Justin Chang

Justin Chang says Compartment No. 6 largely unfolds aboard a passenger train rattling its way through Russia sometime during the late '90s. But it feels like a throwback to an older tradition of railway movies, with their promise of transcontinental intrigue and fateful connections.

Asghar Farhadi's new movie, A Hero, is a gripping moral drama about what happens when a seemingly good deed goes unexpectedly awry.

Joel Coen's stripped-down black and white adaptation of Macbeth is "an immaculate piece of craftsmanship". It stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand.