The Adjustment Bureau (2011) NYT Critics' Pick

Emily Blunt and Matt Damon in “The Adjustment Bureau.”
Creepy People With a Plan, and a Couple on the Run
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: March 3, 2011

“Who is George Nolfi?” a colleague whispered when the final credits began to roll for “The Adjustment Bureau,” a fast, sure film about finding and keeping love across time and space. Good question. If the fates allow — or perhaps, as in this very enjoyable movie, the men in gray suits and fedoras permit and “things go according to plan” — you should be hearing more from Mr. Nolfi, a screenwriter turned director who has brightened the season with a witty mix of science-fiction metaphysics and old-fashioned fluttery romance. More

A 3-Week World Tour for (but Not Only) Kids

“Time of Eve,” a Japanese feature at the New York International Children’s Film Festival. More Photos »
By MIKE HALE
Published: March 3, 2011

Does your wish list for the weekend include seeing a new foreign movie in a real theater? And are you finding your choices limited — that you’re a victim of what A.O. Scott of The New York Times recently called “the peculiar and growing irrelevance of world cinema in American movie culture”? More

Rango (2011) NYT Critics' Pick

Johnny Depp provides the voice of the title character, center, in the animated film “Rango.” Isla Fisher supplies the voice of his romantic interest, a spirited frontier creature called Beans, right. More Photos »
There’s a New Sheriff in Town, and He’s a Rootin’-Tootin’ Reptile
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: March 3, 2011

Feature animation currently finds itself in a golden age of mediocrity, with sensationally inventive technical means tethered, more often than not, to drab and cynical imaginative ends. The perennial Pixar exception tends to prove a dreary rule: as animated movies claim an ever bigger share of money and attention — drawing cross-generational, demographically diverse audiences more readily than most other films — they rely more and more on manic, synthetic formulas. More

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) NYT Critics' Pick

Thanapat Saisaymar, left, and Natthakarn Aphaiwonk, in “Uncle Boonmee,” about a beekeeper visited by mythical creatures.
A Farewell to This Life, and All Its Ghosts
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: March 1, 2011

Last May, when a Cannes Film Festival jury headed by Tim Burton awarded the Palme d’Or to “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” there was widespread surprise and a few eruptions of outrage. The film — from the Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who has become a familiar presence on the festival circuit over the past decade — is unquestionably strange, at times mystifyingly oblique. Those who insist on a linear narrative or an easily identifiable set of themes may find themselves puzzled, perhaps to the point of frustration. But it is hard to see how this movie, with its contemplative mood and genial, curious spirit, could make anybody angry. On the contrary: encountered in an appropriately exploratory frame of mind, it can produce something close to bliss. More

I Saw the Devil (2010)

Lee Byung-hun in the South Korean film “I Saw the Devil.”
Heads Will Roll
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: March 3, 2011

Heads roll in “I Saw the Devil,” though not very far. The first, belonging to a lovely young woman (Oh San-ha), exits a police evidence box and stops at the feet of her dumbstruck fiancé, Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun). The second head is not nearly so pretty, but, by the time it tumbles from its torso, rather more eagerly anticipated. More

A Tasty Fungus, Stirring Dreams and Lawsuits

By KIM SEVERSON
Published: March 3, 2011

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — The two contenders in the great North Carolina truffle wars could not be more different. More

Haz

I haz ripped off the movie reviews, heard the coffee grinder whirring, and suspect, with some reason, that a pot of two-fowl pho is barely bubbling on the stove.

There's a wool drop-off occurring at work tonight, the chime of the coffee cup currently sounds from the next room.

James Franco Straddles Two Roles at Yale

By LISA W. FODERARO
Published: March 3, 2011

On Sunday night he was in Hollywood, as co-host of the Oscar telecast in black tie. At 9 the next morning, he was in a Starbucks in New Haven, hunched over a book and barely recognizable in a gray sweatshirt, but still wearing his tuxedo pants. More

How to Kill a Recovery

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 3, 2011

The economic news has been better lately. New claims for unemployment insurance are down; business and consumer surveys suggest solid growth. We’re still near the bottom of a very deep hole, but at least we’re climbing.

It’s too bad that so many people, mainly on the political right, want to send us sliding right back down again. More

Well

No pho until dinner. It's steeping. The duck and chicken are splashing around having a right good old time.

Baa, Baa

Black white sheep, have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full.