“Between director Todd Phillips’ self-satisfied, pseudo-intellectual musings on the profundity of ‘happy vs sad', and the feverish, frenzied acclaim that the film was released to, I’ve found it hard to reconcile my own mixed response with its public reception.”

“Watching the story unfold is simply extraordinarily fun, a word that I rarely use to describe watching any film.”

“Fincher directs with a pervading sense of humour that accentuates the distinctly human darkness that lies behind much of what the film says about life, love, marriage and truth.”

“With a plot that handles an investigation into a missing person case at an isolated asylum for the criminally insane, Scorsese’s film offers a conceit that seems akin to the set-up of a horror video game.”

“Doinel’s age bolsters the universality of the character; Truffaut’s lens captures his every reflection with honesty and passion.”

“I’ve never seen actors more capable of capturing the subtlety of the effects of ageing, not to mention the precise relationship between eternal grief and the dull fog of passing time.”

“Even in Allen’s usual neurotic nattering there is an underlying admission that it is a futile distraction from the strife and violence inherent in the marriages and relationships the film examines.”