Judged strictly as a movie (especially a subliminally disturbing movie), Vertigo hasn't lost a thing. You watch this guy going slowly over the brink and realize, good grief, this is Jimmy Stewart. [Restored version; Oct 1996, p.3D]

This re-edited version turns one of Orson Welles' most memorable yet flawed films into a masterpiece. [Director's Cut; 18 Sept 1998, p.11E]

Humor, poignancy and social criticism converge for an even better movie than the recent one it brings to mind: Gosford Park. [23 Jan 2004]

Pan's Labyrinth artfully fuses a war film with a family melodrama and a fairy tale. The result is visually stunning and emotionally shattering.

One of the rare sports films that devotes extensive screen time to heartbreaking losses is full of other surprises as well. [13 Oct 1994, p.1D]

Like too many others, I resisted seeing (or at least, rushing out to) this film, fully expecting a stolid, respectable bummer; what I found, without the filmmakers ever having cheapened the material, is one of 1989's most entertaining movies. There is even, I swear, a barroom brawl that's out (and worthy) of John Ford. [3 Jan 1990, p.4D]

Depressing and gut-wrenching, but always powerful and gripping.

The latest excellent effort for writer/director Bong Joon-ho (“The Host,” “Okja”) is a more entertaining version of “Roma,” an Oscar-ready, slice-of-life foreign film that challenges its audience to look inward.

Roma is an elegiac and moving work driven by Aparicio’s understated and nuanced performance.

Director Hayao Miyazaki treats his audience as imaginative and intelligent human beings, rather than catering to kids with rote displays of silliness, stunts and scares.

The first all computer-animated feature, which brings a bedroom of playthings to bouncy life, is yummy eye candy spiked with 3-D-style tactile treats.

The harrowing 12 Years a Slave is a mesmerizing period drama for the ages.

Manchester finds a way to weave together truly wrenching sequences with a clever sense of humor, and Lonergan pulls extraordinary performances from his entire cast, especially Casey Affleck.

Like the best French cuisine, Ratatouille is ambitious and delightful.

As son Tom Joad, Henry Fonda gave the screen performance of his career. [09 Apr 2004, p.10E]

The telling of this simple tale of survival required cutting-edge technology, but we don't notice the bells and whistles: They're on hand to immerse us in an unforgettable personal story.

Fearless mix of classical music and animation, the one movie to satisfy that oft-misused adjective ''unique.'' [01 Nov 1991, p.3D]

It's at once funny, exciting, tearful and tuneful. [13 Nov 1991, p.1D]

What’s explosive doesn’t always equate to propulsive, however, in a stuffed narrative with pacing issues and a plot that doesn’t need two hours and 40 minutes to make its point.

The film owes much of its success to the inspired pairing of Fincher and Sorkin.

Both a psychological portrait and an exciting action film.

For a brutal black comedy about L.A. hitmen, Pulp Fiction bursts out of its binding with loopy delights. [14 Oct 1994]

While this decade-long look at the inner workings of the CIA is intriguing, the movie would have benefited by more character development and additional editing.

Sophisticated and universal yet deeply intimate, A Separation is an exquisitely conceived family drama that has the coiled power of a top-notch thriller.

With flawless precision, the movie flows seamlessly between a virtual newsreel approach (to chronicle senseless, arbitrary atrocities on the people) and a slightly more direct narrative technique that characterized the film's three dominant characters - each one cast to perfection. [15 Dec 1993]

At once futuristic, funny and fantastical.

The greatest newspaper comedy and one of the greatest screwball comedies ever made. [24 Nov 2000]

Bittersweet, intelligently written, deftly acted and painfully honest.

Dunkirk is also one of the best-scored films in recent memory, and Hans Zimmer’s music plays as important a role as any character. With shades of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, the melodies are glorious, yet Zimmer also creates an instrumental ticking-clock soundtrack that’s a propulsive force in the action scenes.

What's wonderfully explored here, though, isn't the killer streak, but instead the gravity of taking a darker path and being left at the end with nothing but bloody memories.

This is a great movie, but it needs a sales job because it's in Mandarin.

The main voice actors all fit their animated personas, especially Poehler and Black. Poehler brings a unshakably quirky optimism to Joy while Black takes his acerbic stand-up routine, makes it a smidge more family-friendly, and turns up the juice for Anger.

