Dan Jolin

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Empire, Time Out
For 259 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 60% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.7 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Dan Jolin's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 My Neighbor Totoro
Lowest review score: 20 Perfect Stranger
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 129 out of 259
  2. Mixed: 127 out of 259
  3. Negative: 3 out of 259
259 movie reviews
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Arrival
    Arrival is a beautifully polished puzzle box of a story whose emotional and cerebral heft should enable it to withstand nit-picky scrutiny. And like all the best sci-fi, it has something pertinent to say about today’s world; particularly about the importance of communication, and how we need to transcend cultural divides and misconceptions if we’re to survive as a species.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    A Serious Man
    Admirably low-key, deeply compelling and their warmest movie since Fargo.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Hunt for the Wilderpeople
    A bit "Up," a bit "Moonrise Kingdom," a bit "Midnight Run," even… Taika Waititi’s latest is an oddball treat of a mismatched-buddy pursuit move.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    The Wrestler
    An emotional smackdown. Rourke's never been better, and the change of pace and texture suits Aronofsky perfectly. "The Raging Bull" of wrestling movies? Oh, go on then.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Stories We Tell
    Polley’s fearless personal journey is a huge achievement, a genuine revelation — but the less detail you know beforehand, the better. Go in cold, come out warmed.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Toy Story 3
    A kids’ movie for grown-ups. A grown-up movie for kids. Exactly what you’d expect -- and hope for -- from the latest, and we’re guessing final, Woody and Buzz adventure.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Oppenheimer
    A masterfully constructed character study from a great director operating on a whole new level. A film that you don’t merely watch, but must reckon with.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Waltz with Bashir
    A bravura documentary which balances the personal and the political as it peers into the First Lebanon War, its animated approach never feeling like a novelty. Astonishing, unforgettable: you have to see it.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Grizzly Man
    A complex, unique and engrossing journey into the murky recesses of an unhinged mind. It really needs to be seen to be believed.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Nightcrawler
    Sharp, dark, satirical and bone-rattlingly thrilling, with a career-peak turn from Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s this year’s "Drive."
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    United 93
    Impossible to recommend as a great Friday night out, yet agonisingly vital as thought-urging cinema.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Blade Runner 2049
    As bold as the original Blade Runner and even more beautiful (especially if you see it in IMAX). Visually immaculate, swirling with themes as heart-rending as they are mind-twisting, 2049 is, without doubt, a good year. And one of 2017’s best.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    King Kong
    Unlike its newly trim director, Kong does boast some flab around the middle but by the final reel there’s little doubt that what could have been Jackson’s folly is a triumph, the kind of romantic action spectacle that makes the big screen silver and provides box-office gold. Puts the prime in primate.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Captain America: Civil War
    Matching its blockbuster scale and spectacle with the smarts of a great, grown-up thriller, Captain America: Civil War is Marvel Studios’ finest film yet.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Your Name.
    Part body-swap comedy, part long-distance romance, part... something else. If you only see one Japanese animated feature this year, see this one, and see it more than once.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Sicario
    A beautifully murky, hard-edged thriller. Quite simply, one of the best films of the year.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Inside Llewyn Davis
    Inside Llewyn Davis throbs with melancholy, hunches under heavy skies, revels in music history's unsexiest scene and unapologetically leaves you dangling. It is also beautiful, heartfelt and utterly enthralling.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Spider-Man: No Way Home
    A monumentally successful Spider-instalment which pulls off a tricky and ambitious narrative trick with all the grace of a balcony-top backflip. At the risk of getting cheesy, it won't just make you cheer, it'll make you want to hug your friends, too.
