Director Danny Boyle brings a Dickensian rags-to-riches story to vibrant life, with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle earning extra credit (and an Oscar) for his kinetic camerawork. Seven additional Oscars were handed ...

If ever a movie demonstrated one director's affinity and affection for the lives and characters of young people, "Small Change" is it. This subtle, intimate charmer disarms the viewer with an abundance of warmth, wit ...

Don't miss Michael Ritchie's subtly devastating take on small-town life and conventions. Dern is a hoot in a rare comic role, and Feldon (from TV's "Get Smart") also scores as Brenda, a former beauty ...

Just imagine-- an Ingmar Bergman comedy. The famed director didn’t make many, but this one is magic: a joyous, perceptive meditation on the fickle nature of love and lust, and the eternal struggle between the sexes to ...

For those too young to remember, The Smothers Brothers looked like clean-cut American guys, but caught up in the intense social turmoil of the time, they became unlikely spokesmen for an angry new generation, shaping ...

Guy Ritchie's kinetic, ultra-stylish heist film is an amalgam of all the best caper films, rolled out with a punk attitude and bristling Cockney accent. The plot is outrageous but loads of fun (wait until a certain dog ...

Despite the dominance today of Pixar-grade computer- generated imagery, Disney’s hand-animated original version of “Snow White,” released in the Depression era (audiences ate it up), remains technically ...

Set in 1903, Disney’s heartwarming classic combines live action with delightful animation sequences set to tunes like “Stick-to-It-ivity.” Ives brings his down-home folksiness to the role of Hiram, and Driscoll holds ...

A cerebral, eerily gorgeous elaboration of Stanislaw Lem's ruminative sci-fi novel, Tarkovsky's atmospheric "Solaris" is the furthest thing from outer-space action flicks like "Aliens," much closer in spirit to ...

Director Verhoeven's breatkthrough Dutch film would win him a ticket to Hollywood, along with stars Hauer and Krabbe (who are both outstanding here), but none of the three would again equal this breathless, beautifully ...

In his madcap debut film, the Mexican director of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" somehow fuses a bawdy farce in the grand Hollywood tradition with a modern commentary on HIV and mortality-and makes it work. What begins as a ...

In the wake of “From Here to Eternity,” Warners adapted another James Jones novel for the big screen, pairing director Minnelli (best known for musicals) with Ol' Blue Eyes, who puts in solid work here as a wayward ...

Long before "Tootsie" and "Mrs. Doubtfire", Wilder gave us this comic, gender-bending masterpiece, which came at the very end of the conservative '50s, providing a preview of the more liberated decade to come. Here the ...

Based on Rocky Graziano’s autobiography, “Somebody” clearly inspired many boxing films yet to come. But this earlier feature wins extra points for charm and bigheartedness. In a star-making role originally intended for ...

A charming old-fashioned romantic comedy for literate adults, the kind they don't make anymore-or too damned infrequently. This soufflé-light concoction rises based on the natural chemistry between its two veteran ...

Scripted by noted film scholar Bela Balazs, "Europe" is one of the strongest postwar films to emerge from Hungary, and speaks volumes about the dispiriting cruelties of modern society. Even as it celebrates the end of ...

A small film filled with unexpected delights, Maggie Greenwald's "Songcatcher" deals with culture clash (North/South, urban/rural) and the fading of traditional folkways, but concentrates mostly on the ruggedly ...

Embedded somewhere in Andersson's mind-boggling, deadpan "Songs" is a satire aimed at religion, politics, careerism, and the terrifying emptiness of office life. Imagine an Ingmar Bergman film directed by David Lynch ...

Based on newly unearthed transcripts detailing the real-life trial of Scholl and other figures in Germany's White Rose resistance movement, Rothemund's faithful recreation has the nail-biting intensity of great ...

When director Alan J. Pakula cast Streep as Sophie, he gave her the part that would confirm the breadth and depth of her talent to a wide audience. As a film, "Choice" is deliberately paced, literate, and atmospheric, ...