This is a building-block movie: Its stand-out excellence becomes apparent only gradually.

As good as each individual movie is, the third film vaults the work into the stratosphere of classic movies. Key characters are enhanced, new civilizations visited and battles fought more intensely, while feelings and motivations are plumbed more deeply and movingly.

The way it explores at length the sweet and sour aspects of first love is worth savoring.

A highlight reel for everyone involved: career-defining work from Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, astounding supporting turns courtesy of Laura Dern and Alan Alda, and a masterclass from Baumbach.

La La Land is both delightful confection and life-affirming food for the soul.

Writer Greta Gerwig's witty and endearing solo directorial debut...navigates the absurdities and struggles of the transition into adulthood while striking an excellent balance between enjoyable quirk and touching emotion.

If Silver is superb, Irons is transcendent. As some forgotten comic once said of George Sanders: A grapefruit wouldn't dare squirt in his eye. [17 Oct 1990]

Another great 1950s John Wayne Western from Warner Bros. [25 May 2007, p.4E]

A few years ago, the American Film Institute had the audacity to name Duck Soup (1933) merely one of the top five comedies ever made. I have no idea what they could have been thinking; it clearly is number one. [1 July 2004, p.75]

Both Sandler and the Safdies are pulling out all the stops, and it works.

As played by Oscar Isaac, he's snidely funny, world-weary and deeply sad. Though his story is enigmatic, the film itself is brilliantly acted, gorgeously shot and altogether captivating.

The movie is more fun than Breathless, a minority (though not sacrilegious) opinion. [10 Jan 2003]

Powered by Blanchett’s baton-wielding tour de force, the film is a modern tale about a cultural giant who uses her power in not-so-great fashion, so there’s shades of #MeToo at play. However, Tár has more of a timeless quality, playing out in the style of a Greek tragedy with the epic downfall of a woman behaving badly.

A searingly intense and artful tale that grabs hold of the viewer from its jarring and wordless opening scenes and doesn't let go.

This is a fascinating movie experience. [30 June 1989, Life, p.1D]

If artist R. (Robert) Crumb can dispense immediately with his resume in Terry Zwigoff's superb Crumb, we can, too. [21 Apr 1995]

No need to bury the lede: Spotlight is a masterpiece.

With songs Triplets, Dancing in the Dark and Shine on Your Shoes, it's my fave musical. [18 Mar 2005, p.6E]

Whereas the book was lyrical and moving, the movie is surrealistic and inventive.

The Class is a deeply moving film about the challenges of educating children in a complex and often turbulent world.

The Coen brothers have fashioned a wry and riveting hybrid of a drama, Western, crime thriller and action film that is as powerful and thought-provoking as it is genre-bending.

King Kong was a film that was way ahead of its time, and it remains one of the greatest films of all time.

Blethyn is so astonishing that you forget you're seeing a performance.

This critical smash was graphic, yet laced with macabre humor. [30 Oct 2007, p.2D]

Director Francis Ford Coppola's revamping of his Vietnam epic, Apocalypse Now, with 49 added minutes, has significantly improved the troubled blockbuster. The film now seems both mellowed and — thanks in part to the most vibrant-looking prints in its 22-year history — revitalized.

Rings has moments of edge-of-the-seat excitement, too, such as when the dark riders come looking for Frodo. But it's occasionally tedious when it should be captivating.

Quiz Show is half-a-dozen movies, nearly all exceptional, and a lion's share assemblage of the year's top male performances. A watershed scandal revisited, it's also a riveting revenge story motivated by seething resentment. [14 Sept 1994, p.1D]

This installment, the best of the three, is everything a movie should be: hilarious, touching, exciting and clever.

Great cinema - and also a whopping good time. [19 September 1990, Life, p.1D]

This sleek adaptation of James Ellroy's dauntingly complex novel has the black-and-white tabloid soul of an old "Confidential" magazine.

Romantic comedies with two low-key leads can be asking for trouble, but one senses that the actors must have clicked on some fundamental level.

Though set in the future, Her is a timely, soulful and plausible love story.

The acting performances are stellar across the board, though the biggest joy of Little Women is Gerwig’s magnificent screenplay.

