Sci-Fi
Rod Lott
Prepare to have your mind violated. Beyond the Black Rainbow hardly represents conventional storytelling, but the film is an absolute visual feast. Expect sensuous rather than sense, and open-minded movie lovers will be well-rewarded.

Thriller
Phil Bacharach
The Place Beyond the Pines is two-thirds of a great movie. Director Derek Cianfrance’s follow-up to 2010’s Oscar-nominated Blue Valentine is a tense, powerful crime thriller with some weighty stuff on its mind. It speaks to the filmmaker’s know-how that not even a crazily contrived third act can damper its haunting power.