question: Super brief but efficient, Following represents director Christopher Nolan's burgeoning talent in tight filmmaking and hard-edge noir.

numbered reviews: 1. A challenging and intriguing piece of work.
2. Low-budget debut from Memento's director subtly transposes you to a sinful urban nightmare.
3. a harbinger of things to come, an exercise in the kind of temporal gymnastics, sleight-of-hand shifts in perspective, and rigorous insights into the dark depths of human nature that have defined Nolan's later films
4. Besides the similarities in playing with time and structure, Nolan is already zeroed in on his favorite cinematic theme: obsession.
5. This clammy, noirish thriller time-hops with a vengeance.
6. Entertaining, but material doesn't develop the full, edgy potential that similar paranoid-triangle efforts realized.
7. Following est un exercice de style et d'ingéniosité qui nous rappelle [Memento] tout en ayant un cachet bien particulier.
8. Before Memento, his breakthrough picture, Christopher Nolan made an impressive debut with the modest, short, but captivating film noir, Following.
9. This edgy little bit of nastiness is a good reason to start getting excited about British movies all over again.
10. Unlike some other flicks that have had this sort of labyrinthine structure, Nolan's made sure that everything works...


question: It may not boast an original plot, but Set It Off is a satisfying, socially conscious heist film thanks largely to fine performances from its leads.

numbered reviews: 1. Influenced by Thelma & Louise and Waiting to Exhale, this well-crafted Girls N the Hood has social conscience and soul; Queen Latifah gives a career-making performance that should made her a big Hollywood star
2. A tense, original caper film full of excellent performances, particularly by Queen Latifah
3. Despite Gray's galvanic ability with action sequences, there are very few surprises to be found in Set It Off
4. One of the rare movies sporting great action sequences and a ring of truth.
5. Fierce and emotionally resonant action-drama, anchored by four smart performances.
6. Overlong, overdone and overwrought, the narratively challenged Set It Off gets off on exploitation shock and social-conscience schlock in equal measure.


question: Wearing its twee heart on its sleeve, Beginners explores the depths of modern, multi-generational romance with wit and depth.

numbered reviews: 1. he performers are charming, particularly Ms. Laurent and Mr. Plummer, with his killer eyes (still seducing after all these years) and a voice that echoes in your ears.
2. Delicate business is being transacted in this touchingly personal and altogether extraordinary film from writer-director Mike Mills. Beginners is one from the bruised heart.
3. Doesn't entirely avoid affectation, but overall it's a touching story of two generations, father and son, each striking out on a new path.
4. The film's special mixture of sadness, comedy and hope sneaks up on you and stays in your memory.
5. ...a small wonder to behold. Mills fashions the set-up for an overwrought, thoroughly depressing character study into an oddly charming comedy.
6. The material with Plummer is so spectacular -- exuberant, poignant, vastly entertaining -- that it swaddles the rest of the film like a warm blanket.
7. If few things are more tragic than lives wasted in regret and denial, then the converse is true: Little is more life-affirming than the discovery of dignity and meaning.
8. "Beginners" is warm and revealing and bittersweet, if a trifle all over the place stylistically and thematically.
9. Inventive and enriching, affirming that a disarmingly personal, empathetic remembrance has universal appeal.
10. The film is not about a straight man's struggle to understand how his father is gay; it's about learning that happiness is always possible if you're brave enough to keep your heart open.


question: As a tour documentary, it's rather uninspired -- but as a 3D glimpse of a building pop culture phenomenon, Never Say Never is undeniably entertaining.

numbered reviews:
1. Never Say Never pinpoints, celebrates, and then channels that indescribable feeling that fans gets from loving their idol unconditionally
2. Its insistence on furthering the Bieber brand makes the movie feel more like a well-honed presidential campaign than an insightful look into the teen sensation.
3. "Never Say Never" is about as revealing as a Canadian snowmobile suit.
4. Never Say Never is a legit documentary made for the fans and the haters. I dare anyone to watch this movie and tell me they weren't inspired. The 3D was fantastic!
5. This concert film is designed as a marketing tool to make Bieber a bigger global star, but given that, you can observe his charm, ambition and talent, and recognize that he is the first teen idol totally created by the new technologies and social media
6. The surprising thing about the new behind-the-scenes documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never is that it should have appeal well beyond the star's young, adoring female fan base.
7. It's all about a quick cash in and providing instant gratification for the singer's army of hardcore fans
8. An undeniably engaging musical portrait that delivers major bangs for the buck.
9. Though anyone who needs convincing won't touch this one with a 10-foot pole, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never makes a persuasive case for its titular star as a far more talented-than-usual teen idol.
10. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never may be the concert film as glorified promotional product, but it captures a genuine youthquake.