1.   Calling on the guerrilla wit of his best ensemble films, Robert Altman turns Holly Springs, Miss., into a hotbed of power struggles and flaky behavior.

2.   Look, I put myself quite carefully in these large ensemble films for really the last seven years.

3.   Sparkling wit made a delightful comeback in this swift, literate English ensemble film propelled by Oxbridge talent on and off the screen.

4.   A trailer fit for a movie queen was waiting for Meryl Streep when she arrived in rural Ireland last summer to begin shooting a low-budget ensemble film.

5.   But making large ensemble films can have pitfalls.

6.   Directors Robert Altman and Woody Allen are veterans of large ensemble films, frequently casting more than a dozen stars in movies with multiple intersecting plots.

7.   Sometimes, the success of an ensemble film full of up-and-coming actors propels all of them to celebrity status.