Laura Kern

Ffamily-friendly escapist fare that should enthrall, without insult, fantasy-minded viewers of any age.

A brash, vivacious concoction of dark comedy, light drama and musical performance.

A straightforward, quietly persuasive primer on the climate-change crisis.

This innovative chronicle of a truly modern romance also conveys, in a painful, darkly humorous way, a variety of ultra-identifiable truths, including the loneliness often suffered by big-city inhabitants and the complexities of sexual intimacy.

Even naysayers of reality TV’s simplistic structure, which the film openly borrows, may find themselves rooting for a couple of choice -- and having fun in the process. The real-estate game can actually be a laughing matter when you’re not a contestant.

Because the lead actors work so well together, adding depth and levels of vulnerability to fairly underwritten roles, the emotional consequences of the sense of displacement these "lucky" characters -- lucky to be alive, lucky to have met one another -- must deal with always ring true.

Well shot but generically scored, Brothers at War has its share of potent moments, most of them with Mr. Rademacher’s family in the States.

Comprehensive, fulfilling film.

There's nothing remotely surprising in the entire film. But the generally winning -- and freakishly good-looking -- cast, endowed by Jacob Aaron Estes's script with intelligent, if occasionally overwritten dialogue, makes for viewing that is easy on the eyes and the ears.

Not as morose as it sounds, the film also features playful humor and steady promises of hope. And the boys, like the film, come off as very human: flawed, frequently awkward, but full of goodness at the core.