Both a nostalgic throwback to the silent-picture era and an ultra-modern animated tale, the slyly humorous Triplets of Belleville is artful, engrossing and oddly touching.

The 1975 film not only succeeds as a rollicking cinematic costume drama, but lends insights into the mindset of countries of the region such as Afghanistan and how their culture clashes with that of the West. [01 Mar 2003]

Sarah Polley's memoir is a poignant, funny and engrossing film, challenging our notions of memory and family mythology.

This is a powerful, poignant and provocative film, told in an unconventional and effective fashion.

As hilarious as it is, The Favourite doesn’t skimp on impressive costuming and production design, and the film gamely tackles class and gender themes, as well as partisan politics, in its tale of women behaving badly and men being nitwits.

A little movie almost perfectly realized.

Ghost World draws super, natural performances.

I'd give this Howard Hawks perennial four stars (like everyone else) if I didn't find the climactic jailhouse scene so labored. [5 May 1989, p.3D]

The Brutalist is a toxic tale of the immigrant experience and a gripping narrative of love and hope tested through vice and struggle.

A movie this diminutive can be easily oversold, but we might see it on some year-end best lists. It eats at you, just like renewed love.

The rawest, most sustained screen portrayal of 20th century combat.

With Licorice Pizza, Anderson delivers a warm tasty slice of adolescence as well as two fresh-faced youngsters that will satisfy cinephiles for years to come.

This grade-A sleeper sends you out with an unexpected smile. [25 Nov 1992]

David Lean's classic Cliffs Notes telescoping of Charles Dickens took Oscars for Guy Green's black-and-white photography and John Bryan's art direction, and you know right off that this is going to be a visual stunner as you watch fleeing prisoner Magwitch (Finlay Currie) dart across Green's spookily lit marshes. [22 Jan 1999]

When the original filmmaker upgrades and expands on an idea and uses new technology while retaining the essence of the original story, it can be just the ticket for jaded moviegoers. Such is the case with Mad Max: Fury Road, an operatic extravaganza of thrilling action and nearly non-stop mayhem.

Every so often a film gets under our skin with its haunting authenticity, reinforcing our faith in the wonderfully transporting power of cinematic storytelling. Winter's Bone is unquestionably that film.

The Queen is the kind of thought-provoking, well-written and savvy film that discerning filmgoers long for but rarely get.

To call it haunting might be trite but also spot on: With a terrific performance from Andrew Scott as a queer screenwriter at a crossroads, “Strangers” is the sort of cinematic balm that not only touches your soul but takes up prime real estate.

Produced by HBO but too good not to play theaters, this soon-to-be minor classic is the best movie about society's untrendiest since "Ghost World" exactly two years ago.

As Phantom Thread flits between complicated character piece and unusually funny romantic comedy, the movie becomes much more about Krieps’ Alma. The Luxembourgian actress holds her own with Day-Lewis and often is the best part of the movie.

The movie is so fun that it wouldn't need the mystery to be top-notch entertainment.

A Casablanca-influenced love story set against a French Resistance backdrop in Martinique. [07 Nov 2003]

The most gorgeous of all the Pixar films — which include "Toy Story" 1 and 2, "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters, Inc." —Nemo treats family audiences to a sweet, resonant story and breathtaking visuals.

One of the year's best movies and certainly its most delightful screen surprise.

The story keeps reinventing itself (some of the later plot twists are among the funniest), but a little goes a long way at 112 minutes - maybe 25 minutes more than this sporadically pointed conceit really needs.

One of the year's most clever and visually arresting computer-animated films, enlivened by a well-developed and credible cast of characters who just happen to be superheroes.

A compelling piece of naturalistic filmmaking, claustrophobic and thought-provoking.

A movie that is easily likable.

Murphy wonderfully inhabits the nervy intensity of a gaunt and troubled figure, who's deemed unstable and egoistical by his peers during the war and at wit’s end later, as he contends with politicos with a score to settle.

Funny... and the payoff is the most provocative Hollywood concoction in a while.

Once is a film for anyone who has ever been transported by the power and passion of music.

An unflinching, powerfully visceral and haunting portrait of the tragic events aboard one of the terrorist-commandeered flights on the fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Not since "Memento" has a movie served up such a provocative mind-bender, and the Sundance winner by first-time filmmaker Andrew Jarecki has the advantage of being true.