MILLION DOLLAR BABY
The movie, directed by and co-starring Clint Eastwood, begins as a standard, albeit beautifully cadenced, up-from-underdog story of a feisty female boxer and her emotionally distant trainer. Midway through, the “sweet science” takes an awful toll, and the movie becomes a far darker tale. Devastating. 

THE INCREDIBLES
Writer-director Brad Bird’s retro design sense combined with Pixar’s ever-expanding digital animation capabilities makes this bit of family fare an orgy of visual delights. The storytelling is as witty as it is brisk. And though some of the dialogue in this often Bondish tale of a clan of superheroes did put me in mind of that Ayn Rand–inspired Rush song “The Trees,” no, I don’t think this is a right-wing parable.

I HEART HUCKABEES
An “existential comedy” that actually gets more funny and more demanding with each viewing, cowriter-director David O. Russell’s ensemble philosophical exploration teems with moments of Zen, and gets the most out of its great crazy quilt of a cast, with Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin coming in as firsts among equals.

BAD EDUCATION
As dazzlingly colorful as anything Pedro Almodóvar has ever directed, Bad Education uses its exhilarating hues to offer a sort of counterpoint to the picture’s dark theme, which is, briefly stated, that no one is innocent. Initially, and misleadingly, hyped as a film about sexual abuse in the clergy, it has a narrative structure that resembles a Russian nesting doll: The final turn is the most painful and inexorable. Oh, and it’s also a damn fine film noir homage, and Gael García Bernal is stupendous.