Spare and coolly evocative, it's a chilling accomplishment.

Perry's careful juxtaposition of images showing the town's sad present with footage of what it's long ceased to be is positively haunting.

A dark, expertly contrived display of paranoid nastiness; it's so gleefully mean that only the most tender-hearted viewer could resist going along for the ride.

Past and present, reality and fiction blend seamlessly into each other in Satoshi Kon's dream-like animated drama.

Short on action but heavy on ambiance, and the cumulative effect packs a whopper if you're willing to stop and think about it. Penn, never one to opt for action over thought, clearly expects that his audience will.

The flashback structure drains the story of momentum, but Mashkov and Uchaineshvili portray the reptilian glamour of cultured thugs with frightening intensity.

Warm and utterly beguiling fable.

You don't have to be a Trek weenie to have a good time at this spoof cum homage to fandom and the enduring appeal of cheesy TV, but it helps.

The film is a trifle long too long for its rather slim mystery, but in face of so much beauty and invention that's a small quibble.

A surreal, demented delight.

Hoch's very funny satire on racial stereotyping cuts both ways.

The movie belongs to Nelson, who displays a natural screen charm, but Rip Torn also contributes an excellent performance as a good ol' boy concert promoter.

If the sign of good documentary is its ability to enthrall you regardless of your prior interest in the subject, then Stacy Peralta's hugely entertaining film earns high marks.

This ultra-stylish film is far more interested in exploring its own central image -- the camera -- than the forensic minutia of the mystery.

Exceptionally satisfying and enormously entertaining.

Irwin's film comes as a bracing reminder of what punk was once all about, and will hopefully serve as an inspiration for better bands to come.

A gentle, offbeat drama that hails the arrival of a new talent in writer-director Eric Mendelsohn, and bids a poignant farewell to a uniquely gifted actress, the late Madeline Kahn.

Roundly condemned (though not banned) by Church officials in Mexico, the film became a smash hit -- probably in part because the public wrangling gave it an enormous publicity boost.

Director Martin Brest has allowed the actors to improvise, and their resulting interaction is more realistic, funny, and surprising than that of any buddy film released in the last several years.

No doubt about it: Unlike David Lean's much-loved classic, Cuaron's film is loosely based on Dickens. And that's just fine.

In an outstanding ensemble, Spall is particularly good.

A psychologically acute profile of one teenaged girl obsessed with leading what she thinks of as normal life.

That this handsome, three-hour extravaganza coheres at all is a small miracle; that it actually leaves you wanting more is a major one.

Fans of the genre are in for a wickedly entertaining treat.

"There is no antidote for the human bomb," one Sri Lankan official flatly states, but Ziv's film offers a number of important insights into a phenomenon that's only gaining momentum.

Dong shows how intolerance has the power to deform families, then tear them apart. At 75 minutes, the film is too short; each story deserves a full hour of its own.

Sometimes seems as noisy and unrefined as Jean himself. But it has just as much heart, and builds up to rousingly "Rocky"-like climax.

The film draws careful parallels between orthodoxies and in his own quiet way, Masud, a devout Muslim, level his critique at repressive political regimes and religious doctrines, and those who dangerously confuse one with the other.

Longley has constructed a remarkably coherent, horrifically vivid snapshot of those turbulent days.

This winning comedy joyfully embraces every possible permutation of love; cupid, it turns out, is indeed blind, and doesn't care much about gender either.

Hypnotic film.

A welcome introduction to yet another facet of an artist who continues to beguile well into her seventies.

John Walter's documentary suggests that Johnson, who made no distinction between his life and his art, designed every detail of his own mysterious 1995 suicide with the same whimsical care that went into his painstakingly assembled pieces, and provides an engaging overview of Johnson's eccentric career in the process.

The film has a gentle political edge, knocking Marxists and Christian Democrats with equal cheerfulness, and Troisi's self-deprecating humor, sly delivery, and melancholic charm are inimitable.

The characters may be one-dimensional ciphers with nothing much to say, but boy, do they not say it with style.

Familiar story, electrifying execution.

More high - but strangely touching - weirdness from acclaimed Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Remarkable film.

Surprisingly intimate, full of sly humor and, believe it or not, an odd sort of tenderness.

Old-fashioned fun that goes down as smoothly as a vintage cocktail.

But what truly distinguishes the movie is Cage's performance, which is so off the wall that even if you don't like it you have to watch in awe.

Actually a moody horror story disguised as a documentary, designed to make the viewer feel how arbitrary and fragile the world of law and society really is.

A continuous stream of verbal and visual gags that come so fast, you don't have time to realize how bad/old/corny they are.

It's not only sexy, clever and well-acted by a fine cast of mostly TV actors, but it's also a grown-up comedyabout honest-to-God grown ups.

Wood's drama packs an emotional gut-punch that's all the more devastating for its being rooted in a dreadful historical reality.

The stripped-down production give a disturbing sense of immediacy to an otherwise fairly conventional story about boys being prepared for war.

A move that would be hilariously absurd if it weren't so scary.

Hamer perfectly captures that post-WWII spirit of better living through science by positioning streamlined Swedish cars and hump-backed trailers against the timeless Norwegian landscape.

