The pleasure of Bergman's style comes from the extremes that his characters must endure to arrive at that predictable point, and the new tricks that Bergman can teach to an old-dog story line. The airborne climax of "Honeymoon in Vegas" - involving those Flying Elvises (Utah Chapter!) that you've probably heard about by now - turns the ending of countless other movies into something new under the setting desert sun. [28 Aug 1992, p.3]

The film distinguishes itself by what it lacks: simple, unrealistic answers to Perry’s regrets and the hole in his soul. His path to authenticity might not lead back to glory days, but contentment is closer than he thinks.

Colman, on whose face the film frequently rests (does anyone in cinema have a more open, guileless smile?), quietly holds the drama in her hands. Her Hilary is fragile, yet touchingly determined to will herself toward the light.

Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent posits a revision of food history, chronicling the life of the magnetic, repellent man who changed American dining, then disappeared.

While it is a work that can only hold a candle to the enduring piece of literature written all those decades ago, there is still something oddly spectacular about it.

It’s part of the strength of Parker’s film that the current controversy doesn’t entirely overshadow its impact — and that Birth of a Nation immediately becomes part of another crucial conversation, about race.

The picture is a hugely entertaining crowd-pleaser studded with laugh-out-loud moments from beginning to end.

Girl on the Train isn’t likely to haunt its shivering viewers the way the “Gone Girl” movie did. Blunt, however, makes the ride well worth taking.

This sturdy, solid thriller underscores that at their core, survival stories are always stories of humanity’s best, and the impossible things we can achieve when we work together.

A conventional but thoroughly entertaining film.

Hayek plays her role with such gentle conviction, the movie quickly becomes something else: a sort of tragedy of manners.

The Gospel According to André leaves you wishing you knew a little more about this complex, elegant gentleman and his lifelong love affair with style.

Drop gets the job done, and even throws in an excellent cocktail-piano rendition of “Baby Shark.” Go see it on a first date, if you’re brave.

If you don’t already care about Hank Williams, this movie isn’t likely to change that.

It’s a movie full of small pleasures.

The film is an absolute triumph for Adams, who attacks her role like — yes, sorry — a dog with a bone.

An engaging picture brimming with uplift.

Bjorkman emphasizes the connection between Ingrid’s private and public lives, most movingly in her last film for theaters, “Autumn Sonata,” in which she and Ullmann played mother and daughter.

The segments, though short, are nastily effective.

It’s a moving and engaging film about finding truth, told through the perspective of two people who are very, very good at their jobs.

There are moments in Love Affair that take your breath away, sending you back to a time when class and discretion were the movie rule, and not the rarefied exception. [21 Oct 1994, p.H36]

If tense man-against-nature arm-wrestling is your jam (think Robert Redford in “All Is Lost,” but with snow and Mads Mikkelsen) this film makes for a compelling hour and a half; you know where it’s going, but you never quite believe it’ll actually get there.

The eye is enchanted by the richness of the picture’s spectacle.

Director Steve Barron guides the mayhem with controlled abandon, and the script contains just enough simplistic plot to give the 88-minute comedy an adequate foundation. [23 July 1993]

One of the great pleasures of moviegoing is seeing an actor perfectly cast, in a role that takes all of the performer’s trademarks and quirks and transforms them into something we haven’t seen before. Such a performance is at the center of Paul Feig’s sly thriller/comedy A Simple Favor, and the actor is Anna Kendrick.

The time-travel element gets awfully twisty, perhaps a little too much so. But there’s great pleasure to be had in the performances, particularly Green’s deliciously avian Miss Peregrine.

There's an anger and rawness here that fit hand-in-glove with Bruce Springsteen's "Badlands," which serves as the opening song. [3 Apr 1992, p.28]

Maximally cheeky. Perversely potty-mouthed. Riotously funny. Insanely violent. Uneven as all get out. And fun, fun, fun.

Having, presumably, run out of surfaces on the ground, the mad driving crew of Furious 7 resort to backing their cars off a plane and clutching their steering wheels while driving, er, falling through thin air. Why do they do this? Because it’s fun … to watch, that is.

The most interesting revelations come early as Wyman, in voice-over, describes his upbringing in a rough section of London.

This colossus may be mechanized, but it's gloriously efficient. The stakes get higher with each installment, and Donner knows how to corral the show-stopping mayhem into a polished, antiseptically entertaining package. [15 May 1992, p.3]

As with any Michael Moore movie, attention must be paid.

The co-writer and producer, Henry Bean (Internal Affairs), and the director, Bill Duke (A Rage in Harlem), punch up the story with plenty of action, some of it gratuitous and illogical. But for the most part they stick close to Fishburne's character and his increasingly difficult choices. [15 Apr 1992, p.D6]

The Coen brothers’ section, derived from a script they sent to Clooney in the late 1990s, is much more impactful, with Damon giving a performance that renders his character downright chilling and Jupe doing heart-rending work as a child emotionally buffeted by the grievously flawed behavior of the adults who are supposed to love and protect him.

