“The Smurfs” combines an enchanted world of magical, animated characters with live-action New York City and manages to get the worst of both worlds. Read more>>

You may best remember evil characters like Hannibal Lechter, Darth Vader or Cruella de Vil, but the corrupt and greedy corporation is frequently seen as the all powerful — and faceless — villian. See more>>

Up in the Air
Where the Wild Things Are
Precious
Fantastic Mr. Fox
500 Days of Summer
District 9
Coraline
UP
Star Trek
An Education
And, for the annotated version, plus runners up: Read more>>

Director Irena Salina talks about her new documentary, “FLOW: For Love of Water,” about the problems of contamination and scarcity in water systems throughout the world. Read more>>

In “The House Bunny,” the screenplay inflicts a little more injury on Faris than it intends to by committing the very sins it half-heartedly attempts to parody. But even when the movie ignores her comic timing to focus on her lovely face and figure, Faris is an engaging performer. Read more>>

On a panel at Comic-Con, actress Eliza Dushku explained that her new series began when she was was having dinner with her friend, Joss Whedon (of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly”). She was complaining to him about not being given a chance to show all of the range of characters she could do. Read the rest of this entry »

Nina Paley, who bills herself as “America’s best-loved unknown cartoonist” is the artist/writer/director behind a smart, funny, visually stunning new animated film called “Sita Sings the Blues.” Read the rest of this entry »

Gary Susman of Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch asks whether we need more female movie critics mostly as a way to pat EW on the back doubly Read the rest of this entry »

As the title suggests, there is a little bit of fairy tale moondust sprinkled over this story of a nine-year-old boy who runs away from his home in Mexico to find his mother in Los Angeles. As with all fairy tales, the magical glow makes possible engagement with some heart-wrenching themes that might be too disturbing if told in a more straightforward manner. Read more>>

“CJ7” is the story of a little boy named Dicky who struggles with school bullies, extreme poverty, tough homework, a girl who likes him, a different girl that he likes, problems communicating with his father (writer-director Stephen Chow), and an uncooperative extra-terrestrial super-pet. Dicky is played by the very talented Jiao Xu, who was selected after Chow auditioned nearly 10,000 children for the role. It did not concern Chow that Jiao Xu had almost no professional experience. And it did not concern him that Jiao Xu is a girl. Read more>>