question: Boasting a stellar performance from Lily Tomlin and some powerfully empathetic work from writer-director Paul Weitz, Grandma is a dramedy that shouldn't have to ask you to visit.

numbered reviews: 1. Director Paul Weitz's original story wobbles between satisfying moments of Elle's lefty defiance (she's shocked that Sage knows X-Men's Mystique but not The Feminine Mystique), and gestures that are depressingly obvious.
2. It is about the families we create and the perfect love we must feel for imperfect people.
3. More gut-wrenching than belly-busting.
4. Grandma boasts a strong, female ensemble cast that is as diverse as it is talented.
5. Tomlin is in every frame of the story: sarcastic, vulnerable, tough, wise, foolish, sentimental, stubborn, and stubbornly, beautifully, perfect in her imperfections.
6. Most of us aren't lucky enough to have a grandma as cool as Lily Tomlin, but at least this gives a chance to pretend.
7. This is an entertaining, affecting movie about mothers, daughters, lovers, and the choices we make and how they shape us and others.
8. Viewer reaction will largely depend on how one views the topic of abortion, spending time with such misanthropic characters, and road trip plots in general. (Full Content Review - Sex, Nudity, Violence, Profanity, etc. - for Parents available)
9. The acting is uniformly fine -- Greer is terrific and the wonderful Elizabeth Peńa gives one of her last performances as a cafe owner. But the film lacks the consistency to be truly memorable.
10. This is Tomlin's first leading role in a film in 27 years, and even though she is sharing the screen with multiple generations of fine actors, nearly every moment in this movie is all hers.


question: Faithful to the source material without sacrificing its own cinematic flair, Justin Kurzel's Macbeth rises on the strength of a mesmerizing Michael Fassbender performance to join the upper echelon of big-screen Shakespeare adaptations.

numbered reviews: 1. Spearheaded by Michael Fassbender's mesmerising lead performance, this tragic tale grips your senses from the beginning and never lets go.
2. Kurzel makes full use of his medium, which can't be said of all cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare plays.
3. Macbeth has been previously well served by Roman Polanski and Akira Kurosawa but Kurzel has fashioned a pared-down success of his own.
4. This ferocious, masterful interpretation of the Scottish play lets rip with an onslaught of visual and emotional bravado, setting its story of ruthless ambition and spilt blood amid billowing smoke and red, raging fire.
5. The performances are astonishingly intense, their sound and fury signifying everything.
6. This arresting adaptation of the most cinematic of Shakespeare's plays is as near to definitive as Roman Polanski's celebrated 1971 version.
7. Inspired, innovative, stunning, with unforgettable performances and images, this is up there with the great screen Shakespeares.
8. This Macbeth is a magnificent tragedy, and with it Kurzel stakes his claim as one of the most exciting directors working today.
9. The film is far too enthralled by Fassbender's animal magnetism to make any profound enquiry into what oils Macbeth's cogs. Alas, what's done cannot be undone.
10. It's a rough, primitive kingdom that Kurzel has built but there are rules, dictated by kin and comradeship, and the Macbeths' violation of them is shown to be a genuinely tragic folie a deux. It's great Shakespeare.


question: A haunting psychological drama, Time Out takes a penetrating look at the angst of the modern worker.

numbered reviews: 1. Perhaps we should treasure Time Out for what it is, and preserve it just in case there will not be many movies like it in the future.
2. From spiritual rebirth to bruising defeat, Vincent's odyssey resonates in a profound way, comparable to the classic films of Jean Renoir.
3. Though Cantet's clinical direction and the unsettling Jocelyn Pook score make Time Out a rather alienating experience, the lanky Recoing brings a wealth of humanity and pathos to his tragically mediocre hero.
4. Beautifully shot against the frozen winter landscapes of Grenoble and Geneva, the film unfolds with all the mounting tension of an expert thriller, until the tragedy beneath it all gradually reveals itself.
5. Cantet is a master of drawing out time: His film is slow and careful but has the dramatic inevitability of quicksand.
6. A hidden-agenda drama that shouts classic French nuance.
7. Conveys the soul-shattering debilitations of unemployment and the spunk needed to survive while adrift in the universe.
8. Together [Time Out and Human Resources] establish Mr. Cantet as France's foremost cinematic poet of the workplace.
9. Time Out plays out slowly, but Vincent's disconnectedness creates odd suspense and black humor.
10. Full of bland hotels, highways, parking lots, with some glimpses of nature and family warmth, Time Out is a discreet moan of despair about entrapment in the maze of modern life.


question: Brotherhood of the Wolf mixes its genres with little logic, but the end result is wildly entertaining.

numbered reviews:
1. Utterly preposterous but so full of enthusiasm and flashy style that it's entertaining anyway.
2. This is visceral cinema with a devilish wit and a glossy sheen.
3. Fun movie, animatronic beast and all.
4. The kind of movie that could inspire a comic book.
5. thoroughly engrossing, a high-rent guilty pleasure whose subtitles do little to obscure its basic investment in the thrills of sex and violence
6. In short, it's a big mess. I mean that in the best possible way.
7. It's such a thrilling piece of nonsense, it's little wonder it's already one of the most successful French films ever.
8. Plenty of swash-buckling, ass-kicking, beast-taming and bone-crunching for everyone!
9. One of the most wildly and audaciously unpredictable movies in ages.
10. Exhilirating viewing, at least while the feet are flying and the fangs are baring.