If it all sounds rather heady for a Disney movie, well, it is. And it is one of the curious delights of The Lion King that a moralistic patriarchal drama can be played out in a Darwinian setting and still emerge shining in a dream coat of Hollywood entertainment values. [24 June 1994, p.C1]

It is, simply, the alienation-invasion movie to beat all alien-invasion movies: meticulously detailed and expertly paced and photographed, with sights so spectacular and terrible that viewers will have to consciously remind themselves to close their mouths when their jaws drop open.

A first-rate crime thriller and further proof that Soderbergh is one of our great contemporary film stylists.

Jim Jarmusch has come up with something strange and amazing.

One of the year’s great films, and somehow you can tell from the opening moments.

This is sublime filmmaking, a textbook example of how indies can tell groundbreaking stories in a way that Hollywood simply can’t match.

First-time feature director A.V. Rockwell, working from her own script, tells an epic tale in miniature.

Apart from the excellence of this film, Fennell may have tapped into something tonally that truly expresses the moment we’re in. Point being, we’re in a time of horrible ridiculousness, and ridiculous horribleness. The revelation of Promising Young Woman is that its heightened reality feels more real — closer to actual reality — than comedy or drama.

Rippingly good, old-fashioned movie epic.

Beautiful in both its brevity and its vision of contemporary Indian culture, the film abounds in easygoing humor.

A breed apart from anything coming off the Hollywood assembly line or, for that matter, from the saccharine romances Britain has lately produced.

It's a tribute to Day-Lewis that he can play a character like Danny -- cautious, withdrawn, inarticulate -- and endow him an eloquence and grace that aren't dependent on language. Without him, The Boxer might still be a powerful tale of loyalty and love, with a core of moral complexity; with Day-Lewis in the lead, it approaches greatness.

It's a complex, satisfying piece of entertainment, a succession of unexpected, outrageous scenes.

A movie about serendipity and spontaneity.

A must-see documentary about not just a would-be assassin and moment in American history, but a snapshot of the Bay Area during turbulent times.

The film has the measured and expansive quality of real life, which could have been dull. It’s anything but that. Instead, by making Julie so real and vivid, Reinsve and Trier accomplish something rare. They make everything that happens to her feel as interesting as if it were happening to you.

Crumb is one of the most provocative, haunting documentaries of the last decade.

A caustic comedy of Hollywood manners.

As a great New York story, it’s also a great American story about ambition and failure, about the kind of people who make it, the kinds who don’t, and all the things that can go wrong.

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.

A special film.

It’s a remarkably life-affirming message coming from a mess of animated puppets and a monster-loving filmmaker.

It's never cute for the sake of cute, never trivializes its characters; and even at its most ethereal, it keeps one foot grounded in the real passions of these men and women. Though smaller in scale and with its own unique spirit, it invites favorable comparison with the Merchant-Ivory adaptations of the Forster novels. It's a vivid and realized document of people in a particular time and place -- a nice time, a gorgeous place. [7 Aug 1992, p.C3]

Has its awkward and rough edges, but there's a purity here, a goodness of intention and a commitment to justice.

This film delivers an emotional wallop, and it's hard to argue against that. Don't miss it.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower hurts. It hurts because it depicts the loneliness, anxiety and all-out quivering mess of adolescence in a manner not often seen since John Hughes' heyday.

There are great movies every year, but every so often there’s a movie that’s not only great but new, that advances the form a little, that pushes movies to a different place. Such movies get remembered as the thing that happened in cinema that year. The thing that happened in 2018 is Vox Lux.

Through a simple story line, dramatic acting and National Geographic-like shots of the city's rough and pristine edges -- creates cinematic magic.