Phuong Le

Select another critic »
The Guardian
For 73 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 17% higher than the average critic
  • 21% same as the average critic
  • 62% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Phuong Le's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 80 Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie
Lowest review score: 20 Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 73
  2. Mixed: 48 out of 73
  3. Negative: 4 out of 73
73 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Seeds
    Echoing the cycle of crop cultivation, Shyne’s film inhabits the seasons of life, bookended by images of a funeral and the open sky. This vanishing way of life is imbued with a dose of melancholy, yet hope still remains for a better harvest in the future.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Cutting Through Rocks
    While we might want to hear more about the specific cultural geography of the Azeri Turk community to which Shahverdi belongs, this remains a thought-provoking portrait of an extraordinary spirit.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    The Colors Within
    While showing Totsuko’s religious beliefs respectfully, The Colors Within takes care to highlight how community can be meaningfully formed outside religion, in the embrace of creative arts.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    The Mother of All Lies
    In choosing to delve into the liminal space between history and recreation, El Moudir’s film radically prioritises friction over easy reconciliation, making space for secrets and lies in pursuit of the truth.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Art Talent Show
    Film-makers Adéla Komrzý and Tomáš Bojar are interested not only in the individual subjects, but also the hidden machinations of cultural institutions.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Return to Dust
    With a cast largely made up of the director’s relatives as well as villagers from the landlocked province, this deeply personal work on the plight of rural farmers has a striking feel of authenticity and poetry.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Children of the Mist
    From behind the camera, Ha Le Diem attempts to protect Di by reasoning with kidnappers, but is pushed away; she admits to the young girl later that she did not anticipate the tradition could be so brutal. The decision to leave in such details is particularly thought-provoking, fracturing the supposed neutrality of documentary film-makers.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Piggy
    In contrast to lesser horrors that attempt to be socially conscious, Piggy is much more specific and detailed in how it builds moods and atmosphere, especially the gossipy dynamics that run rampant in a tight-knit community.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Saloum
    Saloum does not stop at simply reinterpreting the tropes of the western but wholly retools its influences with local flavours.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Dry Ground Burning
    In a world marred by political hopelessness, Dry Ground Burning literally and figuratively sets the landscape on fire, and out of the ashes there is hope for a new order free from oppression.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash
    An adrenaline-pumping action fest that is ironic in many respects, Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash swerves towards the mystical and the spiritual in the latter half, becoming a earnest and potent critique on the trappings of masculinity.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Anek
    The film might be didactic in tone, but it is the kind of didacticism that injects political integrity into a cinematic landscape sorely lacking a backbone.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Luzzu
    On the face of it, this film is a commentary on the darker side of globalisation and modern commerce, but for Camilleri who was raised in Minnesota in a Maltese family, it also feels like a pilgrimage back to one’s roots, highlighting the specificities of the Maltese language and culture which are still sorely underrepresented in world cinema.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    A Night of Knowing Nothing
    Love for the moving image – and love for artistic creativity – marches hand in hand with the fight for political freedom.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie
    Bloody, action-packed and tragicomic all at once, this dazzling coming-of-age tale masterfully contemplates the knotty process of coming to terms with past traumas through a horror-fantasy lens.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    President
    What President does well is show that linear narrative is not necessarily the point in the fight for democracy. Victory might not be immediate, but the people’s hope for change will never die.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Balloon
    While armed with plenty of social critique, the beauty of Balloon goes beyond this tug-of-war between modernity and tradition.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Pier Kids
    Stories involving shocking discrimination and violence are filmed with a conspiratorial understanding, as if the camera is lending a friendly ear.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Sabaya
    The first 20 minutes of Hogir Hirori’s extraordinary documentary has the beat of a gripping thriller, full of hushed voices, car chases, and the terrifying sounds of gunfight.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    The Witches of the Orient
    By pairing real-life events with their animated interpretations, the film not only offers a fresh approach to documentary style but also draws out the tension between reality and artifice, private and public memory.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Phuong Le
    Sequin in a Blue Room
    That Sequin in a Blue Room was director Samuel van Grinsven’s graduate project is astonishing considering the film’s inspired visual panache, and the eroticism of the explicit depictions of casual sex. Leach’s performance in his first film acting credit is equally impressive; the way in which Sequin’s swagger gradually drains from his face to expose an inner vulnerability is incredibly moving.

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »