Half of one song is performed with a speck of saliva on the camera. More casual fans will twist in their chairs uncomfortably, wishing that a roadie would walk up and wipe it off. Neil Young die-hards will cherish the spittle.

The movie is entertaining, although true Trekkies will probably find out nothing new about the man with the pointed ears.

Perhaps the greatest gift of Tick, Tick … Boom! is that it rejects the false narrative of the artist’s one big shot, the make-it-or-break-it moment. Jonathan might keep hearing a timer ticking down in his head, but he has to learn that the singular event of his arrival as an artist is a myth.

It isn’t exciting, because such movies never are. Rather, it is consistently, calmly and compellingly interesting, not the story of a crime but about the process of revealing it.

The writing, by Rapp and Catherine Dussart, is exquisite, and the performers, including Francois Truffaut's old colleague Jean-Pierre Leaud as a magistrate, are all first-rate.

A deftly layered drama.

Isn't about rock music or even the people who make it; it's about people, period, and the myriad ways they mangle themselves and each other.

Sentiment, the kind bordering on schmaltz and easy tears, is found in Shower, a well-meaning generational drama.

Has an odd mix of quickly grabbed handheld shots and scenes of striking beauty.

Director Duncan Jones achieves a strange and winning amalgam, a gripping action film that also works as poetry.

Even if it has B-movie trappings and the tension wanes in the second half, it’s a stylish psychodrama.

Everyone comes out of Little Woods looking good, and DaCosta comes out with a directing career.

As Wade, Gary Poulter is the most authentic-looking old drunk you'll ever see onscreen - something I thought before I knew the story of his casting: Poulter was a homeless man who was recruited by a casting director. He'd never acted before, and yet he's remarkable in this.

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is provocative and irritating — and intentionally so. That makes it particularly annoying, because even as you’re provoked and irritated, you are also aware that writer-director Radu Jude wanted you to feel that way.

Sparrows is a kind of cinematic fable. At times funny, sad, poignant and suspenseful, Sparrows is a showcase for Majidi's masterful storytelling - and Naji's superb acting.

Sounds like silly fun -- and Linda Linda Linda is -- but it is also an extremely well-written, emotionally complex coming-of-age tale that has a John Hughesian respect for teenage angst.

An informative and valuable documentary about the past 30 years of messy times in Peru, but it is also frustrating.

Shot on the streets of New York and offering vistas of the city before all the glass and steel skyscrapers, The Naked City, which won Oscars for cinematography and editing, boasts an impressive pedigree. [04 Jan 2004]

This time it’s not too big. Thor: Ragnarok has a lot of human appeal and a spirit of silliness that it never loses and yet always carefully manages, so that the silliness remains an ongoing source of delight without ever undercutting the impact of the action.

Irrespective of what the future holds in terms of gun control, the movie is a striking portrait of a married couple who expected one kind of life, got another, and are making something useful from their misfortune.

It seems like a bizarre move for Disney, releasing a film that combines elements of "Blue's Clues" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau."

The movie is predictable at times, but also winning, with a thumping soundtrack and smartly written characters. Ortega, with his Peter-from-“Office Space”-deer-in-the-headlights look, is the movie’s appealing center.

The story, based on a real incident, may be simplistic, but that's the nature of fables.

Essentially, this is a two-person picture that falls flat.

Hanssen is such an enigma that any attempt to explain him has inherent interest. Breach expends too much energy on a minor functionary, but it is still worth seeing for its fleeting looks into a heart of darkness.

Exceptional.

To mildly respect Japanese Story is easy. To enjoy it would require an act of will.

By the finish, the movie is getting by on little but adrenaline and audience goodwill. Still, that goodwill runs fairly deep, because, taken all in all, 28 Days Later is a superior motion picture.