State of Play: This remake of a BBC miniseries stars Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams as reporters investigating the connection between a congressman (Ben Affleck) and a shady private security firm. It's an intelligently executed thriller with mostly great performances.
- Kimberley Jones
Sugar: This funny, wonderfully ambiguous, sweetly woeful film is about a poor young Dominican (Algenis Perez Soto) who breaks into baseball in the U.S. The film is a penetrating look at the American immigrant experience, and Soto injects sly wit into his lines.
- Kenneth Burns