That ultimate vulnerability of putting it all on the line through and for their art...is the beating heart of Bennett's work and Every Little Step's fine return to it.

Most of all, 12 serves as a reminder of the ultimate responsibility one can take, for a human life. As Arthur Miller might have said, these men deciding the fate of a teenage boy are all his fathers.

The coup de grace comes in the form of Ginormica, a clever metaphor of figurative and literal female empowerment...Plus there’s lots of explosions.

Any film that depicts a 'superheroic' rapist-brute as a self-styled parody of America's 'true face' can hardly be accused of thematic squeamishness, and any film that sends readers back to the comic for Moore (and Gibbons) has served the public interest.

Heartbreakingly explores our romantic delusions, and the tragedy of always wanting more than we can have.

If you want to hear characters talk to each other in Star Wars dialogue, I've got a couple of trilogies for you.

The film's examination of our beauty-obsessed culture—however familiar—remains unfortunately necessary.

America is about to see a sharp upturn in hard-luck stories, which makes Kelly Reichardt’s small-scale drama Wendy and Lucy sadly timely.

The recipe of New in Town isn't secret, and it tastes like pablum to me.

The hero is named for a disgusting bodily function that's hardly PG material, but the movie itself seems to be aimed at grade schoolers.

A complex production mounted, with confidence and a scrupulous eye for detail, by one of our great American filmmakers.

It's not a TV remake, with pooches playing the parts made famous by James Brolin, Anne Baxter, and Connie Sellecca. Damn.

A portrait of democracy in action with high personal stakes and, as such, a moving emotional experience.

Equal parts comedy (inevitably only-in-America satire) and Oedipal psycho-drama...[from] the bard of American political cinema.

A scathing insider look at Hollywood...De Niro gives one of his most winning performances of recent years...

Unfortunately, the film’s editing creates a confusing chronology and awkward pace, but it’s easy to see why producers saw a satisfying audience experience in Kearns’ moral crusade.

A film that stands the best chance of winning the hearts and minds of those who now embrace the gay 'recovery' movement.

The annoyance of its Screenwriting 101 script is hard to overcome, but The Lucky Ones just about works in spite of itself, as an actor’s showcase.

Incorporates Freudian psychodrama, twisted romance, and national satire while giving redemption the Heimlich maneuver.

It’s too easy to hold the film’s at arm’s length and scoff at Sparks’ cynical repetition of psycho-romance clichés and meteorological metaphors.

Another predictable romantic comedy, one that insists that spending time locked into an unhappy marriage doesn't breed contempt, but sows love.

It's Coogan's show, in a grotesquely overstated performance that makes sense for the character but isn't always easy to watch.

A clear-headed and comprehensible picture of American fiscal policy, but one that's not in the least boring.

The confluence of events allows the film to arrive somewhere that may not be original, but feels honest...at other times, the film seems to be chasing the same old indie dragon of quirky escapades that can be shot on the cheap.

One of those hidden treasures of the art house that it's your duty to seek out.

Only the 3D process helps to dispel the impression that what you’re seeing lacks wit and is completely generic in terms of characters and 'humor.'

The energetic action isn't quite enough to overcome an undernourished story.

Engrossing...the great irony of the story is its triumph of the visionary individual over authoritarian bureaucracy.

As for the inevitable fudging of fact, it doesn’t bend the true story to its breaking point—on balance, Bottle Shock is an entertaining tour of wine country.

No classic, but it does hold interest, in part by dealing honestly with the intriguing religious themes and in part for its fine cast.

Despite the film's incredible specificity as one man's take on one city, the wistful My Winnipeg achieves a powerful universality.

The film's funniest moments come early...But the more outlandish the joke (a.k.a. little kids pick fights with the men), the less purchase McKay finds, as our investment in the film's reality checks out.

More of a marketing sensation than a cinematic one...a documentary shouldn't feel this packaged.

Eddie, it's time to start thinking big again.

May not be the definitive doc for which Thompson's fans may be hoping, but it is a worthy contribution to the ongoing popular legend of a distinctive American personality.

The second half gets so worked up over itself that Hancock becomes nearly unrecognizable as the movie we were all enjoying twenty minutes earlier.

Doesn't have a nuance in it, but it's pretty consistently amusing in its latter-day Woody Allen way. For most of the way, its morals are happily, believably wrong, but all bad things must come to an end.

Disturbing in the extreme, Savage Grace gives a guided history tour of a family as dysfunctional as they come.

Thomas Wolfe wrote, "You can't go home again," but the new film from Fatih Akin explores a number of ways one can.

Hello, police? I'd like to report a mugging. Oh, it was horrible, horrible! Yes, I'm safe now. The mugging took place in a movie theatre, but I fear the mugger will strike again!

It's engrossing one minute and stupefying the next, off and on, off and on, for ninety minutes.

The Promotion skates out onto that thin ice of comedic subtlety. Like its characters, it's not terribly successful, but it's an admirable effort all the same.

Tucker delivers a stroke of casting so perfect it might seem obvious: Oscar winner Jim Broadbent as the father and Colin Firth as the son.

May be the most entertaining and provocative hybrid of personal essay and American social-satiric documentary since Roger & Me.

Methinks the kids to whom this superhero movie will most appeal won't be able to separate the stereotypes from the political wishful thinking.

You'll forget this one ten paces from the theatre.

Tarsem hasn't the Gilliamesque chops to make The Fall amount to anything more than a monument to preposterous thinking.

King whips up enough quips and emotional moments to treat the faithful to a sort of moviegoing spa.

If you put yourself through the wringer only once this year, you could do worse than The Strangers.

A poor man's rehash of A Passage to India.