Critic consensus:Uninhibited performances, skillful direction, and a killer blues soundtrack elevate Black Snake Moan beyond its outlandish premise.

Numbered reviews:1. [N]owhere near as provocative as you think it's gonna be, as you've been led to believe it's gonna be... which is something of a disappointment.
2. Cockeyed and raffishly amusing tale of redemption, spilling over with blues music and southern-fried sexism.
3. Brewer's reworking of Southern mythologies can sometimes seem condescending, even though his affection for the region's culture is palpable. But there's no denying he knows how to spin a yarn and create vivid, indelible images.
4. It's all outrageous and patently stereotypical but Brewer and the actors invest these representations with everything they have. It's great to see Jackson working hard here to create a character instead of simply Superflying a bunch of snakes on a plane.
5. Writer-director Craig Brewer does several things very right in his follow-up to the overrated Hustle & Flow (which also boasted a dubious grasp of gender relations). But subtlety is not one of them, and neither is a lack of raging misogyny.
6. Black Snake Moan plays its grim subject matter for laughs, imitating the laugh-to-keep-from-crying quality of the blues tunes on its soundtrack.
7. Maybe Jackson should avoid any more movies with 'snake' in the title.
8. A cartoonish Baby Doll, with a suggestive blues song title, about sex, guilt and redemption. Black Snake is also a rather flimsy parable unable to support the weight of Brewers ambition.
9. Black Snake Moan is an odd little number. It tries to be a lot of things at different times, but isn't particularly successful in any genre.
10. If writer/director Craig Brewer were a member of the X-Men, he would be called 'FirstActo,' and his mutant power would be creating dynamic openings to movies. His enemy would be consistency.


Critic consensus:A good-hearted film about a difficult topic, 50/50 maneuvers between jokes and drama with surprising finesse.

Numbered reviews:1. A picture with a commercial sensibility and a quippy streak, yet one honest enough to transcend the usual.
2. A funny, thoughtful film, less about surviving cancer than about the agonizing process of growing up.
3. The fear, anger, and despair of terminal illness barely pierce the movie's easygoing vibe, which becomes something of a problem in the second half, but for the most part this is fresh, sincere, and inquisitive.
4. Just like the many bits of advice that are so convincingly strewn throughout 50/50, it emphatically validates one of the most enduring ones: Laughter is indeed the best medicine, especially when the stakes are so high.
5. The picture could be so much better than it is, and yet it's also the kind of movie that makes you want to grade on the curve, adding extra points for good intentions.
6. 50/50 is sentimental but never too much. Not with this cast. It's irreverent about cancer and that could be inspirational. And it's surely one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen all year.
7. This ambitious comedy may appear benign on the surface but it's likely to stay with you and develop into something more than you might have thought. And in this case that's a good thing.
8. There's a better than even chance that you'll find it both funny and touching.
9. 50/50 is crude and funny, and it demands that you laugh. And you will.
10. ...what makes this "chuckles n' chemo" film so watchable is that it is, at its core, a fish out of water tale.


Critic consensus:Chalet Girl is light comedic fun geared for teenage girls, featuring a charming performance from Felicity Jones.

Numbered reviews:
1. It's steered to success - just - by Jones, a natural, likeable everygirl who will make you care, possibly against your will, about a story as old as the Alps.
2. A chirpy, tween-skewing, snowboarding-themed romantic comedy.
3. The dialogue is more sensible than the plotting, allowing us to forgive the film's more serious trespasses.
4. Hugely enjoyable feel-good British romcom, enlivened by a witty script, a terrific central performance from Felicity Jones, a superb ensemble cast and an infectious sense of fun.
5. A cheap and cheerful chick-flick that pads out its thin Cinderella-on-ice storyline with a string of frothy montages. Sure, it's soppy, but the target audience won't mind the slush.
6. Felicity Jones makes good on the promise showed in Cemetery Junction with this teen romance set on the slopes of a snobbish Alpine skiing resort.
7. Archetypal, feel-good fluff at it's best.
8. inoffensive, feel-good escapism and high jinks in the midst of extravagant surroundings.
9. Chalet Girl won't melt your heart, but it at least leaves a warm glow.
10. Exactly the kind of funny, sunshiny, teen-skewed romcom that Britain normally struggles to make.