Critical curmudgeon

Nicloux writes and directs this strange and lovely odyssey through Death Valley.

Greenaway tackles Sergei Eisenstein with no shortage of chaotic passion.

The Hunger Games series concludes with a dull roar.

A tale of young love, domestic strife and a safe place with a hell of a view.

Ragnar raids in Season Three of History’s Vikings.

Takashi Miike’s surrealist musical comedy finds its way to Blu-ray thanks to Arrow Video.

Taking aim at Satan from the top rope.

A vital documentary that aims high and comes up short.

Glazer has crafted a careful and bizarre ode to discovering humanity.

The smile may be the “beginning of love,” but it’s also Rumsfeld’s Weapon of Mass Distraction.

Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh has once again crafted a fascinating work of history, art and memory.

By removing any pointless embellishments and focusing on the action, Siegel weaves a tale that is as authentic as can be.

Grizzlies, pandas, and polar bears in their natural elements.

Riklis’ movie is decent but not as good as it could’ve been.

The 90-minute movie passes quickly because the director is fully in charge of the elements and confidently knows the story inside and out.

It is a careful, compassionate motion picture.

The Long Day Closes is consequently a series of recollections, opaquely linked over a relatively short period of time in the director’s life.

There is a sensitivity to Paradise: Hope that concludes the series beautifully.

This future may be unclear and peculiar, but it’s still a hell of a journey.

A good-looking and sharp television series that features plenty of entanglements and goings-on.

A compact procedural that draws on the sorts of moral quandaries barristers find themselves in as part of the job.

Paradise: Faith finds yet another woman in search of joy where humanity is fragile.

While some may see it as a test of filmic fortitude, the only genuine hell it puts the viewer through is that it’s such a wasted opportunity.

A dainty and frothy diversion.

It is a beautifully dark and human tale.

It is a film as funny and necessary today as it was when it came out in 1978.

It’s more reminiscent of Xena: Warrior Princess than any modern fare.

It is an innovative picture and an entertaining one.

The imagery is engaging, dreamlike, and emotionally stimulating.

Moyers treats the topic with care, but he’s not afraid to ask questions and maintain his critical spirit, ensuring that the content is grounded in reason as much as it is in faith.

A hopeless motion picture.

Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm is a tremendous cinematic vision.

Combat Girls works because it avoids the cliches that often sink the genre into melodramatic terrain.

Struggles under a lack of its own ideas.

The matter of Harold Lloyd’s lack of fame has been of much discussion over the years. He is often cited by film buffs as one of the three masters of the silent comedy era, with the other being Buster Keaton and Charles Chaplin. Yet somehow the Nebraska-born Lloyd is often now overlooked in conversations about…

A tour de force of political docu-drama.

For the home viewer, there’s little beyond the songs that makes the concert feel unique.

What we have with 2+2 is a film without much forthrightness, character, realism, and sex appeal.

In a world that seems in great need of a little warmth and thoughtfulness, Yossi is just what the doctor ordered.

A lucid exploration of a complex subject.

Pierre Etaix’s charming films are finally released properly.

The BBC covers familiar ground, but the results still dazzle.

Marking the entrance of Terrence Malick with boldness and confidence.

An amusing, humble television program from the Great White North.

This meditation on aging benefits from its theatrical style.

Anne Fontaine gleefully dives into genre clichés and comes out winning.

Simplistic and showy, this documentary leaves a lot to be desired.

A pageant of the absurd.

Bill Moyers details the Chinese American experience.