A daring and emotional documentary.

Strong performances by Scott Mechlowicz as Millman and Nick Nolte as the mysterious mechanic who changes his life ground the film in effective drama.

Edward Burns' best riff yet on guys trying to sort out their feelings about women.

In its hard-hitting depiction of a legacy of unspeakable brutality, this film shows that the ghosts of Leopold are alive and well.

Rather than being self-indulgent or pretentious, however, the film comes up with many believable details and changes in direction that enrich the bittersweet central relationship of the two leads.

The dramatic story is related here in a somewhat diffuse and scattershot fashion that reduces some of its impact. But there is no denying its emotional resonance.

This is a minor film from a master, which is disappointing, but nevertheless it has its charms, most notably in the acting by a cast of stage and screen veterans.

An artful experiment that's imposingly cryptic but comes from a respected filmmaker, it should appeal to its art house niche.

A winning combination of laughs and genuine shocks.

Winnepeg filmmaker Guy Maddin isn't known for run-of-the-mill movies, but the feature he debuted at the Toronto Fest was outrageous even for him. A silent film taking the form of a twelve-chapter Feuillade-flavored serial and designed to have live accompaniment, the movie itself is a match for any of his features to date, and could outstrip earlier efforts in the arthouse arena.

Ultimately, Dresnok comes across as honest and credible, and his story is absolutely fascinating.

This is Shakespeare as action film --- furiously paced and unapologetically cinematic.

A family-friendly fantasy that finds the director working in an uncharacteristically gentle mood.

Dans Paris makes the city seem like the ideal place to be clinically depressed.

A rather unfocused but ultimately provocative portrait of Eastern Europe.

There's a palpable element of honesty in Lapica's writing and lead performance that gives this indie production, the edge over other troubled teen dramas.

Those expecting a reflective Buddhist piece will be surprised. First-time director Neten Chokling's film actually is a powerful revenge drama.

An unsparing look at child prostitution is a hard sell for audiences, but this movie is a memorable achievement, far superior to the recently released "Trade," another movie about sex trafficking.

It's undeniably fascinating, but you might want to take a shower after hanging out with this unsavory bunch.

Ghobadi always uses non-pro actors but you would never know. In fact, professionals wouldn't do theses roles justice since the recruited performers are partly playing themselves and partly playing people Ghobadi has known since he was a boy.

A ramshackle but likeable story.

An unusually poetic and meditative eco-themed documentary, Laura Dunn's The Unforeseen is as beautiful as it is ultimately depressing.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the picture, its few intellectual pretensions notwithstanding, is as a classy horror film with a particularly nasty edge. It's not exactly entertainment, but it casts a poisonous spell.

An eye-catching combination of cultural history, performer profiles and competition footage that should see enthusiastic response from niche audiences in urban and specialty venues.

Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow.

Marianne Faithfull is unforgettable as a middle-class, middle-aged frump …in Sam Garbarski's crowd-pleasing comedy-drama Irina Palm.

Expired is a remarkable romance of no easy answers; to wit, like real life.

The average age of the band's members is 62. They don't even bother to disguise that fact. These men look like your grandfather, right up until the downbeat. Then the magnificence of their playing sweeps away all concepts of age. Rock on.

An amusing ensemble piece about the troubles of dislocated twentysomethings attempting to find their way through life and love.

Ex-Germs infect biopic with punk authenticity

An engaging if less than revelatory documentary.

Eska seems to be attempting an ambitious Mexican-American variation on "King Lear," another tale of an aging patriarch seeking refuge but ultimately rejected by ungrateful children.

The great strength of the film is that it is difficult to know where cinema verite leaves off and fiction begins.

Much has been made of supermodel Gemma Ward's doll-like features, but there's nothing plastic about her debut performance in the charming Australian indie The Black Balloon.

Presented as a straight documentary about an American pop singer who had one U.K. hit in the 1960s as a member of a boy band and has gone missing ever since, but it plays like the slyest of spoofs.

