Take a Chance on Mamma Mia!

Helps redeem otherwise mediocre film

(NEWSER) - As a biopic, The Iron Lady is nothing to write home about—but critics are blown away by Meryl Streep's typically excellent performance as Margaret Thatcher:

• The film contains "little sense of the outside world, the human cost, or the ripple effect of divisive government policies. It is a movie that gives us Thatcher without Thatcherism," writes Xan Brooks in the Guardian . But Streep "is the one great weapon of this often silly and suspect picture." She offers "a masterpiece of mimicry."

Director has lost his freedom, but not his touch

(NEWSER) - Roman Polanski’s new movie, an atmospheric political thriller, is a winner, critics agree—assuming you can forget the off-screen drama surrounding the director. Here’s what they’re saying:

• It’s “a dark pearl of a movie…made by a filmmaker suddenly returned to the height of his power,” writes Ken Turan of the LA Times . Polanski works his trademark themes into an “impeccable adult entertainment” not unlike Chinatown or Rosemary’s Baby.

Creator Judy Craymer back for similar musical

(NEWSER) - Mamma Mia! creator Judy Craymer has signed a deal to make a Spice Girls musical in the same vein as her ABBA-themed megahit. The new show won’t actually be about the British pop outfit; it’ll just link their greatest hits with an unrelated story, the same way Mamma Mia! raided ABBA’s songbook, the Times of London reports. More»

It may not be complicated, but Alec Baldwin's performance shines

(NEWSER) - Some critics see Nancy Meyers' latest as somewhat more reasoned and subtle than her usual fare. But It's Complicated is still a formulaic flick—with a scene-stealing turn by Alec Baldwin. A few takes:

• The flick " isn't nearly complicated enough, but at least Meyers has dropped something a bit more subtle than her usual anvil," writes Stephanie Zacharek for Salon . "This one is more like a mere tire iron, but at least we've got Baldwin: He's the pixie dust that chases away the ensuing headache."

Is it a film for kids? Who cares! gush critics

(NEWSER) - Wes Anderson is winning raves for his stop-motion take on Roald Dahl's classic Fantastic Mr. Fox, with voices by a raft of stars including Meryl Streep and George Clooney:

• It's so good, David Edelstein forgot himself. When the flick ended, he writes in New York , he wished "the whole battery of gifted artists could come out and take a bow." The film "feels handmade, present, as if they’re all backstage and the curtain is going up before your eyes."