This tribute to old-fashioned hard-boiled detective fiction is laced with Hollywood satire and snappy, lightning-fast dialogue.

What fills the screen is not heightened melodrama, but a series of stark, sometimes painfully poignant vignettes that reflect the oppressive stasis of their lives.

Guided by director Silver's gentle but sure hand and benefiting from strong performances by the leads, this is a sweet, funny movie that doesn't exploit the sentimentality of its story.

While WHAT'S UP, DOC? may not be as great as the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s, director Bogdanovich has delivered a film with energy, wit, and a madcap pace that is well worth watching.

Well-acted, likably small-scale, full of good intentions, but hardly a corker.

Feels soft without being especially affectionate, and only sporadically funny.

First written in the early '80s, Terrence Malick's fourth film in three decades is a trancelike take on the relationship of Native American princess Matoaka - better known by the nickname Pocahontas and English adventurer John Smith.

Unexpectedly poignant documentary.

Fun without ever being particularly funny, this one-joke comedy-of-bad-manners features a hero who will either tickle your funny bone or make you vaguely uncomfortable.

Featuring outstanding lead performances by Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins; a witty, literate script; and an insider's familiarity with life around minor league baseball--Bull Durham is both one of the best films ever made about the national pastime and a charming romantic comedy.

This has become a minor cult classic and is one of Mitchum's more interesting (and bizzare) efforts.

There are moments of such breathtaking grace and artistry that you'd be forgiven for thinking you're watching the most beautiful movie ever made.

The person who can resist a formerly homeless senior citizen gradually restored to sufficient stability to the degree that he can take in his own "castaway cat" is hard-hearted indeed.

Billed as a dark comedy, brothers Jay and Mark Duplass' shaggy, ultra-low-budget tale of a tense New York-to-Atlanta road trip is more accurately a relationship-hell drama peppered with strangled laughs.

The relentlessly self-congratulatory tone is oppressive.

A beautifully acted, intensely felt story.

It's almost inconceivable how Glass could have gotten away with so much, but the movie makes a convincing case for how Glass used office politics, the good faith of his editors and his own personal charisma to get away with the worst offenses a journalist could commit.

Zhang's film is sweet and sentimental nearly to a fault; luckily, he's such a master, you'll hardly notice how shamelessly you're being manipulated.

It unfolds in the angst-haunted shadow of the 9'11 terror attacks and teeters on a thin edge of sheer panic.

It's riveting to watch the shows' respective creators work, clash, whine, celebrate and commiserate as the season and their stories unfold.

The movie's performances, especially Lathan's, are strong enough to balance out the sometimes-clichéd script.

Capably directed by Australian Bruce Beresford and well acted, Breaker Morant is a fascinating and satisfying experience.

Though at heart a tightly-wound, bitterly bleak comedy of manners, Eyre's film is less funny than brilliantly squirm-inducing, a dissection of bad behavior via rapier-sharp dialogue.

The voices of Reynolds, Lynde, Gibson, and all the rest are perfectly cast, and the songs by the Sherman brothers are solid, although none of them became hits like those they wrote for such Disney movies as Mary Poppins.

Impossible to dislike: It's as good-hearted as its bubbly protagonist.

Despite the absence of dialogue -- the mice squeak and the oak creatures caw like ravens -- Cegavske imbues her scrappy little creatures with disturbingly complex personalities. And if the tale's moral is less than clear, its haunting images speak directly to some dark, preverbal corner of the heart.

You may end up wishing for a little less show and a lot more substance.

It's impossible not to get a nostalgic buzz as the hosts wander around the old sets and soundstages, while the anthology of clips creates a wonderful sense of popular culture during Hollywood's halcyon days.

This moving story neatly avoids melodrama.

The biting satire and absurd situations in Waters' movies always dwell self-consciously on how media images and stereotypes affect viewers' notions of reality. Polyester is much more cliche-ridden than his other films, however, and so is less successful as satire.

This dark, almost mythic heart is what makes the film such an emotionally rich experience.

The roots of Steve James's disturbing documentary lie in youthful idealism.

A touching examination of the ravages of Alzheimer's disease, made even more so by the extraordinary chemistry between Swedish actor Sven Wollter and his real-life wife, Viveka Seldahl, who died shortly after the film was completed.

What could easily have been a sentimental, fannish exercise in musty nostalgia is in fact a lovely tribute to an era of feverish creativity that seemed as though it would never end yet now lives only in memory.

