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With another cast this would be an also ran, but Bateman, Tucker, Damon and Davis all put their backs into it.

Once they hit the road, the script goes away with the pixies.

Affleck knows how to keep a tight grip on a story, gets better at ratcheting tension with every film, and displays a fearlessness when it comes to mixing genre.

Traditions include what might be monstrous punishment for moral failings, suspect chronology, a muddy line between those who may and may not deserve it, and a cavalier disregard for common sense.

The trouble is you don't care

Nagy and her screenwriters’ disciplined refusal to pursue grandiose storylines results in a well-earned sense of community.

The writing is so sharp and rapid-fire, and the performances so charmingly self-lacerating, that you will be happy to spend time in these characters' company.

Pike won a Golden Globe for this performance and it's well deserved.

Offers plenty of uncomfortably familiar observations for anyone engaged in a relationship that is either long-distance, or just long-term.

Logan's writing fails to match Pacino's restraint, while Green's direction seems - like his central character - to be filled with a longing for more, yet being held back from going there.

If there's a wish for more in Palo Alto, it's largely because what is here works so well.

In general, the action feels either overly restrained or pushed too far, with Adler rarely finding the sweet spot in between.

The best movie this wonderful writer/director has made in a long time; funny, sharp, perfectly paced and rather gorgeously shot, with a quartet of cracking parts for excellent actors placed firmly at its centre.