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Review: Chicken with Plums

Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's new film
Many filmmakers have made the transition from animation to live-action, but Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's new film suggests they're better off going back to the drawing board.

By: JAKE MULLIGAN | September 20, 2012

Review: The Master

Evangelical zeal
Paul Thomas Anderson's searchers all wash out from the same starting point: nothing left to lose.

By: HARLAN JACOBSON | September 20, 2012

Review: Little White Lies

Guillaume Canet's follow-up to Tell No One
Filmmaker Guillaume Canet's follow-up to his very popular noir Tell No One is an old-fashioned, enjoyable, The Big Chill -style romp by the seaside.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 11, 2012

Review: Beloved/Les bien-aimés

Christophe Honoré's melodramatic excesses
For the musical drama Beloved , writer-director Christophe Honoré's melodramatic excesses are tempered by the subtle performances of his leading ladies.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | September 11, 2012

Review: Arbitrage

The rich guy's point of view
Enough of all this whining about the millions of regular people ruined by the financial collapse of 2007 — how about a movie sympathizing with one of the unfortunate guys responsible?

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 11, 2012

Review: Branded

Borderline offensive and overly dense
It's the American Dream, transposed to a new capitalist Russia: a smart kid works his way up to the top of a marketing empire.

By: MONICA CASTILLO | September 11, 2012

Review: Detropia

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady 's documentary
Detropia is word play for "dystopia," and that's the overview here of the crumbling, crime-ridden, largely unemployed phantom of a Michigan city, which has lost half its population since 1955.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 11, 2012

Review: Shut Up and Play the Hits

Documenting LCD Soundsystem's farewell show
For those in their 20s who worship dance and Internet culture with equal voracity, LCD Soundsystem was a "generation defining" band, and this documentary detailing the their 2011 farewell concert is their Stop Making Sense.

By: MICHAEL C. WALSH | September 14, 2012

Review: The Cold Light of Day

Mabrouk El Mechri's latest film
What I learned from the latest movie from Mabrouk El Mechri ( JCVD ): Madrid's police only work during the daytime, when they're everywhere (in the morning, they seem to be the only people on the streets).

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 11, 2012

Review: Bachelorette

Leslye Headland's debut
The premise might seem familiar: three 30ish high-school classmates — Regan (Kirsten Dunst), Gena (Lizzy Caplan), and Katie (Isla Fisher) — celebrate the impending nuptials of a fourth, Becky (Rebel Wilson).

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 05, 2012

Review: It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl

Richard Trank's documentary
In 50 years, Theodor Herzl predicted in his diary during the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, he would be recognized as the founder of the first Jewish state.

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 04, 2012

Review: Samsara

Random images
There's no harm in coming in from the sun and contemplating the 99 minutes of Samsara 's random images from 25 countries around the world.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 04, 2012

Review: The Inbetweeners

Based on the popular British telly series
Based on a popular British telly series and directed by Ben Palmer, The Inbetweeners sends its four randy, clumsy, post-high-school twits on a journey to the hedonistic vacation resort of Malia on the Mediterranean island of Crete.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 04, 2012

Review: The Words

Klugman and Sternthal's gimcrack
Ironically, the words are the worst part of Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal's matryoshka-doll-like gimcrack.

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 07, 2012

Review: 2016: Obama's America

Not much of a movie or a documentary
Walking into Dinesh D'Souza and John Sullivan's political hatchet job, I overheard a woman exiting an earlier showing, breathlessly informing someone on her cell phone that "it's not a movie — it's a documentary!"

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 05, 2012

Review: Planet of Snail

Overcoming physical challenges
Patience is a necessity in the lives of Young-chan, a man who's been deaf and blind from a young age, and his wife Soon-ho, a woman who despite her own physical challenges helps him accomplish tasks both modest and awe-inspiring.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | September 04, 2012