Just out on DVD, Disney’s first feature invents a whole new cinematic language. Slow in the dwarf scenes, overall lovely and terrifying and artful.

Above-average scary. Neat pacing. Best with a full house in big cities. Overheard: “this is dumb good,” “we’re gonna have to get the bootleg.”

Scary, weird, intricately detailed world. Great characters, human and otherwise. Kept stopping to scribble notes to myself - “so THIS is how you write a novel.”

Loved it at fifteen. Rereading at thirty: didn’t. Great energy and verve - but little more than drug use, sports prowess, lady-banging success.

The show at its best- Michael stupid and brilliant at once- impending catastrope averted in a fresh unexpected way - moment of happiness… then the catastrophe.

Comes damn close to being brilliant, but the relationships feel rushed and flimsy. Too much time setting up the story, not enough on the resolution.

Energetic, smart, fearless - great cinema, great characters. Really brings to life Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington as brilliant, dedicated, very different artists.

All it has going for it is Valentino, who *is* compelling. No cinematic courage - too entranced by its subject to get critical or explore context.

Halfway-decent story, murdered by lack of living breathing characters. Some scares. Only the bad guys are interesting, and we spend no time with them.

Beautiful, scary, sad, exciting, lovely. Fascinating and complex friendship at its heart; simple but rich overall plot. Scattered moments of intense poetry. Great resolution.

For half of this movie I had no idea what its plot was. Once it got over itself, the plot was dumb. Weird, unoriginal, undazzling.

Fun, grisly, lots of heart. And blood. Verse thing only feels gimmicky for a bit. Vibrant characters; didn’t know where it was going. Which rocked.

Heath and Hathaway are marvelous. Great script, even if - or because - it’s mostly mumbled. Still can’t tell if its rambling disjointedness helps or hurts.

Milos Forman must have advanced Alzheimer’s, and everyone associated with the film was too polite to say how dumb and wretched it was.

Godric’s arc was too short; its end should have made me weep. Is Sookie and Bill’s storyline the weakest one? Loved Maryanne’s speech.