August 9, 2002 | By turns whimsical and absurdist, Babek Payami's Secret Ballot is an engagingly understated Iranian film with the flavor of a shaggy-dog story conceived by Samuel Beckett and directed by Jim…

September 20, 2002 | Sitting through Secretary is a bit like watching an explosives expert defuse a bomb. A great deal of your appreciation for what you’re seeing is fueled by your awareness…

March 26, 2004 | If at first you do succeed - well, maybe you should quit while you're ahead. Otherwise, you might make a really dumb mistake, or produce a really…

July 27, 1998 | Early in Saving Private Ryan, director Steven Spielberg recreates the beginning of the end of World War II, the 1944 D-Day landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy. Be forewarned:…

November 26, 1997 | Early in Welcome to Sarajevo, a jaded TV journalist explains the addictive appeal of covering the bloody civil war in the former Yugoslavia: "Big guns. Little children. Evil…

April 26, 2002 | How's this for an entrance? Smack dab in the middle of a blazing hotel room – or, perhaps, some lower circle of hell – an indolent trumpet player…

December 14, 1995 | Perhaps the very best fairy tales are those that allow for the possibility that, sometimes, Prince Charming gets lost along the way and doesn't find his sleeping beauty.…

August 2, 2002 | Take your pick: It's a comedy concert film, a feature-length primal scream or a textbook example of public-relations spin. Or maybe Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat is all of the…

June 18, 1999 | Tearing through the streets of Berlin like lightning on the hoof, Lola (Franka Potente) is a woman on a mission.  Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), her none-too-bright boyfriend, is…

December 14, 2001 |  In the world according to The Royal Tenenbaums – the very best movie of 2001 – genius is a profoundly mixed blessing, and the only thing…