Donald Clarke

Select another critic »
The Irish Times
For 556 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Donald Clarke's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Son of Saul
Lowest review score: 20 Sonic the Hedgehog
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 280 out of 556
  2. Mixed: 255 out of 556
  3. Negative: 21 out of 556
556 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    A Hidden Life
    Exhaustingly beautiful, serious of purpose, the film knows where it’s going and, when it gets there, it stays for a very, very long time. A Hidden Life risks inducing Stendhal syndrome with its early overload of beauty. It risks something closer to narcolepsy in its repetitive final act. But even then, the singularity of Malick’s approach repels irritation.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Bad Boys for Life
    It is impossible to watch the picture without meditating on the way video games have changed action cinema. Similar thoughts kicked up during the very different 1917, but the loop is more dizzying here.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Donald Clarke
    The Personal History of David Copperfield
    Against the odds, Iannucci has delivered a minor miracle. Somehow or other, he has managed to touch all familiar elements over 119 consistently delicious minutes without allowing the slightest whiff of compromise.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Donald Clarke
    Uncut Gems
    The audience, eager to give such characters their due, has to crane its collective neck as the momentum drags it to a relentless conclusion. But it’s worth the muscular strain. There’s more to Uncut Gems than dizzying momentum.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    1917
    The film is a genre entertainment and, like all such beasts, it honours certain conventions and allows certain compromises.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Donald Clarke
    Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker
    The film is merely a component part of a larger machine (the trilogy) that plugs into an even larger mechanism (the Star Wars universe). It has no more use or appeal when examined in isolation than would a sparkplug or a distributor cap.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    The Bishop's Wife
    In short, the third best Christmas film ever.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Imitation of Life
    By way of contrast, Imitation of Life and its predecessors really poked their noses into the ratty, fetid spaces behind the plush curtains.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Once Upon a Time in America
    Once Upon a Time in America remains the most “problematic” of Leone’s major pictures. It is enveloping, operatic and slightly mad. We can forgive the confusion and the non- synchronised dialogue. But to this day the misogyny remains indigestible. [2014 re-release]
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Donald Clarke
    The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
    Maybe, Morgan’s Creek does not have the ironic grit of Sullivan’s Travels or the suave perfection of The Lady Eve, but, as a showcase for Sturges the comic impresario, it can hardly be bettered.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    The Keeper
    The story’s underlying message has ended up more relevant than the film-makers can ever have anticipated.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Donald Clarke
    Mirror (1975)
    Mirror is much copied, but as the recent run of Terrence Malick films demonstrates, eschewing time and plot for flotsam and psyche is much harder than Tarkovsky makes it look.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Pillion
    At the heart of Pillion, a very English class of reasonableness brushes against an equally English interest in hierarchical kink. Nothing wrong with that sort of thing, but doesn’t it play terrible havoc with the knees.
next
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »