If a year in the life of a university department head doesn't sound like the stuff of a riveting documentary, please allow this stirring film by husband and wife filmmakers Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson to change your mind.

It's curious that the filmmakers choose to end the story without reporting on Weatherwoman Kathy Boudin's involvement in an ill-fated 1981 robbery of a Brinks truck in New York State.

Sleeper is a highly inventive science fiction parody that is typical of Allen's tight, well-edited movies. Costumes by Joel Schumacher are excellent.

More than just being about the making of FITZCARRALDO, the film is an incisive character study about a visionary filmmaker who seems to be oblivious to the fact that the making of his film is becoming as difficult and foolhardy as Fitzcarraldo's own struggles.

Bogdanovich's warmest film, featuring charming performances from real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O'Neal.

Depp's tight, guarded performance is almost painful to watch, and Newell seems to have reined in the flamboyant Pacino, whose portrait of the mobster as a grumpy old woman may be his best work in years.

A sober, intelligent drama with surprising integrity.

A truly compelling psychological suspense story from Otto Preminger.

Remarkable in its accuracy, this movie even uses film footage from the actual raid.

The soundtrack (Heart, ELO, Todd Rundgren, and an original score by the French duo Air) is spot-on and the costume design (pukka shells and knee-socks) is hideously accurate.

This is family entertainment at its best: Intelligent and surprisingly unsentimental. And anyone who doesn't fall in love with those goslings has a heart of stone.

The movie sticks with you as few do: It's rewardingly authentic and emotionally real.

A smart but disappointingly conventional portrait of an artist who had little use for convention.

Fine ensemble acting (Alda and Huston are outstanding), evocative composition and design, intelligent writing, and spritely musical score.

In a glove-fitting role, Hutton blasts her way on and off screen as the sharpshooting Annie Oakley Mozie. (Review of original release)

What's best about Block's documentary is how well he captures his own shifting perceptions.

The cast is wonderful--especially McGavin, Billingsley and Petrella--the laughs are nonstop if rarely subtle, and the whole thing deserves to become a Christmastime classic.

While Corman may veer dangerously close to pretention, his crisp staging and confident visual style keep the film from collapsing under its own weight.

Carefully scripted and well acted, Stand and Deliver is sentimental and utterly predictable but better than many films of this kind.

Kramer vs. Kramer is, essentially, a television movie that was raised into the feature category by the excellence of the execution.

Featuring some strong performances from a cast that includes Dabney Coleman and Ally Sheedy, convincing re-creations of defense technology, and nicely modulated tension, WARGAMES is a generally effective message film.

While it may lack the sheer comic anarchy of their other work, Life of Brian may be probably the funniest collective efforts concocted by the British comedy troupe "Monty Python's Flying Circus," is their most sustained effort. (Review of Original Release)

The film represents a retreat from the explicitly political concerns of TO LIVE (which landed the director in serious trouble with P.R.C. authorities), but there's a distinct satirical subtext underlying Zhang's Chinese Gangland, a place of limitless greed, self-destructive ritual and fatal hubris.

Controversial filmmaker John Waters finally hits his commercial stride in this film, parlaying his keen social observation and great compassion for society's outsiders into a colorful and engaging comedy full of dancing, music and heartfelt nostalgia.

Here, writer Fraser and director Lester went back to the original and hewed closely to the source material, but adding a lot of fun. Some good slapstick combines with moments of real drama and menace to make this movie a winner.

In the film's most audacious break with the ultra-realism of the Dogme program, Bier inserts grainy visualizations of what Cecilie wishes for at a given moment -- a caress from the paralyzed Joachim, or a wave goodbye -- directly into the action.

What's most disappointing is the thoroughly cliched story.

It's a lovely tribute to an extraordinary talent whose music might have been forgotten, and you really couldn't ask for a more beautiful soundtrack.

There's little new here, but uniformly powerful performances (especially Owen's) give the tale unexpected power and depth, and the exotic details--like the elaborate tribal tattoos worn by Nig's gang, or the Maori chants Boogie learns in reform school--make the Heke family's descent into misery seem fresher than it otherwise might.

Compared to D.A. Pennebaker's previous feature DON'T LOOK BACK (1967), the warts-and-all portrait of Bob Dylan, MONTEREY POP seems very much an authorized presentation of its subject.

Set in 1879 in Natal, this magnificently staged, brilliantly acted film tells the story of the heroic defense by overwhelmingly outnumbered British troops of the tiny outpost Rorke's Drift.

A great play but just a good movie, Guys and Dolls fails to convey the charm that the magnificent stylized stage version brought to the unique world inhabited by Damon Runyon's characters, despite the collaboration of some very talented people.

