Altman conducts all of these disparate elements in a manner that simultaneously suggests both a practiced veteran and an eager newcomer. He calls upon all of his still-undiminished skills while staying agog with the possibilities to achieve.

| Jun 9, 2021

A Prairie Home Companion exudes a general warmth and foolishness, favors the chaos of a creative community, argues for some sort of elemental human and artistic solidarity and kindness-and aside from that, not much.

| Feb 14, 2021

Contains not even the faintest trace of a plot.

| Original Score: 2/10 | Nov 21, 2020

A warm, witty ode to ends, beginnings and everything in between.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 5, 2019

There is a great movie in A Prairie Home Companion, which is based on Garrison Keillor's long-running radio show. Meryl Streep gives an amazing performance as a country singer.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 5, 2018

It's remarkable how charitable, on the whole, this movie feels; in all of the previous examples, the vision of pop and people is at best tangled, at worst jaundiced.

| Mar 5, 2014

...for the uninitiated, the story meanders far too much to resonate, and Altman's relentless focus on mortality dampens the show's amiable charm.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 20, 2011

It looks and feels like an Altman film, but one made completely on a pointless lark.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 24, 2010

Life is fleeting, but A Prairie Home Companion, slender and perfect, proves that art endures as a reminder of it

| Aug 30, 2009

It is obviously the film of a master and certainly feels like a swan song.

| Nov 25, 2008

Swan songs are seldom as sweet or melodic as A Prairie Home Companion.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 13, 2008

The movie is a shaggy-dog trifle, but it's a sweet and lovely one.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Altman's star-studded cast is natural and energetic -- with the exception of a surprisingly detached Keillor -- and the Hollywood folks mingle easily, in character, among the real show's performers, a technique Altman perfected in Nashville.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 8, 2008

...a lovely and bittersweet fable about morality, the fleetingness of fame, drawing strength from the past and finding the inevitable beauty in the darkest of situations.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 28, 2008

In its neatest trick of all, the script circumvents any criticism of its lack of timeliness by very literally casting the proceedings under a shadow of death.

Full Review | Feb 1, 2008

Alternatively wistful and satirical, Prairie isn't an Altman classic, but it's a fine time.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 14, 2007

This adaptation is highly-recommended for loyal devotees of the long-running radio show as a cinematic capstone on Keillor's magnificent career.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 16, 2007

La despedida de Robert Altman no está entre lo mejor de su obra, pero es una cálida evocación de tiempos y ritos pasados animada por un atractivo elenco.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 3, 2007

[Altman's] trademark techniques...lend themselves perfectly to the setting, but his ability to coax remarkable performances from an array of actors has rarely served him better.

| Feb 22, 2007

Plenty of artistry, even if it is a minor Altman film. So long, Robert.

| Original Score: 80/100 | Jan 20, 2007