question: Quirky in the best sense of the word, Nurse Betty finds director Neil LaBute corralling a talented cast in service of a sharp, imaginative script.

numbered reviews: 1. We are constantly fearful for Betty -- less worried that the evil killers will catch up with her than that reality will. Despite this basic uneasiness, there is much to enjoy in Nurse Betty.
2. Freeman's coldblooded but warm-hearted performance has a nuanced and enigmatic quality that communicates authority and suggests greatness.
3. Its premise, I'll admit, is a lot to ask moviegoers to swallow. But if you can go along with its tall-tale spirit, you can't help but be amazed at how ingeniously the filmmakers work out the ramifications of Betty's delusion.
4. [LaBute] pulls the farce and the violence and the fantasies together with a deft touch and a sweetness rare in American films -- especially his.
5. Everyone in the cast, from veteran Freeman to novice Rock, gives excellent performances.
6. Nurse Betty boasts a quality that's ruby-rare at the movies: surprise.
7. A deliriously odd and funny movie that manages to be dark and uplifting at the same time.
8. The movie would be difficult to imagine without Zellweger, who can show exultation and heartbreak without exaggerating either.
9. Nurse Betty is never going to be confused with Mary Poppins, but as of now, it's LaBute's crowd pleaser.
10. This oddly cheerful, decreasingly dark comedy actually works and can boast some of the most enjoyable performances of the year.


question: Marvelously directed by Sebastian Lelio and beautifully led by a powerful performance from Paulina Garcia, Gloria takes an honest, sweetly poignant look at a type of character that's all too often neglected in Hollywood.

numbered reviews: 1. It's rife with disappointment and humiliation. But bleakness does not preclude buoyancy. It still manages to leave you with the urge to dance.
2. Garcia demands our attention, her vibrancy powered by the sheer will to overcome loneliness.
3. Hitchcock once said that other directors made slices of life; he made pieces of cake. Lelio's feat is that he's made a slice of life that's a piece of cake, too.
4. For the most part, "Gloria" is a day brightener of a character study about finding someone new and making the same old mistakes.
5. "Gloria," a charmer from Chile, is a character portrait of a woman the movies rarely notice: Divorced, hovering around 60, not especially interested in self-pity.
6. The message, if one needs to look for one, is that the course of romance is no smoother at 50 than it is at 15, when heedlessness is an advantage to plunging into love.
7. "Gloria" is a character study, one that's pitiful in the compassionate sense of the word.
8. Warm, wise, sophisticated and deeply human. Paulina García is a revelation. It's the kind of film that will linger in your mind for weeks.
9. Unlike the heroes of ["Bridesmaids," "Girls" and "Frances Ha"], she's comfortable in her skin, despite being a divorcee thrust back into the horrors and irritations of the dating scene.
10. Were it not for García's performance, Gloria might have turned into a bedraggled bore. Fortunately, there's always something to look at whenever she is on screen, which is most of the time. She becomes something she never intended to be - a heroine.


question: Informed by director Oliver Stone's personal experiences in Vietnam, Platoon forgoes easy sermonizing in favor of a harrowing, ground-level view of war, bolstered by no-holds-barred performances from Charlie Sheen and Willem Dafoe.

numbered reviews: 1. Most war films adhere to a big-picture purview, explaining which battles meant what and fulfilled which strategic objectives. Stone's effort skirts all that in favor of wrapping the viewer in visceral detail.
2. For all the purported naturalism, the film seems resolutely schematic, and the attitudes shaping the drama are far from open-ended.
3. Stone's eye-blistering images possess an awesome power, which sets the senses reeling and leaves the mind disturbed.
4. A terrific film from a filmmaker long absent from his art, Platoon is a frightening and challenging look into the battlefield operations of Vietnam.
5. Mixing realistic reportage of combat with more conventional morality play (the narrative strategy of all his films), Stone employs the two sergeants (Berenger and Dafoe) as realistic soldiers as well as broader symbols of Good and Evil.
6. ... excellent ... elegiac and poetry-stuffed
7. Stone takes us into the hell that was the Vietnam War and turns out a provocative film.
8. well made but dishonestly anti-American
9. One of the greatest war films of all time, Oliver Stone shows the intense comraderie as well as the major horrors of war. Charlie Sheen is in is greatest role ever
10. A tour de force with excellent ensemble performances by the full cast, Platoon succeeds in conveying the multi-dimensional reality of the Vietnam War


question: Endearing performances create characters you care about.

numbered reviews:
1. A sweetly seductive romantic comedy!
2. A soulful, thoughtful comedy!
3. Cheerful, accomplished and straightforwardly commercial, Next Stop Wonderland is basically the second best version of "Sleepless in Seattle" ever made!
4. Slight as it is, Wonderland charms.
5. Hope Davis shines!
6. Gelfant is impeccable!
7. What distinguishes Wonderland are its independent touches -- an unusual soundtrack featuring mainly samba music, wide-ranging cultural references, and a production that is ensemble- rather than star-driven.
8. Davis is the main attraction of the movie. She looks like a delicate flower, but she's smart and sarcastic!
9. Hope Davis shines!
10. The ultralightweight Next Stop Wonderland could have easily been Next Stop Slumberland.