question: A small, sensitive, and moving portrait of a teacher and his students.

numbered reviews: 1. To Be and To Have works in the grandest tradition of documentary filmmaking -- it keeps company with a small, specific place going about its business, and from it parses the whole world.
2. This heart-wrenching documentary about a French village schoolteacher at work offers the comedy and pathos of great drama and the visual magnificence of painting.
3. Contains some of the most stirring footage I have ever seen on the act and art of teaching children.
4. One of those unassuming films that sneaks up on you and stays with you long after you have left the theatre.
5. At once a testament to the divine calling of education and a demonstration of the painstaking process of imparting knowledge.
6. In a way, the film feels like a breath of fresh air, but only to those that allow it in.
7. Deep, honest and unforced.
8. Amounts to a rare gift and an opportunity to appreciate the end of an era.
9. Inspiring and beautiful.
10. Philibert and his crew remain invisible throughout most of the this film's running time letting a way of life that is surely short-lived speak for itself.


question: Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are as dependably appealing as ever, but they're let down by director Jon Favreau's inability to smooth Cowboys & Aliens' jarring tonal shifts.

numbered reviews: 1. It's got explosions and horse-riding and fighting and monsters aplenty, but it evaporates almost as you're watching it.
2. All the cliches of cowboy films and alien films are there. But I wasn't expecting them not to be. It's a fun western, and throwing in some alien goo makes it all the more fun.
3. I have no real argument against the film's execution of its concept other than that it is brutally boring.
4. Part of the fun in Cowboys & Aliens is spotting all the movie clichés which can be enjoyed for what they are because the film has no relation to any reality other than that of the cinema.
5. After a mindless conclusion, I realized that two hours had been wasted on this convoluted mess. This botched opportunity to revive the old-fashioned Western puts this movie at the bottom of the barrel right alongside Will Smith's "Wild Wild West."
6. Another assembly-line Hollywood blockbuster, a Western for people who have never seen Westerns, and a science-fiction movie for people who don't like science fiction.
7. ... A dour affair that fails to capture the spirit of either genre.
8. A mercilessly boring, wasted opportunity that forgets to have a sense of humor, charisma, or aliens.
9. Rather refreshingly what-you-see-is-exactly-what-you-get: a western with aliens grafted on, or a sci-fi invasion film with cowboys grafted on--nothing more, nothing less.
10. Jon Favreau's "Cowboys & Aliens" is a film that starts off with promise, but quickly loses its way as it tries to merge two different genres.


question: Hard-hitting and stylish, GoodFellas is a gangster classic -- and arguably the high point of Martin Scorsese's career.

numbered reviews: 1. Scorsese brilliantly juxtaposes scenes of family greatness with those of bleak criminal action. The performances are superb examples of action, delivery, and nuance.
2. Goodfellas is a tour de force that brilliantly evokes both the seductive glamour and moral degradation of organised crime.
3. It is, in a word, brilliant.
4. It is not a coincidence that Scorsese's three masterpieces all star Robert De Niro.
5. Compared to less nitpicky gangster fare, GoodFellas still falters.
6. The performances by everyone are stunning, standout.
7. This cinematic gem deserves its rightful place among the best films of 1990s.
8. GoodFellas is an appalling masterpiece of the kind that, along with New York's current well-publicized troubles, is likely to give pause to anyone planning to make a trip to the city.
9. This is the best mob movie ever made.
10. An expert blend of narration, period music, and dynamic tableaux creating an energetic, darkly funny, and unforgettable portrait of life among the Mob's bottom feeders


question: Mostly Martha may have a predictable plot, but it still feels charming and fresh, and the food will make you hungry.

numbered reviews:
1. Demonstrates that it's possible to pull all the heartstrings that Hollywood films of its ilk hope to pull, to evoke the same laughs and sighs and sniffles, and still maintain artistic dignity and real taste.
2. [A] satisfying niblet.
3. Even when foreign directors ... borrow stuff from Hollywood, they invariably shake up the formula and make it more interesting.
4. A comedy that not only serves up the laughs, but also great-looking entrees and a dash of romance.
5. Nettelbeck has given the viewer a genuine catharsis and a cinematic meal that isn't perfect -- but is all the better for it.
6. Kitchen scenes playing as obvious and light-hearted metaphors for states of mind and relationships, Mostly Martha leaves a few elements hanging that it probably should have tidied.
7. Nettelbeck's alliterative subtext -- food equals love, life, and longing -- is more or less obvious from the get-go, but the excellent performance from Gedeck and Castellitto belie the film's straightforward nature.
8. The surprising thing about Mostly Martha is not that it dodges the clichés it sets up... but that its fulfillment of those clichés, and the warmth you feel as a result, seem so honestly earned.
9. likeable thanks to its cast, its cuisine and its quirky tunes.
10. Sandra Nettelbeck beautifully orchestrates the transformation of the chilly, neurotic, and self-absorbed Martha as her heart begins to open.