Persepolis is at once a confessional autobiography, historical re-enactment, graphic art object, and deeply involving contemporary story about a girl’s coming of age while circumventing not only the usual pitfalls of adolescence but also the enforced repression brought on by Iran’s Islamic revolution of the Eighties. Read more>>

The curiosity factor on this one alone has made it a must see. Read more

As with all Burton films, Sweeney is atmospheric and haunting, like a William Blake engraving with Dolby Digital sound. It seeps into your bones like fog. Read more

There’s thrilling — as in “producing sudden, strong and deep emotion or excitement.” And there’s thrilling — as in enrapturing, “moving with rapture; delighting beyond measure.” Beyond that, there’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” which is both. Read more

The most twisted, deranged and blood-splattering film of the year has arrived at last, and it’s every bit as wonderful as you might expect. Read more

What’s unusual about this hand-drawn animated feature from France is that it tells an adult story from a child’s point-of-view. With the aid of French graphic artist Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi boldly details her very personal autobiography. Read more

The film?s superficial ?life goes on? message is quite formulaic, and the inevitable conclusion doesn?t stir many new insights: In order to be overcome it, grief must first be felt. Read more

While Hilary Swank has won two Oscars – for “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby” – she’s unable to exude femininity. Graceless in “The Affair of the Necklace,” she’s almost as awkward, cavorting in her underwear, in this disappointing melodrama. Read more

Steep is part sports extravaganza, part travelogue. Watching talented athletes push past their limits is breathtaking. Read more

Like a musical Zelig or Forrest Gump, Dewey Cox (whose surname is stroked for every naughty pun imaginable) for five decades is at the center of the hurricane that is pop music, mastering every idiom from rock to rap. Read more