Martyn Conterio

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CineVue
For 71 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 67% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 28% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 11.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Martyn Conterio's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 77
Highest review score: 100 Jaws
Lowest review score: 20 Dirty Grandpa
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 52 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 71
  3. Negative: 1 out of 71
71 movie reviews
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    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Lynch/Oz
    What Philippe does yet again, as with his his previous documentaries, is a bang-up job of examining what makes great films great, and here it is twofold: showing that The Wizard of Oz is not just an all-timer in its own right, but showcasing how Lynch drew on its emotional and cosmic resonance, in overt and oblique ways, for his own iconic forays.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Bros
    It’s an important moment for representation on-screen and surprisingly political in nature.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    You Won't Be Alone
    It’s wholesale thievery of what is a director’s famed aesthetic, for sure, but it does somehow fit the lyrical and haunting material, often beautifully so. Also, the shallow field of depth used to heighten – and blur – the boundaries between the magical world and the natural world is successful in creating rich atmospheres.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    Bones and All
    Bones and All, like the best horror movies, finds poetry in the frightening, in the transgressive, in the perverse. It mines light from darkness and transforms it before our eyes into something universal, shining and true, no matter how ephemeral.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    The Retaliators
    Written by first-time screenwriters Darren and Jeff Allen Geare, The Retaliators deserves praise for its storytelling and plotting. For a good hour or so, the direction in which the film heads is destination unknown.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    AV: The Hunt
    Director Akay is not messing around with his disgusted assessments of conservative Turkey in 2020.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Sundown
    Sundown is a film full of narrative and emotional surprises, upending the middle-aged bloke having a midlife crisis storyline, with Yves Cape’s cinematography capturing the classy and mundane locations with equally seductive attributes. Roth and Franco’s second rodeo is a melancholic banger.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Earwig
    In a just world, Hadžihalilović would be as acclaimed as somebody like Tim Burton, whose greatest films boast a spiritual connection of sorts to the French director.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Knocking
    The horror in Knocking isn’t supernatural or down to mental illness: it’s societal. The clever switch in perspective leaves a haunting impression and makes Kempff’s segue into fiction a triumph.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    No Man of God
    No Man of God sets out to demystify serial killers and achieves its aim.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    Censor
    An ambitious, clever, and inventive psychogenic fugue, Censor is rough around the edges and shot on a shoestring, sure, however Bailey-Bond has compelling and vital comments to make on art, media consumption, politics, and society.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Deerskin
    The result is predictably crackpot and enigmatic.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    The Columnist
    This film throws toxic male aggression right back at them.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    Rose Plays Julie
    Its emotional dilemmas, depictions of trauma, revenge and fractured family ties are handled with such skill and sense of purpose, it is truly exemplary film-making.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    A Ghost Waits
    A Ghost Waits is an unexpectedly heartfelt gem of micro-budgeted filmmaking.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Don't Click
    Don’t Click is anti-torture porn, a rebuke to mindless muck for the sake of entertainment. It’s likely, though, Don’t Click will be quickly accused of being exactly what it’s rallying against.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    12 Hour Shift
    Entertaining from start to finish and wonderfully played by a largely female cast, David Arquette has a small role as an escaped convict, Grant’s film beautifully upends the sexist notion that women are naturally inclined to nurture. It surprises, too, as a tribute to the fortitude of working-class women.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    The Swerve
    Suburban suffocation, impending doom, a tragedy waiting to happen, The Swerve is a compelling depiction of existential angst, melancholy, and mental illness, with director Kapsalis opting for subtlety over big-scene meltdown histrionics and much to his credit.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    The Cordillera of Dreams
    The Cordillera of Dreams is a stirring look at a nation still recovering from the brutalisation meted out by General Pinochet’s callous and paranoid actions, but Guzmán goes further to offer his opinion of the present issues facing the country, specifically neoliberalism’s assault on land, resources and people.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Young Ahmed
    Told respectfully and far from tarring an entire religion with the same brush, Young Ahmed is an exceptionally crafted and intelligent film.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    The Wild Goose Lake
    The editing might be unexpected, unconventional, a bit annoying, but it is also very smart. Creating as it does a vital tension between plot and theme, pushing the two characters unrelentingly towards an event horizon and black hole denouement.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    A Hidden Life
    If you’re an admirer of Malick’s poetic investigations into the mysteries of existence, faith and our tragic disconnection to the natural world, A Hidden Life will leave you enraptured and profoundly moved.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Les Misérables
    Although the handling of certain plot dynamics on occasion isn’t as strong as its potent aesthetic finesse, Ly mounts a thriller operating as a savage indictment of social policies and underhand police tactics and ass-covering corruption.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Atlantics
