Laura Venning

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Empire, Little White Lies
For 39 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 0% same as the average critic
  • 57% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Laura Venning's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 I Saw the TV Glow
Lowest review score: 40 Cat Person
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 39
  3. Negative: 0 out of 39
39 movie reviews
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    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Laura Venning
    Glenrothan
    Cox evidently harbours a profound love for his homeland, and it’s nice to see Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson speaking in their native Scottish accents for a change. But while it may inspire you to book a Highland holiday, there’s little else to take away from such a soppy passion project.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    The Moment
    A wry, sharp and never self-serious take on pop stardom.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    100 Nights of Hero
    The story unfolds at breakneck speed, with never a dull moment.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    The History of Sound
    A profoundly affecting story of doomed love and lost time that boasts captivating performances from Mescal and O’Connor. Come for the boys, stay for the magic of storytelling through song.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    Song Sung Blue
    As absurd as their story is, it’s hard not to be won over by Lightning & Thunder. You will have Sweet Caroline stuck in your head for what feels an eternity afterwards, though.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    Jay Kelly
    It’s a real pleasure to be whisked across the world by Baumbach, but perhaps this cinematic glass of Prosecco goes down rather too easily.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    Train Dreams
    The result is a melancholic, Terrence Malick-ian vision of a place that is brutal, beautiful and forever lost to time.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Laura Venning
    The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
    A genuine disappointment from an intriguing, potentially even subversive premise. It’s another commanding performance to add to Monroe’s oeuvre, but this Cradle is more frustrating and forgettable than it is thrilling.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    After the Hunt
    A decidedly grown-up thriller that will surely be torn to pieces by teens on TikTok, this feels like a slight wobble for Guadagnino, but is still a sharply entertaining and intense watch.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    A House of Dynamite
    Kathryn Bigelow is back with a bang. This is a bleak but adrenaline-pumping experience that’ll leave you shaken, and searching for the nearest bunker.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Laura Venning
    The Thursday Murder Club
    Maybe this would hit the spot for a Sunday-night sofa slump but it’s more patronising than perceptive when it comes to portraying ageing. As disappointing as a stale scone.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    Materialists
    It’s sometimes clumsily communicated but there’s something affecting about the reminder that it’s all worth the risk, or maybe it’s just that this writer has attended four weddings this summer.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    The Shrouds
    The Shrouds certainly fits neatly into Cronenberg’s filmography but stands apart as his most intimate work. It’s a hypnotic descent into the darkness of grief, punctuated by perverse Cronenbergian pleasures.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    Elio
    Robert Zemeckis’ Contact for kids. A slow start gives way to a charming, visually inventive adventure that might just inspire a new generation of astronomers to look to the skies.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Laura Venning
    The Salt Path
    Engaging turns from Anderson and Isaacs can’t elevate a narrative that ultimately goes nowhere, although it might make you want to get the tent out of the attic at long last.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    Mountainhead
    Darkly funny as it descends into farce and ends on a chilling final note, Mountainhead is, unfortunately, truly a film for the 2020s. Just don’t chase it with a doomscrolling session.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    The Wedding Banquet
    Where The Wedding Banquet really shines is in its characters, not only in its two romantic pairings that feel profoundly real, but also in subverting our expectations of its intergenerational relationships.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    The Alto Knights
    Occasionally clunky and retrograde but in the same manner as a story told by a grandparent, The Alto Knights reminds us that De Niro will always be cinema’s greatest gangster.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    The Order
    A decidedly grown-up thriller boasting several compelling performances, The Order is as tense and visceral as it is timely.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
    Mad About The Boy is a heartfelt, charming return to the chaos surrounding the one and only Bridget Jones. You might even shed a few tears.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    Hard Truths
    A gruelling but ultimately rewarding experience, this is Leigh at his most confrontational, devastating and humane, aided by the unadulterated power of Jean-Baptiste’s career-redefining performance.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    Companion
    Entertaining if inconsequential, Companion is buoyed by solid central performances from actors that seem keenly aware that it’s all just a bit of bloody fun. Viva la robot revolución!
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Laura Venning
    Here
    Another deeply flawed, tech-forward endeavour for Zemeckis in which glimmers of human emotion only occasionally break through. Like Cloud Atlas for baby boomers experiencing late-middle-age malaise.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    Rumours
    If you like your satire incisive you should perhaps look elsewhere, but the state of the world looks even more laughably absurd through Maddin and the Johnsons’ wickedly warped lens.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    Timestalker
    Timestalker lacks a little humour and insight into obsessive love to make it truly sing, but it’s an admirably ambitious fable that could be destined to become a cult oddity.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Laura Venning
    The Outrun
    Although sometimes baggy and uncontrolled, The Outrun is a sensitive, non-judgemental portrayal of addiction and mental illness, anchored by a typically transcendent performance from Saoirse Ronan.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    The Substance
    Feminist scholarship this ain’t; think Showgirls if it were directed by David Cronenberg. But give yourself permission to revel in the excess and be rewarded with an uproariously good time.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Laura Venning
    I Saw the TV Glow
    Visceral and intensely moving, this film feels like something you’d stumble across on TV in the small hours and never forget. It might herald a new era for queer cinema.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    Thelma
    Surprisingly exciting and laugh-out-loud funny, Thelma is a warm-hearted joyride. If anything, it’ll make you really want to pick up the phone and call your own grandma.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Laura Venning
    Here
    At only 84 minutes and light on plot, at times this film feels so slight that it might just slip through your fingers. And yet its ethereality is what makes it enchanting.
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