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.