Can we believe Critics' endorsements?

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Huh - every time for me! They need to know what really gets us grannies over the threshold!

Several years ago my daughter, very kindly, bought tickets for my birthday for she and I to go and see a play called "Closer". We very rarely go to the theatre as it's quite expensive and sometimes disappointing but we were really looking forward to this production because it had won several awards and received wide acclaim.

It did not live up to expectations and we sat, rigid with embarrassment, at the crudity of it (and neither I nor my daughter are especially prudish). The couple in front of us left during the interval and we both wished we had done the same.

I absolutely hated the film "Atonement", which, again, had received rave reviews, though I believe that many cinemagoers enjoyed it.

True, sometimes. But I read all the full notices in four papers for Hypatia and Blue Jasmine.

DH has just informed me that the screening this afternoon is at 3.30 and it's called Silver Screen. Us old dears get a free cup of tea and a biscuit. Grrr. It's wine I want.

I think selective editing of what the ciritcs actually say can play its part. Hypothetically - "If I were on a desert island and absolutely stuck I still would not welcome this new book"

Where to start? The top of the list was that film about Hypatia who was a mathematician in ancient Greece.

The critics loved it, but such a fandango of historical nonsense, melodrama and bad acting made it one of the worst films I've ever seen.

We're going to see Hannah Arendt later today. I'll report back.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Rave reviews [5 star rating in The Independant]. Worst two hours spent in a cinema in my 62 years. Dire. Oh; forgot Meeks Cutoff. Same reviews; equally as dire.