The picture runs on a bit long and it does pale by comparison to the book, but it was a welcome smile in 1947 and has the same effect today.

What is interesting is Ceylan's depiction of life among the Turkish upper-middle classes, a world rarely seen in international art-house cinema outside his own films.

Fans of Lehane's Kenzie-Gennaro books will lament the fact that starting with the fourth book means losing the couple's extensive backstory, but the essence of their fragile, damaged bond comes through even if you don't know what shaped it.

Shot from the animals' point of view and narrated by Dudley Moore, MILO AND OTIS contains some important messages about the responsibilites of friendship. Slow in spots, but a treat nevertheless.

The film's climax, which cuts back and forth between the 16-year-old Dongo (Silas Radies, whose younger brother plays Dongo as a ten year old) making his dangerous debut with the fly-by-night Aurora Circus and the 2002 competition that takes him back to Hungary for the first time in years is nothing short of riveting.

It remains notable primarily as a record of pre-Hollywood Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It has heart and warmth in the American Graffiti vein, with everything carried out top-notch in a sociological study of black youths.

One of the most cynical and bitterly funny westerns ever made.

A terrific debut film for both Van Heflin and for Fred Zinnemann in the director's chair.

This might be the only documentary that will appeal to punks and Mormons alike.

The plot is minimal, and no attempt is made to explain the psychology of the sociopath who murders casually and yet yearns for the security of middle-class life. But the movie's details are fascinating and often surprising.

Neo-Gothic fantasist Tim Burton and writer John August (Big Fish) play it strictly by the book for this darker but far more faithful adaptation of Roald Dahl's cautionary 1964 young-adult novel.

It's Alive is a justifiably praised low-budget effort that delves into the dark side of American family life from a horror-movie perspective.

Sayles' script is an intelligent look at a woman's struggle in 1930s society, and it conveys the proper mood for the character and the times. Teague's direction manages to capture the era on a shoestring budget, and the performances he gets from his cast are solid.

One of the most perceptive movies about the gentrification of Los Angeles.

Resembles an Impressionist masterpiece come to life, and ends with a tremendously moving acceptance of art and mortality.

It does get K-Mart to pull handgun and assault ammunition from their shelves after two Columbine survivors show up at corporate headquarters with Moore's camera crew in tow and bullets bought for 13 cents apiece at a K-Mart store still embedded in their bodies.

The case is a convincing one, and should give anyone with a conscience reason to pause.

An unexpectedly warm valentine to the solitary joy of reading in an increasingly post-literate age. It's also a gripping mystery yarn involving obsession, a long-forgotten book and a shadowy author who appears to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

In an outstanding ensemble, Spall is particularly good.

Not much happens on the surface of Hou Hsiao Hsien's latest film...Nevertheless, it can break your heart.

Webber's assured directing is evident throughout; in addition to eliciting strong performances from his cast, he always knows when to linger on an image and when to move on.

Director and co-screenwriter Oliver Stone pulls off an amazing filmmaking feat with JFK, transforming the dry minutiae of every John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory of the past three decades into riveting screen material.

A charming, if often-seen, tale, paced with alacrity by Wilder from the adaptation of Taylor's hit play. [Review of re-release]

Other than the unfortunate miscasting of Molina, an otherwise superb actor, and Wallace Shawn's grating performance, everyone else is right on the money. Oldman, fresh from his triumph as Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy, is the key and holds it all together.

Even without the music, this well-written story would be a splendid entertainment. But it's the music, that wonderful score written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, that makes this movie as beloved as it is.

Though SMITHEREENS is not without its problems--much of the material seems to be cliched--it is a good display of what a persistent creative drive can achieve.

Following surgery Wayne wanted to prove he was still physically fit, and his role here certainly goes to great lengths to show it. Wayne rides, shoots, and fights as though the worst that had happened to him was a touch of the flu.

A raw, penetrating, and terrifying portrait of humanity.

Exotica sounds terrifically lurid and interesting, but like most Egoyan films, it's far more interesting in the telling than in the watching.

It's enjoyable poppycock.

Director Zinnemann never allows his primarily stage-trained actors to indulge in theatrical over-emoting. This absorbing film features inventive camerawork and superior production values.

Never an easy one to impress, Reed is clearly in awe of Antony's ethereal voice, and it must now stand as the definitive version of a 40 year old song.

All That Jazz is great-looking but not easy to watch; Fosse's indulgent vision at times approaches sour self-loathing, and nothing like the explicit open-heart surgery had been seen on mainstream American screens, let alone the morbid song-and-dance routines in an operating theater.