Webber's way with his young cast is as unforced as the movie itself, which easily could have been overwrought and maudlin but is instead oddly affirming.

A period suburban rites-of-passage story with a pitch-perfect cast.

This entertaining, inside-show-business documentary is greatly enhanced by the presence of the two engaging "boys" of the title -- brothers who found harmony through music and dissonance with each other.

Both informative and persuasive, Under Our Skin targets both the heart and brain to advocate for the Lyme disease community.

This small journey of self-discovery, even at an advanced age, mirrors the larger one Berinstein so fondly addresses here and leaves you with that oh-so-rare but genuine warm and fuzzy feeling.

Like a good ad, Art & Copy bounds along and never bores. That's a big credit to Pray's savvy compilation and of editor Phillip Owens' crisp cuts.

An enjoyable spoof of Mexican soap operas and the entertainment business itself. The film doesn't ask to be taken seriously but if you absolutely insist, there is pointed commentary about the deep divisions within that society over skin color, gender politics and social backgrounds.

It's an unsettling, "Taxi Driver"-like character study that shows the underside to hero worship and the primal world of professional football.

Director Jean-Francois Richet shows a career in crime with pulse-pounding moments of pure cinema, then lets you decide what to make of this homicidal sociopath.

Leo should satisfy serious older filmgoers, even if it suffers from wobbly storytelling.

Yet for all the complex symbolism and visual brilliance, Blind Pig ultimately is an extended short.

Offers a brisk and eye-opening approach to recent history. The title, by the way, comes from Henry Kissinger.

One hell of a date movie. A surgical examination of the male psyche based on David Foster Wallace's book and written and directed by John Krasinski, there is plenty of food for thought and argument.

This is a sophisticated stylistic exercise too rarefied for wide audiences, but earmarked for critical kudos.

Manhattan's storied hotel is the timely subject of this passionate tribute.

It's an engaging piece of humanistic storytelling.

While following a fairly predictable story line, the film has enough ambushes, treachery and irony to sustain audience involvement with a range of characters that stand for diverse points of view about that war.

The greatest romantic movie to jumble its time structure, Stanley Donen's "Two for the Road," is a touchstone that DiPietro must have had in mind. While this low-budget indie doesn't have the gloss or the depth of that romantic classic, the highest compliment I can pay Peter and Vandy is that it belongs in the same company.

Regardless of critics' assertion of a change in style, Hong core group of intellectual admirers will still find pleasure in his cerebral film language, nuanced dialogue, and droll observations of a Korean abroad.

Biased as journalism but engrossing as a movie, this documentary about a controversial Holocaust figure should be taken with a grain of kosher salt.

Becomes a bracing portrait of three fascinating individuals who use this work as a means to keep living.

The fact that it's actually based on a true story adds an extra layer of poignancy, heightened further by another superb Sophie Okonedo performance.

The result is something like an old-fashioned Costa-Gavras film but without the leftist sentimentality.

Gutierrez's script can't supply female characters as believable as Almodovar's, but in the director's chair he gives his cast room to compensate with funny, self-aware performances.

A provocative parable about individuals at war with development and the global economy.

The impact of the quietly observant film builds until the unlikeliest of elements - an old Broadway tune, an empty garage, a conversation about fenders - detonate with long-buried emotion, anguished and tender.

An evocative examination of the clash between tradition and modernism in the handling of an age-old problem.

Fascinating on social and theological levels, the film is less compelling as a straightforward narrative. Still, adventurous filmgoers will be rewarded by its unusually open-ended storyline.

At its plainspoken best, the U.S.-and Thailand-shot film is an eye-opening history lesson more than an atmospheric thriller. It's nonetheless chilling as it exposes the machinations between countries with no official relationship.

Despite its undeniably fascinating elements, Prodigal Sons attempts to deal with so many issues at once that it inevitably lacks focus. But there's no denying that it offers a hook that other similarly themed docs could only envy.

It offers a much needed personal perspective on a subject that is too often reduced to political arguments.

