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A.O. Scott, New York Times

1. John Dies at the End 2013 It zigs, zags and trips over its own feet and on its own home-brewed hallucinogens. It's a ridiculous, preposterous, sometimes maddening experience, but also kind of a blast. full review
2. LUV 2013 It does not entirely succeed, but at its best "Luv" shows the kind of heart and intelligence that is always welcome - and often missing - in American movies. full review
3. 2 Days in New York 2012 The film, which is about a chaotic 48 hours in Marion's life, succumbs to the chaos it depicts, and so undermines its best intentions. It is, all in all, a likable mess. full review
4. 5 Broken Cameras 2012 "5 Broken Cameras" provides a grim reminder - just in case you needed one - of the bitter intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. full review
5. Alps 2012 Oblique connections are the threads that hold this film together, as Mr. Lanthimos moves from one somber, deliberate scene to the next. full review
6. The Ambassador 2012 Mr. Brugger's portrait of shameless, routine collusion between exploitative foreigners and dysfunctional dictatorships is depressing and undeniable. full review
7. Americano 2012 It is wistful and nostalgic, and at the same time full of restless curiosity. full review
8. The Cabin in the Woods 2012 There is a scholarly, nerdy, completist sensibility at work here that is impressive until it becomes exhausting. full review
9. Dark Horse 2012 Its departures from realism have the effect of enlarging the narrow, unremarkable lives that are its focus, and by extension the audience's sense of what those lives might mean. full review
10. For Ellen 2012 It teeters on the line that separates drama from anecdote. full review
11. Girl In Progress 2012 Does it pull out all the melodramatic stops toward the end? Does it resolve its many climactic crises too neatly and too sweetly? Yes on both counts. But, then again, what did you expect? full review
12. The Grey 2012 It's a fine, tough little movie, technically assured and brutally efficient, with a simple story that ventures into some profound existential territory without making a big fuss about it. full review
13. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai 2012 More moving than shocking, it proceeds slowly and gracefully, and the few scenes of bloodshed are emotionally intense rather than showily sensational. full review
14. Head Games 2012 "Head Games" gains credibility and power from compassion for athletes and respect for their accomplishments. But it also tries to open the eyes of sports lovers to dangers that have too often been minimized and too seldom fully understood. full review
15. How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? 2012 A film that at times seems ready to levitate from the screen on puffy clouds of praise. full review
16. In Another Country 2012 A movie may be a representation of the world, but it is also something that happens in the world, which means that sustaining a cinematic illusion and breaking it are equally beside the point. full review
17. The Innkeepers 2012 Luke and Claire are guilty, above all, of being dumb and bored. Even their interest in the ghost that may dwell in the dark corners of the Pedlar seems tepid and lacking in conviction. full review
18. The Invisible War 2012 This is not a movie that can be ignored. full review
19. The Island President 2012 The hope that infuses this movie makes it all the more upsetting to walk out of the theater and contemplate a looming disaster that the world's leaders seem unable to prevent. full review
20. Keyhole 2012 To a die-hard Maddinite this may be a little disappointing, but for that reason "Keyhole" may also be a perfect gateway into the bizarre and fertile world of a unique film artist. full review
21. Lay the Favorite 2012 Best to say as little as possible, cut one's losses and move on. full review
22. Little Birds 2012 It is hard not to be reminded of other movies - like Larry Clark's "Kids," Nick Cassavetes's "Alpha Dog," Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank" - that explore similar territory with greater risk and originality. full review
23. The Loneliest Planet 2012 It is gripping and haunting, but also coy and elusive. full review
24. One for the Money 2012 There is action of a sort -- a car blows up, shots are fired -- and what might pass for witty, sexy banter to someone who once overheard a conversation about an episode of Moonlighting. full review
25. Oslo, August 31st 2012 "Oslo, August 31st" has the satisfying gravity of specific experience, and also, true to its title, a prickly sense of place. full review