Crtainly worthy of serious attention and filled with revealing moments.

The film is relentlessly peppy, often quite funny, sometimes a bit too convinced of its own adorableness and ultimately as smoothly reassuring as a TV sitcom.

A searing example of writer-director Billy Wilder at his most brilliantly misanthropic. An uncompromising portrait of human nature at its worst, the film was so far ahead of its time in its depiction of a media circus and the public's appetite for tragedy that it was a commercial disaster when first released, but now stands as one of the great American films of the 1950s.

A bold, remarkable film.

The movie's secret weapons are its stellar cast, whose performances go a long way to ameliorating Ross's ham-fisted use of foreshadowing and symbols, and its brilliantly shot racing sequences -- they're heart-stoppingly suspenseful even when the outcome is a matter of record.

Scruffy, loosely structured and piercingly perceptive about the ways in which technology that supposedly brings people together actually keeps them apart.

A gripping mystery and an ever-timely reminder of the terrible power of repression and silence.

The almost supernatural turn which Kim's lovely film takes during its final act, however, is totally unexpected, and just one reason why Kim ranks as one of the most justly celebrated talents in contemporary Korean cinema.

The overall tone of the film is absolutely appropriate for all ages, and it's never too early to learn the importance of preserving our planet.

Thalbach's passionate performance is the film's center, but she's aided by a strong supporting cast, Jarre's propulsive score and the gritty locations: It was shot at the very shipyard where real-life history was made.

The laughs are sardonic, and the reality of Chayefsky's heavy-handed message (i.e., hospitals treat their patients badly) eats away at the viewer. But even when it falls flat, it's still an interesting watch.

Overly sentimental, but with its heart in the right place, THE OLIVE TREES OF JUSTICE tells the story of Prothon, a Parisian who returns to Algiers (he was raised there) during the war of independence to be with his dying father.

A wonderfully creative, bizarre, delightfully terrifying horror film that never fails to surprise.

Don't hate him because he's beautiful, decent, awesomely powerful, modest and just plain good. That's the big blue Boy Scout package - take it or leave it.

Extravagant special effects notwithstanding, this is really a triumph of casting: The aplomb with which Jones plays wry straight man to Smith's street-smart wiseacre is terrifically enjoyable.

An entertaining, insightful and handsomely illustrated "Freud for Dummies."

A western for people who are completely ignorant about the genre. Costner's direction is barely competent and frequently clumsy.

Its power lies both in Aronofsky's evocation of tightly wound paranoia and in his flawless dovetailing of personal obsession and cultural anxieties.

It's an impressionistic experience rather than a linear one, and the process of surrendering to the images and rhythms of lives lived in simultaneous harmony with the physical and the spiritual is greatly helped by the chants that dominate much of the soundtrack.

Whether you conclude that this project is a brilliant hoax that exposes how the rapid transition from communism to a free market economy has created an ad addicted, consumer-mad culture in the Czech Republic, or simply a cruel joke, one thing is undeniable. It's a fascinating account.

Raises important questions that resonate far beyond the subject at hand: What is the meaning of accomplishment, and how do you define triumph?

If they gave an Oscar for the year's most claustrophobic film, Presumed Innocent could have won it in a walk. Everything about this film is as cramped, clenched, and constricted as Harrison Ford's face, which looks like a tightly balled-up fist here.

One of the best British science-fiction films and one of the most controversial.

The bitter-sweet story of young lovers caught up in an political struggle waged by farmers against the grain trade, the banks and the railroads, NORTHERN LIGHTS brings back a forgotten era of American history and evokes the austere beauty of the Northern Plains.

Unfortunately, it only hints at the real fire the purple one brings to his shows.

Bleak, darkly humorous and surprisingly unsentimental, Michael Winterbottom's film has the desperate air of a cri de coeur, and unlike many fiction films about war, its use of real-life footage seems in no way inappropriate or exploitative.

Genuinely gripping, balancing the travails of constructing the tunnel against the characters' stories with considerable skill.

The last word on Haskell Wexler's career hasn't been spoken, but it's hard to imagine there's much more to say about him as a bad dad.

Arguing that you shouldn't expect rich characterization from a comic-book movie misses the point: Vivid relationships separate the graphic novels from the funnies and, in the end, spectacular set design is just window dressing.

Superbly acted, beautifully photographed, and resolutely warm and fuzzy, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE is a romantic treat.