Observer's Scores

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For 1,801 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 49% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Denial
Lowest review score: 0 From Paris with Love
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,004 out of 1801
  2. Mixed: 382 out of 1801
  3. Negative: 415 out of 1801
1801 movie reviews
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  1. Coming Through The Rye
    Special praise goes to Alex Wolff as Jamie and Stefania Owen as his sympathetic, agreeable girlfriend Dee Dee, and veteran actor Chris Cooper makes a complex but astonishingly convincing cameo as the great Jerome David Salinger himself. I went to Coming Through the Rye expecting nothing and left feeling enriched, enlightened and warm all over.
  2. The Birth of a Nation
    So it’s less bloody and gruesome than "12 Years a Slave." But make no mistake about it; the legion of protestors with no plans to see The Birth of a Nation is growing.
  3. The Great Gilly Hopkins
    Sweet but inconsequential, The Great Gilly Hopkins will satisfy family audiences and pre-teens with minimal demands for their money.
  4. Queen of Katwe
    A rewarding family film indeed, at a time when we badly need one.
  5. The Dressmaker
    Australian films are like local wines from Australian vineyards. They don’t always travel. A bore called The Dressmaker is the latest example.
  6. Deepwater Horizon
    This is a movie about action, not acting, and although, under the circumstances, the cast does yeoman work in roles that can only be called generic, in the long haul they can’t save the script and direction from being sometimes boring and always predictable.
  7. Denial
    Another illuminating performance by Rachel Weisz and a brilliant screenplay by the distinguished British playwright David Hare make Denial one of the most powerful and riveting courtroom dramas ever made.
  8. Sully
    The most moving moments in Sully occur in a coda that introduces the actual passengers and crew who lived through the experience and Sully himself. No movie defines heroism with the same impact as reality itself.
  9. Goat
    A singularly unpleasant and ugly topic film about a profoundly unpleasant and ugly topic, Goat possesses all the directness of a fraternity paddle whack across the keister, but with only a fraction of the subtlety. As to which experience is more enjoyable to live through, it’s pretty much a tie.
  10. Come What May
    Come What May is not exactly a new idea but a sensitive, polished and carefully executed film anyway, extremely thoughtful and well worth seeing.
  11. Author: The JT LeRoy Story
    The film effectively explores nature of identity, celebrity, and the creative process in a way that is satisfying, even if many of the questions it raises don’t go entirely answered.
  12. Complete Unknown
    Directed by the accomplished Joshua Marston, who made the riveting "Maria Full of Grace," this one is slick and wonderful to look at but too slight to hold its own weight and too inconsequential to generate much suspense.
  13. Max Rose
    A tender showcase for a different kind of Jerry Lewis that utilizes the strengths and frailties of a 90-year-old show business survivor as few films have ever done.
  14. The Light Between Oceans
    A mesmerizing, engrossing and beautifully made cinematic experience, rare as a pink unicorn, that enchants for more than two hours and makes you wish for at least one hour more.
  15. Southside with You
    It is just that when some of its lines fall flat, pulling in portents of a future we all know well, it wakes us from a dream few of us want to be over.
  16. War Dogs
    Scorsese’s movie did something crucial that this one doesn’t: it told the truth as it knew it. Honesty, or at least some version of it, would have been a very good place for War Dogs to start.
  17. Kubo and the Two Strings
    The stunning visuals and beautifully conceived milieu distract the viewer from the fact that the quest structure of the story is McGuffin-like and the conclusion emotionally muddled.
  18. Pete's Dragon
    The battle here is between the sincerity of the filmmakers’ intentions and the cynicism driving the film’s creation.
  19. Florence Foster Jenkins
    While the film plays lip service (perhaps one too many times) to the healing power of music, it is really about how self-deception fuels and sustains. It may not keep us alive, but it will keep us going while we here.
  20. Little Men
    It doesn’t eventually add up to much, but the acting is deeply sincere, and I was touched in unexpected places.
  21. Five Nights in Maine
    Five Nights in Maine is too inconsequential to spend money on in a major release, which, I predict, will be brief.
  22. Into the Forest
    In the hands of these two talented and well-matched actors, Into the Forest proves that this bond is powerful enough to sustain us.
  23. Indignation
    In the process, Schamus creates not only a meaningful and moving snapshot of an America on the cusp of redefining itself, but also a cinematic hybrid few of us thought possible: the literary college sex comedy.
  24. The Childhood of a Leader
    A debut feature by American writer-actor Brady Corbet, the film is sketchy, confused and too self-consciously aimed at arthouse audiences to thrive commercially, but it has a chilling impact.
  25. Quitters
    Another teenagers-in-turmoil movie, Quitters has more style than substance, but it’s a cut above most, mainly because first-time director and co-writer Noah Pritzker has a lot of sensitivity toward a familiar subject that renders it real and touching if not exactly original.
  26. Lights Out
    The fun wears out fast and so does the “gotcha” factor.
  27. Café Society
    Romantic, bittersweet and funny as hell, Café Society turns Hollywood inside out, rooting through the superficial tinsel to find the real tinsel. You go away gobsmacked, beaming and happy to be both.
  28. Equals
    All told, Equals is a feast for the eye that leaves you with a troubling contemplation of the future.
  29. Outlaws and Angels
    No need to get worked up about Outlaws and Angels, a vile, nauseating and incomprehensible pile of saddles-and-spurs gibberish sane audiences will undoubtedly avoid at all costs.
  30. Captain Fantastic
    Despite a frustrating fizzle of a finale, it’s a movie that enthralls the senses and engages the mind for two hours, proving no movie is too long when you’re having fun.
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