    • 99 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Moonlight
    A genre-defying film. Its visual splendour belies its tough, surface-level subject matter, while the performances pull us deep below that surface with their soulful naturalism.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    My Neighbor Totoro
    An otherworldly tale of childhood and a definitive work of imagination.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Captain Phillips
    Both Greengrass and Hanks are on award-deserving form in a riveting, emotionally complex and hugely intelligent dramatisation of a real-life ordeal.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Hereditary
    A raw horror masterpiece from a first-time director that deserves to be mentioned in the same frantic breath as the genre’s greats. Even the most jaded viewer should find something in Hereditary to disturb and distress them.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Warrior
    It hardly rewrites the rulebook, but Warrior is a powerful, moving and brilliant sports-pic-cum-family drama. Like "The Fighter," but with kicking.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Mission: Impossible – Fallout
    McQuarrie also builds on the last film’s self-aware level of wit and, most importantly, its set-piece-crafting sophistication. No action sequence is allowed to peter out, or be chopped to ribbons in the edit, or lean on the crutch of CG augmentation.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Dan Jolin
    Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
    Absurd, outrageous, gross, disturbing, insightful, and so funny it’ll burst half the blood vessels in your face.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower
    An honest, affection-hooking, coming-of-age drama which proves that there is life beyond Hogwarts for Emma Watson.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    What We Do in the Shadows
    Here it is at long last: a truly great vampire comedy. And also the funniest horror film to come out of New Zealand since Braindead.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Victoria and Abdul
    A sorta-sequel to Mrs Brown deals effectively with another of Queen Victoria’s unconventional friendships and reprises Judi Dench’s powerful and unparalleled portrayal.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
    Marvel's most deranged and energetic movie yet, as much of a winning comeback for director Sam Raimi as it is a mega-budget exercise in universal stakes-raising.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Mother
    A difficult film and one that's likely to offend in some ways. But as an elliptical, dream-logic infused visual poem, it certainly leaves a searing impression.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Argo
    An old-school espionage thriller with a movie-biz comedy twist, all the better for being (almost) entirely true. It is to Ben Affleck's credit that the tension and laughs complement rather than neutralise each other.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story
    An impressive sift through one of the UK’s weirdest pop-cult phenomena, even if it doesn’t manage to unpick the strange relationship between Sievey and Sidebottom.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Ong Bak
    Without doubt, Jaa's a star — a man very possibly worthy of the 'new Bruce Lee' tag.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Imitation Game
    A superb thriller and a worthy biopic of a real hero. It’s also simultaneously an encouraging follow-up for Headhunters’ Morten Tyldum, an impressive debut for screenwriter Graham Moore, and a big-screen career highlight for Benedict Cumberbatch.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Guardians of the Galaxy
    As much as Guardians largely thrives through its lovably scuzzy style, it cannot avoid the immense tractor-beam pull of The Big Marvel Studios Final Act.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
    The odd conclusion renders it somewhat oblique, but Perfume is a feast for the senses.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
    As well as properly rooting itself in the game’s lore – a win for its players, who will find plenty of geeky Easter eggs here – Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves crucially captures the spirit of the game: that sense of gathering with friends to embark on deadly quests, while also having a bloody good laugh.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
    The Hobbit plays younger and lighter than Fellowship and its follow-ups, but does right by the faithful and has a strength in Martin Freeman's Bilbo that may yet see this trilogy measure up to the last one. There is treasure here.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    State of Play
    Once you get over the unlikelihood of Affleck and Crowe as buddies, State Of Play stands as a sterling thriller, benefiting from admirable convictions and an arguable return to form by Russell Crowe.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Unsane
    A raw, lean and abrasively effective thriller from Steven Soderbergh, which features Claire Foy as we’ve never seen her before.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Shadow Dancer
    As beige as an old PC, but beneath the surface the blood pumps bright scarlet. An intelligent and emotionally charged spy drama.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Three Musketeers - Part 2: Milady
    If you loved D’Artagnan, you won’t be let down by Milady. If you’ve not seen D’Artagnan, then get ready to enjoy the year’s best non-Barbenheinmer double bill.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Whale
    Yes, he is at times hard to watch. But Fraser makes The Whale a deeply empathic and touching experience.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Fahrenheit 11/9
    An uneven but appropriately rousing attack on Trump, which occasionally loses its focus as it makes its bigger, scarier points about the United States’ slide into despotism.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Labor Day
    A tender, nostalgic and warm ‘family’ drama which also quietly seethes with the threat and tension of imminent danger. Labor Day shows a new side to Jason Reitman as a filmmaker, and we like it.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Prestige
    The Prestige traces the course of their bitter feud, as their respective acts of sabotage become ever more deadly.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Days of Glory
