Carina Chocano, Film Critic

Charlie Kaufman creates a world where futility fights to coexist with function.




Refusing to romanticize his nonconformist characters, the star put his sex appeal to complicated and...




Martin Hyne's twee film travels a road to nowhere.




The big-screen version of the HBO series tackles weighty issues with grace but...




This documentary looks at a culture predicated on might and obsessed with...




Fatih Akin's captivating film is about coming together in trying times.




Harmony Korine revives his signature surrealism in 'Mr. Lonely,' starring...




The romantic comedy has a weak premise and most of its humor is based on...




David Mamet's contemporary noir film follows a moral code in and out of a...




The buddy film starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler gets in some jabs but plays...




The dramatic comedy about a woman desperate to have a baby is Helen Hunt's...




Documentary examines Tomas Young, who was paralyzed fighting in Iraq.




The chain saws are set aside so the film can tap into what we find truly...




The adapted graphic novel shows Marjane Satrapi's life in, and after, Iran




'Southland Tales' is a political farce, a doomsday chiller and a paranoid...




Jerry Seinfeld wrote and voices the lead character, but there's not much at...




In the latest from the 83-year-old director, things go horribly wrong, exactly...




The star-filled political drama has few surprises but gives everyone a chance to...




Elizabeth I morphs into some kind of 16th-century Michael Corleone to keep her...




The remake of the 1972 film benefits from an updated script by Harold Pinter and...




The film about three brothers in the wake of their dad's death is a...




The Farrelly Brothers' remake of Neil Simon's comedy has none of the charm of the original, and the...




Robert Benton's film about love and loss is free of catharsis and is neither...




Gothic horror rises in the Arctic




Robin Swicord's first feature, with Maria Bello and Emily Blunt, is a clever...




A young girl is caught in the swirl of '70s politics in Julie Gavras' assured directorial debut, 'Blame...




In David Cronenberg's London-set thriller, evil must be battled, often with...




Black comedy turns preachy in a somewhat-true story of journalists who are out to get a Balkan war...




Spirit of J.D. Salinger hangs heavy in the French film about two brothers exploring love and loss ad...




Reality? Or fantasy? 'The Nines' blurs the lines




The film gives an intimate portrait of a complex 30-year relationship and shows a side of Latin America...




The social bite of the popular novel fades into a generic chick flick.




'Superbad's' teen raunch isn't what's shocking; it's the love story.




Julie Delpy lingers between cultures and must constantly reset her bearings -- an intriguing place to be.




Between fireballs and chases, hero-on-the-run Bourne deals with killer angst.




In the new movie, the author Jane Austen is over-fictionalized into one of her...




Vignettes are based on the biblical commandments




Unlike the TV show, the film digs into morality and meaning, giving it a safer...




Catherine Zeta-Jones' career woman reverts to a long-ago formula in 'No...




Instead of focusing on the woman who was raped at an MGM sales convention in 1937, filmmaker David...




The movie of the musical is a joy — with an edge. As for romance, Walken and...




'Goya's Ghosts' is Milo Forman's first film since 1999. Alas, it's a mere shadow...




Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor play men who spark social change and redefine...




Premise of the Dutch film's remake seems less believable here, but the acting is...




Having it all: Love, money, a creepy kid




Brenda Blethyn makes 'Dwights' a family worth knowing




The director, with Christian Bale starring, again explores the role.




Despite a stellar cast, the story of regret for a love lost in the '50s gets...




Left charmed by 'Broken English.'




Cusack checks into a room with a boo.




The comedian is lovable as God's unwilling disciple. But the comedy is less than...




‘Nancy Drew’ solves the modern girl blues.




'Amu' reveals shameful secrets in India




While dialogue amuses, nerdy outcasts ultimately aren't any more watchable in...




'Crazy Love' recalls '59 stalking that led to tragedy




Marion Cotillard astonishes as Edith Piaf.




Dreams just beyond reach through the 'Golden Door'




Some of this film, which is adapted from a play, really burrows in. But the...




Third 'Pirates' long on spectacle, short on sense




Owen, Luke and Andrew Wilson team on a hipster story of an amiable con man,...




Short films by such directors as Tom Tykwer, Alexander Payne and Alfonso...




The squirm-inducing but very funny mock documentary shows real empathy for its subjects.