For many, the soundtrack to this beautifully shot film will probably mark their first encounter with Traore and the intoxicating sounds of his unique brand of Malian blues. Chances are it won't be their last.

By the end, it should be perfectly clear just why Cho is so loved by so many different types of people. Raunchy though her material is, it embraces all comers, regardless of gender, sexuality, race or ethnicity. And it's never been sharper — or funnier — than it is here.

Funny, sexy and very cleverly done.

The most affecting parts of this film are its quieter, character-driven moments, and it's beautifully acted; if there is indeed an "Argentinean New Wave" afoot, Brédice might be its Anna Karina.

He (Anderson) manages to guide his cast of characters through an epic story of self-delusion with a skill and grace that many more experienced filmmakers would be hard put to match.

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.

There's terrific chemistry between Perez and Auteuil.

What begins as a sorry exercise in cynical seduction becomes a case of amour fou.

Moviegoers expecting a conventional sci-fi fantasy will be disappointed; Haneke never explains the vague disaster, nor does he offer any definitive solution.

But once you're good and drunk on the look, details like the tin-eared tough-guy dialogue (which sounds especially stilted issuing from flesh-and-blood mouths) don't seem so important.

Though it offers a host of fine performances in a smoothly crafted, adult drama of unfulfilled love, it lacks the cumulative dramatic impact of the team's best work.

The theme--that just beyond the edge of the perfectly normal lies the truly bizarre--is realized with intelligence and visual flair.

This modest film delivers a simple but powerful message:... the real work of creating a lasting peace must be done on an personal level, one individual at a time.

SIDEWALK STORIES has more heart than art, but its heart is large, and Lane proves himself an ambitious, impassioned filmmaker.

With its quiet pacing and dry-as-a-bone wit, the film strongly recalls the deadpan comedies of Jim Jarmusch or early Hal Hartley, but it gradually reveals a welcome new sensibility, one that's entirely McCarthy's own.

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

Carrey's relentless showboating is almost its undoing.

It takes place in an artificial world constructed largely from the mythology of other movies, and, though it's both seamless and stylish, some find it a little too self-conscious for its own good.

Achieves what Hollywood never quite gets right: a tense and timely thriller that also serves as a political and a moral allegory.

This smart political thriller gets pulses pounding with no pyrotechnics and only one car crash. And it's a doozy.

The battle sequences and lightsaber battles are gripping, and for every scene that doesn't deliver the goods, there's another that hums with surprising intensity.

This is a smart and splendidly decorated rethinking of Anna Leonowens's famous chronicle

With grace and cleverness, mixing romance and comedy in a genuinely delightful way.

Seeing it once is fine, but seeing it every day for the rest of your life is not recommended.

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.

Thoroughly gripping.

One of the sharpest and emotionally resonant romantic comedies in what seems like years.

Brimming with ideas, aphorisms, diatribes, film clips and even bits of a story, the film's a gorgeous muddle that somehow manages to leave one both baffled and deeply satisfied.

Stephens has a gentle touch and an unflagging sense of humor, but this is Rue's show: She's a natural with a million-dollar smile who deserves to escape TV land for more interesting work.

This film pivots on a romantic triangle as overwrought as it is stylized. It's like a Douglas Sirk melodrama ratcheted up with fists of fury and wrapped in apparently endless yards of shimmering silk.

Beautifully shot and lushly scored, this may be one of the least P.C. love stories ever filmed. But it's one of the most deeply felt.

A brightly colored, picaresque adventure that's equal parts telenovela melodrama and pop-magic realism.

It's especially nice that all the songs on the soundtrack are heard in their entirety, even if the accompanying video footage is sometimes drawn from performances of different vintage.

Carpenter is trying for a satire of advertising and consumerism under late capitalism, and although the film is great fun at first--especially when depicting the world through Nada's glasses--it rarely rises above the intellectual level of a comic book.

This coolly beautiful film is both a superior thriller and an engrossing study of a sociopath's progress.

For once, Thompson turns in a gimmick-free performance, and the rest of the actors range from fine to fabulous. But the whole thing feels stolid and uninspired.

Harrowing but enormously empathetic.

Breillat also offers sharp insights into the love-hate relationship between directors and actors.

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

Meanwhile Baldwin (bulked up a la DeNiro and playing totally against type), is a revelation, funny and touching.

Fanciful and highly entertaining docudrama.

An effectively macabre and fiendishly entertaining tale of lust, unrequited love and the fine art of taxidermy.

Grisly, yes, but it's all done in fun; having tried his hardest to shock audiences with his previous films, it now appears Miike simply wants to entertain, and he pulls out all the stops.

Figgis's bold narrative strategy turns what could have been a standard-issue chronicle of shallow Hollywood lives into a fluid and enthralling experience.

As complex as the issue it tackles.

Rough, breathless adaptation of Fernando Vallejo's ferociously sardonic novel.

This stylized tale of guilt and retribution is a surprisingly sleek and affecting drama.

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

It's an old story, but at a time when high-school-aged athletes are wooed away from real-life with staggering, multi-million dollar endorsement deals, it's one that bears repeating.

Shot in grainy black and white, the film features tons of entertaining footage of the band in the studio as well as an enlightening commentary from music critics Greg Kot and David Frick.