Search: Directed by Sam Mendes

Action is controlled and distinguished by its restraint.

As a thumbnail analysis of the middle-class American psyche, Alan Ball's script is a devastating attack. It is also extremely funny.

Once they hit the road, the script goes away with the pixies.

With Roger Deakins handling the cinematography and making the most of the magical light found on parts of England’s south coast, the film never ceases to be visually absorbing.

It is to the film's great credit that its politics remain subtle.

Winslet delivers her lines with scalpel-like precision. DiCaprio plays off her with the fire of a young Brando.

Sam Mendes creates a mood of menace by avoiding obligatory violence.

This is the best-looking Bond film ever made.

The ultimate catch is that Spectre is no longer the villainous outsider. Their badness is corporate: its core, global surveillance and information technology.