Candles illuminate faces in the dark; a curving staircase looms like a shadow. And the actors pitch their roles perfectly: Kidman’s breathy calm; Farrell’s charm, just hinting at something dark within it; Fanning’s way of prettily arranging herself, showing off Alice’s newfound power; Dunst’s quiet melancholy.

This is easily the best “Trek” movie since “Khan,” giving the rebooted franchise ample reason to proceed at warp speed.

Already nicknamed "This Is Spinal Rap," this clever fake-documentary should delight both those who love rap music and those who feel it's been given a free ride by music critics for far too long. [17 Jun 1994, p.E3]

There’s nothing remotely fresh about Juror #2, but that’s what makes it fresh — it’s simply a story about neither heroes nor saints, but a group of people trying hard to do the right thing.

The frenetic style suggests the influence of Richard Lester's British comedies, but the storyline and the use of rock music suggests that Coppola may have influenced Mike Nichols' "The Graduate," which was released one year later. [14 Jan 1999]

With its ever-so-earnest desire to shed light on the complex social issues of gang influence in Los Angeles, South Central is a film that's good - or at least, easily recommendable - in spite of itself. [06 Nov 1992, p.27]

Through a deft combination of physical comedy, teenage angst and small-scale exploration of a fascinating premise, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” remains smartly committed to the emotional lives of its characters and their intermingled fates.

Life, as a character in Babes points out, isn’t always like a Nora Ephron movie, but it’s a pleasure to watch these two stumble toward their own happy ending.

It may not add up in the end, but it's fun while it lasts. [01 Oct 1993, p.D14]

While the film’s formula gets repetitive, little revelations peppered throughout keep it engaging.

Barker has a knack for jump scares — and for making a wildly fanciful story feel real.

It’s a nice message, told with charm aplenty. And as always, the Pixar magicians create a wonderfully populated world.

Shot in stark black and white, the picture’s sense of place and time is strong — pungently so.

It’s hard to get too excited about Sing, which takes a bit too long to travel its familiar path, but it’s also quite impossible to dislike it.

Stronger, ultimately, leaves its audience feeling a little stronger; we fall with Jeff, and we stand with him.

With the kind of dignity rarely found in movies today, Bertolucci has tried - if only with mixed success - to address the things that really matter. [27 May 1994, p.D3]

The bottom line, for any movie that purports to be a thrill ride, is whether the end result is thrilling — and I’d give a definite yes to that.

It's doubtful that any variation on Finney's story could be called definitive. There's an inexhaustible supply of targets; we could have a new one every year or so. But this one certainly has its creepy moments. [18 Feb 1994, p.D3]

The Accountant delivered a dependable ‘90s-style throwback action thriller and “The Accountant 2” is much the same, though it embraces a looser, more amusing tone, while playing in a story sandbox that looks like our world, with our issues: immigration, human trafficking, organized crime.

Gore and guffaws attend this very dark horror comedy in roughly equal measure.

Roman J. Israel, Esq., isn’t as good as the performance at its center, but perhaps that’s inevitable.

DaCosta whisks us through the story with plenty of wit, particularly from Kamala’s family.

The Little Stranger is a haunted-house movie, but not one with cheap scares. In fact there are few scares at all — it’s mostly just an atmosphere of lingering, musty dread — and horror-movie fans should be warned that it’s all quite subtle. But it’s haunting, in its quiet way.

It’s a pleasant Christmas-season offering; both mild (read: family-friendly) and sweet.

The movie is less interesting than the career of Nicolas Cage, but it’s very funny at moments, and Cage and Pascal have great chemistry.

White Fang is one of the best family films around right now. The violence is not too intense, the harshness of the frontier is downplayed without being ignored, and the wildlife footage is reminiscent of the best Disney documentaries. [18 Jan 1991, p.22]

Studio 666 is good B-movie fun! Time will tell if it deserves the same cult status as heavy-metal horror classics like “Trick or Treat” (1986) or “Black Roses” (1988), but there are still plenty of midnight thrills to be had.

Director/co-screenwriter Scott Derrickson generally keeps the massive enterprise moving smoothly along. The trip’s the trip here, and it’s well worth taking.