Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Stone Movie Review 
  
 By Prairie Miller 
  
 A murky Bible belt noir in which typically nobody is what they seem, even when inadvertently, Stone mixes evangelism, midlife crisis lust, and serious parole violations by, well, somebody on the parole board. Along with Edward Norton in a weirdly over the top performance in what is usually referred to in less than polite circles as a 'wigger.' 
  
 Directed by John Curran (The Painted Veil) and steeped in what seems like mystical heartland evangelical voodoo more suited for sci-fi, the movie sets up a convoluted cat and mouse prison caper among predators and prey alike, in a continuously alternating switching up of sides and hidden agendas. Edward Norton is Stone, a Michigan prison inmate obsessed with manipulating his parole officer Jack (Robert De Niro) into recommending his release, related to a long prison term he's been serving as an accomplice in the murder of his own grandparents and the heartless torching of their home. Decked out in dreads and spouting a borderline clownish ghetto-speak, Stone moves on to Plan B when he gets hip to Jack not being in the least impressed with his intimidating jailhouse freedom rap. 
  
 Enter Milla Jovovich as Lucetta, Stone's flirty trailer park scantily clad slutty wench back home, in an equally caricature-driven performance, who is sent to seduce Jack into a more receptive attitude towards her arsonist spouse's pending parole hearing. Jack, who is up for parole himself so to speak and about to retire shortly, is not without his own dark secrets, including a damaged relationship with an alcoholic wife Madylyn (Frances Conroy) who sits at home all day drinking and reading scriptures. That is, ever since her control freak hubby dangled their infant out the window and threatened to drop him, if Madylyn ever made good on her determination to leave him. 
  
 At some point Jack seems to turn into Travis Bickle once again minus his taxi, and Lucetta makes toy birds' nests between make out sessions with the grumpy lawman. While Stone, a con in evidently more ways than one, finds Jesus, loses his dreads, and becomes a self-described tuning fork for God. And the audience may be left to wonder if all these prominent stars should be indicted and convicted as well, for making such bad choices in movies. 
  
 Overture Films 
  
 Rated R 
  
 2 [out of 4] stars 
  
 Prairie Miller is a multimedia journalist online, in print and on radio. Contact her through NewsBlaze. ||||| As 1995 slouches into 1996, winter holds Montreal in an unrelenting grip. Adding to the chill are a series of unsolved rapes and murders occurring in the west-end neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, all of which, it seems, have been perpetrated by the same man. That’s the set-up for Jacob Tierney’s third feature, using a self-penned screenplay adapted from Chrystine Brouillet’s novel Chère Voisine. The action revolves around three tenants of a run-down apartment: a cat-obsessed waitress (Emily Hampshire) working in a Chinese restaurant that never seems to have any customers, a wheelchair-bound widower (Scott Speedman) whose suite is filled with aquariums, and an emotionally needy, newly arrived elementary-school teacher (Jay Baruchel). Tierney, who scored big at TIFF last year with The Trotsky, garners great (and not a little creepy) turns from each of his leads to concoct a twisty tale that’s part-mystery, part-psychological thriller, part-comedy. His assured mise-en-scène echoes Polanski’s The Tenant and Boyle’s Shallow Grave. J.A. 
  
 Sept. 18, 12:45 p.m., AMC 6 
  
 Trigger 
  
 Bruce McDonald (Canada) 
  
 3 STARS 
  
 Sometimes an on-screen pairing just clicks. Though filled with recognizable faces – Sarah Polley, Don McKellar, Callum Keith Rennie, Caroline Gillis – Trigger leans almost entirely on its leading ladies, Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright. They play reunited rocker chicks who have taken widely divergent paths in life and are wrangling demons born of a youth spent with sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. Looking gaunt, Wright is splendid as Vic, the sharp and sarcastic half of the duo wasted by a taste for heroin. Parker is a charming and convincing foil as the cheerier Kat, now a well-paid TV executive still battling demons of her own. Trigger was rushed into production after Wright was diagnosed with cancer, but it doesn’t feel that way. Shot simply but compellingly, it feels like a polished and practised portrait of rekindled bonds. J.B. 
  
