WITH Jungle Fever, a shattering movie that focuses on interracial love andracial hatred but that also confronts a dozen other incendiary topics, Spike Lee confirms his position as the leading American director of his generation. [7 June 1991, p.3F]

One of the best films of the year.

A one-of-a-kind concoction. [1 June 1989, p.4E]

Sophisticated comedies have gone out of fashion, largely because Hollywood finds it easier and more profitable to simply gross out moviegoers. But Please Give has real class -- and for that it deserves our gratitude.

It starts as a bittersweet parable about the cruelty of commerce, but the wonder of Searching for Sugar Man will not soon slip away.

Baby Driver zooms onto the screen with an exhilarating combination of smarts and style.

As much as anything, the wildly entertaining ’70s flashback American Hustle is a triumph of style.

These days, every other film seems to be an audition to make a Marvel movie — but not Loveless. This is cinema of the first order.

This is Daisy's story, and Hoke's story. It's a beautiful story, filled with warmth and compassion. It was a glorious evening of theater when I saw it, and it's just as glorious on the screen. [12 Jan. 1990, p.3F]

Despite a couple of drawbacks, The Empire Strikes Back is an immense amount of fun — big and splashy and breathtaking in its display of cinematic genius by a huge group of marvelously talented people.

What Inside Llewyn Davis is all about: the passion, and the pain, of being an artist.

Like those other one-in-a-million films (E.T., for example), Fantasia is truly entertainment for kids of all ages. [31 Oct 1991, p.4E]

An exciting cloak-and-dagger thriller.

The movie Timbuktu is as fresh as today’s headlines, but it’s paced and photographed like a timeless slice of life. It’s an exquisite, wise and even funny film, easily the best of the year.

Perilous incidents have riveted audiences since Pauline was tied to the railroad tracks, but in the hundred-year history of cinema, few thrillers have been as emotionally compelling as The Impossible.

A cinematic miracle, a film that carves out a vivid space that has nothing to do with wizards or extraterrestrials, but quite a lot to say about the fantastical creatures that roam through the humanity in us all.

Believe the hype: Black Panther transcends its comic-book origins, achieving a mythic grandeur that’s nothing short of exhilarating.

A far more interesting film than its title implies. And a film you’ve never seen before.

The first 10 or 15 minutes of The Fugitive are so skillfully assembled they should be taught in film school. [6 Aug 1993, p.3E]

After feeding on this sweet buffet, sated cinephiles will want to call the front desk to extend their stay.

With visual and psychological precision, Abrahamson brilliantly evokes the experience of living outside of everyday reality. And he does so without resorting to either creepiness or sentimentality.

Into the Abyss makes a strong case for the inhumanity of capital punishment, regardless of the crime or the criminal.

The film offers insights into Iranian society while also subtly making a case that human foibles are universal.

The year’s most exhilarating film.

The result, Pina, is the most spirited and spectacular film about dance since Robert Altman's "The Company."

The Master is not a schematic attack on a particular religion. It is a brilliantly conceived and powerfully realized work of art, with complex characters, exquisite images and ambiguously big ideas.

The Tree of Life is a religious experience. Overtly. Audaciously. Unashamedly. No film has ever reached as high toward the face of God and, in our commodified future, few are likely to try.

Beauty comes to us unexpectedly. That's the message of Poetry, a Korean movie about an aging housemaid that turns out to be one of the best films of the year.