Bad Education is a brazen, ambisexual noir that embraces the conventions of the genre while at the same time shattering them with explicit wickedness.

But with Mean Girls Waters and Fey do what they can to show scrubbing off one’s humanity for a mechanical glassy-eyed façade is something that should be avoided. In the end, life in plastic just isn’t worth the effort.

It’s a beautiful screenplay overflowing with moments of such sudden, tight-fisted insanity that frequently knocked my socks off, all of its coupled with a poignant purity that’s beyond terrific. As early-year movies go, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind isn’t just a surprise, it’s a bona fide cinematic miracle I’m not ever going to forget.

Despite a winning moment here and a wonderful one there, The Haunted Mansion has more in common with The Country Bears than it does Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and that’s too bad.

School of Rock caught me by surprise. It features some pretty big laughs and gets the essence of what makes great Rock ‘n’ Roll timeless.

American Splendor is an absolute delight.

There are far too few films that make me giddy and excited about the art of cinema. Adaptation is one of them. See it at once.

Punch-Drunk Love is Sandler’s finest hour.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the most fun I’ve had at the cinema in ages.