A Scanner Darkly (2006)

"Here are my thoughts over the course of the trippy A Scanner Darkly: Intriguing. Good. Yes. Huh? Nope. Nope. Oh, OK."

About a Boy (2002)

"Look, the novel About a Boy is so satisfying, you should read it now. Afterward, you'll have a really good movie waiting for you."

Accepted (2006)

"Accepted's best asset is its cast."

Adam (2009)

"As an effort to understand a person whose behavior seems inexplicable, Adam is a big success."

Adaptation (2002)

"Watching Adaptation is exhilarating because it affects how you think about movies."

Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl in 3-D (2005)

"It's an imaginative movie, likably performed by kids who seem awkwardly real and featuring swell messages about friendship and unselfishness."

Al Franken: God Spoke (2006)

"A portrait of a passionate, witty, occasionally thin-skinned man."

Alfie (2004)

"The 14-karat golden boy is incredibly appealing -- probably too appealing -- as Alfie."

Alien: The Director's Cut (2003)

"You know how sometimes you revisit a movie you loved and realize it wasn't as good as you remember? This isn't one of those times."

All About Lily Chou-Chou (2002)

"I'm not sure All About Lily Chou-Chou made sense in my head, but it made sense in my heart."

All the Pretty Horses (2000)

"Conveys a deep, simple faith that doing the right thing is its own reward."

Almost Famous (2000)

"What really makes Almost Famous almost great is McDormand's brilliance as the mother only some of us get: a woman who prepares her child for an extraordinary life."

Along Came a Spider (2001)

"Along Came a Spider is much like its star: methodical, smooth, unflashy."

Alpha Dog (2007)

"Alpha Dog operates without outrage -- not because the behavior of the people in the movie isn't horrifying but because the movie knows it is much too late to save those bouncing, happy kids we glimpsed in the opening seconds."

The Amateurs (2007)

"The chief virtue of Amateurs is that it gives many talented people (Valerie Perrine, Judy Greer, Lauren Graham, Tim Blake Nelson) a scene or two in which to shine."

Amen (2003)

"A movie that suggests the Holocaust may be an endless source of absorbing, heartbreaking dramas."

American Hardcore (2006)

"The movie is hazy about dates and names but bracing in its depiction of young people who made music because they loved it, not because they thought it would make them rich or famous."

American Splendor (2003)

"A movie that makes the gigantic little argument that ordinary lives are important and that they are beautiful."

Amores Perros (2001)

"You know you're in the hands of a gifted storyteller."

Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004)

"All it promises is a few cheesy thrills and, on that promise, it delivers."

Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

"The movie has no sense of its own ridiculousness."

Angel Eyes (2001)

"An intriguing if flawed movie."

Anger Management (2003)

"It's not the first time Sandler has played this role, or the ninth time. But it's fairly entertaining."

Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer (2008)

"Even if you're not nuts about the music in Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, I bet you'll fall for the musician."

The Annihilation of Fish (2001)

"It's a small, graceful movie, and one of the beauties of it is imagining moviegoers tromping into Minneapolis' Parkway Theater to see it and -- for a couple of hours, at least -- forgetting their own feelings of loneliness."