Boyd van Hoeij

Select another critic »
Screen Daily, The Film Verdict, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
For 336 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 44% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Boyd van Hoeij's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Call Me by Your Name
Lowest review score: 0 Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 205 out of 336
  2. Mixed: 122 out of 336
  3. Negative: 9 out of 336
336 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    Les Cowboys
    Unlike the films he’s co-written for Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone…), which often rely on Audiard’s stunning capacity to foreground grand emotional sweeps, this is a much more constructed narrative that could only be described as a writer’s film, though one with several pleasant — if shocking is your idea of pleasant, that is — surprises up its sleeve.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    Mr. X
    An enticing, if not extremely insightful, overview of the maverick filmmaker’s work.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    The Green Prince
    Though the political background is fascinating, what finally resonates is that Schirman manages to humanize both Yousef and his Israeli handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, who would become an unlikely friend and ally.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    Jealousy
    Never a full-on character piece or even an exploration of the titular sentiment, Jealousy instead offers moments of quiet tragedy in some seemingly innocent throwaway moments
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Boyd van Hoeij
    The Girl with All the Gifts
    McCarthy more often seems to apply a generic style to his substance, rather than actually use a stylistic choice to help suggest or demonstrate something about his story and characters.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism
    The third feature of Romanian auteur Corneliu Porumboiu that again takes a clichéd-seeming premise and carefully proceeds to turn it on its head through logic, absurd humor and the consumption of vast quantities of cigarettes.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Boyd van Hoeij
    The Workers Cup
    Sobel’s inexperience with the feature-length format and the requirements of specific genres shows, with Workers Cup constantly struggling to reconcile the horrible fate of what are essentially modern-day slaves with the aspirational side and dreams of victory and beyond that are the end game of any underdog sports story.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Boyd van Hoeij
    The House by the Sea
    The film’s first hour and last reels are now a not completely organic fit, taking things from an intimate and personal level to a global scale while skipping over an awful lot of things in between.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Boyd van Hoeij
    You Will Be My Son
    There are no big surprises in store in terms of where this setup is headed...But the pic’s pleasures are nonetheless numerous, starting with its talented cast.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Boyd van Hoeij
    Giant Little Ones
    This is a confidently shot and beautifully acted story that manages to transcend quite a few — if clearly not all — of the coming-of-age genre’s cliches by delving into how the Millennial generation experiences sexuality, ostracism and growing up and how they try to relate to their parents and peers.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Boyd van Hoeij
    Himizu
    Because Sono tries to set the manga’s storyline, with its stylized violence, in the very real, post-earthquake/tsunami disaster area, Himizu struggles to find a coherent tone.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Boyd van Hoeij
    Glassland
    Before anyone has even said anything, the economy of Barrett as a storyteller is abundantly clear.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Boyd van Hoeij
    500 Years
    More convincing in its outrage and inspiring in its show of what the people’s will can do as long as the masses protest and demand to be heard, than as a rigorous historical analysis.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Boyd van Hoeij
    Cities of Last Things
    Though it takes a little while for the film to find its footing, this is an ambitious and, finally, also touching new work from Pinoy Sunday director Ho Wi Ding.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Boyd van Hoeij
    The Amazing Spider-Man
    A mostly slick, entertaining and emotionally involving recombination of fresh and familiar elements.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Boyd van Hoeij
    Blood Father
    A serviceable piece of B-movie entertainment without an ounce of originality
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    The Seventh Fire
    The first couple of reels are very loosely structured, with no one identified onscreen, which gives the film a verite edge but which also means that it takes a good while for the material to find its footing and make it clear what and, more importantly, who, the film is exactly about.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Boyd van Hoeij
    Beloved Sisters
    [A] handsomely produced if occasionally rather old-fashioned feeling period drama, which plays like a soap opera in which the characters just happen to have better manners and finery.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    What's in a Name?
    The directors have brought onboard the entire original cast. This makes their job much easier, as countless performances have perfected the timing and tone of each single line.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Boyd van Hoeij
    Summer of 85
    Here, the story and the characters' supposed naiveté and the almost-too-obvious stylistic flourishes aren't just nods to his younger, less-refined m.o. They are actually part of a master storyteller's tools to seduce a grown-up audience into considering how youngsters not only experience their own lives but also how they process and talk about them.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    The Royal Road
    If this ambitious film never quite coheres into a single whole, something that an artificial division into several chapters only helps to underline, it does provide a lot to chew on along the way.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    Staying Vertical
    Staying Vertical slowly morphs into something closer to a dark — and darkly funny — myth or fairytale, though this transformation isn’t entirely smooth.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Boyd van Hoeij
    Ismael's Ghosts
    The use of both dialogue and film language is sophisticated; sometimes Ismael’s Ghosts borders on overripe melodrama, while at other times it relies on genre tropes but then gives them an unexpected twist. [Cannes Version]
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Boyd van Hoeij
    The Cut
    Rahim has a great face but isn’t given enough opportunity to make it clear to audiences what his character is going through beyond the most basic emotions.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    Beauty and the Dogs
    A film that’s an emotional rollercoaster and socio-political tract rolled into one.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    Jinpa
    This is an intriguing if austere art house item that should please lovers of slow cinema with a more mystical edge.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Boyd van Hoeij
    We Are Mari Pepa
    Though individual scenes feel authentic, the overall structure’s rather loose and there’s not a single narrative throughline. This has several advantages... But it also somewhat diffuses the film’s focus.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Boyd van Hoeij
    Do I Sound Gay?
    The overall result remains quite light, is occasionally funny but finally never manages to probe very deeply.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Boyd van Hoeij
    Ma Belle, My Beauty
    The acting from the central four actors is quite soulful, but we don’t get enough access to these characters’ inner conflicts. Too often, the narrative’s configuration feels like an intriguing second draft instead of a ready-to-shoot script, something that someone with an external eye might help finesse into something truly captivating.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Boyd van Hoeij
    Because I Was a Painter
    A less successful aspect of the film is Cognet’s attempt to tie the concentration camps as contemporary spaces into the narrative, with shots of the now practically empty landscapes -- some tourists here and there notwithstanding -- interspersed throughout.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »