While it's possible to have a great time with the movie without having any interest in Kiss, it should be noted that the band does make an appearance.

Everyone in the movie is excellent, everyone is tonally spot-on, and no one has a single bad moment – which is another way of saying that Clea DuVall, best known as an actress (“Veep,” “Argo”), is a real director. She has made one of the best Christmas movies of the millennium.

A gripping study of Bobby Fischer, perhaps the greatest chess player ever.

For starters, it's a movie to make you happy to see the next movie written, directed and starring Lake Bell. She has an engaging presence and has a distinct comic sensibility.

It's not just for people who like rap or the rap atmosphere. It's a well-paced, light comedy that can appeal to anybody. [05 Jun 1992, p.D1]

Invisible Life is not an entirely fun watch, and its 139-minute running time is an investment and sometimes feels like it. But it offers something more than the usual experience.

Judas and the Black Messiah quietly announces its modern relevance by presenting as sophisticated a depiction of systemic racism as you could hope to see in a movie.

Neatly, and often humorously, summarizes a very unhealthy situation.

Muppet Treasure Island is an elaborate, juicy eyeful. The film is an impressive maze of visual scale and perspective that lets humans and puppets interact as a single species. The overall effect is a wonderful sense of the fantastical. But simplicity might have helped where the movie often stagnates with gimmicks.

Director Curtis Hanson gives the film a slow, European pace and a cold, slick look. The sound-track is made up almost entirely of internal noises -- a buzzing fluorescent bulb, music from a record player. Everything contributes to an ominous atmosphere. [09 Mar 1990, p.E1]

A lot of frivolous but genuine laughs.

Early scenes are unnecessarily horrific, and the final scenes falter from a disconcerting shift in tone. But this still leaves a significant stretch of beautiful acting, thoroughly engaging action and vital history lessons about the brutality on which some supposedly civil societies were built.

This is a beautiful film, full of gray-and white-haired men who grow in stature before our eyes.

Hardly perfect or fully successful, but it's strange and strangely beautiful -- a unique work of art.

A treat for anyone who's passionate about films or who's ever wanted to learn more about them.

This was probably Warren Oates' finest hour, and certainly one of director Sam Peckinpah's greatest achievements. [06 Mar 2005]

Clumsy and ineffective in its first half hour. But gradually, as her investigation deepens, and we see the true hideousness of what she is uncovering, the movie achieves urgency and clarity of purpose.

Slick, glossy, overblown, implausible. [15 July 1988, Daily Notebook, p.E1]

Though our put-upon hero’s gradual realization that he has much to live for is obvious from the get-go, it still is a pleasant journey from pawn to king — spiritually speaking, of course.

The director succeeds most at giving an inkling of the real Chase, now somewhat frail in his 80s. But she also makes a case that at past points, when the public consensus was “God, he’s being an ass again,” the truth may have been rather more poignant.

Director Jill Soloway gets the most out of her actors, fleshing out their characters and letting us know what makes them tick. It's refreshing to hear dialogue that's natural and modern and doesn't try to pontificate. And the rewards are many.

A quirky but surprisingly lighthearted dark comedy.

Fast-paced and unerringly surprising.

Heart and Souls stands up beautifully as a heart- tugging testament to the importance of taking care of the sometimes complicated business of being a decent, loving person before some fateful bus crash robs you of the chance. [13 Aug 1993, p.C1]

A fine new rock documentary.

A compelling documentary.

Watchable in spite of Greengrass as much as because of him. The story is good enough to make viewers want to ignore the photography.

It's a bouncy, occasionally awkward diversion with sharply written characters and good actors.