Stephen Dalton

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Film Journal International, The Film Verdict, The Hollywood Reporter
For 251 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 36% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 59% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Stephen Dalton's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 90 A Hard Day
Lowest review score: 20 Unhinged
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 131 out of 251
  2. Mixed: 101 out of 251
  3. Negative: 19 out of 251
251 movie reviews
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    • 97 Metascore
    • 70 Stephen Dalton
    Parasite
    Like much of Bong’s work, Parasite is cumbersomely plotted and heavy-handed in its social commentary. The largely naturalistic treatment here may also alienate some of his fantasy fanboy constituency. That said, this prickly contemporary drama still feels more coherent and tonally assured than Snowpiercer or Okja, and packs a timely punch that will resonate in our financially tough, politically polarized times.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 70 Stephen Dalton
    45 Years
    Do not expect blazing emotional fireworks, just finely calibrated performances and deep reserves of inner torment.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    The Irishman
    Scorsese's choice to make this a standalone feature and not a limited series seems mildly perplexing. Anyone hoping for the propulsive dynamism of, say, Goodfellas or Casino may be disappointed. But The Irishman is also on many levels a beautifully crafted piece of deluxe cinema.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 84 Stephen Dalton
    The Zone of Interest
    The Zone of Interest is a gloriously original work and a boldly experimental addition to the canon of high-calibre Holocaust cinema.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Drive My Car
    There are poetic and profound rewards here, even if Hamaguchi makes us wait too long for this quietly devastating emotional pay-off.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Before We Vanish
    Perpetually shifting gears between playful sci-fi pastiche, quirky rom-com and apocalyptic thriller, Before We Vanish might have worked better as a single dedicated genre, but it becomes a little scrambled trying to cover several at once.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    They Shall Not Grow Old
    As a immersive primer on the first-hand experiences of British soldiers, this innovative documentary is a haunting, moving and consistently engaging lesson in how to bring the past vividly alive
    • 91 Metascore
    • 65 Stephen Dalton
    Anora
    An overlong runtime, underwritten characters and some uneasy tonal wobbles dampen the film’s punchy humour and propulsive energy.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 70 Stephen Dalton
    The Brutalist
    The Brutalist aims for symphonic grandeur and novelistic depth. It partially succeeds, though it too often mistakes pomposity for profundity, and bloated verbosity for literary nuance.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    The Silence of Others
    There is no big redemptive payoff here, just a few small victories and hopeful pointers to the future. The struggle continues. But this is still a very necessary story, delivered with rigor and conviction.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 55 Stephen Dalton
    Killers of the Flower Moon
    Most strikingly, for a murder thriller, Killers of the Flower Moon is fatally lacking in dread or suspense.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 70 Stephen Dalton
    Manuscripts Don't Burn
    An unflinching portrait of state-sponsored evil, Manuscripts Don’t Burn feels like the work of an angry artist who has been jailed, censored and harassed too long. This time it’s personal.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Infinity Pool
    The latest sci-fi horror fable from Canadian writer-director Brandon Cronenberg is his most deliciously dark, richly allegorical nightmare vision to date. A bleakly satirical, sexually graphic, hallucinatory thriller about wealthy tourists resorting to debauched savagery in a fictional foreign country,
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
    Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is full of understated, melancholy poetry.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Amy
    As a whole, Amy is an emotionally stirring and technically polished tribute, its sprawling mass of diverse source material elegantly cleaned up, color-corrected and shaped into a satisfying narrative.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Stephen Dalton
    Ilo Ilo
    Finely acted and minutely observed, Ilo Ilo certainly has the texture of real life. The performances feel authentic, the emotional shadings agreeably nuanced.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Stephen Dalton
    Night Will Fall
    Inevitably harrowing and sickening in places, but with tender and uplifting moments, Night Will Fall is a somber treatment of a serious topic which earns its place in the broad pantheon of Holocaust-themed cinema. It is just a shame that Singer's worthy memorial feels a little too small for its world-shaking theme and world-famous cast list.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Varda by Agnès
    The director is such an engaging presence onscreen — wry and humane, balancing sly social commentary with a playfully child-like attitude — that even a minor autumnal work like this is still a heart-warming mood-lifter.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Tales of the Grim Sleeper
    Tales of the Grim Sleeper is unusually somber and conventional by Broomfield's standards, relying more on slow accumulation of detail than caustic commentary or ambush interviews. But it has a quiet emotional force which pays off during the powerful final sequence.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Black Conflux
    Even if this deceptively artful debut feels a little muted and unpolished in places, it is plainly the work of a skilled filmmaker with ample future potential.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Aferim!
    Do not be fooled by the playful, irreverent tone. Behind its attractive surface sheen of lusty humor and ravishing visuals, this Trojan Horse drama makes some spiky topical points about the lingering scars of slavery, feudalism, misogyny and racism.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Stephen Dalton
    Universal Language
    Blending autobiographical elements with heartfelt homages to Iranian cinema, writer-director Matthew Rankin's charmingly surreal comic fable reimagines Canada as a Farsi-speaking dreamland.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Stephen Dalton
    Limbo
    Limbo is an appealing little gem overall, with a feel-good message about the kindness of strangers that is glib and simplistic but hard to resist.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Bait
    Jenkin's heavily stylized debut is a disorienting experience at first, but it ultimately creates a boldly Expressionistic mood of uncanny beauty and mesmerizing otherness.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Burning Bush
    A deluxe multi-character drama that blends real history with semi-fictionalized spy thriller and soap opera elements, Burning Bush feels in places like an extended Czech remake of the Cold War-themed German Oscar-winner The Lives of Others.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    Red Army
    Red Army is a slick, witty, fast-moving blend of sports story and history lesson.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 78 Stephen Dalton
    Souleymane's Story
    The Story of Souleymane is more than its individual parts. Scenes fly by, prompted by the move-move-move! ethos of the hustling immigrant. This is a film told close in close quarters. On several occasions, the camera is so close to our hero that you can smell the desperation coming off his skin, which, as richly and darkly lensed by Tristan Galand, is mutedly lustrous.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    The Girl with the Needle
    Graced by a strong cast, visual poetry and great formal control, this brooding meditation on evil still resonates a century later.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Stephen Dalton
    Apocalypse in the Tropics
    Adding an extra religious dimension to an already densely packed sociopolitical soap opera, Costa tells a rich story here about the fuzzy line between democracy and theocracy, clashing spiritual values and inflammatory culture-war rhetoric.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Stephen Dalton
    The Waldheim Waltz
    For all its narrow focus, this is a pleasingly personal breakdown of a fascinating episode in recent European history, tightly composed and crisply edited, with an appealing undertow of dry humor and some cautionary lessons for modern voters.
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