Justin Chang

Dancing delicately around a morbid secret that threatens their characters' relationship yet also sets it in motion, Annette Bening and Ed Harris bring a potent sense of conviction to director...

The journey proves as rewarding as the destination in "Lucky Them," a low-key charmer starring Toni Collette as a rock critic searching for the musician who mysteriously vanished 10 years...

Richard Ayoade's quirky coming-of-ager "Submarine" provided little indication of the exceedingly strange places the multitalented British funnyman would go with his sophomore directing effort, a dark and heady dystopian-noir cocktail...

A French director working with British actors and pre-WWI German setting could theoretically make a film that rises above Europudding mediocrity, but that potential goes unrealized by "A Promise," Patrice...

The critical and commercial disappointment of 1998's "Great Expectations," his contempo reimagining of the Dickens novel starring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, must have left Alfonso Cuaron in a mood...

A howl of anti-clerical outrage wrapped in a tea cozy, "Philomena" applies amusing banter and a sheen of good taste to the real-life quest of Philomena Lee, an Irishwoman who...

One of the most sharp-eyed and politically attuned filmmakers of her generation, Kelly Reichardt blends her lucid observational approach with a topical-thriller format to engrossing effect in "Night Moves." Perfectly...

A potentially fascinating true tale yields only scant emotional returns in "The Good Life," a decently acted but curiously noncommittal coming-of-age drama from debuting helmer/co-writer Jean Denizot. Based on the...

One prevailing theory of the past awards season is that, having been overlooked for a directing Oscar nomination, Ben Affleck enjoyed a surge of industry goodwill and public indignation on...

Set in a world of scantily clad demon hunters, bisexual warlocks, and a host of vampires and werewolves apparently on loan from "The Twilight Saga," "The Mortal Instruments: City of...