It’s right up there with the best rock documentaries. That is, if you can call it a documentary.

It's rare that we have a screen character as well-rounded, as recognizably human or as brilliantly played as Sonny Dewey.

The screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, sees the lives of these suburban students and teachers through a prism of absurdity that refracts more truth than any straightforward telling.

Bound to be talked about, debated and eviscerated far more than it's understood.

Rocky might not be the brightest guy, but he knows things. He has his limitations, but he is, in his own way, extraordinary, and when we look at his/Stallone’s face, we can have no doubt that Rocky has gone through life and learned things. He has been awake all these years, and growing. With no exaggeration, this is a beautiful and moving thing to see.

Deliriously charming.

Bad Axe is a raw and stunning work of immediacy, a frontlines report from Trump country on the immigrant experience, family loyalty and community co-existence. It is not just among the finest and most important films of the year, but it will stand as a valuable historical and social document of these times.

An understated story of coping with emotional blows that offers a compelling portrait of a decent man.

Cage's great performance is matched by Shue, who becomes the focus by the middle of the picture.

Transit has a hint of science fiction, and more than a hint of Kafka. And despite the story’s link to World War II, it’s clear that Petzold wants it to resonate with today’s immigration problems.

The suggestion that Peter O'Toole is playing some version of his real self in Venus adds a bittersweet poignancy to this quietly affecting British drama.

Setting political movies in the past is an easy, usually safe way to signal virtue. But with its eerie resonances of 2021 reports from Moscow to Washington, D.C., this monochrome aesthetic object looks like something that draws real blood.

De Sica has to be considered one of the great directors of children, and the film, which won the first Academy Award for best foreign film and has been championed by Orson Welles and Martin Scorsese, is as valuable for its location shooting as its storytelling. [03 Jul 2011, p.P22]

The Love Witch has an air of geeky satire. The presentational acting style is so self-aware you almost expect the cast to occasionally underline a joke by turning toward the camera and winking at the audience (no one does, though).

While the format as such doesn’t allow for a critical push-and-pull, that’s not a debit. This is about time well spent on a life well lived. A series of pieces adding up to much more than the whole.

A buoyant, picaresque farce that hums with goofy energy and mines enough ideas, jokes and setups for three movies of this description.

Enchanting documentary that also serves as an animated gallery of Goldsworthy’s uniquely ephemeral art.

The whole thing is held together by the nuanced and natural performance of the amazing Regina Casé, the veteran Brazilian comedian and TV host, who can switch her look at a moment’s notice from cherub to aggrieved saint to basset hound.

One of the best films of the year.

The wordless, elderly Kiefer is enigmatic, and a bit intimidating. His work is impressive, though, especially in 3D.

Hit Man is not among Linklater’s best movies, but he gives his best to it, and the results are on the screen.

Petzold said he conceived of the film during the pandemic lockdown — that makes sense, considering the sparseness of the setting and small cast — and was inspired by the character studies of French filmmaker Éric Rohmer and Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Unfortunately, he needed inspiration from another great artist: Christian Petzold.

At its best, Ajami shows you things you never would have considered or imagined.

127 Hours, about an unimaginably unbearable experience, is pretty much an unbearable experience of its own. And yet, it must be said, it's exceptionally well made.

It just does everything really well: perfect pacing, lovely camera work, spot-on acting and an ingenious plot.

This is a remarkable movie: lovely, slow-paced and almost silent, rich with pathos and deft comic gestures.

Rachel Weisz - in what has to be the performance of her career, and there have been lots of good ones - plays an intelligent woman in the grip of a lust that's too big to handle or suppress. She can either ride the tiger or be devoured.

Wallace’s 2008 suicide informs the film and Jason Segel’s performance. What Wallace wants to say, tries to say but can’t quite say is that, having reached the summit of success, he sees an even bigger mountain in front of him. His anxiety about holding it together in the face of newfound celebrity is no affectation. He’s frightened of it and probably has good reason to be.

More than worthwhile.

Some of "The Shawshank Redemption'' comes across as outrageously improbable. Yet the film keeps pulling you back with its sense of striving humanity slowly turning the tables against evil.

The performances are sublime, of course, but it's how Altman masterminds the moral conflicts at the core of the story that makes Thieves so powerful. [03 Jun 2007, p.32]

The details feel authentic: The empty Paris streets, the profanation of German anti-aircraft guns atop belle epoque buildings. And Devaivre's adventures provide high tension.

Ultimately Maiden is very much a feel-good movie, a tale of underdogs finding their strength, combined with a character study and a sprinkling of social history. After the Maiden, women in sailing had to be taken seriously.

