Boasts so many moments of sublime acting that it's hard to know where to start. full review

Dripping with cinematic style. full review

Challenges and provokes in unexpected ways.

Establishes [Inarritu] as a major cinematic force. full review

You won't soon forget the world that Gonzalez Inarritu creates.

Fascinating because of the way the story is told -- and because of the existential issues that it forces you to consider. full review

The performances, the way Inarritu deconstructs and reconstructs the narrative, the grainy, gritty feel and look, all lead to the rare sort of experience that only a truly great film can offer.

This is a mesmerizing film that is the work of genius. full review

Every year needs a challenging masterwork, a movie that defies filmmaking convention and leaves an indelible mark on the collective psyche.

One of the most riveting and moving experiences of the year, a movie of aching soulfulness and transforming power. full review

This may be the most brilliantly made movie of the year. But you don't enjoy 21 Grams, you recover from it. full review

This is cinematic storytelling of a very high order, and the clear work of a moviemaker who has almost instantly established himself as a force to be reckoned with. full review

Though not depressing, because nothing this good is, the film is haunting -- a walk on the razor's edge between life and death. full review

If not for its show-offy back-and- forthing of time, the movie would be a banal, pointlessly depressing exercise. full review

Tough, smart, relentless, provocative and, above all, serious. full review

Inarritu and Arriaga's first English-language film doesn't approach the brilliance of Amores Perros, but it succeeds on a more modest scale. full review

It grips us, moves us, astonishes us. full review

A capital-M movie, and the most flagrant kind: Heavy emotion, heavy style, and lite philosophy converge and choke us with meaning. full review

Is the strategy to make you work so hard to determine where you are in the timeline that you overlook what a dreary and conventional little soap opera this is? full review