Xan Brooks

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The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer (UK)
For 194 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 53% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Xan Brooks' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 69
Highest review score: 100 Riefenstahl
Lowest review score: 0 Melania
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 100 out of 194
  2. Mixed: 91 out of 194
  3. Negative: 3 out of 194
194 movie reviews
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    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    About Endlessness
    About Endlessness contains moments of devilish wit, but at heart it is a sad, sweet picture, threaded with themes of estrangement and separation. Andersson isn’t exactly asking us to laugh at or pity these people. Instead, we’re being encouraged to wonder at their predicament – and perhaps relate it to our own.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    An Officer and a Spy
    It’s a solid, well-crafted piece of professional carpentry, like a heavy piece of Victorian furniture; built to last; built to be used. The longer you look at it, the more impressive it grows.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Foxtrot
    A nightmarish triptych of loss, waste and grief that is nonetheless arranged with such visionary boldness that it dares us to look away.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Cairo Conspiracy
    Tarik Saleh’s political saga turns progressively knottier and more claustrophobic, almost to a fault. But it’s also horribly tense, richly textured and showcases a terrific supporting performance from Fares as the tale’s shadowy Thomas Cromwell figure.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Il Buco
    It’s not quite a documentary, yet nor is it exactly a narrative feature. It lives alone; the cinematic equivalent of a hermit on a mountaintop.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Joe
    Joe also stands as a reminder of what a terrific actor Cage can be when he is able to harness and channel his wilder impulses.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    The Lunchbox
    The Lunchbox is perfectly handled and beautifully acted; a quiet storm of banked emotions.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Alps
    Follow the film-maker. Let him lead you by the nose. Lanthimos knows exactly where he's going.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Separated
    The material is sobering and the mountain of evidence needs unpicking. The film-maker handles his brief with the cold, hard precision of an expert state prosecutor.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Philomena
    Its main focus is the sparky, shifting relationship between its two protagonists and its trump card the startling chemistry between its two main stars.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    The Invisible Man
    The Invisible Man boasts a brilliantly chill and confident performance from (an almost entirely unseen) Claude Rains and a gloriously over-the-top supporting turn from Una O'Connor as his inquisitive landlady. Moreover, its tart, acid tone largely honours the spirit of the novel.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Fruitvale Station
    The robust acting and sharp sense of the Bay Area milieu glides us nicely over the film's few soft patches.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Parallel Mothers
    Let nobody fault Almodóvar’s ambition here. If this finally lacks the polished sweep and completeness of Pain and Glory, his previous feature, it compensates with an air of fraught intimacy and throws out a wealth of ideas, leaving some tantalising loose ends to be picked up and examined.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    The Card Counter
    The central relationships can be a little schematic, while the plot slaloms in and out of plausibility. Still, the cast keeps it honest and there is much to relish in the film’s moody, meditative intensity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
    Along the way, the director, Arthur Harari, takes the exhausted true tale of the lone Japanese soldier and sculpts it into a captivating tragicomedy, a sharp-eyed study of zealotry and self-delusion, ridiculous and heartbreaking in about equal measure.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Gravity
    The film thrums with an ongoing existential dread. And yet, tellingly, Cuaron's film contains a top-note of compassion that strays at times towards outright sentimentality.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    One to One: John & Yoko
    If only more nostalgic music documentaries could muster such a fun, fierce and full-blooded take on old, familiar material. One to One, against the odds, makes Lennon feel somehow vital again.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    The Green Prince
    Schirman's film (produced by the team behind Man on Wire and Searching For Sugarman) is as gripping as any high-concept Hollywood thriller and as psychologically knotty as Greek tragedy.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Sun Children
    Energetic and heartfelt, tipping towards tragedy, Sun Children crawls through the mud and emerges all the stronger. The quest is a red herring; the real treasure is the film.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Ema
    While I confess that I found Ema to be a notch down on his best work, it’s still hugely distinctive and daring and may well be a grower.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Our Souls at Night
    Our Souls at Night is your classic Hollywood weepie, so immaculately played that it confounds crass preconceptions.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    The Wolf of Wall Street
    The Wolf of Wall Street, for all its abundant appeal, is no Greek tragedy. It lacks the wildness of Taxi Driver, the jeopardy of GoodFellas and the anguish of Raging Bull. Far better to view this as a stylistic homage, a remastered greatest hits compilation, an amiable bit of self-infringement.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Lore
    Australian director Cate Shortland's drama is overflowing with such poetic visual touches, conjuring up a fairytale landscape of long shadows, wafting curtains and waving fronds.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Hatching
    Bergholm gives us precision-tooled jump scares and creeping, clammy atmospherics; a malevolent mother and an insurrectionist child.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Funny Pages
    Funny Pages spins a hilarious tale from the fringes of the underground comics scene, powered by a wonderfully sour performance by Daniel Zolghadri as Robert, a teenage cartoonist who strikes out on his own.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Nymphomaniac: Volume I
    Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac bludgeons the body and tenderises the soul. It is perplexing, preposterous and utterly fascinating.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Drive
    Buckle up; it's quite a ride.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    The Amazing Spider-Man 2
    Webb's film is bold and bright and possesses charm in abundance. It swings into the future and carries the audience with it.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    A Most Violent Year
    JC Chandor’s period crime drama is rigorous, resourceful and as smart as a whip...But its canny tactical struggle remains a joy to behold.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 80 Xan Brooks
    Manglehorn
    Pacino's Manglehorn is a subtle master class in neutral shading, with none of the garish flashes that sometimes bedevil his work.
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