In HIGH AND LOW Kurosawa succeeds in developing a highly visual structural style within the wide-screen format.

There's lots to recommend this shoestring picture, not the least of which is Baron's acting ability.

The film's greatest asset is its performances.

Sleeper is a highly inventive science fiction parody that is typical of Allen's tight, well-edited movies. Costumes by Joel Schumacher are excellent.

A darkly comic trifle that follows in the footsteps of such films as Catherine Breillat's "Romance" (2000), "The Brown Bunny" (2003) and Michael Winterbottom's "9 Songs" (2004) by incorporating hard-core sex into a nonpornographic narrative.

Burton seems to waver between rooting for the scary guys and the cuddly ones, and his indecision makes it hard for us to respond on an emotional level. The result, though refreshingly different from mainstream animated fare, is ultimately more trick than treat.

Director Joan Freeman, who cowrote the screenplay with her husband, Robert Alden, shows a remarkable talent for capturing the sights and sounds of this seamy world. Freeman works a gritty realism into the formula story, creating an always-fascinating tale from an ugly subject.

Weighty and downbeat though that sounds, Delpy's film is delightfully light, especially when it's parsing the infinite variety of horrible French cabbies.

Not just another charming film about growing up, but an expertly directed tale that takes a small, simple subject and colors it with invention and inspiration.

Though extensively fictionalized -- Sorowitch is loosely based on the notorious, larger-than-life forger Salomon Smolianoff; Herzog on SS officer Bernhard Krueger, after whom the operation was named.

Working from a screenplay that drew on scriptwriter Fusco's experience as an itinerant young blues man, Hill and cinematographer Bailey perfectly capture the look and feel of the Mississippi Delta, heretofore little seen on film.

A triumph of style over substance.

Nothing much happens on the surface, but worlds of hope, hurt and determination lie right behind the characters' eyes, waiting to be discovered.

Made on a tight budget, the special effects are never very convincing, but the performances are all good. If you're willing to suspend disbelief, this is a neat thriller that's enjoyable from start to finish.

Scorsese's canny use of archival footage makes it more than a mere concert film.

This is a well-made, observant documentary, with attitude to spare and plenty of justifiable laughs at the expense of its subjects. Focusing in on every aspect of this subculture--from the fascinating, to the absurd, to the downright depressing--this would make the perfect double bill with This Is Spinal Tap.

An exceedingly beautiful film, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK seems to aspire to be an existential thriller of some sort. At times the film seems to tread in BLACK NARCISSUS territory with its depiction of barely controlled sexual hysteria and its eccentric lyrical quality. It's all pretty overheated and underexplained but this arty, vague, and possibly supernatural movie lingers on in the memory.

Adapted from the play by Noel Coward, this dissection of the prejudices of English country artistocrats shows Alfred Hitchcock in fine early form.

Despite the low budget, the film is handsomely designed and well acted.

Apatow's clever comedy is a romance in reverse, and it works.

Although an impressive technical achievement, the film itself is a rather overblown and overhyped affair--which, for all its expensive excess, fails to recapture the spirit of the original.

Fuller has taken a basic Agatha Christie-type plot and bathed it in social issues; A Soldier's Story is an insightful period drama as well as a totally engaging character study. The picture does become a trifle talky at times, thus betraying its stage origin, but Fuller's words are almost always interesting and powerful and make worthwhile listening.

A solid performance by the often underrated Judith Light lends considerable weight to this melodrama's controversial subject.

With his deadpan delivery and snide quips, Murray more than holds his own amid the myriad state-of-the-art special effects.

Levy and Guest train a glaring spotlight on the self-absorption, vanity, delusions and histrionics of the movie community, but clearly love them even at their silliest.

Shrewder than you'd think and not half as dumb as it looks.

Deraspe's film begins as a mystery and becomes a razor-sharp dissection of the self-promotion, pretension and deeply cynical inner workings of the art world. But her greatest achievement is painting the business of art as venal, corrupt, mendacious and built on false surfaces without suggesting that art itself is a form of glorious deception.

A great one for the kids.