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Manohla Dargis, New York Times

  1. 360 2012 Mr. Morgan has written some good movies, notably "The Queen," and Mr. Meirelles has won fans for neo-exploitation titles like "City of God." There's no way to know what went wrong with "360" and whether it was this uninvolving and shallow from the start. full review
  2. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry 2012 The fluidity and convenience of digital moviemaking tools explain some of its freshness, as does Ms. Klayman's history as a budding documentarian. full review
  3. Bestiaire 2012 Mr. Cote ... forces you to look at the often unseen. It may not be pretty, but it is essential viewing. full review
  4. Brooklyn Castle 2012 It's deeply satisfying watching these public school, hard-knock kids win, and Ms. Dellamaggiore knows it. full review
  5. A Burning Hot Summer 2012 Here and elsewhere you linger in moments that, like memories and dreams, can feel severed from storybook time. full review
  6. Casa de mi padre 2012 "Casa de Mi Padre" demands that you not take it seriously, and for the most part that's easy to do. full review
  7. Cosmopolis 2012 Mr. Cronenberg's direction throughout "Cosmopolis" is impeccable, both inside the limo and out. full review
  8. Dangerous Liaisons 2012 Schadenfreude carries a delectable tang no matter the language, and as the history of Hollywood shows, stories about pretty people behaving badly remain reliably alluring. full review
  9. Deadfall 2012 "Deadfall" brings to mind those dark, old-fashioned entertainments in rotation on Turner Classic Movies that suck you in with their genre machinery, sullen beauties and despair. full review
  10. The Devil Inside 2012 Clearly, when a cheapie pickup like "Paranormal Activity," which Paramount released a few years ago, turns into franchise gold, there's just no stopping the banality. full review
  11. The Forgiveness of Blood 2012 The Albanian tradition of blood feuds partly inspired Mr. Marston to make this story, yet what gives it shape are the more familiar conventions of the classic art film, including narrative ambiguity, ellipses and silence. full review
  12. Headshot 2012 A dreamy, elliptical neo-noir about a cop turned killer turned something else altogether. full review
  13. The Hunger Games 2012 Again and again Katniss rescues herself with resourcefulness, guts and true aim, a combination that makes her insistently watchable, despite Mr. Ross's soft touch and Ms. Lawrence's bland performance. full review
  14. I Wish 2012 Whenever its children are on screen, lighted up with joy or dimmed by hard adult truths, the film burns bright. full review
  15. Intruders 2012 It's a pleasure to find that Mr. Fresnadillo has assumed the mantle of horror classicist to make "Intruders," using shadows and directorial sleights of hand to coax forth its slow-building scares rather than just pouring on the usual guts and gore. full review
  16. Last Ride 2012 Mr. Ivin doesn't have a strong narrative line to play with or become distracted by, but he takes off on some lovely detours, whether he's narrowing in on Chook or going wide to take in the world that waits beyond. full review
  17. A Little Bit Of Heaven 2012 A cringe-inducing romantic comedy turned cancer tragedy turned inspirational hosanna about living in the moment, embracing your bliss and other cliches. full review
  18. Meet the Fokkens 2012 "Meet the Fokkens" holds your interest, mostly because the sisters (who turned 70 in May) are good company, no matter who they are. full review
  19. The Pact 2012 In the end, like a lot of genre movies, this one pulls from different inspirations, and so weighs in, by turns, as overly predictable and satisfyingly recognizable (part of genre cinema's one-two punch). full review
  20. ParaNorman 2012 The story, an amusing if not especially fresh tale involving a witch and some Puritans, is principally a vehicle for the movie's meticulously detailed pictorial beauty, which turns each scene into an occasion for discovery and sometimes delight. full review
  21. Teddy Bear 2012 A largely likable tale about a 38-year-old man-child trying finally to grow up. full review
  22. Unforgivable 2012 "Unforgivable" isn't one of Mr. Techine's greatest achievements, but it's engrossing even when its increasingly populated story falters, tripped up by unpersuasive actions, connections and details. full review
  23. We Have a Pope 2012 Mr. Moretti finds broad comedy in the antics of some clerics, who can seem as sweet as children, but in Melville there is pathos and there is tragedy, and not his alone. full review
  24. The Woman in the Fifth 2012 Although Mr. Pawlikowski often shows Mr. Hawke in medium and long shots, the actor draws you close. full review
  25. Bellflower 2011 There's more here than initially meets and sometimes assaults the eye, including the hyperbolic dudeness of it all. full review
  26. Buck 2011 Holds your attention and heart for a tight 88 minutes. full review
  27. First Position 2011 An appealing, largely upbeat documentary about young ballet dancers duking it out, sometimes on point and in tulle, for top honors at the Youth America Grand Prix. full review
  28. Ironclad 2011 The action is cluttered and the story overly compressed, with a lot of yammering about who's aligned with whom and why (no wonder Mr. Giamatti's eyes keep rolling) in between the geysers of red. full review
