The main event is the Mamet-esque battle of foul words between vintage hard-case Ray Winstone and the seething sociopath played by Ben Kingsley.

Stone handles his huge ensemble cast extremely well.

Flashing by like images in a flip book, these protean forms appear to dance a cosmic quadrille set to the music of the spheres.

With its artfully artless hand-held cinematography, haphazard focus, non-diegetic dialogue and what sounds like a largely improvised script, Thraves's film is all about style, but contains a surprising amount of substance.

This sweet, lovingly passionate story is nonetheless a charmer. Anderson's technique -- jaggy, product-testimonial close-ups; eerie still-image insertions -- is arresting, but this is an actors' showcase.

A cool indictment of television's near-irresistible pandering to the inner peeping tom.

Such astringent details as a banjo player plucking a few ominous notes from "Dueling Banjos" when Ed first lays eyes on the Norman Rockwellian beauty of Spectre ensure that the story's fundamental sweetness never becomes cloying.

It's filled with great footage of what must have been a wild time behind the Iron Curtain, and the music itself speaks volumes.

Israeli director Keren Yedaya's remarkable debut feature, which won the 2004 Cannes Film Festival Camera d'Or, is a powerful study of a teenager's willingness to do anything to save her mother, a Tel Aviv prostitute who may be well beyond salvation.

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.

Stands out by virtue of its impressive visual style and the filmmakers' decision not to massage the facts into cliched conflicts with neat, feel-good resolutions that produce the proper sense of uplift.

Story of small triumphs and everyday sorrows is never maudlin or sentimental.

Classic melodrama given a thoroughly modern, utterly Almodovarian face-lift.

Filled with some of the most powerful poetry and shattering images ever to come out of warfare.

Evokes feelings of fascination and heartbreak, as well as a sense of disbelief.

Warm and frequently very funny, Argentine director Carlos Sorin's third feature weaves together three story lines into one road-tripping adventure that's a joy ride from beginning to end.

It's an ideal collaboration: A stylish director desperately seeking substance transforms the first, somewhat flat novel of a promising young writer into powerful and brutally honest film about a highly controversial subject.

Kusama's impressive feature debut is an affecting coming-of-age drama whose story is familiar without being hackneyed.

It differs from American films about the period in its evocation of day-to-day passion. The power of beauty is often dealt with in films, but not so often its powerful curse.

Generations of healthy spirits were twisted and deformed by the good Sisters of Mercy, all in the name of salvation.

An occasionally surreal meditation on coping with loss, and a love story with a dark side the size of Montana.

More reminiscent of Hitchcock's progeny than of the master's own films, Cedric Kahn's intelligently menacing thriller combines Brian DePalma's sexy style with the ice-cold cool tone of Claude Chabrol and the sense of mounting panic George Sluizer exploited in "The Vanishing."

Generous, slyly tough-minded documentary.

It starts slowly, but this contemplative drama's cumulative effect is genuinely haunting.

The film proceeds from an utterly fascinating notion. As with A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Spielberg's admirable intent is to create a prescient, serious science-fiction movie.

Only the heavy stylization mitigates some highly artificial plot contrivances, and the final photo montage of America's poor, while no doubt exciting to Von Trier the provocateur, is maddeningly oblique.

Blanchett's quietly radiant performance anchors even the most outrageous plot developments, and she's well-supported on all sides.

First-time director Lisa Cholodenko, who has made a powerful and modish film with a subtle and knowing script, is more than ably assisted by a spectacular cast.

(Valli) brings an ethnographer's eye for detail to a plot that amounts to little more than the good old generation gap.

The competition between man and machine is fogged by distrust and obfuscation. And for now, the result is a draw.

Dabbed with sentimental touches, the film nevertheless avoids facile victim psychologizing and pulls no punches.

It's a fascinating film that manages to touch on subjects as diverse as mental illness and what's wrong with the record industry, set to brilliant music by the one of the best bands you've probably never heard.

