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June 30, 2011 A pajama-clad, disaffected high school student learns how to engage the world with the help of his assistant principal. What could have been yet another Sundance trifle about a gawky, eccentric teenager takes on surprising heart thanks to director Azazel Jacobs. (Recommended)

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June 28, 2011 For his third cars 'n' bots noisemaker, Michael Bay hews to the same formula: shiny, industrial-grade space junk thrown at the screen in no discernible order. As expensive explosions blot the sky, the film plods along mirthlessly, the gas guzzler of the multiplex.

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June 23, 2011 In yet another comedy about a kid-hating misanthrope in a youth-oriented profession, Cameron Diaz plays the bully with too much comic zeal. Under Jake Kasdan, the film is cheerfully vulgar, but it gets higher marks when it's not going for shock value.

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June 2, 2011 For the fourth X-Men outing, director Matthew Vaughn and the Marvel machine relaunch the series with style, with a Cold War-era high-wire act that's nimbler and cleaner than any origin story has a right to be. (Recommended)

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May 25, 2011 The latest Romanian New Wave gem, Tuesday, After Christmas, chronicles the collision of a marriage and an affair with unflinching simplicity. Taking no sides, the film lays bare the turbulent emotions in play, infusing an ordinary story with gripping suspense. (Recommended)

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May 5, 2011 A Grindhouse spinoff starring schlock veteran Rutger Hauer, Jason Eisener's gorefest is as uncomplicated as it is gleefully disreputable — and it's decidedly disreputable.

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April 28, 2011 Cultures clash when the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond sets out to adapt his show for Russian audiences. But a lack of focus distracts from what could have been a smart look at "universal" comedy.

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April 21, 2011 Jim Mickle's horror movie ditches the schlock, channeling Terrence Malick to create a vampire apocalypse that's compellingly deranged — and decidedly devoid of teen romance.

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April 14, 2011 The studio behind Ice Age and Robots stuck to formula with its latest kids' flick, a mild and predictable adventure about a pair of endangered macaws on the run in Brazil.

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April 7, 2011 With Russell Brand playing the Dudley Moore role and Helen Mirren in the part that won John Gielgud an Academy Award, a big-ticket remake might make Oscar Wilde think again about whether anything succeeds like excess.

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March 31, 2011 A soldier must relive the last minutes of another man's life — repeatedly — to stop the terrorist who killed him, and who looks likely to strike again.

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March 24, 2011 Tony Gatlif's drama of Roma persecution in Vichy France thrums with the sights and sounds of Gypsy culture — but standard war-movie tropes blunt the impact of its story.

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March 17, 2011 Tom McCarthy's film features Paul Giamatti in a subtly down-to-earth turn as a New Jersey lawyer who takes in a mentally challenged client and his high-school-wrestler grandson. The actor anchors a fine ensemble — and a movie full of interestingly knotty problems.

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March 10, 2011 Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy is a lively, lovely romance — and ultimately as audacious and radical a film as any that will see theaters this year. (Recommended)

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February 25, 2011 A raunchy-sweet comedy from the guys who made There's Something About Mary, it stars Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis as restless married men whose wives (Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate) give them a week off from fidelity.

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