Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz have become an unstoppable duo, and Cruz, more than any other of Almodóvar’s regular actors, has the versatility to express the incredibly complex sentiments of her director’s vision.

Hats off to Adam Yauch’s Oscilloscope Laboratories for picking up this potent 2009 Sundance selection starring Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson as Army Casualty Notification Officers, whose duty is to report the deaths of soldiers to their next of kin.

Whatever or whoever is killing students in Death Bell is that much more terrifying because it’s probably not a ghost.

With Antichrist, director Lars von Trier becomes a late entry in the contest against M. Night Shyamalan to see who can fall the farthest the fastest.

Cancel the Oscars, Black Dynamite is the best film of 2009—assuming, that is, that your definition of fine cinema includes kung fu, adulterated malt liquor, fightin’ The Man, drug-addled orphans, pimps, exploding cars going over cliffs, soul music, helicopter explosions, Vietnam vets, dudes getting thrown through walls, nunchuck fights, and former first lady Pat Nixon being pimp-slapped.

Something about Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s picture book Where the Wild Things Are inspired director Spike Jonze and his co-screenwriter Dave Eggers to infuse the long-awaited feature film adaptation with a dispiriting sense of fear and sadness.

With so much hype now surrounding Paranormal Activity, there are bound to be viewers who leave the film unimpressed with its home-video look and moderation of action and visual effects; its best parts are like a ghostly take on Andy Warhol’s Sleep. Still, thanks to its sufficient dose of bloodless scares and a crafty marketing strategy by distributor Paramount Pictures, Paranormal Activity has reached event status just in time for Halloween.

Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a brilliant, pretty schoolgirl dying of boredom in postwar but pre-swinging ‘60s England. Her overbearing parents are concerned about her Latin homework, she has to smuggle records into her room, and her boyfriend’s a drag.

This portrayal of Charles Bronson, the most violent and expensive prisoner in the history of the U.K., is wildly uneven. Bronson was born Michael Gordon Peterson but took the tough-as-nails actor’s name while fighting during one of his short stays outside prison walls.