1. The Hurt Locker
2. Up
3. Up in the Air
4. Sin Nombre
5. Sugar
6. 500 Days of Summer
7. District 9
8. Inglourious Basterds
9. A Serious Man
10. Summer Hours
And, for the annotated version: Read the rest of this entry »

This is a spare drama about love, loss, shame and redemption. Writer/director Philippe Claudel knows just how to structure a character study of this sort, so that key elements and important secrets are revealed over time, piquing our interest. The film is almost like a novel or short story, so one’s curiosity is satisfied slowly. Read more>>

If they’re going to retool a beloved movie, filmmakers should at least try to capture the spirit of the original. In this new Women, written and directed by Diane English, not only are key roles miscast, but giving it a modern-day reworking at all is a mistake. Read more>>

Mister Foe is not a movie to cozy up to. The twisted tale is only mildly intriguing, worth seeing mainly for the striking performance of Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) as Hallam Foe, a creepy teenage voyeur beset with an Oedipal complex. Read more>>

The story lacks suspense and the action sequences fall flat, but the film is compelling in its examination of the many prisms of ideology and religious fervor. Read more>>

Though it appears to be about the travails of illegal immigrants, Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) (* * * out of four) is a powerful and evocative account of the efforts undertaken to forge a perilous mother-and-child reunion. Told in Spanish with English subtitles, it is a moving tale of yearning, as well as unflagging courage and determination. Read more>>

Moviegoers will come up empty with Mad Money. This lifeless comedy and uninventive caper feels as if it were cobbled together at a studio’s obligatory consciousness-raising diversity seminar: Read more>>

27 Dresses is like one of the many bridesmaid dresses featured in the film: frothy, predictable and over the top. But the movie is made pleasant by the likeability of its star, Katherine Heigl, and her chemistry with the affable James Marsden.
Read more>>

Watching this movie feels a bit like being trapped on a weekend holiday with an unpredictable and seriously unhappy group of people. You find yourself cringing in wary anticipation of what cruelty they’ll inflict upon one another next. Read more

Writer/director Zach Helm, who wrote Stranger Than Fiction, achieves bursts of charm and whimsy, but not quite enough magic to elicit a consistent sense of wonderment. Read more