The Good Shepherd, Robert De Niro, 2006

De Niro's espionage epic is at once sweeping and meticulous, showcasing Hollywood studio filmmaking at its most fully realized and well conceived.

Aju Tukbyulhan Sonnym (Ad Lib Night), Lee Yoon-ki, 2006

Lee's sonambulent story suffers from a pointed lack of purpose or focus, attempting to coax meaning from the blank stares and idle outbursts of its thinly drawn characters.

Broken English, Zoe Cassavetes, 2007

Cassavetes' debut, a servicable and at times genuinely refreshing thirtysomething relationship drama, is encouraging yet unwieldy, belying the first timer's impulse toward overwhelming flights of narrative fancy.

L'Ivresse du Pouvoir (Comedy of Power), Claude Chabrol, 2006.

Chabrol plays this corporate corruption yarn as stateside studio vet Sydney Pollack might, deploying his capable cast (headed by the incomprable Isabelle Huppert) for a solid if unspectacular investigation procedural.

Flandres, Bruno Dumont, 2007

Dumont, the unflinching poet of humanity's most base instincts, here conflates his familliar agrarian hopelessness with the severe, blunt realities of war.

Knocked Up, Judd Apatow, 2007

Apatow's stoner maternity romp is witty and endearing (if a bit overlong), serving as one more example (alongside his own 40 Year Old Virgin and David Dobkin's Wedding Crashers), that the Hollywood Studio Comedy is fast becoming the smartest and most consistent genre in American movies.