Luke Buckmaster

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The Guardian
For 63 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 57% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 37% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Luke Buckmaster's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 69
Highest review score: 100 You'll Never Find Me
Lowest review score: 20 True Spirit
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 63
  2. Mixed: 27 out of 63
  3. Negative: 1 out of 63
63 movie reviews
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    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Ali's Wedding
    This is a film in which you will hear a letter read aloud, with a voice-over saying the words “you dared to dream”, delivered without irony. It is, as they say, what it is. Perhaps most interesting is Walker’s depiction of the mosque congregation. With its politics and divided factions, this part of the film feels utterly authentic and is dramatically interesting.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Luke Buckmaster
    I Am Mother
    The way it subverts (to say the least) traditional concepts around a parent/child relationship gives it uniqueness and value.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Luke Buckmaster
    The Man from Snowy River
    More than just an Aussie horse opera, this film employs stunning scenery, technical flair and Kirk Douglas in two roles in its pursuit of an uplifting conclusion.
    • 23 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Music
    The autistic characters feel more like dramatic tools to improve the circumstances of neurotypical people, rather than fully-fledged humans who think, feel and act on their own terms.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Luke Buckmaster
    Wyrmwood: Apocalypse
    Kiah Roache-Turner keeps the camera moving and the cuts regular, setting a cracking energy that’s particularly important for midnight movies like this, concerned more with relishing carnage than telling a story.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Luke Buckmaster
    H is for Happiness
    There is much to appreciate in this film; much to like. You don’t just watch it in big bright colours; you remember it in big bright colours too.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Luke Buckmaster
    Rams
    Rams is a lovely, even-tempered drama about men and rural life, gentle but firm of spirit, with a down-to-earth pith and a way of entertainingly and unpretentiously exploring potentially difficult subjects such as masculinity.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 90 Luke Buckmaster
    Long Weekend
    A masterpiece in minimalist horror.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Luke Buckmaster
    Romper Stomper
    A young Russell Crowe is spellbinding in this ugly but unforgettable film that remains hard-hitting and shockingly violent more than two decades on.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Went Up the Hill
    Things eventually escalate, the pressure valve of pent-up emotions building and releasing. But it’s a long and demanding ride to get there, full of solemn looks and thousand-yard stares.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Luke Buckmaster
    Jirga
    This very fine film has a way of pulling you towards its wavelength.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Luke Buckmaster
    Force of Nature: The Dry 2
    This film drips with pot boiler-ish twists and turns, and is saturated with genre machinations – engaged, like many mystery scripts, in surprising and one-upping the viewer. But developments in the last act especially – and there are no spoilers here – contain some tough pills to swallow.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Apex
    The whole affair feels slick but soulless, with no personality or – despite the lush settings – any real sense of place.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Back to the Outback
    The aesthetic of the animation is, like the script, rather nondescript, with boilerplate-looking gloss and shine – like any number of less memorable DreamWorks or Pixar productions
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Luke Buckmaster
    I Am Woman
    It is a lean and likeable, if slight and a little trite, celebration of the legendary Australian-American singer, feminist and anthem-creator Helen Reddy, shot with a rich neo-noirish texture by Oscar-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Penguin Bloom
    There is a great, moving story to tell about the real Sam Bloom – but this film only gets part of the way there.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Luke Buckmaster
    BMX Bandits
    A feast of kitsch and gaudy colour, set to the tune of an 80s synth soundtrack, the film plays like a G-rated music video. And Trenchard-Smith maintaining a buzzing energy throughout.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Luke Buckmaster
    Gold
    Gold is a minimalistic production, story and setting wise, with an interesting kind of contextual ambiguity: we know there is a wider world beyond the frame, though we don’t know what it looks like. Sparseness is intriguing, but this film is so damn sparse.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Luke Buckmaster
    Angel of Mine
    If some elements of Angel of Mine are simplistic, Rapace’s magnetic performance is anything but.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    2067
    If all the money in the world is no guarantee of a good story, all the technical innovations – the dressing of sets, the creation of effects, the careful management of what is in and out of the frame – is of course no guarantee of one either.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Dirt Music
    Dirt Music eventually arrives at a deep, thought-provoking moment – but it takes the entire film to get there.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee
    You wouldn’t want to overstate the film’s achievements, given that a lot of it comes across as weird, self-pitying flapdoodle. But this is, as they say, progress of a kind.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Luke Buckmaster
    Undertow
    What could have been a who’s-sleeping-with-who, tangled-web-we-weave drama quickly evolves into something much more compelling as Nation blurs the line between thriller, psychological drama and character study.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 100 Luke Buckmaster
    Acute Misfortune
    This is an enthralling drama: the best and most interesting Australian biopic since Chopper in 2000.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Palm Beach
    After a lax first half, Palm Beach slowly settles into a groove, growing in complexity and nuance. However, Ward’s laidback approach is not remotely cinematic (this feels more like a filmed play), and never is there a sense of urgency or stakes.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Luke Buckmaster
    In My Blood It Runs
    Despite such a heavy context, the tone of the film is soft and pensive rather than polemical, constructed with a lightness of touch. It is often inspirational, in a quiet sort of way, and this is derived almost entirely from Hoosan himself.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 100 Luke Buckmaster
    Burning
    This is a tremendously well-made film with a burning vitality: without question one of the most important Australian documentaries of the 21st century so far.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Expired
    This unquestionably ambitious film works best as a mood piece: it’s big, bold, cerebral and intensely unsubtle.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Luke Buckmaster
    Streamline
    Streamline’s narrative doesn’t go in the expected direction, with structural and emotional surprises making good on its promise to deliver a different kind of sports story, even if its final stretch is a tad neat.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Luke Buckmaster
    Ocean Boy
    Atkins uses these settings as pretty scaffolding for otherwise ordinary scenes.
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