    A war film more of sober, grim reflection than balls-out escapades. Yet it grips consistently, its bursts of combat delivering gut-punches of veracity.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    A Walk Among the Tombstones
    Like a good butcher’s cleaver, it’s weighty, solid and sharp — an effective matching of director and star in what is hopefully the first of a new film series.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Banshees of Inisherin
    The film is engrossing and beautifully mounted, and is sure to not disappoint anyone who’s enjoyed McDonagh’s previous rough rides.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Road
    One of the most chillingly effective visions of the world’s end ever put on screen -- and a heart-rending study of parenthood, to boot.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Where to Invade Next
    Michael Moore proves that in six years between films he’s lost none of his power as a popular polemicist, and while the overall structure of his argument here is flimsy, the details he reveals have impact, suggesting a fair and just society is not an unattainable Utopia.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Darkest Hour
    Churchill’s darkest hour is Gary Oldman’s finest. Gripping, touching, amusing and enlightening, his performance is the prime reason this film must be seen — but not the only one.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Hostiles
    A finely crafted Western which doesn’t flinch from portraying the horrors inflicted during that violent era, and which boasts an astounding performance from Christian Bale.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Noah
    Inventive, ambitious, brutal and beautiful: a potent mythological epic. But also wilfully challenging, as likely to infuriate as inspire, whether through its unmitigated Old Testament harshness or its eco-message revisionism. If only more blockbusters were like this.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Tully
    Sharply observed but tenderly realised, Tully brings back the Reitman we knew and loved, represents Cody’s finest work since Juno, and reminds us why Theron deserved that 2004 Oscar.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Project Nim
    Gripping, heart-wrenching, powerful and a sad indictment of scientific practice, which shows that 'human' and 'humane' are all-too-often mutually exclusive.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    A Monster Calls
    Part fairy tale/creature feature/domestic melodrama, this adds up to far more than a ‘one boy and his monster’ story — and is a tougher emotional journey as a result.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Loving
    Less a ‘civil rights drama’ than a tender portrait of a marriage suffering unimaginable stress, Loving soars thanks to its narrative approach and career-best performances from Negga and Edgerton.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Destroyer
    A grim, dour dive into one LA cop’s unravelling, which centres on a truly transformative performance from Nicole Kidman.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Beast
    A strong debut from director Michael Pearce, with a gripping performance by newcomer Jessie Buckley. So much more than just another serial-killer movie.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Wind Rises
    While Miyazaki’s two-hour-long, historical-melodrama swansong is destined to be his most divisive film yet, it is also his most adult and interesting, and never less than visually breathtaking throughout.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Life of Chuck
    Part end-of-the-world drama, part musical, part coming-of-age ghost story, The Life Of Chuck won’t please everyone. But, if you open yourself to its brazen sincerity, you might just shed a life-affirming tear or two.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Robin Hood
    Grown-up but not too serious; action-packed but not juvenile… Not only is this the mullet-free Robin Hood movie we’ve been waiting decades for, it’s also Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe at their most entertaining since Gladiator.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Senna
    Ambitiously constructed, deeply compelling, thrilling and in no way only for those who like watching cars drive in circles. A worthy paean to a true talent.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Logan
    When it comes to playing a properly magnetic anti-hero with a gruff ’70s-cinema exterior and a dark reservoir of inner depth, Jackman really is the best at what he does.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Everything Everywhere All at Once
    The concept is a doozy, ripe with comedic juice and packed with visual thrills.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Fantastic Four: First Steps
    With an exemplary cast and shiny new alt-universe to enjoy, this is the best Fantastic Four yet. And if that bar’s too low for you, then it’s also the best Marvel movie in years.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Cowboys & Aliens
    A simple entertainment in a summer of overcomplicated disappointments. Also much harder-edged than you may have expected.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Foxcatcher
    Another dramatic triumph for Bennett Miller, though it is his toughest and least glamorous outing yet. A sad and horrible story, expertly and compellingly told.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    It may climax with an overly formulaic splurge, but The Winter Soldier benefits from an old-school-thriller tone that, for its first half at least, distinguishes it from its more obviously superheroic Marvel cousins.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
    Starting the moment Breaking Bad ended, this is very much a ‘what happened next’ double-episode. Which means, short of resurrecting Walter White, El Camino does precisely what you want it do.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Big Hero 6
    The Scooby-Doo-ish central plot is forgivable in a movie with so much visual verve, energetic action and a character so wondrously designed as Baymax.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Alan Partridge
    Ruddy hilarious. Just what big-screen comedy needed.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Django Unchained
    Another strong, sparky and bloody entry in the QT canon. Although, creaking under its running time, it's not quite as uproariously entertaining as his last pseudo-historical adventure, "Inglourious Basterds."
