Like other so-called "mumblecore" movies, including Bronstein's own "Frownland," this is an unnervingly intimate glimpse of dysfunction, with a shaky-cam aesthetic and seemingly improvised dialogue.

It's a pleasure to watch Ryan resurrect her trademark persona, a mix of perkiness and pique, as she flounces around the room. But it's shaded with a middle-age desperation that's half real and half chick-flick shtick.

While it may not be a smorgasbord of red herrings and red meat, Flame and Citron is often chilling.

Bill and Ted bouncing through time means the narratives of these films are merely loose assortments of kooky bits and cameos, and “Face the Music” doesn’t stray from that. While it doesn’t quite gel cohesively, in this casual kickback with a pair of old pals, it’s the dudes who remain excellent.

The movie has some outstanding moments. Rock's performance and writing show that he appreciates rap music and its place in the culture, but he is not so respectful that he is incapable of skewering it. The movie's failings show up in the last half hour. Tamra Davis, known for directing many top music videos, lapses into predictability. The edge in the first part of the film goes dull by picture's end. And the story, written by Rock, Nelson George and Robert LoCash, becomes needlessly complicated, then meanders to a conclusion. [17 Mar 1993, p.3F]

And in spite of all that predictability, there is enough action, tension and Willis-like funny lines to earn this movie a passing grade. [2 Apr 1998, p.41]

The biography Chaplin, directed by Richard Attenborough, may not qualify as a completely successful film, but there are enough good moments about the great entertainer to make it worth watching. [12 Jan 1993, p.4D]

The film eventually runs out of rocket fuel, piling on the special effects but arriving at a disappointing conclusion.

This quasi-horror film has the great director's usual craftsmanship and a stellar cast, but ultimately it's an infuriating trick that makes its most provocative ideas disappear.

A fairy-tale teenage romantic comedy that makes "The Breakfast Club" look edgy. And that's just fine, because this Disney product does straight-laced fairly well.

A film whose beauty lies in the fact that it's never pretty. [30 Aug 1996, p.3E]

As shaky as the situation it depicts.

Director Nicolai Fuglsig delivers an action drama that gets the job done without ever catching fire. But the well-chosen, charismatic cast makes the most out of the material.

Brilliant performances aside, Clouds of Sils Maria is overlong and much too self-indulgently an “art film.” It might have benefited from being just a bit more grounded.

It’s admirable, but Monuments Men just poses on a porous foundation like a statue.

The movie looks like it was made for broadcast television, the place where words and pictures go to die.

The actress and the aviatrix are a match made in heaven, but surrounding the soaring performance is a movie that's mostly earthbound.

It's funny but (sorry, ladies) unrealistic that Jake continuously sneaks away from his young wife to canoodle with Jane. Baldwin is a blast, but the role requires him to indulge in indignities such as a naked webcam conversation.

An adequate action film, but it lacks the envelope-pushing artistry of the original.

Like a taxidermied owl, Stoker is lovely to look at, but in the end it’s hard to give a hoot.

There's some laughing gas left in the cupboard, but this series may require an infusion of new blood to last until "American Funeral."

It's not quite up to, or maybe down to, the level of the first two movies. But the movie rolls to a wildly funny climax at the Oscar presentations, where Drebin is mistaken for Phil Donahue. Surely, there are enough belly laughs and knee slaps to make this film worth your time. And stop calling me Shirley. [23 Mar 1994, p.6F]

Like its predecessor, this film is noisy, fast and unrelenting — not one you watch so much as allow to lightly steamroll your senses. At least that’s a fairly swift and amusing enough process.

Unfortunately, Hail, Caesar! comes across as far less than the sum of its parts.

Tests the loyalty of fans that may expect his work to be extreme, but not to such an extent.

It's very inside baseball about the inner workings of a fashion event. That said, there's a delicious depiction of fashion as fantasy that's worth the price of admission.

Sing is like a medley of pop hits. You get a bunch of quick samples but long for the full song.