What the film does best is remind us of the brilliance of Keats flame and how it was extinguished far too early.

The iconic first lady is given emotional complexity and rich understanding through a stirring and ambitious performance by Natalie Portman.

One of the most challenging movies in years.

Well-acted, intermittently compelling, often incoherent but always offbeat, Inherent Vice is a twisting story about twisted California stoners. Think of it as a film that's meant to be experienced, more than fully understood.

As much of a wry hoot as it is, with Wright as the film's enjoyably irascible lead, Jefferson also weaves in a dysfunctional family drama that gives it emotional heft to complement the hilarity.

A brilliantly acted and achingly bleak coming-of-age story.

Federico Fellini's first film (co-directed with Alberto Lattuada) would make a compatible living room double bill with FF's 1986 Ginger and Fred...Pleasing all the way through. [17 Mar 1989, p.3D]

For anyone fascinated by the political process and the powers of persuasive advertising, No is a resounding yes.

Though it's no "Monty Python," Hot Fuzz is a clever, over-the-top marriage of mayhem and merriment.

It's a clever, multitiered affair built around the title rituals, frosted with delicious characterizations and tasty repartee. [11 March 1994, Life, p.4D]

There's an epic spaghetti Western feel to Quentin Tarantino's latest action/comedy/romance hybrid that is by turns dazzling, daring, gruesome and astonishingly funny.

Lots of sand but no day at the beach for its characters -- and not, from all appearances, the actors, either. Among the best of director Sidney Lumet's movies not set in New York. [08 Jun 2007, p.8E]

Peele is this generation’s Hitchcock, for sure, but also a true American original with introspective themes in hand and suspense to spare.

Like many frugally financed movies, director Ang Lee's charmer depends on characterizations, not flamboyant technique. [19 Aug 1993, p.4D]

It all comes down to men behaving badly and greed rules all, though at least you’ll laugh and seethe along the way.

The "Hamilton" creator and the island personalities of Moana make beautiful music together in this charming seafaring epic.

Too lingeringly creepy to ignore. [23 Oct 1992]

With a powerful jolt, 007 feels relevant again, with serious questions about espionage vs. cyber hacking amid the fun.

Nearly everyone in this film is unlikeable, their actions inexplicable. And the pace is so lugubrious that it's hard not to succumb to Justine's glum mood.

At 65, Boorman flawlessly handles his actors and expertly orchestrates action in one of the widest-looking black-and-white Panavision frames since 1967's In Cold Blood. [18 Dec 1998, p.13E]

It's hard to beat the last movie, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," and this film is not better, but it has much to recommend it.

The Postman (Il Postino) is slight, but it's tough to imagine anyone not liking it.

One of the rare important teen films that needs to be seen by everybody.

John Travolta may stand out as a plus-size laundress who is hesitant, drab and retiring, but Hairspray is a consistently flashy, rousing and rambunctious movie spectacle.

More than any other example in recent memory, Chicago shows how much the element of surprise is missing from today's movies.

Jackson is a visionary filmmaker who is not only a technical wizard but also a master storyteller. With Jackson at the helm, you would expect dazzling special effects and epic action sequences, but what is most surprising is how heartfelt the romance feels.

Writer/director Julie Dash pours on sounds, music and costuming for a tone more impressionistic than dramatic - and more somnambulant than either. She might have gotten away with it for 80 minutes, but merciless Dust closes in on the two-hour mark, a structural shambles in the too-earnest American Playhouse tradition. [1 April 1992, p.6D]

It’s a bigger, showier follow-up, from the A-list cast to the twistier twists, even if it doesn’t have the same witty punch as the original. The script is taut and surprising, though, and Daniel Craig's return as super-sleuth Benoit Blanc is a Southern-fried godsend.