This isn't just a good throwback satanic thriller - it looks as if it was made during the era of satanist paranoia.

Director Anthony Fabian lets the story sell itself, and it does so partly on the strength of the lead performance by Sophie Okonedo.

Those who stuck with the troubled pop icon after his universe shifted from the charts to the tabloids probably will find equal measures of inspiration and heartbreak in the documentary. For everyone else, it's a strange offering.

For 70 minutes, Antichrist is a rare exploration of pain, featuring two actors collaborating with each other in agonizing and intimate ways. It also contains some of the best work Gainsbourg has ever done on screen. And then - if I put it more gently I wouldn't really be saying it - director Lars von Trier loses his mind.

The film's basic material, that is the history, is not without interest. And it must be admitted that every so often - for about 10 seconds every 10 minutes - we get a hint of the movie they wanted to make and hoped they were making: One about the thrill of early aviation and the promise of a young century.

Purists should have a field day enumerating the differences between the original "Astro Boy" and this high-gloss reimagining. Someone has to.

The movie is occasionally clever, but still inferior to last year's "Twilight" film, mostly because the story is so muddled.

Those willing to meet (Untitled) even part way will discover a comedy of intelligence and wit, with some strong performances.

The movie's narrative tension hinges on, well, nothing.

Not only a step back in time - to 1431 - but a step back in this martial artist's international film career.

The most daring thing that Jonze and Eggers have done is make a children's film that might not really be for kids.

Vigilante movies hold a firm place in cinematic history, but for them to work, the vigilante needs to be a sympathetic anti-hero.

Gamely tries to capture a vast, twinkling cityscape with not one love story - but 11 little ones, a few of them overlapping.

The Maid would have been worthwhile just as a showcase both for good acting and for the director's virtuosity. But the movie's ultimate virtue is its humanity.

Hornby's humane and humorous screenplay is true to the film's title: In short order, young Jenny finds out important truths about identity, glamour and how adults really think and live.

It stands out as one of the best films of the genre, on the strength of the storytelling and wonderful performances.

Too bad the movie is spoiling the view.

It's an assaultive work about an assaultive fellow.

It's funny, clever and marginally educational.

Something of an elegy to modernism.

Beyond question, the results are overstated, outrageous and wildly juvenile. But they're also a hoot to watch.

The movie is funny, definitely funny. But underlying the humor is a vision so bleak, so despairing and so utterly hopeless as to make "No Country for Old Men" almost look cheerful.

For all the hip checks and bloody noses, it doesn't have a mean bone in its body.

Yet, even at its worst, Zombieland is better than most movies of its kind - disgusting but not too disgusting, and with a few laughs.

Ricky Gervais, instead of resting on formula and on a familiar persona, uses his first opportunity as a big-screen actor-director to make an original comedy that expresses some real thinking and feeling.

The final message is a strong one: Even when the starting forward is one of the best high school players ever, basketball is still a team sport.

The bad news is that the characters and situations are platitudes and the story is so heavy-handed that the film is hard to sit through.

It's a celebration of a shady landmark, but also a lament.