1. An endearing life story. Wonderfully nostalgic but also heart-wrenching at times for anyone who grew up with the support of PBS's Children's Television Workshop.
2. You'll probably be happy to know that, as per this Kickstarter-funded documentary, the man in the puffy yellow suit is just as kind and loving as the overgrown fowl he portrays
3. The film will remind audiences of the important role Big Bird (and the man in the yellow suit) played in shaping both culture, children's education and even politics.
4. Every bit as warm and kind-hearted as the man whose story it tells.
5. Schmaltz continually threatens to overcome genius in this super-sentimental account of gifted puppeteer Caroll Spinney.
6. A celebration of an artist who's utterly delighted an international audience of children - and more than a few adults.
7. A touching, overdue round of applause.
8. Perhaps a sharper exploration of Spinney's life isn't presented, but the documentary gets by on the basics, supplying a new perspective on the puppeteer and his legacy.
9. It is impossible to observe the film's interviews with Spinney and not be taken aback by the man's extraordinary sensitivity, and the deeply unhappy childhood that seems still very much with him today.
10. The kind of heartwarming, sentimental tale of a gentle soul that the PBS show's iconic character would love.
Consensus: Every bit as good-natured as longtime fans might hope, I Am Big Bird: The Carroll Spinney Story offers heartwarming behind-the-scenes perspective on a cultural icon.
1. A successful novelist and restrained actor's director, Carrére makes the transformation of a silly marital argument into a cosmic upheaval look easy, and profound as well.
2. The film is an unpretentious blank slate--almost totally without point but so unassuming it earns consideration.
3. A deliciously unsettling, beautifully sustained enigma, a film of much beauty and flawless performances, especially from Vincent Lindon in one of his most demanding roles.
4. A satisfying psychological adventure that powers along nicely on its movie-star performances, the graceful craftsmanship of Emmanuel Carrere's direction and a haunting violin concerto by Philip Glass.
5. Part absurdist comedy about the institution of marriage, part paranoid Kafkaesque fantasy, it's a minor-key reverie on the way our own lives can sometimes feel alien to us.
6. Carrere playfully adapts his own novel for his feature debut and makes the interesting decision to show the film's events entirely through Marc's perspective.
7. an awfully rickety, hollow exercise in style over substance
8. It's all a bit like an Agatha Christie mystery whose final moments make it clear that none of the characters could have done it....If you can live with that, then don't miss it.
9. ...Recalls the "everyday suspense" films of Roman Polanski and the existential woe of Michelangelo Antonioni.
10. A unique psychological drama with the tension of a whodunit.
Consensus: Though the premise may be modest on the surface, Carrere uses a man and his mustache that may or may not exist as a springboard into psychological suspense and unsettling questions.
1. Takes the other side of the bullied high-school outcast story and shows us a teen who discovers the fun of belonging.
2. Stephen Chbosky's script is insightful about the exhilaration of soul-piercing first love, and the misery of being swept into a relationship with someone who's forceful, determined and utterly wrong for you.
3. Chbosky plays this CW serial stuff for maximum earnestness, stressing the teenage tendency to assume that every new thing they're feeling is unprecedented in human history, keeping the tone just-moist-eyed throughout.
4. If [it] doesn't explore any new territory, it covers familiar ground engagingly, and sometimes touchingly.
5. It deserves to be regarded as a modern classic.
6. It has a sense of timelessness.
7. One of the truest coming-of-age films in recent memory.
8. The most pleasant and accomplished surprise of the year, a delightful, sweet, funny, and moving examination of teenage life that merits comparison to John Hughes and Cameron Crowe.
9. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" finds an unexpectedly moving freshness in the old clichés by remaining attentive to the nuances of what happens within and between unhappy teenagers.
10. As a director, Chbosky mirrors his central character's emotional state.

Consensus: The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a heartfelt and sincere adaptation that's bolstered by strong lead performances.