26. Payback 2012 You can't help feeling that the movie owed its subject - and its audience - a bit more. full review
27. The Queen of Versailles 2012 Captures the tone of the times with a clear, surprisingly compassionate eye. full review
28. The Raven 2012 Mr. Cusack works himself into a lather trying to reconcile the contradictory parts of an incoherent character. In, I am sorry to say, an incoherent movie. full review
29. A Royal Affair 2012 Unfortunately it never fully comes to life. full review
30. Side by Side 2012 For a film geek this movie is absolute heaven, a dream symposium in which directors, cinematographers, editors and a few actors gather to opine on the details of their craft. full review
31. Tonight You're Mine 2012 "Tonight You're Mine" is as ephemeral as its title - as thin as a jukebox dime but pretty catchy all the same. full review
32. The Turin Horse 2012 Displays Mr. Tarr's uncompromising, atavistic commitment to darkness, difficulty and lapidary pictorial sublimity. full review
33. Union Square 2012 "Union Square" has the busy, hemmed-in talkiness of a theater piece, with too much forced to happen in too short a time. But it also has a lively, nervous energy and an expansive sympathy for the mismatched women at its heart. full review
34. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 2011 You are left in a bracing state of confusion, wondering how much has changed and how the change took place. full review
35. Dirty Girl 2011 A well-meaning, misbegotten frenzy of confused impulses. full review
36. Goodbye First Love 2011 It examines, with compassion and clarity, a young woman's discovery of passion and also of the pain, disappointment and partial wisdom that follow. full review
37. Into The Abyss 2011 The paradox of this film is that it is both unremittingly bleak and rigorously humane. full review
38. Keep the Lights On 2011 The look, mood and rhythm of the film are exquisitely, even thrillingly authentic. full review
39. The Other Woman 2011 A not-bad movie (written and directed by Don Roos) based on a pretty good book ("Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" by Ayelet Waldman). full review
40. Pina 2011 The power and intelligence of Bausch's approach, which at times seems more cerebral than sensual, is communicated. full review
41. Polisse 2011 [A] long, unruly, gripping film. full review
42. Rango 2011 It is not self-conscious knowingness that drives Rango but rather a quirky and sincere enthusiasm for all the strange stuff that has piled up in the filmmakers' heads over the years. full review
43. Red State 2011 For all its boisterous profanity and splattery violence, the film is more of a weary sigh than a sputtering volley of indignation. full review
44. Sarah Palin: You Betcha! 2011 It feels warmed over, devoid of urgency and, in spite of Mr. Broomfield's on-camera displays of doggedness, lacking in curiosity. full review
45. Super 8 2011 Attempts the difficult feat of balancing self-consciousness about the olden days with wide-eyed, headlong, present-tense fun. For about an hour it succeeds marvelously. The modest letdown that follows exposes the limitations of Mr. Abrams's imagination. full review
46. This Must Be The Place 2011 The plot turns are playful as well as jolting, and the visual shocks are gentle: a bison on the porch, the world's largest pistachio, Mr. Penn in his makeup. full review
47. Young Goethe In Love 2011 Mr. Fehling, tumbling from puppy dog eagerness into weepy, inky self-pity, never quite rises to the requirements of the role, which may be hopelessly incoherent in any case. full review
48. And Everything Is Going Fine 2010 Among other things, a tour de force of smart and sensitive editing. full review
49. Blood Done Sign My Name 2010 What the film lacks in psychological nuance it makes up for in unassuming, intimate social observation.
50. Casino Jack 2010 Mr. Hickenlooper's oddly apolitical caper film loses itself in the puzzle of its protagonist's personality. full review
51. Casino Jack And The United States Of Money 2010 It's very entertaining as well as appalling. full review
52. Four Lions 2010 You laugh until the laughter turns to ashes in your mouth. And then you laugh some more. full review
53. Howl 2010 An exemplary work of literary criticism on film, explaining and contextualizing its source without deadening it. full review
54. If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle 2010 The seams of the narrative start to show, and by the end you are more aware of the filmmakers' ideas than of the character's life. full review
55. Night Catches Us 2010 Night Catches Us, a politically sophisticated and ethically serious film, makes no big speeches or obvious points. full review
