question: Hairspray is perhaps John Waters' most accessible film, and as such, it's a gently subversive slice of retro hilarity.

numbered reviews: 1. The world is coming to an end: cracks are forming in the Earth's surface, mountain-sized chunks of ice are falling from the sky, John Waters has made a family film.
2. Hairspray represents more-mainstream John Waters fare, but the inspired casting itself will warrant a look for this 1988 film.
3. Waters writes warmth into his caricatures, lifting Hairspray above cartoon cult.
4. The movie is a bubble-headed series of teenage crises and crushes, alternating with historically accurate choreography of such forgotten dances as the Madison and the Roach.
5. Waters' most accessible bout of cinematic insanity.
6. Hairspray might be tame by the director's standards, but it loses none of its subversive energy in its quest for a PG-rating.
7. Lots of people who use hairspray tend to lay it on real thick. One spritz from the aerosol can is never enough.
8. It's not exactly Malcolm X, but Waters has never really made a stronger political statement since this film.
9. While it's corny by design, Hairspray also aims to get at something truthful, about the various kinds of prejudice [...] and how youthful optimism and music made a difference [...].
10. Perhaps Waters' best known movie.


question: Observant and insightful, this indie comedy takes a different tack on the "bromance" but still makes a point without sermonizing.

numbered reviews: 1. Humpday makes you squirm and think, in the best possible way.
2. Humpday surprises us from beginning to end. It's a fresh take on the familiar topic of friendship -- and a wise one.
3. Ultimately devoid of anything much to say about sexuality or friendship.
4. Has moments of insight and cleverness, but it's pretty threadbare in every sense.
5. Sadly, the most interesting characters in "Humpday" are not the main focuses of the story.
6. Initially refreshing, witty and awkwardly funny, but it morphs into a shallow, tedious, lazy and ultimately forgettable comedy.
7. Transforms a thoroughly outrageous premise into a thoughtful study of the burdens of 21st-century masculinity.
8. Mumblecore comes of age with this smartly written and well-acted, grown-up version of a "bromantic" comedy.
9. Lynn Shelton's breakthrough bromance comedy is funny, sharp and true -- with no preachy sexual politics.
10. Few kinds of art are more boring than the insistently transgressive, and few movies are more boring than Humpday.


question: Disney's take on the Victor Hugo classic is dramatically uneven, but its strong visuals, dark themes, and message of tolerance make for a more-sophisticated-than-average children's film.

numbered reviews: 1. The Hunchback's message -- that beauty is only skin deep -- goes only so far.
2. The latest and most uncertain of Disney's animated efforts, with its manic mood swings and cloying, none-too-cuddly hero.
3. By sticking faithfully to the broader themes of Hugo's story -- those of desolation and desire, of trust and betrayals thereof -- the creators have fashioned the most poignant and deeply moral story to roll off the Disney storyboards in decades.
4. A high point in the renaissance of Disney animation.
5. Much more than just a moving, emotionally resonant cartoon--it is a moving, emotionally resonant motion picture, period.
6. Hunchback will be instructive to children. But the movie felt a little overly educational to me.
7. There is no question that computer technology is allowing Disney animators an ever-increasing freedom, and the opportunity to create some astonishing images.
8. I wish Disney had stuck to a lesser-known and lesser-loved book.
9. Make your children see the movie. If they get to like the deformed main character, then you know these kids can tell the difference between right and wrong.
10. This is the least-enjoyable animated feature to come from the studio since its 1989 rebirth.


question: Stalag 17 survives the jump from stage to screen with flying colors, thanks to Billy Wilder's typically sterling direction and a darkly funny script.

numbered reviews:
1. Stalag 17 leaves you feeling somehow good about life.
2. The gags are so over-the-top they deserve a laugh track.
3. The thing that will stay with you about this one is clearly William Holden's performance.
4. Classic prisoner-of-war flick, powered by Holden's indelible performance
5. Unlike previous POW films, Wilder and co-writer Edwin Blum's script, based on the play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, presents the prisoners not as paragons of patriotic virtue but as real, self-interested, bored soldiers trying to survive.
6. Not Wilder's best, but with compensations
7. A cracker jack movie entertainment.
8. William Holden won his first and only Best Actor Oscar for Billy Wilder's vastly entertaining serio comedy set in a POW camp.
9. When escape is the only option, you do whatever you can to make it happen. This is one exciting escape drama.
10. Simultaneously fiery and farcical, it's a fitting final third for Wilder's 1950s hat trick that also includes Sunset Blvd and Ace in the Hole