In this thriller, directed by Dan Gilroy, Gyllenhaal plays one of his most challenging roles, a twisted crime photographer.

Ethan Hawke’s docu is only 81 minute long, but not one second is wasted on conveying the genius of the pianist Seymour Bernstein.

It’s to Sissako’s credit that “Timbuktu” is effective in both visceral and cerebral ways, due to the humanist perspective that infuses the tale and its characters

Rory Kennedy’s significant documentary, “Last Days in Vietnam,” is still timely even though it is set forty years ago in what was arguably one of the worst years in modern American history.

Director John Curran, who has made a series of uneven film (“The Painted Veil,” “We Don’t Live Here Anymore,” and “Stone”) rises to the occasion of adapting Robyn Davidson’s 1980 memoir about her 1,00 mile walk across the deserts of West Australia, accompanied by her reliable dog and four unpredictable camels.