  29. The Kid with a Bike 2011 A quietly rapturous film about love and redemption from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne... full review
  30. Knuckle 2011 While it's frustrating that Mr. Palmer doesn't dig deep into the complexities of the fights, one of the movie's strengths is the honesty with which he confesses his doubts about them. full review
  31. The Last Rites of Joe May 2011 With a few vital strokes - a long, chilly walk and a tired trudge up some stairs - Mr. Farina and Mr. Maggio bring you close... full review
  32. Mysteries of Lisbon 2011 Made for European television and originally divided into six one-hour episodes, the movie now runs an absorbing, astonishingly fast four and a quarter hours. full review
  33. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 2011 A metaphysical road movie about life, death and the limits of knowledge, "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" has arrived just in time to cure the adult filmgoer blues. full review
  34. Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow 2011 The camera movements are graceful, almost ethereal, yet the objects themselves - with their impastos of organic and inorganic materials, their metaphoric resonances, historical allusions and intimations of war - feel unmistakably weighty. full review
  35. Snow Flower And The Secret Fan 2011 For those who may have wondered if foot binding, wife beating and a crooning Hugh Jackman could fit into one movie, here's the short answer: no. full review
  36. Surviving Progress 2011 Zippily edited and nicely photographed, "Surviving Progress" is a fine summary of a hot ugly mess. But like too many short documentaries, it can't do justice to its complex topic or finally to those of us watching. full review
  37. Trishna 2011 Life is suffering, as the Buddha said (including in Hardy's emotionally grinding novels), but it's more complex and contradictory than the ginned-up realism Mr. Winterbottom delivers here. full review
  38. Undefeated 2011 While "Undefeated" travels well-tilled inspirational ground, it's also an irresistible story of football, faith and the lust for happily-ever-after black-and-white endings. full review
  39. All Good Things 2010 It's a pretty picture or would be if the ominous music and camera position didn't seem directed at the man portentously lurking in the background. full review
  40. Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2010 What a gift Werner Herzog offers with "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," an inside look at the astonishing Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc - and in 3-D too. full review
  41. City of Life and Death 2010 The horrors it represents can be almost too difficult to watch, yet you keep watching because Mr. Lu makes the case that you must. full review
  42. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer 2010 The good stuff, as far as Mr. Gibney's movie and Mr. Elkind's book theorize, involves the power brokers who...might have had something to do with his downfall. full review
  43. Cold Weather 2010 With only the most natural of conversations and an exacting relay of close-ups, intimate two shots and meditative landscapes, Mr. Katz reveals how the self-knowing individual becomes known to others, and me turns into we. full review
  44. Henry's Crime 2010 Its mood is so muffled and point so submerged, it's difficult to see why Mr. Reeves and the rest of the cast pooled their talents to make a movie about a nowhere man going no place in particular in Buffalo. full review
  45. I'm Still Here 2010 Whatever their actual intentions, I'm Still Here does take on, at times forcefully and effectively, the pathological fallout of the Entertainment Industrial Complex. full review
  46. Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work 2010 To their credit, the filmmakers don't try to make her look good, and while they omit some of her uglier routines, they don't (perhaps can't) ask you to love her. That's a wise move.
  47. Rubber 2010 By embracing irrationality as his operating principle (or at least by pretending to), Mr. Dupieux lets himself off the narrative hook. full review
  48. Tiny Furniture 2010 By playing a version of herself (and asking her family to go along for the ride), and by closing the distance between art and life, she has gotten at something real. full review
  49. True Grit 2010 The Coens, who like to play with genre, often with giggles and winks, haven't mounted an assault on the western. But in Mattie they have created a character whose single-minded pursuit of vengeance has unmistakable resonance. full review
  50. Vanishing On 7th Street 2010 Working from a script with diminishing returns by Anthony Jaswinski, Mr. Anderson smartly frontloads the movie, drawing you in with long shots of deserted cityscapes, the quiet punctured by periodic bird calls and dog barks. full review
  51. The Yellow Sea 2010 A rush of a movie from South Korea that slips and slides from horror to humor on rivers of blood and offers the haunting image of a man, primitive incarnate, beating other men with an enormous, gnawed-over meat bone. full review
  52. The Proposal 2009 Like most Hollywood romantic comedies these days, The Proposal is all about bringing a woman to her knees. full review
  53. Alexander the Last 2009 Alexander the Last, a 72-minute series of loosely connected scenes, follows an actress's lurching conversations and tentative gestures in life and the theater.
