Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Matt Greene I had no idea what I was getting into with this odd yet cozy little portrayal of an American icon. I expected the dialogue to be smart, the characters to be memorable, the humor to be sharp, & the music to be wonderful, & that was all fulfilled. However, the almost nihilistic existentialism that pervades the surprising fantasy elements threw me for a loop; I can't decide if they were misguided overreaches or acutely genius. Either way, I loved this movie, & I think it will only benefit from multiple viewings.

manendra-lodhi The film tells the story of a radio group who are performing for the last time. The film is full of scenes on backstage as well as on stage. There are numerous songs. The lives of these people have been shown in the film. And to be exact their last day is being shown in the radio show. While there is no particular Antagonist or the Protagonist, everyone is doing their own job. I liked the idea of the film.PROS: The film presents a very nice backstage Ambiance. The performances by all were amazing. The way they handled things when something goes wrong on the stage was awesome. There is a lot of overlapping dialogs in the films which will induce some confusion in your mind and at the same time make you to listen to them carefully. The sound mixing was good as for the whole time, the songs were being sung on the stage and they had to be intermingled with the backstage talks. The more important thing that was conveyed in the film was that the performers were so old but then also they had the same energy to perform. Because that is what they love doing. There was no hatred among the performers on the stage and that was very nice to see.CONS: Sometimes the comedy looked too much and did not looked funny but a little absurd. The cast did not perform weirdly or overly acted but that the situations looked too obvious. Sometimes you might feel bored also because the film is slow. But in all it is a subtle comedy.MESSAGE: "Where there is will there is way." VERDICT: "A recommended watch."

bandw This is a story about the last night of a long-running radio show. Since Garrison Keillor wrote the screenplay you are tempted to think that this might be his imagining of what the last night would be for the radio show he hosts. But that would not be correct, since there are cinematic aspects that could not be captured in a radio program. For example, Guy Noir, the detective who appears on the real radio program only is skits, comes and goes throughout this movie. And I see no way to capture the many appearances of the "dangerous woman" on a radio program. Some people see her and others don't--how would you capture that? So, even though the movie is intimately connected with the radio program of the same name, this cannot be seen as the filming of a radio performance.Playing Guy Noir (here in charge of security) Kevin Kline does a wonderful take off on Inspector Clouseau of "Pink Panther" fame. Kline has a gift for comedy that I was not aware of. And who could resist the banter between Merle Streep and Lily Tomlin who play the Johnson sisters, Yolanda and Lola. When Yolanda refers to the Carter Family, Lola asks, "Who?" and Yolanda answers, "The Carter Family, Like us, only famous." The movie is filled with dialog like that, dialog that provokes chuckles rather than laughter. Streep and Tomlin are having so much fun that it is infectious.As a longtime listener to the radio program who has never been to a performance, this movie satisfied some of my curiosities. It was good to see the mechanics of a performance and to put faces on many of the radio personalities. It was also a treat to see the inside of the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, the home-base for the actual radio programThe movie is not without some philosophical commentary, the essence of which is to enjoy what you can, since life is short. Not deep, but delivered in a most gentle way that makes for a very effective final scene. When some of the cast are enjoying genial after-performance conversation at a nearby diner the "dangerous woman" enters. I took the dangerous woman to be the angel of death and her appearance at the diner was a reminder that while we are enjoying some of our most pleasant moments death can walk in the door at any moment.Being familiar with the radio program will most likely add to your enjoyment of this movie. I have some friends who were unfamiliar with the radio program and were totally mystified by the riffs on rhubarb pie and powder milk biscuits.That the story meanders is an understatement, but the chaos is woven into a satisfying experience. Whatever might be said about this, it is a unique film.

Jackson Booth-Millard I heard of this film after the death of legendary director Robert Altman (MASH, Nashville, Gosford Park), who died from complications of leukaemia after completing this film, so I had to watch it. There is no specific plot, it is basically seeing behind the scenes of the making of the last of episode of radio show "A Prairie Home Companion", being cancelled. It is a music variety show recorded live in front of an audience in a theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, hosted by real radio presenter Garrison Keillor, or GK (best known for voicing the Honda adverts). Regulars including singing guitarist cowboys and risqué humoured Dusty (Woody Harrelson) and Lefty (John C. Reilly), and the singing Johnson sisters Rhonda (Lily Tomlin) and Yolanda (Meryl Streep). The film sees them talk about their lives and the show backstage, and they try to convince the youngest Johnson sister, Lola (Lindsay Lohan) to sing on this last show. Also there is a mysterious white trench coat wearing woman (Virginia Madsen) wandering around the theatre, dim-witted security guard Guy Noir (Kevin Kline) is around too, and of course the man closing the theatre and show down, The Axeman (Tommy Lee Jones) is around to see the show end. Also starring Maya Rudolph as Molly, Marylouise Burke as Lunch Lady and L.Q. Jones as Chuck Akers. The all-star cast is very appealing, the singing and humour is the big hook of the film, and it was certainly a fine film for Altman to bow out with, a great comedy. Very good!