It may take more than Caro Diario for Americans to acquire the Moretti taste. [21 Oct 1994, p.H42]

Ne Zha II deserves all the attention and accolades: It’s an empowering film that makes you believe that you, too, can change your fate.

Night on Earth makes inspired use of its well-known cast, especially during the first three of its five episodes about cab drivers around the world and their fares. For all their predictability, the stories are fun to watch because the actors dig in and work them over. [22 May 1992, p.22]

This new animated feature has a more exciting story line than the first film, a stronger score, sharper dialogue and a more noticeable visual flair. [16 Nov 1990, p.28]

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

But there is bashing aplenty, and it all looks gorgeous. The action sequences are top-notch, the stunning visuals adding a delightful crunch (bones do break) and a sense of scale appropriate for someone like Superman. (There’s so much property damage, it’s ridiculous.) Throw in heat-vision lasers, freezing breath, Mach-speed punches and a superpowered flying dog, and it’s a rollicking good time. (Go see this in IMAX, if possible; you won’t regret it.)

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.

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.

It's a pointless, $30 million mediocrity with a disengaged star-director at its center. [15 Jun 1990, p.3]

You leave the film knowing that you’ve met a hero, but that this remarkable man deserved more.

There's a thrilling sense of transcendence that won't let go from the first masterfully constructed frames in Ridley Scott's modern epic of ancient Rome. It's that very rare feeling that you're settling into a movie whose individual elements are so finely attuned they fuse into a singular construct of pure entertainment.

While La Sentinelle is often a lively shaggy-dog story, it ultimately isn't much more than that. [01 Jan 1999]

Even with deep-seated problems that they may or may not be able to overcome, this is a couple worth rooting for. And — heartfelt, sarcastic and funny; tinged with love, loss and healing — Band Aid is, too.

From the start, Bottle Rocket isn't about creating a full-throttle commercial story. It weaves a beguiling web of comedy, pathos and crime. Other debut features have gone down this road, but director Anderson is amazingly at ease with the set-up.

So yes: Wow! Gasp! There are some really pretty pictures here. But wow! Gasp! The story is really pretty … stupid.

It’s a visual spectacle, a 155-minute fight-to-the-death battle anime held together by a series of emotional lows told in flashbacks covering the worst demons in each hero and villain’s past.

A number of Kelly’s scenes play out like stand-alone sketches — some quite funny; not all of them essential — rather than parts of a whole. But that’s easily forgiven considering the candor of his insights and his strong cast.

Manny & Lo is often on the verge of becoming too cute for comfort, and writer-director Lisa Krueger doesn't always succeed in avoiding those pitfalls. She's also better at establishing relationships and working with actors than she is at generating narrative momentum. [30 Aug 1996]

Nocturnal Animals is, I think, a beautiful mess, but I might have to watch it again to be sure.

T2 is a sequel that is at least the equal of the revered original.

These filmmakers have made arguably the best Halloween since that first one.

This coming-out, coming-of-age story explores familiar territory, especially in the increasingly busy market of gay teen movies. But Edge of Seventeen is also specific enough, and truthful enough about its flawed hero, to establish its own terrain. [30 Apr 1999]

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.

We fall in love with this couple, just a bit, and want them to be together. And Hathaway and Galitzine make a charmer of a pair.

A Private Life is a murder mystery only on its surface; at its heart, it’s an exploration of a lonely woman’s extremely active mind, and an unexpectedly moving story of becoming more present in one’s real life, rather than one’s imaginary one.

With its opening line, “Imagine you’re dead,” The Family Fang instantly invites its soon-to-be-captive audience on an absorbing, provocative, slightly fantastic path that’s like few others.

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

As rom-coms go, it’s pretty much everything you want, even if it’s not quite distinctive enough to linger.