 Sept. 18, 12:45 p.m., Scotiabank 2 
  
 Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) 
  
 Kiran Rao (India) 
  
 3 STARS 
  
 Move over Bollywood, because India is going indie. More precisely, it's showing some early signs of returning to the auteur-driven sensibilities of a director like Satyajit Ray. Here, making her feature debut, Kiran Rao takes us to teeming Mumbai in the monsoon season, then glides fluidly through the urban strata embodied in her three principal characters – an affluent Indian-American woman with photographic ambitions; a dour artist with a troubled marital past; and a hunky laundry boy (a dhobi) keen to climb out of the slums and into the movies. Perched on their different rungs, each is looking up or down the social ladder and doing the same thing but from different motives: peering, either curiously or enviously, into the lives of others. As they do, the film means to be the cinematic answer to Suketu Mehta's book, Maximum City – that is, it wants to draw a vibrant portrait of Mumbai in all its cruel beauty. Wants to, and almost succeeds. R.G. 
  
 Sept. 18, 12 p.m., Bell Lightbox 1 
  
 Stone 
  
 John Curran (USA) 
  
 3 STARS 
  
 Does sin come naturally to human beings? That, and how to look to be forgiven for it, is at the heart of Stone, especially where crimes that never reach a courtroom are concerned. Edward Norton steals the show as Gerald (Stone) Creeson, a convict of eight years looking for freedom through his parole officer, Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro). Norton is thoughtful and clever, but reptilian and rough. As Mabry, De Niro grapples ably with his own demons, entangled with the efforts of Lucetta Creeson (Milla Jovovich), a seductive manipulator trying to spring her husband. This film isn’t without flaws: For example, its religious overtones, framed by the devout rituals of Jack’s wife Madylyn and squawked out over Christian radio, don’t quite strike the right chord. But it’s worth the price of admission to see Norton and De Niro sparring across a prison-house desk. J.B. ||||| Enlarge By Ron Batzdorff, Overture Films You talkin' to me? Robert De Niro plays a corrections officer, and Edward Norton is an imprisoned arsonist. ABOUT THE MOVIE ABOUT THE MOVIE Stone * * (out of four) Stars: Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, Frances Conroy 
  