The script can seem random and shapeless at first, but in retrospect that seems intentional. Assayas creates a sense of people who really can't see the forest for the trees. [27 Aug 1999]

Score, directed by Matt Schrader, breaks no new ground in the art of documentary — it’s mostly talking heads — but it’s an enjoyable walk through the art and history of the film score, with dozens of contemporary composers lending their voices.

The Souvenir reveals itself slowly, calmly, with great deliberation.

Writer-director Jo Sung-hee subtly evokes American Westerns and “X-Files”-like weirdness while dreaming up such pulse-quickening set pieces as a shootout in a fog-filled room.

Other than a few blips, Blinded by the Light is a production that is as strong as any Springsteen anthem and as inspiring as any lyrics by the Boss.

Every dog in this sweetly earnest movie seems to have a strong sense of responsibility.

What Bradley Cooper’s beguiling A Star Is Born is very, very good at is showing us how a song can transform a person, or a moment, and how that transformation just might make us fall in love with the person singing it, for a moment or for longer.

It’s nuts. It’s fun.

You get caught up in the way Tucci lets a round lamp fade into a glowing moon, or how Rush’s posture suggests a lifetime of bending over a canvas, or how a face on that canvas slowly emerges, from a forest of lines — and suddenly, time passes, and art happens.

An enjoyable vehicle for the young Jane Fonda, who does a pretty fair Marilyn Monroe imitation as the sweet new wife of a very nervous Korean war veteran (Jim Hutton). [03 Dec 1992, p.E3]

You sense that a lot of the funniest stuff is flying by too quickly to land.

The film, directed by Paul McGuigan, is basically a weepie, and it doesn’t do quite enough to show contemporary audiences why Grahame was special. But its performances make it a pleasure to watch.

Luca Guadagnino’s moody drama A Bigger Splash is, unexpectedly, a study in charisma, with two wildly different performances at its center.

We may know how this strange saga ends, but Dumb Money will make you feel something, too. Whether that’s jubilation for the Davids or rage at the Goliaths, well, isn’t that kind of the point?

If you go expecting a slightly quirky romantic drama with touches of magic realism, not to mention the pleasure of seeing Ryan in one of her rare screen appearances these days, I think you might leave happy.

Director Matt Spicer...is dealing with some fairly obvious themes; i.e. everything on social media isn’t what it seems; living your life online isn’t necessarily a good idea. But he finds much wit in the characters, and in the wicked fun the actors are having.

You'll never see a more depressing tale than Salesman. Glengarry Glen Ross has nothing on this 1968 documentary about sad-sack door-to-door Bible salesmen by the Maysles brothers. [07 Sep 2001]

Combining rowdy concert footage and revealing offstage interactions of the band members, Mad Tiger is a well-executed portrait of a band coming apart at the seams.

The full title, Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, is pure, over-the-top Herzog: simultaneously an embrace of fresh internet technology and an attempt to suggest a mythical dimension.

Fuqua’s remake is a worthy successor to the ’60s “Seven.”

Campy and goofy, vicious and bloody, if that sounds like a good time, you might have a lot of fun partying with Ma, even if you won’t remember much tomorrow.

It’s predictable — throughout the film, I kept thinking that I’d seen it before — and a bit sentimental, yet thoroughly pleasant.

Executed and performed with precision, the focus is on the relationships, but not breaking the system itself. The message of The Long Walk is muddled, at once hopeful and despairing.

Here, the focus is on Knightley, who delivers some of her best work.

The movie is a stylized collection of well-timed shockers, helped along by the contributions of its capable cast, especially Neill, who plays the detective in a hard-boiled manner that suggests 1940s film noir. [03 Feb 1995, p.H31]

With impeccable performances — particularly an electric, extended scene between Marcus and the college dean (Tracy Letts), and Gadon, whose wistful character has a face full of secrets — Indignation is an elegant debut for longtime producer Schamus; a visit to the past, with both sunshine and darkness.

This is history brought to life, something absolutely unprecedented in the annals of humankind.

By showing us the human side of poverty, Where the Day Takes You proves that a society is best judged by the treatment of its least fortunate members. [11 Sep 1992, p.21]

More coming-of-age than love story, “Pillion” finds joy in Colin’s journey of learning who he truly is. His road there is a little bumpy — like riding on the back of a motorcycle — and it may be a path less traveled, but it’s a worthwhile one all the same.

ueled by the street-wise authority of screenwriter Richard Price ("Sea of Love"), this jazzed-up remake takes a few basic cues from the '47 original, but otherwise it's a sharply updated morality play, toughened by the fact that good and evil aren't so clearly defined. [21 Apr 1995, p.H3]

A powerful new documentary.

