Roger Ebert Reviews

"Windfall" (Unrated, 83 minutes). A dismaying documentary that convincingly argues that that "wind farms" and their turbines (400 feet tall, weighing 600,000 pounds) are a hazard to the environment, create relentless low-frequency noise that effect mental health, slaughter birds and bats, and may use more energy than they produce. I thought wind energy was something I could believe in. This film suggests it's just another corporate flim-flam game. Three stars

"The Woman in Black" (PG-13, 95 minutes). A stylish and creepy ghost story set in a crumbling mansion in the north of England, which is haunted by the spirit of a woman who mourns her lost child. A young attorney (Daniel Radcliffe) journeys there to search through her moldering papers, and because he needs the work refuses to be frightened away by the shrieks and shadows within the decrepit walls. In his first film since the Harry Potter series ended, Radcliffe still seems school boyish, but the stars of the film are the production design and cacophonous sound effects. Scary, sorta. Nice to look at. Three stars

"Coriolanus" (R, 122 minutes). Ralph Fiennes stars in and directs Shakespeare's tragedy about a general whose scorn for the people causes him to turn against his own side and join forced with the enemy against it. A modern dress action film set against a backdrop that could be Bosnia. Well acted, admirable, but the violence and the language are an uneasy fit. Also wit Vanessa Redgrave, Gerald Butler, Brian Cox and Jessica Chastain. Three and a half stars

"Chronicle" (PG-13, 83 minutes). Three high school students find a hole in the middle of a gloomy grassy field, climb down, encounter a strange crystalline object and find themselves with such superpowers as telekinesis. But this isn't a typical sci-fi movie; as acted by Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan, they have a surprising realism as their powers take on new dimensions and one of them begins to act out his inner rage. An uncommonly original and entertaining film by talents in their early and mid-twenties; the directing debut of Josh Trank, with an accomplished screenplay by Max Landis. Three and a half stars

"The Innkeepers" (R, 100 minutes). Two young part-timers (Sara Paxton and Pat Healy) are working as the night staff at a Connecticut inn which is schedule to close in a few days. Only two rooms are occupied in addition to their own. To pass the time, they hope to capture video evidence that the inn is haunted. Writer-director Ti West ("The House of the Devil") does a good job of crafting quiet suspense and slowly building mystery. Three stars

Adultery was the great subject of many of Ingmar Bergman's films and much of his life. He was married five times, and not very faithfully, because he also had fairly public relationships with the actresses Harriet Andersson, Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann, and was married during all of those affairs. He was far from a libertine, experienced a great deal of guilt during his liaisons, and returned to the subject repeatedly in his films. He wrote "Sunday's Children" (1994), directed by his son Daniel, about how Bergman's clergyman father created a household where public piety was joined with private anguish. "Private Confessions" (1996), his screenplay directed by Liv Ullmann, was about his mother's moral struggles.

"Albert Nobbs" (R, 113 minutes). Such a sad, sad story. Glenn Close stars in one of her best performances, as a women living as a man in order to keep a job as a butler and waiter in a Dublin hotel. This is not a life choice he is suited for. She isn't a lesbian and indeed seems to possess no sexuality. She lives in constant dread of being discovered. The film's breath of life comes from "Hubert Page" (Janet McTeer), a rough-and-ready house painter, who briefly shows Albert her own happy life as a woman passing for a man. But there will be little happiness in life for Albert; she can't imagine it. Three stars

“We Need to Talk About Kevin" (R, 111 minutes). Tilda Swinton in a raw and courageous performance as a woman whose psychopathic son has driven her over the edge. Kevin (Ezra Miller and Jasper Newell) hates her and knows exactly what buttons to push. Her husband (John C. Reilly) is benign to the point of cluelessness. She is the wrong person in the wrong life with the wrong child. Directed by Lynne Ramsay. Four stars

"Amador" (Unrated, 112 minutes). Marcela Magaly Solier, a poor woman in Madrid, takes a job as the daytime companion of Amador (Celso Bugallo), an old man who spends his remaining days working on jigsaw puzzles. Gradually, quietly, they share some truths about life. Here is a lovely idea for a film, sidetracked by a central performance that is too maddeningly passive; there are too many overlong shots of Solier's warm face as she takes too long to arrive at fairly obvious conclusions. Written and directed by Fernando León de Aranoa. Two stars