 Director: John Curran 
  
 Distributor: Overture Films 
  
 Rating: R for strong sexuality and violence and pervasive language 
  
 Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes 
  
 Opens Friday in select cities Nothing is etched in anything remotely resembling a hard surface in Stone. TRAILER: Watch a preview of 'Stone' Moral ambiguity and ethical compromise are at the heart of this meandering prison drama, but at a certain point we simply don't care anymore who is base and baser. The thin line between lawman and criminal has been explored a fair amount in films. Stone probes the blurring of the two roles and bleeding of black and white into gray. It tries to raise the specter of spiritual emptiness, but the characters come off like dramatic devices rather than real people in this ponderous cat-and-mouse game directed by John Curran (The Painted Veil) and written by Angus Maclachan (Junebug). Robert De Niro plays corrections officer Jack Mabry, a taciturn and inarticulate guy who, like most law enforcement types of a certain age in movies, is about to retire. But before he's officially free, he must review one last case. But this is no open-and-shut matter. Mabry is slyly manipulated by wily, cornrowed arsonist Gerald "Stone" Creeson, ably played by Edward Norton. Given the caliber of these actors, their back-and-forth should be fascinating. But somehow it never becomes the profound character drama it aims to be. Further complicating things is Stone's scheming wife, Lucetta (Milla Jovovich), who is working to spring Stone. Out of the loop but in the background is Mabry's reclusive and religious wife, Madylyn (Frances Conroy in a thankless part). Though outwardly religious, a jarring flashback of Mabry's not-so-random act of pure viciousness reveals his menacing nature and emotional baggage. We understand why his wife is hollow-eyed. It's no wonder that he's chosen a job in a prison. He needs to contain his worst tendencies. Somehow, the fast-talking Stone unlocks Mabry's darkest impulses. Or maybe they were just there below the surface, ready to reveal themselves at the slightest provocation. During their rambling discussions, Stone insists he has had a religious epiphany and struggles to convey honest emotion in his stream-of-consciousness way. He may be getting to Mabry. Or not. Clarity is not the point here. Lucetta gets to Mabry, in several ways, triggering some gratuitous nudity. But despite the verbal fireworks and steamy scenes, the film is mired in tedium. De Niro's restrained Method acting is a natural for the role and Norton always is an arresting actor, but what they're given to say and ponder never quite catches fire. Both men are spiritually bereft and seeking some kind of salvation, but the incessant background soundtrack of Christian talk radio seems a heavy-handed way to get this notion across. Stone muddles along, like an idea in search of a plot. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more ||||| There are crimes and there are sins, and while society demands atonement for the former, many terrible sins are perfectly legal and atonement is up to the sinner. Writer-director John Curran explores these questions of official and personal morality in Stone, an intelligent but brutally portentous drama in the style of his 2004 marital drama We Don’t Live Here Anymore. He also gets a real, committed performance out of Robert De Niro, who’s spent much of the last decade lazily mugging his way through Meet The Parents comedies and genre stinkers like Hide And Seek and Righteous Kill—all of which suggest either good roles for him are limited or he simply doesn’t care like the De Niro of old. Whatever the case, De Niro plays a deeply flawed and hypocritical corrections officer with just the right mix of self-righteousness and vulnerability, embodying a man whose soul has withered from decades of corrosion. 
  
 De Niro goes toe-to-toe with Edward Norton, who stars as a corn-rowed (though non-racist) iteration of the wily, hyper-intelligent thug he immortalized in American History X. Having served eight years in prison for arson, Norton is up for parole, but his path to freedom goes through De Niro, whose recommendation will ultimately determine his fate. Mere weeks before his retirement, De Niro has been on the job long enough to see through Norton’s abrasive, confrontational pleas, so the inmate turns to a more drastic form of coercion, enlisting his sultry wife, played by Milla Jovovich, to coax out a favorable report. It happens that De Niro is a uniquely vulnerable mark, and as he gets drawn into their web, his past sins begin to resurface. 
  
 The title Stone is double-meaning, referring both to Norton’s nickname and the end of the Biblical tenet that begins, “Let him who is without sin…” At its best, the film works as a morally freighted film noir, with Jovovich particularly good as a breathy femme fatale who seduces De Niro with a mere change in inflection. But Curran resists Stone’s genre elements to his peril, suffocating the drama with a tone of high seriousness and unnecessary elements, like an omnipresent AM religious talk show that spells out themes that are already apparent. He doesn’t trust the story or his actors to bring the film across—and worst of all, he doesn’t trust the audience. |||||
A:
Prison drama Stone isn't light viewing, critics say, but top-notch performances from stars Robert De Niro and Edward Norton save it from collapsing under the weight of its themes of morality and spirituality. De Niro, who plays wily inmate Norton's parole officer, "seems to turn back into Travis Bickle minus his taxi" in this "murky Bible Belt noir steeped in evangelical voodoo," writes Prairie Miller at News Blaze. Stone works well as a "morally freighted noir" but director John Curran sometimes suffocates the drama "with a tone of high seriousness and unnecessary elements," writes Scott Tobias at the AV Club, praising Milla Jovovich's performance as "a breathy femme fatale who seduces De Niro with a mere change in inflection." "Moral ambiguity and ethical compromise are at the heart of this meandering prison drama" but it never quite catches fire, writes Claudia Puig at USA Today, complaining that the "characters come off like dramatic devices rather than real people." The movie has its flaws, including religious overtones that don't hit the right note, but "it’s worth the price of admission to see Norton and De Niro sparring across a prison-house desk," decides James Bradshaw at the Globe and Mail.