Ribisi is painfully intense without being histrionic.

Flawed, but fascinating, this somber adaptation of David Guterson's award-winning novel is sometimes sluggish and difficult to follow, but it's also unexpectedly poetic.

A very sweet, very funny coming-of-age story, featuring Kiss as the Great White Whale of adolescence.

If he were a more subtle director, it would be a great film; as it is, it's an extremely good one, anchored by the subtly devastating performances of Penn, Robbins and Bacon. The supporting cast is equally good, and blue collar Boston's mean streets take on a beaten-down life of their own.

MacGregor demonstrates just how far he's come as an actor. Swinton, meanwhile, adds another notch to a resume already crowded with good performances.

cinematographer Mo-gai Li's keen sense of color balance and composition make this freaky fairy tale the most beautiful - if not the scariest - horror movie in ages.

Propelled by a soundtrack as diverse as its international gallery of thieves, Jordan's cheerfully scruffy neo-noir caprice even lays on the religious imagery with a palette knife and sweetens Melville's ending without seeming terminally sappy.

An extremely funny, ultimately heartbreaking look at life in contemporary China.

What's surprising is how bright and engaging these kids are, and for once you're left wanting more.

The film's uniformly excellent performances are a delight, and fans of Irish actor Farrell (whose pitch-perfect American accent has served him well in Hollywood) can hear both his natural inflections and his singing voice.

Fascinating on a number of levels, and deeply disturbing through and through.

Wrenching documentary.

Further proof that so-so books often make better movies than good ones.

The result is an interesting, if slightly unbalanced, hybrid: a social problem film with the warm heart of a deeply felt love story.

Slick and surprisingly emotional documentary is really a rare, optimistic critique of globalization.

With this perceptive, however bloody, film, Ishii makes it disturbingly clear that a culturally instilled sense of shame and fear of being shunned mean that women like Chihiro are doubly victimized, both by their attackers and the society that should protect them.

Their doomed fling is oddly hypnotic and ultimately haunting.

Quirky, sometimes brilliant, and mostly ice-cold.

This touching documentary is many things at once: a fascinating biography, a gorgeously shot travelogue, a provocative disquisition on the relevance of architecture and, above all, the record of a son's poignant search for a father.

Seductive, funny, whip-smart and ultimately tragic.

Best of all is Tsugumi's wild performance.

It's the kind of film Hollywood doesn't make any more, and a pleasant retro diversion.

Jonathan Demme gets personal with this affectionate tribute to courageously outspoken radio broadcaster Jean Dominique, the pro-democracy advocate whose unflagging support for president Jean-Bertrand Aristide eventually cost him his life.

Levinson brings it all back home to Baltimore and delivers his funniest and most heartfelt film since "Diner."

The film becomes a complex tissue of intersecting lives, but Gleize handles each developing story with amazing ease, and the fabulist touches are the icing on a very tasty cake.

Seriously sexy stuff from -- surprise -- the former-Soviet Union.

An entertaining, insightful and handsomely illustrated "Freud for Dummies."

Beautifully acted, minutely observed story.