M Butterfly (1993)

"A rare mis-step for director Cronenberg, neutering a challenging play with a bizarrely conservative filming approach."

The Magic Flute (1975)

"A particular delight for opera fans, though colorfully engaging to everyone."

The Magnificent Yankee (1950)

"So inoffensive and so insignificant, it makes you wonder why a film version of Emmet Lavery's play was either desired or delivered...there's just no apparent motive."

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

"Huston's curdled view of humanity (especially women) is already evident in his debut film, a punchy and redoubtable exercise in mystery."

A Man and a Woman (1966)

"It gift-wraps the agonies and ecstasies of impish, beautiful people with kooky jobs and private pains in the shiny paper of gorgeously superficial imagery."

A Map of the World (1999)

"A profoundly unnecessary movie with pretty good performances; perfectly captures the noble mediocrity of the novel."

Mary and Max (2009)

"I'd be a sucker for most movies where a strategic slick of rooster s*** plays a decisive role in enabling an emotional communion, or where a young girl thinks to ask, "If a taxi goes backwards, does the driver owe you money?""

Maryam (2002)

"Smarter in its message than its execution, this is still a thought-provoking rental."

Masked and Anonymous (2003)

"The great neglected movie of 2003, a rambunctious, provocative, genre-defying, and constantly surprising experiment."

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

"A rabble-rousing aestheticization of violence and potential violence...Even I don’t think the Wachowskis are Nazis, but I do think they might be Leni Riefenstahls."

Metropolis (1927)

"One of the all-time greats - one of those movies you finally watch and realize how much everyone's been stealing from it for 75 years."

Michael Clayton (2007)

"The multiplex needs more movies where life, work, morality, and debt comprise the constellation of adult experience, unimpinged upon by concessions to youth audiences and unameliorated by any whiff of romance."

The Mill on the Floss (1997)

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Million Dollar Baby (2004)

"M$B sometimes recalls a silent movie where the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune play out in a concentrated circle of light that goes opaque around the edges."

The Miracle Worker (1962)

"Potentially soft material is handled with just the right severity; marvelously acted."

The Mission (1986)

"Simultaneously slick and sloppy....For all of The Mission's back-to-nature trappings, it's actually a perfect film for the Reagan-and-Thatcher era that produced it."

Mister Foe (2008)

"Hallam Foe cannot be accused of concealing its investment in the dramatic heightening of sensation, the privileging of psychic logic and hormonal pulls over safer and more quotidian forms of "realistic" storytelling."

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

"Ambiguity [in this film] is the unwitting product of outrageous disorganization, wild ambivalence, and an unerring instinct for, well, error."

Monster (2003)

"A stunning and deceptively sophisticated picture...squarely in the tradition of Brecht. Monster deserves to keep winning awards, but the film is the real treasure."

Moonstruck (1987)

"Elegantly designed and acted with verve, even though the story and concept are frustratingly minor."

Moulin Rouge (1952)

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Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)

"More than a curio.... The awkward style and portentous structure of Nichols' film astonishes possess an integritiy that commands attention. Formidable, and memorable."

Mrs. Dalloway (1997)

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Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

"Unevenly cast but ebulliently filmed, the film is a treasure for the Branagh-Thompson scenes alone."

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

"[The film's] virtues...make such a vivid and appealing impression that we forget, ignore, or fail even to notice those elements that are less successful."