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
    Unique, beautiful and endlessly fascinating. It really is a work of art.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    V for Vendetta
    Setting out more to challenge us with its ideas than make us whoop at the action, Vendetta can be clumsy, but there are enough impressive flourishes to make up for its stumblings.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Kingsman: The Golden Circle
    As ultraviolent as the first film, and as ultrasmutty, The Golden Circle will leave the Kingsfans grinning, even if its characters have less growing to do this time around.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene
    Psycho’s accepted greatness means we can leave it on the shelf as we look for newer sensations. This prompts an urgent desire to revisit it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Beats
    Beats is a truly heartfelt rites-of-passage tale — an immersive, intoxicating portrayal of the rave scene at its peak.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Welcome to the Punch
    A confident, ambitious and action-rich Brit thriller, albeit one whose characters and clarity suffer from the frantic intensity of its pacing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Eden
    Partly the story of a music scene, but mostly the story of a man who realises that living the dream isn’t always the best thing for your life. Vivid, immersive and blessed with a perfectly nostalgic soundtrack.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
    A devastating heart-stab of a movie, this certainly isn't a family film. It is, however, a beautifully constructed, animated drama.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Suicide Squad
    Like Avengers Assemble forced through a Deadpool mangle, Suicide Squad gives new life to DC’s big-screen universe. So bad-to-the-bone it’s good.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Magnus
    An engaging study of a beautiful but mysterious mind, which also reveals the stressful nature of world-class chess tournaments and raises the deep question of where intelligence actually comes from.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Mud
    A bold, intelligent, 21st century take on Mark Twain — with added occult tendencies.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Christy
    This is Sweeney’s film. Christy is a career-best turn, sure to draw favourable comparisons with Hilary Swank (who, funnily enough, gets a namecheck in one scene, as Million Dollar Baby was released during the movie’s timespan). She may not be a problematic dude, but she’s certainly Michôd’s most impressive lead performer yet.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Where the Wild Things Are
    A film for anyone who’s ever climbed trees, grazed knees or basked in the comfort of a parent’s sympathy as they’ve pulled you off the ground crying. It’ll make your inner child run wild.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Solo: A Star Wars Story
    A bright and breezy sideshow adventure makes up for its overly frantic pacing with a charismatic central turn from Alden Ehrenreich — strong enough to make us want to see even more of him in Solo mode.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Legend
    Helgeland’s savvy new take on this well-known story proves that crime can pay, while Hardy is astonishing and magnetic in two truly towering performances.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Wendy
    A new take on Peter Pan that actually works, delivering all the visual richness you’d hope for from the film-maker behind Beasts Of The Southern Wild.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Descent
    Brutal, bloody, terrifying, astonishing... And so tense it'll leave you aching. The most significant Brit chiller since "28 Days Later."
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Once
    The year’s most pleasant cinematic surprise. Once has enough heart, wit, verve and sheer songwriting genius to ensure you’ll see it far more times than its title suggests.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    The Suicide Squad
    While this sounds like it could be a lurid, teen-boy-fever-dream mess, Gunn gels it together with a wicked sense of humour and an evident affection for his characters who, though not so endearing as his Guardians of the Galaxy, are a hoot to hang around with.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Bleed for This
    It may be predictable, but Bleed For This still grabs with its astonishing against-all-odds true story, and its belter of a central performance from Miles Teller.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Hail, Caesar!
    It’s not like the film is hollow — hidden at its heart, in fact, is a struggle for the soul of Hollywood — it’s just that it feels more like a series of pleasant diversions rather than a single, solid journey.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Good Boy
    A highly effective indie horror that overcomes the familiarity of its scares with the brilliantly executed novelty of its canine conceit.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Midnight Special
    Nichols mounts impressive visual effects and frantic bursts of action.... But the film’s strength is in its humanity rather than its super-humanity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Ex Machina
    Stylish, elegant, tense, cerebral, satirical and creepy. Garland’s directorial debut is his best work yet, while Vikander’s bold performance will short your circuits.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Dan Jolin
    Contagion
    A starkly effective ensemble drama which could well do for the sniffles what Jaws did for great whites.
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