Man With the Golden Arm, The (1955)

Drama Rated NR

Frank Sinatra plays Frankie Machine, a card dealer and recovering heroin addict who is returning to his old neighborhood after a stint in rehab. Sinatra’s “cold turkey” scenes – the usual shivering and moaning – aren’t as impressive as his smooth inhabiting of a hep cat with a heart, not an arm, of gold. Frankie

Persepolis (2007)

Drama Rated PG-13

An extraordinary adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about a young Iranian woman coming of age in the 1970s and ’80s. Although Satrapi experienced the Iranian Revolution, the resulting Islamic fundamentalist government and a stint in Vienna to escape all the turmoil, Persepolis eschews outright politicizing and stands as a personal story first and foremost.

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Comedy Rated R

Few of us live out our moral quandaries as loudly as mild-mannered insurance salesman Tim Lippe does in Cedar Rapids. In this underappreciated, overachieving comic gem, the sheltered and naive Tim (Ed Helms) embarks on his first business convention, traveling all the way from Brown Valley, Wis., to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Though by no means

Foot Fist Way, The (2008)

Comedy Rated R

“There is a certain sense of self-loathing that goes into these sorts of character comedies, as if the actors are reveling in their own humiliation.

Incredible Hulk, The (2008)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Star Edward Norton and director Louis Leterrier make the second attempt to breathe life into what is an uninspired comic-book creation (sorry Hulk fans). The doomed romanticism of the story feels crudely lifted, as it has been, from the King Kong myth and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, while the special effects still aren’t capable of convincing

Happening, The (2008)

Thriller Rated R

“Shyamalan’s latest film is the first in a long time that I can’t defend.

Reprise (2008)

Drama Rated NR

"The picture has a real feel for its tortured characters. It starts out navel-gazing and ends up empathetic."

First Blood (1982)

Action/Adventure Rated R

First Blood has an unflattering reputation, mainly due to its increasingly outlandish sequels. The original picture does get loonier as it goes along, yet for a while it’s actually a mournful and sobering action-movie treatment of postwar stress. Sylvester Stallone created his second iconic character in six years in John Rambo, a Vietnam veteran harassed

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

“Everyone joking about Harrison Ford’s advanced age seems to be forgetting one thing…”

Strangers, The (2008)

Horror Rated R

“The climax is deadening. Somewhere, Michael Haneke is saying, ‘I told you so.’