Fences is perhaps best appreciated as a showcase for the brilliant acting of Washington and Davis.

The performances are first-rate, with Lindhardt particularly moving as a guy who's in deep denial about just how much he can expect from a relationship with an addict.

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

Black Swan is ridiculously over the top, but in a way that makes it fascinating to watch.

It is one of those movies that seem to be meandering to no real purpose, and yet, very slowly, take hold of your emotions. By the end, you find yourself rather astonished at how much you care about what happens to the characters. [9 Oct 1992, p.3G]

Using a screenplay by Allan Scott, Roeg directs with care, blending fantasy and whimsy with a chilling touch of evil. It works and it works well. [21 Feb 1991, p.4E]

This is a sad and gallant chapter, and a first-rate movie. [12 Jan 1990, p.3F]

THE WAR ROOM would have been a great motion picture if either James Carville or George Stephanopoulos had been elected president - or if there were more involvement of Bill Clinton. Although none of those occurred, the documentary on the 1992 campaign, from the Democratic side, is interesting, sometimes amusing and always has a sense of immediacy.[14 Jan 1994, p.7F]

Although Precious is based on a novel, it's an act of truth-telling on behalf of a character in hellish enslavement.

As the wife to a wolf of Wall Street, Blanchett shows us a lost sheep both before and after the slaughter. It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s twitching with life.

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.

The Freshman is not the kind of movie where one wonders about plot twists or logic. One enjoys Brando and Broderick, and chuckles at a considerable amount of comedy. [27 July 1990, p.8F]

Foley's direction approaches perfection, almost always avoiding thriller cliches and showy distractions in favor of a crisp yet imaginative visual style. After Dark, My Sweet delivers the goods as a crime movie, but it is a fascinating character study as well. [14 Sep 1990, p.3F]

The conclusion of Christopher Nolan's superhero trilogy is a hugely ambitious mix of eye candy and brain food. If it doesn't have the haunting aftertaste of the previous serving, that's only because Nolan couldn't clone Heath Ledger. But beefy substitute Tom Hardy is a hell of a villain.

If you long for a film in the tradition of such grown-up entertainments as “Lawrence of Arabia” and “The English Patient,” this is one to get lost in.

Like its neo-noir kin across the pond, The Guard is violent, profane and funny. But McDonagh is interested in more than mockery.

With a stellar cast and seductive look, Ex Machina is a sleek contraption for capturing our imagination.

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]

Zootopia is visually rich, with a fully realized cityscape and an action-filled train station during commuter rush that would take several viewings to fully appreciate. It’s emotionally rich, too, a film that promises to have staying power far beyond spring break.

Most important, Taraporevala and Nair have created a seamless story that entertains, informs -- and maybe even teaches. [28 Feb 1992, p.75]

Whether on stage or the screen, Much Ado About Nothing is a pleasure that passes like a midsummer night’s dream.

Enchanted April, from von Arnim's novel, may be the most charming film I've seen all year. Not only is it charming, but also witty, literate and bitingly funny. Then, without losing those qualities, it becomes a warm and wonderful love story, about dreams coming true, and finding what was thought lost, both in oneself and in someone else. [28 Aug 1992]

Cregger slowly builds bone-chilling and suspenseful sequences up to screechingly operatic moments of face-melting horror, and then swiftly cuts to a different chapter, making a hard left into a completely different mode, taking us all on the roller-coaster ride. His facility with comedy also aids in these jarring tone switches, and Barbarian is as funny as it is terrifying.

Superbly acted, and a return to form for Tavernier, who guided jazz legend Dexter Gordon to an Oscar nomination for "'Round Midnight" (1986).

While we await the definitive documentary about the glut of garbage, Waste Land reduces this global catastrophe to touchingly human scale.

Fargeat delivers a macabre, funny, tragic, absurd and grotesque Grand Guignol of butts and guts; a bonkers and brutal “beauty horror” that elevates the genre to a hysterically unprecedented heights.

Of all the films to come out the conflict, Afghan Star is the most provocative, because its message that people are essentially the same is a dubious, double-edge sword.

Tatum is terrific as a sort of anti-Clooney, and Driver complements him perfectly.