56. Restrepo 2010 Has the spare, lyrical force of an elegy.
57. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll 2010 Somehow this well-intentioned film cannot help but turn an uncompromisingly original artist into a formula. full review
58. Smash His Camera 2010 Mr. Galella emerges as a kindred soul for the curious documentarian and as a large, complicated personality in his own right. full review
59. The Tempest 2010 Ms. Taymor's overscaled sense of stage spectacle can be impressive and effective, even moving, but her three-dimensional, high-volume compositions translate awkwardly into the cosmos of cinema. full review
60. Beeswax 2009 At first glance a modest, ragged slice of contemporary life, turns out to be a remarkably subtle, even elegant movie. Its leisurely scenes and hesitant, circling conversations conceal both an ingenious comic structure and a rich emotional subtext. full review
61. 44 Inch Chest 2009 Think of 44 Inch Chest as a piece of chamber music and you can compensate for the thinness of its story and the lack of visual distinction.
62. Antichrist 2009 The scandal of Antichrist is not that it is grisly or upsetting but that it is so ponderous, so conceptually thin and so dull.
63. The Boys Are Back 2009 The problem is that the movie always takes the easy way, scattering a few heavy, confrontational scenes among acres of picturesque montages. full review
64. Cairo Time 2009 If Cairo Time does not amount to much, it does evoke a wistful state of feeling and a complicated city with enough skill and sensitivity that you wish it had dared more. full review
65. Creation 2009 Its view of life is that a paradigm-shifting breakthrough, rather than being the product of either solitary genius or cultural ferment, amounts instead to a pretext and a substitute for therapy. full review
66. Crude 2009 Mr. Berlinger has both a strong narrative instinct and a keen eye for incongruous, evocative and powerful images.
67. The Eclipse 2009 An interesting blend of very nicely observed character based drama with some horror movie effects.
68. Fish Tank 2009 The contradictions of adolescence have rarely been conveyed with such authenticity and force.
69. Hunger 2009 With calm, deliberate attention -- an approach at once compassionate and dispassionate -- Hunger explores physical extremity and political extremism. full review
70. Inspector Bellamy 2009 The movie is in no hurry to end, much as its prolific maker never showed much inclination to stop. full review
71. The Joneses 2009 Mr. Borte conjures up a pleasant Stepford that runs less on robotic conformity than on endless, anxious competition. The key to the film is that it allows this life to have some real appeal. full review
72. Last Train Home 2009 Tells the story of a family caught, and possibly crushed, between the past and the future--a story that, on its own, is moving, even heartbreaking. Multiplied by 130 million, it becomes a terrifying and sobering panorama of the present. full review
73. The Secret of Kells 2009 It is only fitting that a movie concerned with the power and beauty of drawing -- the almost sacred magic of color and line -- should be so gorgeously and intricately drawn.
74. The Time That Remains 2009 A thorny and intricate film that is also breathtakingly simple and honest. full review
75. The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia 2009 Its governing spirit, captured in the raucous music that punctuates the story (including songs performed live by Hank Williams III), is one of outlaw celebration. full review
76. Wild Target 2009 All of this busyness drains away the film's charm, turning what might have been a naughty and whimsical frolic into something glib, hectic and sour. full review
77. Examined Life 2008 Part of the fun of Examined Life comes from watching these very intelligent thinkers try to make themselves intelligible.
78. New York, I Love You 2008 But in spite of some attempts at human and neighborhood variety, the stories have a self-conscious sameness, as if they were classroom assignments in an undergraduate fiction-writing class.
79. Passing Strange 2008 Moving, thrilling and new.
80. The Square 2008 Turns a humdrum backwater into a black hole of crime and punishment.
81. What Just Happened? 2008 The title of Barry Levinson's new movie, What Just Happened, is not phrased as a question, but if it were it would demand another question in response: 'Who cares?'
82. Beaufort 2007 Beaufort may be, strictly speaking, a war movie, but for long stretches it feels more like science fiction.
83. Black Snake Moan 2007 In spite of Amelia Vincent's toothsome cinematography and the down-home locations, the movie often has the lumbering, literal-minded rhythms of a second-rate stage play -- not a moan or a howl, but a slow, anxious groan.
84. Chop Shop 2007 Chop Shop is concerned principally with the kind of hard, marginal labor that more comfortable city dwellers rarely notice.