Aside from a little eleventh-hour pseudo-mysticism about death and the weight of the soul, the story is really little more than a unusually gripping thriller.

Trapero again proves himself a master of mood, evoking the gritty, workaday world of contemporary Argentina that helped establish him as one of the most important young directors of the new Argentine cinema.

While probably not suitable for the wee ones, older kids and most adults will love this exciting and heartfelt adventure of one boy's survival during the darkest days of post-war Europe.

Crisply stylish and suspenseful, making brilliant use of optical special effects, Predator is one of Schwarzenegger's best.

Hailed as a clever exercise in neo-Hitchcockianism, this clever and very satisfying picture is more accurately Chabrolian.

Staunton is phenomenal - she barely speaks throughout the entire last third of the film, but the power of her posture and distraught expressions are enough to break your heart.

Set in Paris in 1975, this sensitive, low-key film is another exquisitely crafted volume in French director Benoit Jacquot's collection of films about young Frenchwomen at pivotal points in their lives.

There are a few weak spots -- the ending could have used some fine tuning -- but otherwise its a solid sleeper: unassuming, unexpected and wholly entertaining.

It's a surprisingly uplifting experience, and in the end, unmistakably a Kiarostami film.

This seemingly placid community is slowly revealed to be tangle of interpersonal relationships defined by that essential rift that divides those who summer at the beach and those who remain behind at season's end.

The film unfolds like a thriller: The plot moves so inexorably toward its tragic conclusion you can almost hear the clock ticking.

Gast doesn't hide his admiration for the charismatic Ali, whose antics provide the film's most enjoyable moments.

Funny, touching, and ultimately tremendously buoyant--reflecting the optimism engendered by the short-lived 1980s economic boom—Working Girl is a "feel good" movie with some intelligence.

In his last role, the late Tupac Shakur shows once again that he had considerable natural talent as an actor, and while Jim Belushi is always in danger of sliding from sleaze into shtick, he always pulls back.

A crowd-pleasing story that has little to do with the messy complexities of reality.

A scary, intelligent thriller that remains haunting long after it's over...features what has to be one of the creepiest first half-hours in recent film history.

Rarely has the argument against the death penalty been made so articulately, or so poignantly.

Even more astonishing that the superb acting is the simple fact that director Gianni Amelio has managed to craft a touching tale of a father reunited with his disabled son without the slightest whiff of sentimentality.

Each scene is beautifully written and exquisitely shot, and the sum total is an unusually perceptive picture of urban loneliness.

An offbeat, sometimes gross and surprisingly appealing animated film about the true meaning of the holidays.

So adorable you don't ever mind that the story's so slight it's in danger of shriveling up and blowing away, or that it drags a little in the middle.

A deliriously cinematic experience for those with a taste for Grand Guignol, this is a relentlessly energetic nightmare world where quite literally anything can happen--and does.

A collaboration between the notoriously offbeat Coen brothers and thoroughly mainstream screenwriters Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone, this piquant romantic comedy is both resolutely generic and bristling with barbs that go down with a delicious fizz and leave behind a refreshing blast of tartness.

It's Deneuve, in little more than a cameo, who commands your attention and doesn't release you until she's good and ready.

While this is just as long as the first film, more convincing special effects help make time fly.

This excellent film, which is both uplifting and troubling, also makes crystal clear what Peter gradually gives up in order to fit in as best he can: His culture.

Narrated by Lily Tomlin and featuring a bevy of in-the-know interviews, this exceptionally entertaining documentary from filmmaker Craig Highberger shines the footlights on Jackie Curtis, an Andy Warhol superstar who transcended the Factory scene and proved to be rather exceptional himself.

Deville gently reveals that they're all simultaneously hauntingly fragile and amazingly resilient, their smiles as piercing as any resigned gaze.

Offbeat and ravishingly beautiful.

