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May 2, 2013 Olivier Assayas' smart, clear-eyed movie unfolds in the aftermath of the May 1968 student-worker uprising that shook France. (Recommended)

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April 25, 2013 There's some raw, real footage in Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Love, an admirably bracing story of European sex tourism in the Southern Hemisphere.

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April 25, 2013 Two talented Brits play undistinguished Americans in a film of escapin' identity — but Dante Ariola's wan comedy hasn't much of a personality.

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April 18, 2013 A troubling political art piece wrapped in a high-concept documentary, Herman's House follows the efforts of a provocative artist to build a model of a solitary confinement prisoner's dream home. Neither the home nor the prisoner is properly detailed, but the journey is unsettling.

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April 11, 2013 Terrence Malick's latest cinematic meditation doesn't seem to have much to do with anything; it's pretty but largely pointless, a globe-trotting film with a fondness for lyrical internal monologues and unlikely international juxtapositions.

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April 4, 2013 Lesser talents could lose track of the high-wattage cast that joins the actor-director in The Company You Keep. But this modern-day journalistic revisit to the revolutionary turmoil of the 1970s succeeds because Redford knows how to keep his marquee-name ensemble on the same page.

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March 28, 2013 Sketched in tones as bright and gorgeous as those its namesake artist put to canvas, the gauzy biopic Renoir portrays the domestic disruptions — and the artistic reawakening — of the Impressionist master's final days.

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March 28, 2013 The producers spent $135 million on 'splosions, 3-D effects, and ... oh, right, actors. But they might as well have used actual action figures in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, a stiffly ridiculous exercise in moving Hasbro merchandise.

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March 28, 2013 Topical and tough, the latest from Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance is a self-conscious drama that seems to long for a healthy dose of old-school movie macho. The story of a retired circus performer and the cop who tails him stretches across generations — but the audience might not be willing to wait that long.

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March 21, 2013 The authentic grit of modern London is a plus in Sally El Hosaini's debut feature, My Brother the Devil. What's less successful is her attempt to break storytelling conventions; a intriguing concept and a smart setup subside into familiar sibling-rival storytelling by the film's end.

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March 21, 2013 Director Janet Tobias frames an indelible story of two families living in Eastern European caves early in World War II; spelunker Christopher Nicola discovered the hideout more than two decades ago.

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March 14, 2013 There's a clever premise and some promising performances buried in this comedy-magic misfire. But those winning aspects are ultimately ruined by a mean-spirited movie that's too cruel for kids and too dull for most adults.

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March 7, 2013 Director Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills has echoes of his earlier (and best-known) drama, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Here he's telling a tale of autocratic religion in a bleak Romanian backwater.

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February 28, 2013 A surprising flip of Cold War submarine thrillers, Phantom shows what the Soviets might have been thinking as they battled their American foes. It's unfortunate that the American-produced film that results is such a soggy mess.

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February 21, 2013 The stark Chinese drama 11 Flowers meditates on the universal experiences of childhood even as it details the bizarre specifics of growing up during Mao's Cultural Revolution. The acquisition of a new white shirt changes a young boy as the revolution draws to a close. (Recommended)

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