The Social Network (2010) NYT Critics' Pick

Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network.”
Millions of Friends, but Not Very Popular
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: September 23, 2010

What makes Mark Zuckerberg run? In “The Social Network,” David Fincher’s fleet, weirdly funny, exhilarating, alarming and fictionalized look at the man behind the social-media phenomenon Facebook — 500 million active users, oops, friends, and counting — Mark runs and he runs, sometimes in flip-flops and a hoodie, across Harvard Yard and straight at his first billion. Quick as a rabbit, sly as a fox, he is the geek who would be king or just Bill Gates. He’s also the smartest guy in the room, and don’t you forget it. More

Enter the Void (2009) NYT Critics' Pick

A scene from “Enter the Void,” directed by Gaspar Noe.
Altering Perceptions on an Astral Plane Trip
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: September 23, 2010

In “Enter the Void” the camera soars above the world like a bird, like a kite, like a ghost. It moves with smooth, gentle motions and seemingly indecisive purpose, passing through walls, drifting over alleys and climbing high above the roofs of a nighttime city agleam in jeweled color. At times it hovers next to one of the city’s inhabitants like an angel or a threat. Occasionally it even appears to take up temporary residence in someone’s head — dive-bombing toward the back of a skull like a blow — so that it (and we) can see the world directly from another point of view: This is your brain. This is your brain on a Gaspar Noé movie. More

Howl (2010)

Aaron Tveit and James Franco in “Howl.”
Leaping Off the Page, a Beatnik’s Poetic Rant
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: September 23, 2010

I saw the best poems of previous generations destroyed by sanity, well-fed, calm, neatly dressed, tiptoeing through lecture halls at 10 a.m. looking for a passing grade on a term paper. More

Waiting for Superman - NYT Critics' Pick

The educational reformer Geoffrey Canada with students in a documentary on public schools.
Students Caught in the School Squeeze
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: September 23, 2010

“One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me ‘Superman’ did not exist,” the educational reformer Geoffrey Canada recalls in the opening moments of “Waiting for ‘Superman,’ ” a powerful and alarming documentary about America’s failing public school system. “She thought I was crying because it’s like Santa Claus is not real. I was crying because no one was coming with enough power to save us.” More

A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism

Margret Dagmar Ericsdottir and her autistic son, Keli.
Confronting Autism
By ANDY WEBSTER
Published: September 23, 2010

Amid growing awareness of Asperger’s syndrome and the spectrum of autism in general, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s riveting documentary “A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism” leaps into the mysteries surrounding the disorder, tracing the efforts of Margret Dagmar Ericsdottir, a mother in Iceland, to seek treatment for her severely autistic son, Keli. While the title is accurate, the film is less a portrait of her than an inquiry into the origins and nature of autism and therapies for it. More

Revisiting Katrina

By DANIEL M. GOLD
Published: September 23, 2010

By the time Hurricane Katrina passed to the east of New Orleans, it wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime storm; the city probably experienced no more than Category 2 conditions. And many of the levees that failed weren’t breached, but simply gave way because they had been improperly built on ground vulnerable to seepage. More

Tibet in Song (2008) NYT Critics' Pick

A Fight to Preserve Tibetan Music
By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: September 23, 2010

Ngawang Choephel, a Tibetan musicologist who was imprisoned by the Chinese for more than six years, would have had a compelling film had he simply stuck to his own remarkable story. But his documentary, “Tibet in Song,” is doubly powerful because he also weaves in the overall history of Tibet’s struggle, a primer on the Chinese government’s campaign to muzzle Tibetan culture and vignettes from other Tibetans who resisted. More

A Dreamlike Tale of a Gay Hustler

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: September 23, 2010

“I like adventure,” says the boyish gay hustler (Ben Bonenfant) at the heart of “Strapped,” Joseph Graham’s dreamlike debut feature. The statement may or may not be true, but it helps fabricate the persona of the moment: what makes this particular young man desirable — aside from a guileless face, a knowing body and a sweet disposition — is the facility to morph into whomever his customer most desires. More

Downhill With the G.O.P.

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 23, 2010

Once upon a time, a Latin American political party promised to help motorists save money on gasoline. How? By building highways that ran only downhill. More

36 Hours in Chicago

Gilt Bar in the River North neighborhood takes its food seriously. More Photos » By FRED A. BERNSTEIN
Published: September 22, 2010

ALL cities have their ups and downs, but Chicago has been on the rise by playing to its strengths, adding parks, architectural crowd pleasers and public art. Much of this has happened on the watch of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who, after 21 years in office, announced this month that he would be stepping down. How will the city fare without him? Just fine, probably, thanks to the raft of improvements that has left Chicago fortified both by 19th- and 20th-century public spaces brimming with 21st-century attractions. More

Happy! National! Punctuation! Day!

Sept 24. A celebration of the lowly comma, the correctly used quote, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis. For info: Jeff Rubin, Founder, 1517 Buckeye Court, Pinole, CA 94564. Phone: (510) 724-9507 or (877) 588-1212. Fax: (510) 741-8698. E-mail: jeff@nationalpunctuationday.com. Web: www.nationalpunctuationday.com.