Director Ron Howard’s exploration of genius – in this case that of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash – is more bracing than you would expect, thanks to a nifty twist midway through the film that recalls themind-bending trickery of Fight Club. Russell Crowe turns in a solid performance as Nash – the girth of Gladiator

Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis made a supremely confident directorial debut with this intricately plotted ensemble drama – and Best Picture winner at the 2006 Oscars – tackling no less a topic than race relations in contemporary Los Angeles. The lives of a jumpy Middle Eastern shop owner, two carjacking young black men, a

Hysterical and melodramatic, the crooked-cop drama Dark Blue nevertheless strikes a nerve due to its incendiary backdrop: the 1992 trial of the police officers who were caught on tape beating Rodney King. A perfectly rumpled Kurt Russell stars as a corrupt Los Angeles detective who slowly uncovers his conscience. Like Sept. 11, 2001, did in

Hormonally imbalanced, Splendor in the Grass swoons from dreamy highs to tragic lows over the course of its 124 minutes. Watching the film is like spending a weekend with a lovesick teenager – it’s essentially a movie mood swing. Such was the acting style encouraged by director Elia Kazan, whose movies left the strict formality

Director Steven Soderbergh fillets time and space even more daringly here than he did in Out of Sight, turning the tale of a British thug (Terence Stamp) out for the blood of a Hollywood record producer (Peter Fonda) into a mesmerizing melange of flashbacks, visions and off-screen dialogue. A delightful puzzle for lovers of film

Modern movies rarely believe in anything beyond the bottom line. The overriding virtue of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is the film’s conviction in its own material. Judging from Gibson’s gory, blood-drenched depiction of the final hours of Jesus Christ (James Caviezel), it’s safe to say his faith is founded on the notion

America Ferrera, a young actress of abundant curves and even more abundant spunk, plays a bright, independent high school senior whose collegiate aspirations clash with the traditional values of her Mexican-American family. True, each American immigrant subculture seems to produce this movie sooner or later, but Ferrera’s invigorating freshness single-handedly keeps Real Women Have Curves

The state of an affluent California family on the brink of disaster, as seen through the eyes of their newly hired Mexican housekeeper (Paz Vega). Writer-director James L. Brooks mines plenty of emotional truths, while Adam Sandler holds his own against the impressive female cast – particularly Tea Leoni as his cripplingly insecure wife and

This is consistently in over its head, and not just because it’s an often-amateurish independent drama. As long as this suburban-teens-run-amok story captures the familiar rhythms of high school, the movie is on firm ground. As a nihilistic morality play, however, it stumbles. Parry Shen is likable as an honor student gone bad, but director