John Bleasdale

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CineVue
For 374 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 39% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 59% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

John Bleasdale's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Hit the Road
Lowest review score: 20 Victoria and Abdul
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 178 out of 374
  2. Mixed: 189 out of 374
  3. Negative: 7 out of 374
374 movie reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 John Bleasdale
    The Eternal Daughter
    The Eternal Daughter is very much a minor film for Hogg: a small chamber piece which could be watched as amusing marginalia to The Souvenir diptych. It’s a hangout film for those among you who can’t get enough Tilda Swinton and an incredibly cute dog, and as such it works. It doesn’t really have anything to say, and the meta-ness feels a little tired.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Other People's Children
    Nothing particularly unusual or dramatic happens for the first hour of the film, and yet it is so beautifully done and engaging that the whole thing is riveting to watch.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    I Am Not a Witch
    Mulubwa’s performance gives I Am Not a Witch its furious heart, but Nyoni weaves her spells subtly and has produced a film of intensity, satire and grace.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 John Bleasdale
    Clouds of Sils Maria
    Both actresses are excellent, with Binoche given more to do and she flips between attempting to get into the skin of her character and back to her normal self. Stewart, on the other hand, has an easy naturalism as she moves from devotion to rebellion without ever being able to fully express herself.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    The Other Side of the Wind
    It is remarkably good.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 John Bleasdale
    Wildlife
    It might be that the actor Dano baulks at taking the scissors to any of the performances of his fellow thespians, or that screenwriters Dano and Zoe Kazan are too faithful to Richard Ford’s source novel but this results in a deadening of effect that renders the melancholy monotonous.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Pride
    It's a feel good movie but also a refreshing blast from the past, expressing a nostalgia for a time when political quietism and apathy had not won the day and a Billy Bragg song made more than historical sense.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Io Capitano
    There are moments when Garrone’s vision strays too close to the fable in its narrative even as its images portray a brutal reality. However, Io Capitano doesn’t lose its humanity.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 John Bleasdale
    Mountains May Depart
    As every section seeks to deepen and complicate the basic message of Mountains May Depart - that the incredible speed of technology and society has its prices and dangers - and the failure of the final section dilutes where it should intensify.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Loving
    It should confirm Nichols' reputation as a mature filmmaker of great tact and intelligence.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 John Bleasdale
    Last Breath
    Last Breath makes for a very decent entry into the survival genre of films like Touching the Void with the added appeal of the submarine movie and all the claustrophobia and intensity that comes with that.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Beasts of No Nation
    Fukunaga and his actors - especially the two leads - have managed to create a riveting drama which is suitably appalling.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Monster
    Despite the multiple viewpoints, Monster is actually the anti-Rashomon, a jigsaw puzzle rather than a riddle wrapped in an enigma. The care and empathy with which the director and writer, as well as the performers, extend to all corners of the piece is extraordinary.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
    Even magnificent scenery like this can get dull if there’s no invention or novelty to proceedings, but fortunately the six tales collected in the dusty old hardback book The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Other Tales of the Wild West, complete with colour plates and tracing paper, are packed with originality, poetry and glorious wit.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Green Room
    Scary and funny by turns, Green Room has the potential to become a cult hit, with a genuine midnight movie appeal, and furthers the growing reputation of this young director.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    How to Have Sex
    This isn’t a film about sexual assault as a rare aberration, but about a culture which collectively diminishes any notion of consent and encourages a rush to experience.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Let the Sunshine In
    Bright Sunshine In is a pithily precise portrait of the love life of an artist.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Fences
    With its depth and power, Wilson's play is a blue-collar Death of a Salesman and the music of the dialogue, with Davis and Washington at the peak of their powers, makes the whole thing sing.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Brawl in Cell Block 99
    Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a midnight movie to relish.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Priscilla
    There is quite literally a darkness at the heart of the American dream as seen through the eyes of a teenage girl.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    The Age of Shadows
    The Age of Shadows is a bloody and breathtaking piece of filmmaking which confirms that Kim can do pretty much anything.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 40 John Bleasdale
    Tori and Lokita
    The final twist is so manipulative and cynical as to be actually enraging.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 John Bleasdale
    3 Faces
    Panahi keeps everything as softly spoken as his own onscreen presence and yet some of those quiet observations are devastating.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    After Yang
    After Yang is a moving, subtle and grounded piece of science fiction that doesn’t necessarily get to the core, but certainly hits the heart.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    I, Daniel Blake
    Following the disappointing period dalliance of Jimmy's Hall, Ken Loach's latest I, Daniel Blake is something of a return to form. It stands as a succinct and furious raging against the dying of the light, or more accurately the snuffing of the light by a privatised and punitive system more intent on lowering the figures than caring for those in need.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 40 John Bleasdale
    A Gentle Creature
    Despite a first half of great promise, the film is ultimately ground down by the endless suffering even as it bloats with a bizarre lurch into satirical fantasy.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    The Sisters Brothers
    After the profanity-laced Shakespearean barrage of Deadwood, Dewitt and Audiard’s Wild West is a more prosaic place, but it is also sharply intelligent, extremely funny and full of surprises.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Tickling Giants
    Youssef himself with his crooked smile and exuberant enthusiasm comes across as someone who in a normal state of affairs would be just another amiably slick joker. But in this context he takes on the bravery and the bearing of a hero.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 John Bleasdale
    Human Flow
    With its epic scale and global reach, Human Flow is a powerful testament to a shameful crime against humanity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 John Bleasdale
    Broker
    It’s impossible not to be beguiled by the sweetness of the comedy, the skill of the performers and sheer craft of the film. But hopefully next time out Kore-eda will use it in the service of a plot which is more believable.
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