Gone Girl

The movie of Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” might have worked – at all – if even one of its characters behaved in a remotely believable way, if director David Fincher showed an ounce of respect for his audience’s intelligence, or if he invested a single female character with a trace of likability or dimension. There have been worse, less watchable films this year, but perhaps no bigger disappointment.

Runner Runner

"Runner Runner" makes "21" look like "Rounders." Here's a movie about an offshore poker website that knows almost nothing about offshore business, poker, or the Internet.

To the Wonder

Is there a clearer case of The Emperor's New Clothes than Terrence Malick? At his flatulent "The Tree of Life," there was a longer line for refunds than for popcorn. His new insta-bomb, with the poorly chosen title "To the Wonder," plays like a cross between a commercial for Obsession and the Ralph Lauren fall catalogue.

The Best Films of 2012: #3

Ben Affleck's "Argo," about the government's top-secret efforts to exfiltrate six American embassy employees from Tehran in 1979, is the rare crowd-pleaser that seems to please every single person in the crowd. (It received an average CinemaScore grade of A+.) Like Affleck's second film, "The Town" (which made my top-ten list in 2010) , it's a consummate entertainment, deeply knowledgeable of its subject matter, smart and focused. Affleck's juggling act - including half a dozen interwoven plot threads and a reported 120+ speaking parts - is worthy of any directing luminary.

Argo

Ben Affleck's "Argo" gets 4 stars the same way Barack Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize a few years ago: for future promise as much as for current accomplishment. To be sure, "Argo" is a terrific movie, a crowd-pleaser that seems to please every single person in the crowd. (It received an average CinemaScore grade of A+). It might well win the Oscar for, inter alia, Best Picture. But it's not perfect.