Heartfelt but dramatically tepid tale.

The actor's compelling self-exposure, physically and emotionally, draws us into such a degree that we genuinely come to care about his well-being.

The film bears an undeniable stamp of authenticity in its depiction of the romantic crisis suffered by two twentysomethings in New York's ever picturesque Greenwich Village.

Who Do You Love, directed by Broadway veteran Jerry Zaks, pays attention to the music but to its credit pays even more attention to the actors and story.

This beautifully made film (which won the best director award at last year's Venice Film Festival) is the very definition of an art house movie with limited appeal, but its political import gives it added talking points that will draw attention.

Its appeal naturally will be to book-reading audiences who appreciate films with well-written dialogue, a tony cast, lush visuals and the triumph of civilized values.

There's no denying that it is often outrageous fun, and the news that Fragasso and Drudi are working on a script for "Troll 2: Part 2" is but the icing on a very nasty cake.

A jaunty, happy-go-lucky adventure that packs a fistful of dynamite in the spectacular showdown.

A well-stirred titillation that will appeal to twentysomething audiences and movie-buff viewers who appreciate the pursued-pursuer, Hitchcockian style of suspenser.

A rousing fable drenched in Indian "magic realism" pays tribute to the enchantment of movies.

Fascinating, however uneasy, viewing.

An effective mix of lean and over-the-top, The Expendables is often preposterous, but it achieves the immediacy of a graphic novel without the overdone mythology.

As a portrait of children who are wanted and loved, it's intimate and often delightful.

There's no shortage of fascinating segments.

Here and There deserves all the attention it can get for its limited release. Beautifully executed, the semi-autobiographical film is set between the director's adopted New York and his native Belgrade, Serbia.

The 134-minute film jams in much information, incidents and characters without losing any entertainment value. And, fortunately, its heroism isn't pumped up or glorified.

What makes the movie pop is a standout performance by Roshan, one of Indian cinema's treasures.

It is a pleasure to see Weisz's scenes of scientific inquiry, which capture the passion of research and discovery without artifice or pretension. That the scientist is a woman makes it all the more engaging.

The film's satirical commentary about the intersection of politics and art is rarified, to be sure, but there is enough pointed humor in its execution to make The Juche Idea a provocative if intellectually challenging experience.

Despite its many ominous implications, Grimonprez also infuses Double Take with sly wit, inserting scenes from the TV program showcasing Hitchcock's wry sense of humor and the exaggerated domesticity of commercials sponsored by Folgers Coffee.

There are so many guilty pleasures here that it's amazing the film is as good as it is. The passions feel real, the roles are fully inhabited and the art speaks for itself.

While there is invariably repetition and drag in [the film], it also bursts with compelling detail and extraordinary insight into an enigmatic figure about whom we come away more or less enlightened.

Grim backwoods tale takes its time building momentum.

This picture sometimes rivals "Avatar" in its spectacular landscapes and thrilling flying sequences, but of course it won't come anywhere near those megagrosses, and it's too scary to be wholeheartedly embraced by children.

Hoffman emerges as a confident film director with visual flair and, no surprise, a remarkable ability to maximize his fellow actors' work.

If the impact of co-director/writer Reed Cowan's film is undercut by its sometimes sloppy execution, it nonetheless provides a disturbing portrait of the increasing overlap between church and state.

This is very much an actors’ film, not least because director-scripter Agnes Jaoui also appears in front of the camera in the well-seasoned role of Agathe Villanova.

As a depiction of youthful resilience, the film works, but Max's trials and tribulations might have had more dramatic impact with a trained actor in the role.

If its summary approach is less than penetrating, its underlying message of tolerance and open-mindedness is commendable.

Horror and cold humor commingle in Dogtooth, a Greek import whose screenwriters approach scenario construction like misanthropic social scientists planning an experiment -- one whose result suggests that governments might want to rethink policies allowing parents to home-school their children.

In-depth account of Army deployment in an Afghanistan hotspot shows soldiering at its most rugged.