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Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader

1. The Devil's Double 2011 Equally as offensive as the movie's smorgasbord of smut and violence is the lingering whiff of colonial-era orientalism, a Western predilection for regarding Eastern cultures as innately idle, lascivious, irrational, and thus ripe for intervention. full review
2. Friends With Benefits 2011 The jokes don't all work and the topical references can be irritably hipper-than-thou, but at least director and cowriter Will Gluck aims high: this is patterned on the Tracy and Hepburn comedies, albeit with a lot more skin. full review
3. Pina 2011 Crane and steadycam allow Wenders to get so close to the action that in the minimalist Cafe Muller, one's illusion of being on stage is uncanny. full review
4. Rango 2011 What elevates it above a cheeky romp is the skilled CGI work, not only the wealth of tactile detail lavished on the parched townsfolk but also the painterly, sand-swept vistas they call home. full review
5. Snow Flower And The Secret Fan 2011 In this lavish adaptation of Lisa See's novel, the complex chronologies of the parallel narratives are skillfully handled by director Wayne Wang, which makes his reliance on unbridled sentimentality all the more irritating. full review
6. Super 8 2011 Writer-director J.J. Abrams overloads this sci-fi adventure with so many homages to his co-producer Steven Spielberg that it plays like the elder director's greatest hits, minus his characteristic scares and sense of wonder. full review
7. Warrior 2011 For all the contemporary references, it's essentially a spin on the story of Cain and Abel, which may be the reason it feels timeless. full review
8. Biutiful 2010 Javier Bardem cuts a tragic figure as a dying Barcelona lowlife who traffics in illegal immigrants and communes with the dead. full review
9. Night Catches Us 2010 Tanya Hamilton directed her own script, and though her ending leaves loose ends dangling, the movie is refreshing for its seriousness and originality. full review
10. The Proposal 2009 [A] buoyant vehicle for Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, whose chemistry is a happy surprise. full review
11. Amreeka 2009 Writer-director Cherien Dabis too easily resolves or dismisses the characters' problems, making way for an upbeat ending. full review
12. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 2009 Since the heroine spends half her screen time recovering from brain surgery, Rapace has less to do than in the first two movies, but she's striking in full punk regalia during a tense courtroom sequence. full review
13. Last Train Home 2009 Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan considers the social upheavals wrought by China's economic miracle. full review
14. Bottle Shock 2008 Rickman adds a welcome astringency. full review
15. Defiance 2008 Zwick, intent on correcting the perception of Jews as passive victims, lets the action set pieces overwhelm the more intimate scenes, several of which are already diminished by stilted dialogue. full review
16. Eldorado 2008 Avoids a formulaic ending, reflecting instead on the impermanence of human connections and the inescapable baggage of the self. full review
17. Elegy 2008 Elegy gives Ben Kingsley one of the best roles of his career. full review
18. New York, I Love You 2008 The project is lush and seductive as a whole, though some segments are especially vibrant. full review
19. Our City Dreams 2008 Chiara Clemente, a documentarian for Italian TV, gets in close enough to record her subjects' techniques but not close enough to reveal what makes the women tick. full review
20. The Tale of Despereaux 2008 The imagery is colorful and artfully rendered, but the filmmakers, favoring technological wizardry over story, have beefed up the narrative with teeming rodent civilizations, a seafaring sequence, and gladiatorial action pieces. full review
21. Theater of War 2008 Engrossing and timely, this crackles with ideas about art, politics, religion, and the terrible costs of war. full review
22. Unmade Beds 2008 Director Alexis Dos Santos stressed improvisation, and his scenes have a lingering emotional rawness, but the handheld camera work left me feeling as woozy as the characters appear to be. full review
23. Unmistaken Child 2008 Films that address faith and love as eloquently as this moving 2008 documentary are rare. full review
24. Beaufort 2007 [A] blistering antiwar film. full review
25. Broken English 2007 How Posey's neurotic, self-destructive heroine finds her way to healing is the core of this generous film, whose moral is that happiness can't begin unless you're open to its possibility. full review
26. Puccini for Beginners 2007 Fresh Manhattan locations prove as photogenic as the leads, and the supporting actors -- especially Tina Benko as a glacial, impeccably dressed amazon -- don't miss a beat of Maggenti's snappy dialogue. full review
27. The Ten 2007 Darkly satiric. full review
28. Bloodrayne 2006 Just when you thought camp was dead, along comes this bizarre cross between a Tarantino knockoff and a Hammer horror film. full review
29. The Garden of Earthly Delights 2006 A luminous, highly erotic treatise on art, love, and death. full review
30. How The Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer 2005 Writer-director Georgina Garcia Riedel makes inventive use of the wide-screen format in this gentle, poetic 2005 comedy. full review
31. Serenity 2005 Joss Whedon makes a rousing feature-directing debut, exploiting the cult status of his short-lived series Firefly to continue it on the big screen. full review
32. The Machinist 2003 Until now Bale's screen persona has been defined by a graceful athleticism; here his physicality is repellent, yet he carries the occasionally creaky plot of Scott Kosar's unsettling screenplay to a resonant finish. full review