Elise Nakhnikian

The film is a hokily melodramatic rise-fall-redemption story with a mostly unearned patina of greater significance.

The film’s visceral pleasures often work at cross purposes with the cerebral message of the manifestos.

There's plenty of life in this honest, impressionistic portrait of a cohort of 21st-century American girls.

The obstacles and opportunities that Patti encounters are often rote, but her struggles and triumphs are detailed with a gravity that honors and elucidates her feelings.

Nearly everything in Taylor Hackford's tin-eared comedy is as ersatz as the Robert De Diro character's rage is real.

Finding the drama and humor in everyday situations like these isn't easy, but Avedisian makes it look as natural as swinging on a vine.

The film is a debater with some interesting points to make but no overall argument to contain them.

The central characters' dogged refusal to cede their places on a team that keeps trying to reject them is a moving display of heroism.

Michael Keaton's powerful performance in The Founder is marooned in a wishy-washy story.

Warren Beatty's portrayal of Howard Hughes has the overly polished feel of an anecdote that's been told too often.