In the new film, War for the Planet of the Apes — the best of the series, by far — the series’ viewpoint comes into focus, and it’s a lot more intricate and enlightened than some unthinking death wish.

A superior adventure film with a poetic heart.

It's a love story only in passing. And yet the love story is what lingers in the mind and gives energy and meaning to everything that happens on-screen.

Any director who sees Short Term 12 will want to cast Larson in something. This movie puts her on the map.

The new film Parenthood is a challenging, funny, affecting and mostly rewarding effort - like parenthood itself. It makes good use of a large ensemble cast led by Steve Martin as a man striving to be a good dad. [2 Aug 1989, p.E1]

The drama builds and builds until the last seconds and never really lets up. It’s a striking debut from Meneghetti, in his first feature film.

Street Gang is a worthy celebration of a one-of-a-kind program. If you’re not careful, it might leave you humming your ABC’s.

But for director David Cronenberg and the commitment of his actors, A History of Violence might have been a cartoony action film. Its origins are in a cartoon, of sorts -- specifically, in a graphic novel, by John Wagner and Vince Locke.

The balance between action and mysticism in The Empire Strikes Back provides fascinating energy. It's as if the kids are given one set of delights, the bravado of battles and elaborate warships zooming through exotic space, and adults are given another, a layered explanation of what it all means in the grand scheme of things. [Special Edition]

It’s revolutionary due to Sadiq’s care and close attention to detail with all of his characters. It’s a love letter to a place and people he knows intimately, and I hope to see much more of his work soon.

A gripping look at the immigrant experience, with small moments as important - and visually arresting - as any on the baseball diamond.

If you have even a passing interest in outsider art, you owe it to yourself to see Marwencol.

Immediately has you in its thrall and doesn't let go -- a reminder of how powerful and moving cinema set in wartime can be when all the elements align.

Rye Lane keeps winning you over by being a satiric-yet-sincere love letter to creative expression as much as to love itself.

If you can live with its blemishes, The Lobster is a bracing experience.

At its best, Forrest Gump is a gentle, elegiac fantasy about love and trust.

In addition to being a visual treat, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a musical whose handful of songs delivers elements of the plot in the manner of a '40s MGM musical comedy. Songs by composer-lyricist Danny Elfman (founder of the rock band Oingo Boingo) are amusingly vital throughout, and even pretty. Andrew Lloyd Webber could take some tips from this guy. [22 Oct 1993, p.C1]

Technically rough and ragged, Paris nonetheless does an excellent job of digesting a rich, multilayered subculture, and breaking it down for a general audience without oversimplification. [09 Aug 1991, p.F1]

One of the most haunting and vital movies of the year.

An entertaining and perceptive film with one big problem.

Stays in the mind, changing the way we look at the world.

All Black, all the time, and could easily have been an exhausting mess. But the movie is coherent, hilarious and surprisingly sweet.

The movie works by stringing together many small observations to develop a portrait more quiet and revealing than many overwrought films that strain to address hot-button issues.

At its best, the effect is like seeing life panoramically, past and future, simultaneous and magnificent.

A touching combination of fact and fiction makes The Unknown Country one beautiful road trip.

A Quiet Place is the closest thing to a silent movie since “The Artist.”

Showing the intricate dynamics of family relationships is something Mira Nair does as well as any director working today.

To imagine the future, one must consider the past and be active in the present. C’mon C’mon is about the present, and how precious it truly is.

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

A wise and wonderful parable.

Cold Comfort Farm may be hysterically funny to regular readers of Hardy, Lawrence, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, but it won't ring many bells for the rest of us.

It is probably unlike any movie you've ever seen, and in ways both bad and good. It is, by turns, inept and brilliant, shockingly amateurish and inspired. To see it is to sit there for long stretches amazed at how clumsy, fake and misguided it is. But then, five minutes later you might easily be riveted and moved by its awkward brilliance.

An engrossing tale of class differences that reveals tiny details of one man’s descent into hell.

You’d have to be passionately interested in the details of an Irish small town not to find “Small Things Like These” something of a slog.

Anvil lives somewhere in that thoroughly entertaining gray area between self-parody and the triumph of human spirit.

So it's two guys traveling, eating and talking. Doesn't sound like much. But it's terrific.

A different kind of Harry Potter movie, a better kind... It's where this fantasy series has wanted to go all along.

The world of this film is like nothing most Americans have seen. But we know what it's about. It's about greed and guilt and how inconvenient it can be to have a soul.

Has a slow build and a strong payoff, but George Clooney is the element that holds it together.

The first great Hitler movie.