    It doesn’t quite click, is too weird, leads to a lurch from one cinematic style to the other and fails to gel as a satisfying whole. Yet the director’s imaginative intention is apparent in the first shot.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Alita: Battle Angel
    Not without flaws, but nothing to get too worked up about, Alita: Battle Angel is cynicism-free, first-class popcorn entertainment spearheaded by a knockout performance from Salazar. A star is born.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Under The Wire
    Martin’s film is a thoroughly sobering watch and leaves us with tough questions about how the West chose to deal – or rather not deal – with Assad and the refugee crisis.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    They Shall Not Grow Old
    Jackson and his entire production team have produced a film which is both a form of cultural monument and a monumental cinematic achievement.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    Ayka
    Once we start to understand Ayka’s life and reasons for behaving how she does, the film gains tragic dimensions and its humanist voice grows into a desperate cry.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Capernaum
    Makes for a generally powerful statement on human misery and grotesque inequality, though some third act creative decisions and maneuvers cause a wobble or two.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    The Wild Pear Tree
    The Wild Pear Tree isn’t a showy or boldly radical work, this is still Ceylan’s brand of poetic landscapes and intimate dramas, but it does represent an intriguing artistic progression, so any claims of ‘more of the same’ are redundant.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Girls of the Sun
    Husson’s film is first and foremost an appalling account of stomach-churning misogyny and the sickening horrors Kurdish women met at the hands of their vile captors.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Donbass
    The film’s displays of humour give away to harsher scenes of brutality and intense moments where rural calm is suddenly disrupted by mortar explosions and transformed landscapes dotted with corpses.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    At War
    The final moments veer too far towards the melodramatic, especially when the rest of the movie has exhibited a preference for the intellectual powers of argument, logic and reason, however the sense of desperation and accompanying symbolism is tragically potent.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    BlacKkKlansman
    That Lee has crafted a funny film full of snazzy editing, stylish imagery and a tremendous blues rock score, yet is laser-focused on a very serious subject matter, demonstrates his mastery of the cinematic medium.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    Birds of Passage
    Birds of Passage is an enthralling, powerful statement and lamentation on the drugs trade’s inevitable encroachment upon on indigenous peoples and how gangsters casually destroyed them.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Climax
    The film is freaky, experimental, sometimes hilarious and unnervingly intense.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Ghost Stories
    Ghost Stories is uncomfortably timely, reminding us the haunted past is always haunting the present.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Isle of Dogs
    The film is packed with laugh-out-loud moments, full of deadpan observations – a quintessential Anderson touch – and exciting sequences.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    The Untamed
    Escalante is a master filmmaker when it comes to creating atmosphere.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Alien: Covenant
    As a return to the dark, primal and transgressive terrors of the original movie, Alien: Covenant is a success.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Another Evil
    Nothing else this year can match Another Evil for its expert chills, comic dialogue, Office-level cringe and disturbing themes.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    A Cure for Wellness
    Verbinski doesn't skimp on thrills, mind you. There are jump scares galore, acts of literally penetrating violence and the denouement goes for full-on operatic perversity. Fans of Gothic horror - treat yourself and take the cure.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Prevenge
    Covering depression, grief and pregnancy as body-horror, the end result is a palpably unusual mix of comedy, pathos and gruesome violence
    • 42 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    My Father Die
    My Father, Die's pummelling violence and existentialist leanings would be too absurd if set in County Kerry or County Mayo, but the doom-filled lyricism - its bloodied, weary soul - might best be described as Beckett with gunplay.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    The Wailing
    Not only is the film a compellingly told tale of suspense and terror, but it's crafted with such precision and sense of timing that one can cry "Masterpiece!" without being shamefaced or wondering if a hyperbole-induced crime against all good sense has just been committed.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    The Love Witch
    Biller is an eccentric talent - always a plus in the world of film - and The Love Witch is a triumph of form and style.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    Under the Shadow
    Under the Shadow is not only perfectly paced, the storytelling and plotting is emotionally gripping. The director also uses setting and location, composition and framing like a master of horror.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    31
    31 is a horror show delivered in hammer blows, or 'Whitechapel-style'. You either dig it or you don't.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Witness for the Prosecution
    While not amongst the greater, more celebrated titles in Billy Wilder’s acclaimed filmography, his big screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution boasts a fine, scenery-chewing performance by Charles Laughton, here playing a cantankerous barrister defending a murder suspect.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    Au Revoir les Enfants
    William Faulkner once made the sage point that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Louis Malle’s Golden Lion winner Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) is a Second World War-set film very much guided in spirit by the US novelist’s musing on the febrile relationship between memory, time and individual and collective histories.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Martyn Conterio
    Jaws
    Jaws is still terrific and has lost none of its bite.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Martyn Conterio
    Freaks
    Undoubtedly flawed, Freaks is also admirably bonkers and quite simply unforgettable.

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