This tightly structured, often exciting film is among the boldest in a series of increasingly explicit movies.

On a miniscule budget, Ghobadi conveys the terror of war, while the beautifully edited sequence in which Iranian villagers make bricks resembles nothing so much as a choreographed dance number.

Black comedy of the deepest, richest darkness laid over an aching meditation on the atrophy of dreams.

This ode to the peculiar strength and flexibility of love, romantic and platonic, is simultaneously perverse, overwrought, deeply creepy and truly moving, a high-wire act that finds humor in the grotesque and hope in emotional malformation.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE features some of the finest ensemble acting ever offered on the screen, speaking some Williams's most vivid dialogue. Kazan's direction, however, sometimes verges on the pedestrian, as though he's struggling to recreate his Broadway staging in a much more visually demanding medium.

The simplicity of the seemingly impromptu story, set largely in Allen's beloved New York City, is part of Annie Hall's undeniable charm, along with Allen's flashbacks to childhood (with side-splitting Jonathan Munk as a young Woody) and constant asides to the camera, a device that sometimes has to carry the laughs.

Simply stated, it is difficult not to be swept up by this charming picture.

An intoxicating dream of a film that speaks to the daydreamer in all of us.

What really makes Vixen work is the performance of Erica Gavin in the title role. Equally popular with both male and female viewers, Vixen is a take-charge woman who gets what she wants. She's something rare in American movies, a woman in whom strong sexuality isn't paired with evil or some other major character weakness.

A crazy, subversively funny film about convention-bound characters who have a hard time dealing with sexuality and freedom.

A bold, remarkable film.

"All of us are by nature wild beasts. We must be like animal trainers and teach ourselves tricks alien to our bestiality." Cutting-edge Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul uses this quote from the novelist Ton Nakajima to introduce his entrancing third feature.

A tightly scripted cautionary tale about what happens when the lights go down in Southern California, hiding behind a generic action-thriller title.

It's hard to believe A Room With a View cost so little; the costumes and sets are dazzling and the acting is superb--from two-time Oscar-winner Smith to the smallest role, there's not a false note.

Witty and beautifully textured.

A warm and moving sleeper hit.

Its loving exploration of the arcane workings of a closed society, that of wealthy, well-bred New Yorkers of the 1870s, has more in common than one might expect with Scorsese's earlier work, from "Mean Streets" through "Goodfellas."

Only Angels Have Wings is a powerful character study, and director Hawks and his fine, predominantly male cast carefully develop the personalities of an interesting collection of characters. Though much of the dialogue is predictable, the story is strong, the acting is outstanding, and Hawks's cameras move with fluid grace through the confining sets.

Campbell Scott's fiendishly mercurial performance as razor-tongued womanizer Roger is a revelation but it's only one of this nimble film's pleasures.

Morose, shockingly violent yet strangely beautiful, Deliverance is a tale of what happens to civilized values when put to the test in a hostile wilderness environment.

Violent, deliberately operatic, and makes ambiguous social statements.

In a startling move, Oliveira devotes the first 15 minutes of the film to the final moments of Ionesco's play, and it's thrilling to watch.

Without its commitment to an idea of salvation, Pulp Fiction would be little more than a terrific parlor trick; with it, it's something far richer and more haunting.

The result is an interesting hybrid of neorealist grit and star-driven melodrama, in which very real concerns about poverty and social injustice are mixed with a romantic subplot.

Beatty's contribution to the ranks of recent political satire is bold, merciless and frequently very funny, and his performance is just plain fearless.

A hauntingly nostalgic portrayal of childhood mischief set in a racially divided Alabama town in the 1930s. If the film's tone sometimes seems overly righteous, it's offset by a poetic lyricism that is difficult to resist embracing.

The folks at Disney prove that clothes -- and little else -- make a man, and do so with extraordinary style.

Also featured are countless cameos from local superstars ranging from the Fall's Mark E. Smith to Mani of the Stone Roses, making the film an absolute thrill for fans of the Manchester scene.