question: Red Road director Andrea Arnold skillfully parses out just enough plot details at a time to keep the audience engrossed in this seductive thriller.

numbered reviews: 1. If you think about it too closely, Andrea Arnold's jarring feature debut doesn't quite hold up. But chances are you'll be so focused on her lead, Kate Dickie, that you won't even notice.
2. Scary and utterly original.
3. It's a fully realized portrait of a city, Glasgow, a portrait of a smart, watchful woman who works as a security monitor and who has endured great loss; and a portrait of the act and psychological implications of surveillance.
4. ...a moody, gritty exploration of working class Glasgow that features terrific performances but suffers from an over reliance on misdirection and an underlying motivation which...doesn't sit quite right.
5. For a voyeuristic medium, this tale of a voyeur does a poor job of prying into its own protagonist's life.
6. Jackie's story extends beyond her control, no matter what she sees, thinks she sees, or tries to see.
7. A spellbinding, intelligent thriller that takes its time to get where it's going but is well worth the trip.
8. The measure of Red Road is that it leaves us hungry for what comes next.
9. I couldn't get this film's quiet power out of my mind.
10. A must for movie lovers who want to see how so much drama, mystery and emotion can be created from so little.


question: Despite some fine performances and memorable scenes, Fast Food Nation is more effective as Eric Schlosser's eye-opening non-fiction book than as Richard Linklater's fictionalized, mostly punchless movie.

numbered reviews: 1. You know what they call a Royale with Cheese in Austin, Texas? The Big One...ambitious and a typically satisfying outing for one of America's most consistent directors.
2. This unflinching expose into the dark underbelly of the All-American burger is a thought-provoking cinematic meal.
3. This film does serve a valuable purpose in getting us to think and act more responsibly about the way we relate to the creation that God has entrusted to us.
4. At heart, the film is a vegetarian manifesto %u2014 a worthy enterprise, perhaps, but, with its overabundance of characters designed to make predictable polemical points, not much of a movie.
5. Helmer Linklater opens your eyes to what lengths corporate America will go to make a buck (or billions of bucks) to give our consumption-geared society what it wants.
6. There's a lot going on, but it all proceeds at Linklater's typical laid-back rhythm.
7. All Linklater can do is play to the rafters, and for a film that's intended to wean audiences off fast food, you might find yourself purchasing some after the show just to spite this disappointing film.
8. As satisfying as a meal at Mickey's.
9. Not the most naturally flowing film, but it does get its point across.
10. Rather than looking down on viewers as dumb, blank slates to be taught and converted, [Linklater] simply invites us to participate in the conversation.


question: Though the material is predictable and formulaic, Reese Witherspoon's funny, nuanced performance makes this movie better than it would have been otherwise.

numbered reviews: 1. Elle endears herself to us simply because she is so confidently self-assured.
2. "Legally Blonde" is one of those rare modern comedies that does not rely on gross-out humor or slapstick for its laughs.
3. If whatever movie you go to the multiplex hoping to see is sold out, Legally Blonde is, like, a totally legit option.
4. Your parents warned you not to judge a book by its cover for a reason. Dismissing Legally Blonde would mean missing one of the funniest comedies of the year.
5. Filled with lots of big laughs.
6. Had the responsibility, the obligation, to be clever enough to deserve Reese Witherspoon, and it fails.
7. Witherspoon's ability to be goofy, smart and loveable all at the same time takes what might have been a tired and silly comedy and transforms it into a satisfying laugh-fest.
8. A sunny, hip confection.
9. Most of Legally Blonde is mere sitcom-style farce.
10. It's a formula that's well done here with plenty of laughs.


question: A classic blend of satire and political thriller that was uncomfortably prescient in its own time, The Manchurian Candidate remains distressingly relevant today.

numbered reviews:
1. A masterpiece.
2. ...goes down the rabbit hole, though never too far to lose its satirical relevance to the insanity of real-world politics.
3. People have called The Machurian Candidate the greatest political thriller ever made. People would be right.
4. even when taken out of its historic context, this film is a thought-provoking piece of quality filmmaking
5. It's both exciting and disheartening that a 42 year-old satire like this still works as pointedly as it does.
6. A volatile work, part thriller, part quasi-science fiction, part vicious satire.
7. Frankenheimer easily ranks as the pre-eminent director of political intrigue.
8. Frankenheimer's TV shooting style is only adequate, but it's the McCarthyist and Freudian undertones that make Candidate a winner.
9. One of the finest Cold War thrillers ever made.
10. Possibly John Frankenheimer's finest film.