  54. The Art Of The Steal 2009 A hard-hitting documentary about a high-cultural brawl.
  55. The Eclipse 2009 Makes good on its name by sometimes obscuring its themes and even point, which can have its charms though also severe drawbacks. full review
  56. Extract 2009 Fitfully funny with a low joke-to-minute ratio, Extract plays like two irreconcilable and unfinished sketches, neither particularly fertile comedic terrain.
  57. Five Minutes of Heaven 2009 A feature-length talkathon built on a sketchy premise and strong star turns from Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt.
  58. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 2009 Feels like the concluding chapter it is, with neatly tied loose ends and closing remarks, though it unfolds as something of a secular passion play. full review
  59. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2009 Noomi Rapace more or less looks the part that the filmmakers don't let her fully play. full review
  60. The House of the Devil 2009 After years of vivisectionist splatter, here is a horror movie with real shivers.
  61. The Limits of Control 2009 A nondramatic work best appreciated as a pure image-and-sound event.
  62. Mine 2009 Smart, sincere and affecting. full review
  63. Ondine 2009 In Ondine, a film about a fisherman and a mythical sea creature, Neil Jordan shows his fondness for fantasy worlds. full review
  64. Vincere 2009 A sustained, alternatingly exhausting and aesthetically exhilarating howl of a film.
  65. White Material 2009 A striking film filled with images that sometimes reveal their full meaning only when their beauty curdles in the chain of signification. full review
  66. Diminished Capacity 2008 The actors look as if they're having a reasonably fine time, but there's no sense of commitment here, no sense that this was a movie that absolutely, passionately had to be made.
  67. Downloading Nancy 2008 Downloading Nancy is a nasty exploitation flick tarted up with art-house actors and psychobabble.
  68. Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 2008 Kevin Rafferty makes the case for remembrance and for the art of the story in his preposterously entertaining documentary Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.
  69. I Sell the Dead 2008 A fine pair of grave robbers, (director) Mr. McQuaid and (producer) Mr. Fessenden plunder freely from the movie crypt, unearthing other chomping, glowing mysteries and monstrosities.
  70. Momma's Man 2008 A touchingly true film, part weepie, part comedy, about the agonies of navigating that slippery slope called adulthood.
  71. The Tale of Despereaux 2008 Despereaux is a pleasantly immersive, beautifully animated, occasionally sleepy tale. full review
  72. Theater of War 2008 In his inspired, inspiring essayistic documentary Theater of War the filmmaker John Walter jumps from art to history and politics and back again.
  73. Unmade Beds 2008 A lovely, somewhat messy movie about lovely, messy young lives.
  74. We Live in Public 2008 We Live in Public looks at one man's experiments with issues of privacy. full review
  75. Boarding Gate 2007 Boarding Gate plays with various genre codes and conventions very differently than most run-of-the-mill modern thrillers.
  76. The Devil Came on Horseback 2007 Brutal, urgent, devastating -- the documentary The Devil Came on Horseback demands to be seen as soon as possible and by as many viewers as possible.
  77. Evening 2007 Proves that not every book deserves its own film.
  78. The Order of Myths 2007 Wise and soberly affecting documentary about the separate but unequal Mardi Gras festivities that take place each year in Mobile, Ala.
  79. Paranoid Park 2007 Paranoid Park is a haunting, voluptuously beautiful portrait of a teenage boy who, after being suddenly caught in midflight, falls to earth.
  80. Colma: The Musical 2006 An itty-bitty movie with a great big heart, Colma: The Musical is about how we learn to give voice -- joyfully, honestly, loudly -- to the truest parts of ourselves.
  81. Copying Beethoven, (Klang der Stille) 2006 In Copying Beethoven Ed Harris proves an ideal substitute for the deaf, brooding composer, acting with a violent turbulence that sometimes floods the room.
  82. Last Holiday 2006 This story of a gentle soul (Queen Latifah) who learns to live only after learning of her imminent death is as witless as it is formulaic.
  83. Mission: Impossible III 2006 Although he slams into stationary objects with his customary zeal, Tom Cruise is off his game here, sabotaged by a misguided attempt to shade his character with gray.
  84. This Is England 2006 A modest, near-flawless gem, This Is England is a humbly, if insistently political, autobiographical homage to a lost world of youth.
  85. The Treatment 2006 The Treatment is a movie with its heart and head in the right place. Too bad its aesthetic sensibilities and technical coordinates are not as well situated.
  86. Kill Your Idols 2004 S. A. Crary's music documentary examines New York's No Wave scene of the late 1970's an offshoot of punk, the anti-New Wave.
  87. CSA: Confederate States of America 2003 Satire via sledgehammer, Kevin Willmott's fake documentary imagines an alternative American history in which the South won the Civil War.
  88. I Like Killing Flies 2003 A quick-sketch portrait of Kenny Shopsin, of the legendary or notorious, depending on your experience, Greenwich Village eatery that bears his name.