It's a funny/scary vision, with a manic edge -- which is why, when you come down from the high of the filmmaking, you may be left with the taste of ashes in your mouth. Altman's artistry can make you happy even when his art offers cold comfort.

| Apr 7, 2016

| Original Score: A | Sep 7, 2011

Cool, clever and complex, Altman succeeds in bringing out the best from a highly talented cast.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 27, 2008

As the grand ringmaster, it's here that Altman passes the baton to his actors , whose behavioral insights are critical to the film's success.

| Feb 27, 2008

Inevitably it's a mixed bag, though the film's assurance in keeping it all coherent is at times exhilarating.

| Feb 27, 2008

From the exhilarating opening, you know Altman's epic 'adaptation' of eight stories and a poem by Raymond Carver is going to be special.

| Jun 24, 2006

The lives are often desperate and the characters inarticulate, but the group portrait is as grandly, sometimes as hilariously, realized as anything the director has ever done.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 20, 2003

Triumphantly fierce, funny, moving and innovative.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | May 12, 2001

Altman, who has made a career of pulling the critics and cineastes his way, demonstrates that artistic sleight of hand once again.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

The movie is based on short stories by Raymond Carver, but this is Altman's work, not Carver's, and all the film really has in common with its source is a feeling for people who are disconnected.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Foremost is the very adventure of experiencing an Altman film, his failures are better than most directors's successes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

A cynical, sexist and shallow work from cinema's premier misanthrope, Robert Altman, who here shows neither compassion for -- nor insight into -- the human condition.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 1, 2000