"A Separation" (PG-13, 123 minutes). A happily married middle-class couple in Tehran, have a sweet 11-year-old daughter Termeh, and his senile father also lives with them. They have agreed in principle to move abroad, where they hope their daughter's prospects might be better. She wants to lave now; he wants to stay because of his father. A wonderfully written and acted, very human story, then ends in a courtroom. I decent characters are all trying to do the right thing. To untangle right and wrong in this fascinating story is a moral challenge. The best film of 2011. Four stars

"The Grey" (R, 117 minutes). An unrelenting demonstration that wolves have no opinion. When they attack, it's not personal. Stranded in the far north after a plane crash, a small group of oil company workers try to walk to safety, and are tracked by a large group of ravenous wolves. Liam Neeson plays a wolf hunter who takes charge. This movie is not merely effective. The way I felt in my gut, it was all too effective. Three and a half stars

"Tomboy" (Unrated, 82 minutes). A tender, delicate film about Laure, 10 years old, who in a new neighborhood is mistaken for a boy and goes along with it. The film would have been impossible without the casting of Zoé Heran in the title role. She isn't a masculine-looking girl or a feminine-looking boy. She's fresh, attractive, open-faced. If you think you're looking at a boy, you see one. If a girl, then that's what you see. It's an interesting summer, in a film that sidesteps exploitation or tragedy, and is simply one of those chapters in life. Three and a half stars

"Man on a Ledge" (PG-13, 102 minutes) Sam Worthington stars as an ex-cop who escapes from prison, climbs onto the 21st floor ledge outside a hotel room, draws a big crowd, and acts as a distraction while a diamond heist takes place across the street. Just a shade implausible, eh? Two stars

In its own way, the success of the Iranian film "A Separation" is as remarkable as the success of "The Artist." Neither one seems made for an American audience. One is silent and black and white. The other is from Iran, a nation not currently in official favor. Both just won Academy Awards nominations, following their victories at the Golden Globes last week. "The Artist" had ten, and "A Separation" was nominated not only for best picture but, in a surprise, for Asghar Farhadi's original screenplay.

When she was not yet five years old, Tilda Swinton told me, she saved the life of her brother. At least that's what everyone told her, and praised her for, and only little Tilda knew that soon after he was brought home from the hospital she intended to murder the baby.

The two parts of Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible" are epic in scope, awesome in visuals, and nonsensical in story. It is one of those works that has proceeded directly to the status of Great Movie without going through the intermediate stage of being a good movie. I hope earnest students of cinema will forgive me when I say every serious movie lover should see it -- once.

"The Flowers of War" (R, 142 minutes). During the Rape of Nanking, as the Japanese Imperial Army murders civilians in the capitol city of China, a drunken American (Christian Bale) sobers up, impersonates a priest. and tries to shelter young women students and prostitutes in the cathedral. A well-crafted film by Zhang Yimou, but constructed of clichés--and why must the hero be a white westerner? Two stars

"Red Tails" (PG-13, 125 minutes). An air action movie inspired by the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed black fighter pilots whose skill and heroism were demonstrated in crucial US bombing runs over Germany. Produced by George Lucas, whose enthusiasm about aerial dogfights is much on display. Well made, entertaining, but lacks the emotion and social message of the well-known HBO film from 1995. More adventure than message. Two and a half stars

"Mulberry Child" (Unrated, 85 minutes). Lisa Xia was born in China but moved to Chicago at the age of three and has been thoroughly Americanized. This is not entirely pleasing to Jian Ping, her mother, who says although they live in the same city she hardly ever visits. Jian Ping takes Lisa to China so they can learn more about one another, in a powerful and touching documentary focusing on the very hard times of family members during the cultural revolution. Three and a half stars

"The King of Devil's Island" (Unrated, 120 minutes). Set in 1915 on an island near Oslo, tells the story of a "school" for juvenile offenders which includes forced labor, corporal punishment and sexual abuse. Said to be based on fact. Stellan Skarsgård is good as the ineffectual school governor, who suspects what's going on but allows his eyes to be clouded by optimistic platitudes. A good-looking big-budget box office hit from Norway. Three stars