Sequel isn't giving anyone a break. Plenty of zombies and muck.




The film explores the ephemeral nature of memory.




An out-of-work accountant who feels besieged fixates on his new Middle Eastern neighbor.




Performances by Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss make the...




Even superhuman powers can't save 'Next'




It’s easy to snicker when Hugh Grant says he’s unsure about stardom. But maybe...




Parental guidance hits a low with Diane Keaton's meddling mom.




A documentary of the Auschwitz trial builds a horrifying portrait.




The Robert Wilson documentary takes on a challenging subject, but it's up to the...




An oddball "Miss Potter" doesn't want to grow up.




While the film stays true to the book's plot, its portrayal of the main...




"The Painted Veil" is a testament to star and producer Edward Norton's passion,...




Polished but flawed.




It's easy to get lost in Lynch's "Inland Empire," where parallel realities...




Seduced by the glitter, suffering at celebrity's shrine.




Director Soderbergh drenches 1945 Berlin in classic noir and period nuance.




With a symbolist tone, the film about families in the suburbs and the projects...




As reliably as Santa, this romantic comedy about a transatlantic house swap...




In "Candy," young lovers keep their looks as they get hooked on heroin. No...




Justin Kirk and Julianne Nicholson struggle as a couple while viewers struggle to know them.




"The Fountain" drags out mythical, metaphysical examinations of life's cycle.




A lively adaptation of the play makes a study of education. Its lessons in...




The horrors go well beyond the plate in Richard Linklater's fictionalized...




Christopher Guest’s latest spoof targets Oscar award season.




A quasi-biopic about the composer's difficult final years, "Copying Beethoven" is largely about his...




A (expletive) documentary on '(expletive)'? (Expletive)!




Forget the man of La Mancha. "Volver" puts the town's women front and center.




Asking, "What if?" The consequences ripple




Around the globe, "Babel" pries into the difficulty of communicating. CRITIC'S ...




Sofia Coppola rivets on the singular experience of a vilified royal.




Why is it that sometimes there's nothing like a true story to ring false? It's a question for the ages,...




Two old buddies, grown distant, take an impromptu camping trip. Read their faces...




Satire and terror are brilliantly blended in Todd Field's "Little Children." It'...




Seven-year itch grows up.




Forest Whitaker portrays Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Gillian Anderson and James...




'God Spoke' captures comedian and pundit Al Franken evolving from satirist to...




A work that's clearly the vision of Michel Gondry.




When a group of 29-year-olds, all good friends with good prospects, mope about...




The third installment in documentarian John Bush's "Yatra Trilogy" is a filmed pilgrimage through Tibet's...




"Mutual Appreciation" refreshingly cuts straight to a stripped-down post-collegiate scene.




"Sherrybaby" sinks into nihilism as it wades into the brimming genre of the addiction tale.




Are things bad now? "Idiocracy" imagines a future in which people are, well,...




Film excoriates a rating system that seemingly condones violence and condemns...




Shining a strong light on Hollywood, American history.




In "Queens," the prospective mothers-in-law loom large, and hilariously, over the tale of a gay wedding...




"Snakes on a Plane" isn't quite a horror film or a thriller or a parody. Happy...




The period drama has fun supporting players, but meaning does a disappearing...




The romantic escapades of four New Yorkers — an actress, her stay-at-...




A woman and her mother live cut off from the rest of the world as nearly a...




Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart star in a double-visioned chronicle of...




"Brothers of the Head" is a fake documentary about the fictional Howes,...




Seriously, what's with the male cows in "Barnyard"?




The comedy caters to an overlooked audience in a film about love and loss...




The director has nice rapport with Scarlett Johansson, but there are a lot of...




The sun doesn't shine on delusion, and it never will for the Hoover family,...




She's a testy superhero. He's a sweet guy who realizes dating her is a mistake....




Charlotte Rampling plays a professor on vacation, romancing Ménothy Cesar’s...




The comedy takes a predictable ride to a sappy turnaround, but — gosh — Owen...




Director Richard Linklater once again reworks reality into a cautionary tale...




Awash with plot twists, this sequel is too much of what was a good thing.




Skateboarders from South Central meet Beverly Hills girls in Larry Clark’s sort-...




A comic Meryl Streep brings a stylishly better-than-the-book allure to "Prada."




Michael Winterbottom's docudrama examines how three British teens were held...