The National Society of Film Critics is a 57-member group comprising the top critics from major U.S. newspapers and magazines. Movies and DVD/videos (some of which have yet to open in Chicago) are ranked by NSFC members on a scale of 100 possible points and correspond to letter grades according to the following key: A: 100-81; B: 80-61; C: 60-41; D: 40-21; F: 20-0.–edited by Michael Wilmington
New movies
65 `Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith’: George Lucas ends “Star Wars” with a bang in “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” the most exciting film of the second trilogy. With extraordinary technology and amazing imagination (if somewhat flat characters), he loops the story back to its 1977 beginning, explaining how Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) became Darth Vader, how evil triumphed, how good lies waiting. Though its score is lower, it bests “Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,” which received far fewer votes.
82 `Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist’
Dir., Paul Schrader
Movies now playing
82 `Kings and Queen’
Dir., Arnaud Desplechin
76 `The Holy Girl’
Dir., Lucrecia Martel
71 `Brothers’
Dir., Susanne Bier
70 `Tell Them Who You Are’
Dir., Mark Wexler
69 `Ladies in Lavender’
Dir., Charles Dance
69 `Crash’
Dir., Paul Haggis
67 `Mysterious Skin’
Dir., Gregg Araki
67 `Layer Cake’
Dir., Matthew Vaughn
65 `3-Iron’
Dir., Kim Ki-duk
64 `Mad Hot Ballroom’
Dir., Marilyn Agrelo
61 `The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’
Dir., Garth Jennings
59 `Kingdom of Heaven’
Dir. Ridley Scott
55 `Unleashed’
Dir. Louis Leterrier
44 `Jiminy Glick in Lalawood’
Dir., Vadim Jean
41 `Monster-in-Law’
Dir., Robert Luketic
35 `House of Wax’
Dir., Jaume Collet-Serra
New DVDs
78 `Kinsey’: Bill Condon’s witty and admiring film biography of Alfred Kinsey, the massively influential and fiercely controversial sex researcher, is surprisingly funny and sad all at once. It’s the tale of a great American obsessive and his wife (Liam Neeson and Laura Linney) and how their studies into America’s secret sex lives impacted and changed an entire culture.
73 `Tarnation’
Dir. Jonathan Caouette
67 `Team America–World
Police’ (special collector’s widescreen edition)
Dir., Trey Parker
62 `The Noose Hangs High’
Dir., Charles Barton
55 `Class of 1984′
Dir., Mark Lester
52 `The Princess
and the Pirate’
Dir., Sidney Lanfield
Previously released DVDs
84 `The Big Red One’ (special edition)
Dir., Samuel Fuller
82 `I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang’
Dir., Mervyn LeRoy
82 `A Face in the Crowd’
Dir., Elia Kazan
80 `Fury’
Dir., Fritz Lang
79 `Advise and Consent’
Dir., Otto Preminger
78 `Bad Day at Black Rock’
Dir., John Sturges
77 `Hoop Dreams’ (Criterion Collection)
Dir., Steve James
76 `12 Monkeys’ (special edition)
Dir., Terry Gilliam
74 `The Americanization of Emily’
Dir., Arthur Hiller
68 `William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice’
(widescreen edition)
Dir., Michael Radford
67 `In Good Company’ (widescreen edition)
Dir., Paul Weitz
61 `Assault on Precinct 13′ (widescreen edition)
Dir., Jean-Francois Richet