The character designs, however, are much less impressive. Except for the oddly naturalistic Sinclair, the rest look like cartoony characters from one of Disney's '60s films.

Rough around the edges but rock-solid in its sense of place and its depiction of real people overreaching their apparent limitations.

Ferociously entertaining.

Diop Gaï's performance is equally beguiling: She's both bold and mysterious, a femme fatale bursting with life.

The film is not without its share of awkward moments, but as an insightful critique of "Girl Culture" and the mounting war over the hearts and minds of adolescent girls that's currently being waged in the media, it's mandatory viewing.

Mamet's jabs at Tinseltown's silken ruthlessness are quietly pointed, and the ensemble cast -- even the brittle and sometimes annoying Pidgeon (Mamet's wife) -- is brilliant.

The colorful and kid-friendly characters are a delight, though very young children might be alarmed by some of the larger creatures, who tend to come into view teeth first.

This taut crime thriller is a welcome antidote to brainless action extravaganzas in which the mayhem is the message, and rests on two shrewd, perfectly modulated performances.

Occasionally melodramatic, it's also extremely effective.

Makes for a great story.

Anderson pulls it off, thanks in large part to his witty writing, punchy editing and a likable supporting cast.

It offers a rare opportunity to watch a world-class playwright bringing one of his own works to life; rarer still, Almereyda puts his notoriously reticent subjects so sufficiently at ease that they actually sit down and discuss their craft.

It's probably not the last word in WASP angst, but it's eloquent, witty, graceful and as sharp as can be.

The film is as beautiful as it is unpredictable.

Oddly, once removed from the museum setting and strung together into an hourlong feature, it's Maddin's most cohesive narrative.

From its ominous opening to its spectacular climactic stunt, the hypnotic precursor to director Tom Tykwer's "Run Lola Run" is a quieter but creepier affair.

The cast is wonderful, the soundtrack features a well-chosen array of bouncy period pop tunes, and Graeme Wood's cinematography makes the most of the stately beauty of the dish itself.

It's an interesting story, more accessible to non-Trekkers than previous entries.

Even if you're feeling a little numbed by the spate of films dealing with 9/11, make an exception for this important documentary.

Kassell's visual influences are evident -- she's clearly a fan of the down-and-dirty films of the '70s -- but the consistently fine performances smooth over the rough patches.

Like the original "Fantasia's" eight segments, the results are a mixed bag.

This film exposes a more insidious kind of exploitation, one far more difficult to detect.

Spare and quietly heartbreaking, this French-Canadian feature uses a fine brush to depict a teenage girl in the midst of a quiet crisis.

If you ever wondered why they call it "the curse," this movie will enlighten as it entertains.

Ostensibly about artificial life forms, each of these four short, expertly crafted stories offers a poignant perspective on what it means to be human.

Where this still vital series was once about what sets us apart, it now seems to be turning towards the things that, in the end, render us all equal.

If watching devout churchgoers pray to Jesus before a static camera sounds like the dullest idea ever for a documentary, think again: This might be the most fun you've ever had in church.

Its minutely detailed revelations work their way under the skin like slivers of glass.

The wonder of it all is how bitterly funny the complications are, especially as filtered through Dedee's monstrously self-centered voice-over.

It's a gripping, understated thriller with a solid emotional undercurrent that builds to an unexpectedly moving denouement.

Rain Man rises above the banality of its concept--another buddy movie crossbred with a road picture--to become a genuinely moving and intelligent look at what it means to be human.

(Fugate's) portrait of Valentine/Baker is rich and compelling.

A grim neo-noir thriller.

Forgoing any voice-over commentary, these now-familiar images regain their original power to shock with the sheer enormity of the event.

An accomplished thriller that's nasty, brutish and relatively short.

An illuminating depiction of Islamic women that is entirely at odds with what we are often lead to believe.

Though the electric organ score is unnecessarily ominous in clearly comical scenes, this is a fascinating early interpretation of what has become a classic tale.