Ted Shen

Ultimately Raise the Red Lantern is a damning parable about China’s internecine politics.

Huston's performance is spellbinding. And the naturally lit digital cinematography (by Rose and Ron Forsythe) is both poetic and harrowingly intimate in depicting Ivan's impending death.

Smart, poignant, and utterly beguiling.

A cunning and hilarious update of the giant-insect movies of the 1950s.

Finkiel (a French director who apprenticed with Godard, Tavernier, and Kieslowski) plants clues throughout the film suggesting that the women might be long-lost relatives but declines to wrap things up neatly. The very uncertainty--and the fading possibility of an end to their search--is what makes the film so eerie and poignant.

It's as slick as anything you might find on the Discovery Channel, and the snippets of 3-D computer animation are too cool for words.

Enchanting and impressively crafted.

The most astounding cinematic testament to flock mentality since Hitchcock's "The Birds."

Arcand's fondness for the good old 60s can be cloying, but despite an uneven cast, he finds a tonal balance between sentimental and cynical that keeps the conversations real and heart wrenching.

Timely and informative.