Where the first half of the film had power and sweep, the second half is a bunch of Post-it notes.

Eubanks takes someone else’s screenplay, one that’s full of incident, and infuses it with his own sensibility. Alfred Hitchcock wasn’t a writer, either. Being a good director with a real point of view — that’s plenty.

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

Kaurismäki stalwart Kati Outinen, as the old man's silent and ailing wife, is the key to the movie, even though she appears only sporadically. Something in her timid, understanding and impassive gaze, which is Kaurismäki's gaze as well, lets us know that she sees things in the old man that we don't see.

Though the script and storytelling could have used more polish, Lapica's honesty provides the lasting impression.

One of the Coens’ most inspired, bizarre touches is to cast Tilda Swinton as rival gossip columnists, twins who hate each other. She’s quite funny — blithe and vindictive in one incarnation, insecure and vindictive in the other.

The movie’s sympathies are with Halla and against the climate-change deniers, but it also sees something slightly ridiculous in her David-and-Goliath actions. What sets the film apart is how it balances both this sense of irony and an abrupt plunge into serious personal matters stemming from a forgotten decision Halla made years ago.

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

Band Aid is her (Zoe Lister-Jones) first film as a director — she also wrote and stars in it — and something about her and this film is really appealing.

The level of sexual tension and general creepiness as Chahine's character becomes unhinged is more intense than one would expect from a movie made in the 1950s under a totalitarian regime. [04 May 2017, p.E7]

Best of all is Richard Harris as Paddy O'Neil, an IRA spokesman. With his deeply lined and very Irish face, Harris has a wonderful look for the part. [5 June 1992, p.D1]

Schizo offers not just the proverbial window into village life in Kazakhstan, but a panoramic view.

Watching the film one comes away feeling the bond that links these guys.

The ending takes an unfortunate detour that stretches the running time, but this is still quality Pixar work.

But that’s also the movie’s charm, painting a world where all you need is talent, a little luck and a couple of shoulders to cry on when things get tough. It’s a stripped-down “A Star Is Born” — without the rehab and suicide.

Known for his visual images, Jordan outdoes himself in "Breakfast,'' a feast for the eyes.

It is impossible to think of anyone but Costner in this role. His commitment and sincerity are never in doubt.

It's hard to follow, the characters are ill-defined, and the wide-angle shots used by Wong's perennial cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, are deliberately unflattering.

A play-it-safe, by-the-numbers kind of documentary - yet somehow it gets under your skin.

That the movie largely sidesteps partisan politics will no doubt irk some viewers, but may just be its greatest strength.

It's so bleak that it would play like a contrived neo-noir if it weren't so consistent, committed and obviously sincere.

At any given time, a different character will seem to be the movie’s focus. But as long as we recognize that love’s transformational power is the real subject, there can be no mystery about the movie’s intentions or how it’s unfolding.

This film is family.

The movie gradually works its way, with quiet intelligence and apparent conviction, until there's no turning from it. An hour in, and we're on that boat.

The multiple-story-line family drama is too cliche-ridden to be considered a great movie. But it's still a very good one, filled with excellent performances, entertaining writing and a final few scenes that are quite moving - even if you can see most of them coming at the end of the first act.

Swedish documentarian Johan von Sydow lets Tim tell the story, mixing plentiful musical performances with narration drawn from Tim’s diaries (read solemnly by Weird Al Yankovic), illustrating the details with animation and a feast of vintage stock footage.

It’s a testament to the skill of first-time feature director Atsuko Hirayanagi that these wild mood swings can co-exist without blowing the movie apart.

Takes viewers into a unique world. It's not just about air traffic controllers. It's about controllers in a specific place and from a specific social background.