Grimly realistic and often brutal, it exposes the inhuman conditions and paranoia that deepen criminal resolve among inmates.

This being a Michael Moore film, the filmmaker is as enraging as the subject: His belligerent court-jester shtick wears thin fast and undermines the segments on universal health-care systems in Canada, the U.K., France and Cuba.

Ricci's less flashy characterization of the immature Selby is equally skilled and meshes seamlessly with Theron's uncompromising performance.

The effect is one of gorgeous puppets, a removed perspective that makes some of the most powerful political and social events in history seem like the sad, desperate flailing of monkeys.

One of the Marx Brothers' funniest films, Monkey Business was their first to be written directly for the screen and is noticeably less stagy than earlier efforts.

Although it contains funny moments, the deliberately disjointed whole is too cute for its own good.

With virtually no music and very little expository dialogue, this is one of the rare films with enough faith in moviegoers to let them figure things out for themselves.

No doubt captures some of the horror and the chaos of the actual situation, but it makes for a loud, often confusing, and always bloody two and a half hours.

This hilariously low-key film is punctuated by inspired wish-fulfillment fantasy sequences filled with pro-Palestinian imagery that would be taboo in a western film.

The second film in Leone's Dollar trilogy finds the Italian director in better form than in A Fistful of Dollars. For a Few Dollars More has better writing, superior production values, and more characters who aptly complement Eastwood's stoic Man with No Name.

Allen presents a host of anecdotes and remembrances of things past, but one wishes it could have been slightly more cohesive. One of the joys in this picture is the soundtrack of songs of the period that will delight anyone who lived in those radio days.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR is a marvelous comedy-drama, brimming with wit, style, and sophistication.

This well-done Hammer horror film features a thoughtful screenplay that finally injects some compassion and intelligence into the monster. One of director Fisher's best.

The result is hypnotic.

Mohammad Rasoulof's heartfelt and darkly comic second feature proves beyond any doubt that Iranian film is still alive and well, despite waning Western interest in one of the world's richest contemporary cinemas.

The film rises above the level of agitprop by avoiding sloganeering and using the real words of real people to tell its story. Its feminism, too, is real and unforced, with women simply being shown struggling alongside--and when necessary defying--their male counterparts.

Hope is wonderful, with something smart to say no matter what the situation. His smug behavior is very funny (far and away superior to anything he ever did in the television work that made him rich) and the pacing is as good as it usually is in these Hope comedies.

The movie does open up a lot of heretofore vacuum-sealed cans of worms. Does sex represent a sort of grand completeness that men secretly yearn for in their friendships?

Shakespeare himself couldn't have written better or more complex characters, and far from strange, by the end of this extraordinary film you couldn't imagine Shakespeare performed anywhere else.

Although engagingly played, the film cannot find a voice or climax.

It's a sly, subtle portrait of systematic hypocrisy.

Oliver! is better than most screen musicals of the 1960s, a period when oversized, poorly rendered songfests virtually killed the genre.

The result isn't an easy film, but it is rewarding.

The big surprise is so obvious that it makes the deliberate pacing seem painfully slow, and Kidman's prissy accent and tight-lipped performance are more than a little grating.

Lively if derivative romp.

The script pushes all the expected buttons at all the expected moments, leaving you wondering what could have been achieved with a more rigorous, unsentimental approach.

While Poirier's gentle touch is part of the film's overall charm, it's also what may lead some to find the whole journey a little draggy. Nevertheless, it's a good way to spend a couple of hot summer afternoon hours: It's often very funny, the acting is fine and the gorgeous CinemaScope cinematography manages to capture all the raw beauty of Brittany without ever coming off as pretty-pretty.

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