85. Eagle vs. Shark 2007 One of those movies that invite you to laugh at its misfit characters and empathize with them at the same time.
86. Hot Rod 2007 Hot Rod might be called the poor man's Eagle vs. Shark. Poor certainly describes the quality of the filmmaking.
87. Munyurangabo 2007 Munyurangabo uses the fine-grained techniques of cinematic neorealism to illuminate the psychological and emotional landscape of a still-traumatized place.
88. Please Vote for Me 2007 full review
89. The Fall of Fujimori 2006 This excellent documentary on Alberto K. Fujimori serves as a cautionary essay on the risks to democracy posed by the fight against terrorism.
90. Lady Chatterley 2006 Pascale Ferran's version of Lady Chatterley feels bracingly fresh, vital and modern.
91. Sherrybaby 2006 What distinguishes the film from its many peers is the quality of Ms. Collyer's writing -- which rarely reaches for obvious, melodramatic beats -- and the precision of Ms. Gyllenhaal's performance.
92. The Wind That Shakes the Barley 2006 ... the history presented in "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" hardly feels like a closed book or a museum display. It is as alive and as troubling as anything on the evening news, though far more thoughtful and beautiful.
93. Aeon Flux 2005 Aeon Flux is best appreciated for the costumes, the sets and Charlize Theron's haughty athleticism.
94. The Constant Gardener 2005 Fernando Meirelles's excellent adaptation of the novel by John le Carré is likely to linger in your mind and may even trouble your conscience. full review
95. Conversations With Other Women 2005 Hans Canosa's studied debut feature stars Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter as old flames who meet, years after parting, and have a short fling.
96. Into Great Silence 2005 The achievement of Into Great Silence is the way it captures the slow, delicate rhythm of the Carthusian monks.
97. The Puffy Chair 2004 The Puffy Chair is a low-key road movie that, fittingly enough, has knocked around the festival circuit for a while and opened in a few theaters before arriving in New York today. The journey it depicts is similarly unhurried.
98. Identity 2003 The apparent premise, creaky though it may be, holds ample opportunity for suspense and second-guessing, and Mr. Mangold handles the revelations and reversals of Michael Cooney's script with nerve-racking aplomb. full review
99. Ned Kelly 2003 There is a potent national epic struggling to find expression here, but this movie is too rushed and fragmented to do it justice. full review
100. The Hebrew Hammer 2002 Would have worked brilliantly as a five-minute late-night comedy sketch. full review
101. Sex Is Comedy 2002 Rather than delve into the clinical details of sexual desire and behavior, Catherine Breillat's reflects on what it means for a filmmaker to conduct such an inquiry. full review
102. Sonny 2002 Earnest and tentative even when it aims to shock. full review
103. Super Troopers 2002 You laugh neither with it nor at it but rather sit counting the minutes while the movie laughs, for no good reason, at itself. full review
104. The Fluffer 2001 Along the way there are sneaky flourishes of surreal style to perk up the film's drab, low-budget realism. full review
105. The Score 2001 A spiritless, unimaginative exercise in professionalism for its own sake. full review
106. Wet Hot American Summer 2001 This sloppy comedy may be a pleasant reminder of days gone by. full review
107. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle 2000 Made by people who clearly think themselves much smarter than their audience. In place of whimsy, it offers cynicism. full review
108. Billy Elliot 2000 Real and consequential. full review
109. Blow Dry 2000 Blow Dry seems both overplotted and underimagined. full review
110. Live Nude Girls Unite! 2000 full review
111. Scary Movie 2000 Like most gag-driven farces, it's a hit or miss affair. full review
112. The Tigger Movie 2000 The songs seem to have been written over lunch at the Disney cafeteria. full review
113. New Waterford Girl 1999 full review
114. Don't Let Me Die On A Sunday 1998 full review
115. Solo Con Tu Pareja 1991 Like Y Tu Mamá También, Alfonso Cuaróns first feature, made 15 years ago, is a rambunctious sex comedy shadowed by mortality.
116. Withnail and I 1987 full review
117. Broadway Danny Rose 1984 full review
118. Charade 1963 full review
119. His Girl Friday 1940 full review