By film's end, the husband's reasons and rationalizations seem all but incomprehensible. That doesn't, however, prevent this from being a thoroughly engrossing tale. [11 Jan 1991, p.24]

In fact it’s really writer-director Schrader who is Isaac’s true co-star in “The Card Counter.” A product of a strict Calvinist upbringing in Michigan, the filmmaker’s trademarks — guilt, redemption, a soul in torment — are all here.

Some scenes hold up better than others, and there’s always a question about the film’s intentions: Is this voyeurism or is it satire taking off on the Playboy era? Condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency in 1960, Private Property is less dated than you might think.

By the time he's hiding at a pregnancy retreat disguised as a former female Olympic athlete, Junior has pretty much hit the bullseye. [23 Nov 1994, p.D3]

It’s a good story, well told, though you have to forgive Hood for indulging in a little journalistic cliché.

Swedish director Roar Uthaug (“Cold Prey“) depends on well-crafted suspense, spot-on casting and ingenious special effects to tell the story of a dedicated geologist (Kristoffer Joner) who prophesies watery disaster in touristy Norway.

The performances and Towne's conception of the characters are what carry the picture. Crudup has been creeping up on stardom in movies as varied as Sleepers and Inventing the Abbotts, but this is the role that shows what he can do. [09 Oct 1998]

Ting, to her credit, is more interested in the battle between heart and head, instinct and obligation, than in what follows. “Already Tomorrow” is about ambivalence, not gratification, and is more interesting for it.

Anime enthusiasts will enjoy The Boy and the Beast, but so will anyone who appreciates a good fantasy yarn.

Violent, sentimental and profane, "Tears" crosses cool, hi-tech photography with a savage realism. [08 May 1990, p.3]

You feel hints of a strange energy in Emily that remind us we don’t always know why we do what we do in relationships. The hard part is holding on for the ride.

For a fun time to dispel the gloom of January, Dolittle is just what the doctor ordered.

Unsane has an uncanny way of reflecting the world through Sawyer’s eyes, sometimes amplified by the medication she’s forced to take. It’s not a pretty place.

With its dream cast and a burst of cinematic endorphins, The Paper is delivered on time, its headlines written large for enjoyable mass consumption. [25 March 1994, p.D3]

It’s pretty, it’s melodramatic-verging-on-silly, and if you like this sort of thing it’s great fun.

Though it’s fun watching Pitt swanning about in his nonchalant way — and a delight to see Kerry Condon, as a F1 technical director, finding some playful chemistry with him — this movie is entirely about the driving, and the speed.

A viewer might expect the film’s widescreen, busy images to fill with revenge-action sequences. But in its own way, Mr. Six is much more about a unique man adjusting an out-of-fashion personal code for a new type of crisis in the shadow of his mortality.

The whole may be less than its parts, but the parts are pretty impressive.

In all honesty, Gran Turismo isn’t much more than marketing for the video game coated with a cheer-inducing veneer. But for two hours, you, like Jann, can feel the rest of the world fall away and experience something joyful. It’s predictable yet infectious, charming if a little cheesy at times.

A Quiet Place, Part II, with its skillful jump scares and sly central premise (silence is safety, noise is fear), delivers the goods, and sent me home nervously worried that something might sneak up on me — as all scary movies should. Bring on Part III, quietly.

Director Ridley Scott, who knows a thing or two about how to mount sweeping historical epics (see “Gladiator”), is in his element here.

It’s an unfinished story, which leaves Dancer slightly unsatisfying, as if we’re abandoning a book mid-chapter. But what a pleasure to wallow in the talent of a ballet rock star — and to watch a troubled young man find peace in a split-second of perfection.

A deeply resonant literary quality gives what might otherwise seem like a dubious series of coincidences a profound sense of plausibility.

It’s an absorbing character study of a most intriguing man.

It’s a compelling argument, in a film that may well change a few minds — or at least inspire some heartfelt post-screening arguing.

Walter Matthau has a field day with the title character: a crop duster/bank robber who bills himself as "the last of the independents" - and runs circles around a Mafia killer (Joe Don Baker). [07 Mar 1996, p.F3]

Byrne, a recent Oscar nominee for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” holds it together.

It’s a horrifying tale, and Maras, a Greek-Australian filmmaker, does not shy away from showing the carnage.

It’s a quick, funny movie.

Mile 22 is one nasty piece of work. It’s an action picture that’s hard-core to the core, populated entirely by killers with nary a truly sympathetic figure among them. But it does deliver.

It’s all undeniably silly, but satisfying in an overstuffed blockbuster sort of way.

Hail, Caesar! isn’t the great film you might like it to be, but it’s very, very good fun.

There are no safe places in his pictures. And Eddington is dense with multiple levels that stoke the ever-present unease.