It's by far the most uncompromising and unapologetic gay-themed drama ever made for a wide release by a major Hollywood studio with name stars.

The film powerfully demonstrates the diversity, the adaptability, the resilience of the insect world. The rest of the animal kingdom (including man) may be on the brink of extinction, but these little guys are thriving. [22 Nov 1996]

As a sports documentary, Murderball is tame and uninvolving. It does however, offer a hard-edged and unsentimental portrait of strong-willed people.

An extraordinarily taunt and suspenseful psychological thriller.

As dark as a Greek tragedy yet it has a vibrance and joie de vivre that can't be contained by grief.

A celebration of the human spirit nothing short of sublime.

There's no doubt that Kiarostami is giving us a lesson in social politics, but the education lies in the mosaic pieced together from conversations and situations.

Fascinating, visually gorgeous cinematic study that will frustrate some viewers by its ambiguity.

It's high melodrama all the way - a play written early in Shakespeare's career, filled with great poetry but lacking the sensitivity and complexity (and historical accuracy) of his more mature histories, and revived so often on stage over the centuries primarily because it's such a rousing, audience-pleasing theater piece. [19 Jan 1996]

Difficult to weigh and rate precisely because it deals with real life and real people.

It's an emotionally gripping, daringly genre-twisting, consummately crafted piece of filmmaking.

I loved it...Without trying very hard, Farnsworth commands a unique and immensely appealing screen presence that could be called "a compilation of all the great western heroes of the movie past."

Like Kubrick, Field doesn't make any moral judgments about his characters, and his film remains stubbornly enigmatic. It can be read as a high-class revenge thriller, an ode to the futility of vengeance or almost anything in between.

This is an adrenaline-pumping, devilishly well-made thriller set against the downfall of an American family.

A heartbreaking look at broken trust.

There's not a smarter, more demanding American film from the past year.

The movie is occasionally funny, always very colorful and enjoyably overblown in the traditional Almodóvar style; and the performances -- especially Javier Cámara as the gentle, sweet-spirited Benigno -- are exquisitely tender and moving.

It's as much conceptual art as dispassionate survey of the bloodless assembly line nature of the modern food industry, all process and work, automation and repetition.

A radically disturbing and memorable movie whose images don't easily fade or diminish in power.

The commentary alternates between witty insight and opinionated bunk, but it's always fun -- and a must-see for movie buffs.

A hard film to shake and makes us think and think again.

The Dardennes's masterful casting and austere style amplify this simple but powerful parable.

Hou's first film made outside of Asia is his most emotionally turbulent, yet he remains, like the balloon, outside looking in, a compassionate but distant observer capturing it all with a graceful restraint and floating beauty that ultimately carried me away with it.

Varda sees herself as a gleaner as she searches for the people and cultural activities missed by the rest of the media.

Under Schnabel's direction, it becomes stilted and static, if not simplistic.

I'd like to think it's all a joke, that far from a dream this is actually Linklater's idea of a nightmare.

The movie is so surreal it's just not very involving. As an action extravaganza, it's busy but dull.

A drama that embraces the ambiguities and contradictions of family ties and human nature in all its irrational glory.