Wonderfully droll, Cannes Camera d'Or winner.

While it's unlikely that her film will sway former fans who swore off the band for political reasons, that seems beside the point.

Sidney Lumet directs effectively, keeping the tension strong, and unfolding David Mamet's intelligent screenplay slowly but with maximum impact.

Alternately accessible and obscure, the film is almost too rich to digest at one sitting, but even if experiencing this remarkable films means latching onto just a few of its myriad ideas, it's still a richly rewarding encounter.

This amazing footage alternates with interviews that include more than a dozen surviving members of the troupe, whose recollections are by turn funny, touching and mind-boggling. What a time!

William Klein's film documents a turbulent time and an outsized personality, but the film's glories are in the details and its intimacy would be unimaginable in the rigidly spin-controlled atmosphere of 21st-century sports.

Well-plotted action, but as in most of Leone's films scenes seem to have been deleted from the American prints.

A simple story carried into the stratosphere by the glorious music.

Davis gives a lively and humanistic performance, and the direction by Gillian Armstrong (MRS. SOFFEL, HIGH TIDE), in her feature debut, matches her heroine's character: strong, with a good sense of wanting to get something done and then doing it. The mise-en-scene is well composed, and the story is well told in this wonderful Australian work.

One of Scorsese's most commercial undertakings, THE COLOR OF MONEY relinquishes none of his unique style and vision, using a swooping, gliding camera and countless trick shots to maximum impact.

The filmmaking is a bit crude at times but it packs an emotional wallop.

Resnais cuts constantly between the various narrative threads, signaling each change of scene with a superimposed shower of snowflakes; it's a highly artificial device, and a deceptively lovely one that reinforces the sense that all Ayckbourn's characters are slowly succumbing to an emotional chill.

A true film buff's film about a film buff.

The casual listener is easily put off, but by the end of the film, even a newcomer can see the magic that made fans of Kurt Cobain and Sonic Youth and led the estimable Yo La Tengo, Pearl Jam and Wilco to cover Johnston's remarkable body of work.

A fascinating film that also benefits greatly from the stunning scenery of the Tibetan plateau and from a quicksand scene that will leave you gasping.

It is in this film that Hitchcock showed his development of a theme he would repeat in films to come--the innocent victim suddenly caught up in a terrifying situation with apparently no way out, coupled with breathless chases in popular public places.

A laser-sharp evocation of the tortured ties that bind sisters, who can love and loathe each other simultaneously and inflict lifelong wounds with chilling expertise.

This curiously empty film was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1997 Cannes film festival.

The power of an otherwise carefully crafted film is undone by risky and not altogether successful casting.

Overall, Grindhouse may well be the Beatlemania of sleaze-movie viewing, but since the real thing is gone it's the best that many fans will ever have.

An excellent crime drama in the style of Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, and Dashiell Hammett.

At the heart of this picturesque fable is a truism so shopworn it can barely stand repeating: It's better to give than to receive.

Very modest, but surprisingly sweet. The naive escapades of a group of American students studying in France for a year is given a charming, somewhat corny treatment by the authors of AMERICAN GRAFFITI--Huyck (who also directed) and Katz.

Spencer Tracy could hold his own acting opposite anyone, and in this excellent sequel to FATHER OF THE BRIDE (1950), he proves that not even a baby can upstage him.

While we at home can't come close to experiencing the war in any real sense, we do come away from Scranton's film with a greater sense of the soldiers' everyday fear, helplessness and horror.

A meandering and deeply shallow tale of spiritual redemption.

Andersson creates a world that's at once surreal and disturbingly familiar; absurd, yet tremendously sad. The haunting score is by ABBA's Benny Andersson.

New songs--"Pass That Peace Pipe" and "The French Lesson"--and sensational choreography contributed to making this an impressive debut for director Charles Walters and a big hit for MGM in 1947.

There are no grand Hollywood moments in Ruby in Paradise, a drama about one intelligent woman finding herself, just a series of quiet scenes and personal epiphanies that add up to a satisfying independent film.

Spheeris succeeds in creating a touching portrait, although the depressing nature of their dead-end, emotionally numb lives offers little hope for a cheerful resolution.

The story here is really secondary to character and milieu, as director John Badham and his actors create a convincing portrait of frustrated 1970s working-class youth and the escape offered by the swirling lights and pulsing rhythms of the disco.

Bad teen film unredeemed by aspirations toward significance.

Exceedingly stagy and theatrical, even by 1930's standards, but is nevertheless very funny and highly enjoyable.

This landmark TV-movie brings history to vivid life, never sacrificing moving personal drama to score sociological or political points.

