Officer and a Gentleman, An (1982)

Drama Rated R

An Officer and a Gentleman didn’t invent the military-romance cliches that have haunted us ever since 1982 – 2006 alone gave us doppelgangers such as Annapolis and The Guardian, and of course there was Top Gun – but the movie was such an overwhelming, popular favorite that it essentially carved the cliches into stone. Richard

Infamous (2006)

Drama Rated R

This was a doomed project even before 2005’s Capote beat it to theaters, mainly because this second portrait of Truman Capote has no consistent creative vision. Part of the movie wants to be a comedy of manners, with Toby Jones as a far more flamboyant Capote than the one Philip Seymour Hoffman gave us. Another

Volver (2006)

Drama Rated R

Penelope Cruz gives a complicated, peerless performance in Pedro Almodovar’s Volver – and she looks like a classic screen goddess doing it. Cruz plays Raimunda, a working-class wife and mother in Madrid who gets caught up in a murder plot. I can’t say more – the movie operates on a series of startling revelations –

Hours, The (2002)

Drama Rated PG-13

A carefully constructed consideration of the themes at play in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, The Hours features three great actresses doing great work: Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, portraying Woolf as she battles mental illness while writing Dalloway; Julianne Moore, as a brittle mother suffocating beneath the domestic responsibilities of the 1950s; and Meryl Streep, playing a

Jakob the Liar (1999)

Drama Rated PG-13

Casually bashed as another one of Robin Williams’ pandering pieces of sentimental pap (Patch Adams, Bicentennial Man), this story of a recent widower in Nazi-occupied Poland is actually understated and respectful; the humor here is mostly bitter and rarely sweet. As the widower, who pretends he has a radio to bring hope to his fellow

Queen, The (2006)

Drama Rated PG-13

The Queen speculates on the behind-the-scenes turmoil that engulfed England’s royal family in the days following Princess Diana’s death. Helen Mirren anchors the picture as Queen Elizabeth II, and she’s able to simultaneously evoke disgust and sympathy at once. Even as she coldly dismisses the significance of Diana’s death, especially to her grandsons, Elizabeth exhibits

Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

Drama Rated PG-13

At once a beautiful painting and a dull lecture, director Scott Hicks’ adaptation of David Guterson’s prize-winning novel awkwardly combines a nonlinear visual style with a preachy script. The result is a message-laden mess that makes star Ethan Hawke look even more lost than usual.

Copying Beethoven (2006)

Drama Rated PG-13

“Thank goodness for the music, for it is the only thing that can be heard above Harris’ embarrassing bellowing.

Harsh Times (2006)

Drama Rated R

Any actor looking to go berserk on screen should track down filmmaker David Ayer. In the Ayer-scripted Training Day, Denzel Washington ranted and raved as a bad cop all the way to an Oscar. Now Ayer has directed Harsh Times, in which Christian Bale blows his top as an ex-Army Ranger who turns into an

Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, A (2006)

Drama Rated R

This has a lot of standard, Mean Streets stuff, but what makes the movie unique is its framing device. It gives the clichÈs an extra dimension. Writer-director Dito Montiel already covered this territory in his 2003 memoir, which recalled his life as a hell-raising kid in 1980s Queens. For the movie, he’s added his own