Beatriz at Dinner

Hayek gives one of her better performances, though - she makes it clear that Beatriz may be righteous, but she's also more than a bit unhinged - and Lithgow is so good at playing CEO oiliness that you have to smile. He's the man you love to hate.

"Beatriz at Dinner" is an insanely heavy-handed liberal fantasy that both sides of the aisle can come together to equally hate.

"Beatriz at Dinner" is a meal of a film, with plenty to chew on.

The menu for "Beatriz at Dinner" is more appetizer than main course.

Together, screenwriter Mike White and his Enlightened director Miguel Arteta have an almost magical way with light-touch verbal sparring, an art that's become lost in today's broad, banter-filled comedies.

Beatriz at Dinner works well beyond both lecture or lesson because of the care and attention everyone has put into the people that play them out.

Beatriz at Dinner could have been funny and sharply drawn, building on Hayek's strong performance. Instead, it's a clunky morality play rendered in crayon.

[Beatriz] is loaded with subtlety and symbolism.

It's rare that a film will come along and synthesize the era we live in so succinctly.

Filmmaker Miguel Arteta, working from Mike White's screenplay, delivers a strong opening stretch that revolves almost entirely around the title character's hardscrabble existence...

I can't quite say I enjoyed it, but I'm not going to forget it that easily, either.

Biting, smart social satire that feels curtailed and abrupt in its resolution.