One of the great New York films, swathing the city in a layers of dewy love and glossy chic. [Review of re-release]

Hustle is one of the few examples of true modern film noir. But director and screenwriter cannot resolve their different approaches. The script's humanistic, if depressing, angle gets battered by Aldrich's approach. An interesting mixed bag.

A rollicking comedic condensation of Fielding's sprawling novel about a lusty young man's adventures in 18th-Century England.

The film's title refers both to tiny, fish-shaped vials of liquid heroin and the small fry flitting around the edges of the urban drug scene.

The film clearly functions as wish-fulfillment for the kind of people who are nostalgic about all-white basketball, leaving a nasty aftertaste.

Director William Richert has turned Richard Condon's novel about the insanity of the American power structure into a wickedly funny black comedy spiced up by some deliciously off-the-wall performances.

It's too bad screenwriters Gough and Millar didn't have enough faith in their premise to play it straight; if they had, they might have produced a classic rather than a "Blazing Saddles" without the courage of its convictions.

Throughout, the notion that hip-hop is much more than rapping is a persistent theme, and anyone seeking a solid introduction -- or re-introduction -- to that ever vibrant culture shouldn't miss it.

Once Kim and Heidi finally meet, it becomes something much more complex: a gripping drama of culture clash and familial responsibility that also serves as a stinging metaphor for U.S. involvement in Third World nations like Vietnam.

While far from her best work, this accessible, emotionally involving domestic drama nevertheless serves as a welcome introduction.

The twists and turns continue until the very end of Choi's mesmerizing, high-energy romp, whose 139 minutes zip by like a round of speed poker.

Brynner is very good, his austere presence and unflinching intent making him seem indestructible.

A Star is Born captures wonderfully the hustle of Hollywood.

Arguably one of the best horror films of the 1980s.

A very frightening adaptation of the John Wyndham novel about a small English village that becomes the victim of unfriendly aliens.

An uneven but unusually thoughtful melodrama, Carnal Knowledge avoids most of the the trendy excesses that make some other films of its era so difficult to watch today.

An impressive first feature from Melvin Van Peebles has a black American soldier, Baird, stationed in France and visiting Paris on a three-day pass.

In stripping her potentially lurid material of salacious appeal, Martel also makes it murky and oddly arid, a mind-numbing exercise rather than an experience.

The three leads--particularly Pryor, in an essentially non-comedic role--are remarkable.

Jones handles his fellow actors well, drawing a hard, anguished performance from Pepper and allowing January Jones (no relation) to bring a touching vulnerability to Mike's bored, vapid, baby-doll wife.

A deeply satisfying film, THE BEST INTENTIONS, honored with the prestigious Palm d'Or at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, uses its considerable length to examine the early relationship of Bergman's parents with uncompromising thoroughness.

Ocelot forgoes the razzle-dazzle of 3D, computer-generated animation and turns instead to West African painting, sculpture and fabric for layout, character design and the film's gorgeous color palette.

However you feel about her character and what she may or may not have done, Tamblyn's portrayal of Stephanie Daley is softly devastating.

This gripping documentary sheds light on the frightening totality of Hitler's vision for a Germanic Europe, and the extent to which he and his Nazi thugs were no better than common thieves.

None of this is any more fun as it sounds -- the cancer ward scenes are truly disturbing -- but to be fair, writer/director Lone Scherfeg (the first woman to make a Dogme 95 film) manages some black-humored laughs.

Punjabi weddings are notorious for their lavishness, and Nair's intoxicating soap opera revels in the sights and sounds of this clamorous family ritual.

By turns profane, vulgar, unpredictable, scabrous and perpetually somewhere between buzzed and three sheets to the wind, Bukowski opened a window onto a fringe world of blue-collar drudgery and alcoholic self-obliteration with his blistering, bleakly comic dispatches from the gutter.

The story the film has to tell is an outrage, but it never devolves into a sputtering tirade.

Well-acted, deftly written and directed, and expertly shot by Young, this darkly comic tale of a hapless small-time gangster is an engaging cinematic artifact that remains as fresh today as the day it was made.

Between Nahon's pressure-cooker performance and the director's assaultive style (he's fond of brooding long takes interrupted by shotgun blasts of lurching, skip-frame edits and bold intertitles), the film would be an unbearable expression of rage, except that Noé's winking, nearly absurd sense of humor offers a disconcerting reminder of the unreality of it all.

Colorful Cajun noir, spicy, romantic, efficient.

Cook and Moore brilliantly shift from character to character with just a change of voice (not unlike Peter Sellers), and the movie never flags.