by David Edelstein
The Truffaut borrowings are explicit in Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, while Richard Linklater's Before Midnight takes its cues from Eric Rohmer's gentle but expansive talkfests. In both films, conversation is a centerpiece as characters navigate relationships.
by Joel Arnold
In dumping his formula, director Todd Phillips has thrown out just about everything else that made the surprise-hit first movie even a little likable.
by Ella Taylor
Rama Burshtein's ravishing family story is a love poem to life in an insular community ¿ the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim of Tel Aviv, where the director lives. Studiously nonpolitical, it's a low-stakes story with the emotional punch of high drama. (Recommended)