The Observer (UK)'s Scores

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For 1,641 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Enys Men
Lowest review score: 20 Book Club: The Next Chapter
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 894 out of 1641
  2. Mixed: 714 out of 1641
  3. Negative: 33 out of 1641
1641 movie reviews
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  1. We Live in Time
    We Live in Time is let down by the jarring product placement (take a bow, Weetabix and Jaffa Cakes) and by the aggressively anodyne score, which sounds like the kind of reassuring, hand-holding mulch that might be played in a dentist’s waiting room.
  2. All Is True
    I like Branagh’s eye for landscapes too; space is used elegantly, while widescreen canvases glow green and orange.
  3. Godzilla vs. Kong
    The spectacle is more involving than the plot, especially the dazzling image of Kong floating skyward, serene and surrounded by purple glowing rocks.
  4. What's Love Got to Do with It?
    The sparky chemistry between James and Latif leaves few surprises in how it all pans out, but it’s an unexpectedly, disarmingly sweet film.
  5. No Hard Feelings
    The unstoppable force of Lawrence’s charisma notwithstanding, this is not so much tasteless, just a bit bland.
  6. Doctor Sleep
    The new material is fresher and considerably more fun.
  7. Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno
    Kechiche is quite brilliant at using stretches of time to create space for actors to let their characters breathe. It’s a sleight of hand that makes the intimacy on screen seem as though it’s unfolding organically, deployed to particularly dexterous effect in one sequence that takes place in a bar.
  8. Lizzie
    Most irritating is the murder scene itself, which sees both women stripping nude, seemingly in order for the camera to leer more effectively at their bodies rather than to spare them getting their petticoats bloodied.
  9. On the Basis of Sex
    This brilliant original thinker is crowbarred into a stolidly conventional “triumph against the odds” narrative. It’s not an entirely terrible film. It’s just not the film that RBG deserves.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Finian's Rainbow
    The 1947 Broadway hit (which flopped in the West End) is an uneasy blend of Irish blarney, American whimsy and social satire (directed against Southern racists), but it's handled with freshness and vigour by Francis Coppola in his first job for a Hollywood major. [08 Mar 1988, p.13]
    • The Observer (UK)
  11. Good Grief
    Levy, who also wrote the screenplay and stars in the picture, has made a satisfyingly adult, bittersweet drama which argues that even a seemingly gilded life can be painfully messy.
  12. Dating Amber
    As Amber becomes more comfortable with her queerness, the taciturn Eddie retreats inwards. Their parallel journeys dispense with a one-size-fits-all coming-out narrative and are handled with a lightness of touch by Irish writer and director David Freyne.
  13. The Forgiven
    Lorne Balfe’s sparsely used music leaves plenty of open spaces for the drama to breathe, as if inviting the audience to fill in the blanks with an internal accompaniment (tragic? Comedic? Ironic?) of their own choosing.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Mack
    Incoherent, idiotic and exhilarating. [28 Apr 1996, p.16]
    • The Observer (UK)
  15. Dalíland
    The great missed opportunity of this film, with its glossy, handsome design and cinematography, and its genteel orchestral score, is how polite and unadventurous it is – something that could never be said of Dalí himself.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Memphis Belle
    Skilfully crafted account of the final bombing raid over Germany in 1943 of a Flying Fortress, inspired by William Wyler's wartime documentary of the same title. Produced by David Puttam it avoids the worst cliches and gets affecting performance from its young all-American aircrew. [16 Jan 2005, p.87]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Summer of '42
    A self-consciously nostalgic piece, with Oscar-winning music, immaculate detail, and made while soldiers were dying in Vietnam. [05 Aug 2007, p.8]
    • The Observer (UK)
  18. Those Who Wish Me Dead
    Unfortunately, the second half is over-reliant on flashy disaster set pieces, blazing towards a predictable, melodramatic conclusion.
  19. Joker
    Subtlety is not Phillips’s strong point. What he does have is an eye for a well-chosen location, an ear for a provocative line of dialogue and a finger on the pulse of very marketable, confrontational (if also “cynical”) entertainment. Add to this an incendiary central performance by Phoenix and Joker looks set to have the last laugh.
  20. The Little Mermaid
    It’s functionally good-natured rehash fare, bogged down by some watery CG and a few uncomfortable dips into “uncanny valley”, yet buoyed up by Bailey’s winning titular performance.
  21. Natural Light
    In theory, natural light is more forgiving than its artificial counterpart: in photographs, it makes the subject look less harsh. Less so here.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Magician
    It's amusing and weirdly convincing.
  23. What Happens Later
    It’s a tonal mess, a film that aims to be an adorably quirky romcom but plays out as such a surreally purgatorial ordeal.
  24. It: Chapter Two
    It adds up to a peculiar mix of the crowd-pleasing and the patience-testing, veering wildly between the entertaining and the frustrating, built round a story that ventures inexorably underground without ever getting to the heart of what lies beneath.
  25. F9: The Fast Saga
    Prior acquaintance with the eight previous instalments of this colossal action movie franchise isn’t necessary for enjoyment of this one – the film’s muscle cars and maximalist approach continue to serve it well.
  26. Freaky Tales
    With its VHS bargain-bin aesthetic, this is scuzzily enjoyable stuff.
  27. An American Pickle
    Millennial self-interest and performative liberal politics are contrasted with “authentic”, let-it-all-hang-out conservatism. It’s a simplistic critique. Still, the frequently charming Rogen brings enough of his affable, nice guy credibility to each character to ground both loose cannon Herschel and his straight man foil.
  28. High & Low: John Galliano
    Given the vested interest that the business has in the industry and its highly lucrative maverick son, it’s surprising and refreshing that High & Low is as nuanced and thought-provoking as it is.
  29. The Mule
    It’s perfectly watchable but a film with this puttering pace is never going to get the blood racing.
  30. The Midnight Sky
    Set pieces . . . are thrilling and judiciously spaced. The performances Clooney draws out are even better.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Blob
    Clever, tongue-in-cheek and far more fun than the hi-tech remake. [05 Jan 2003, p.8]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hounds
    All creatures great and small are fighting for their lives in this blasted landscape and, though the tension often flags, the actors, many of them non-professional, give consistently good face, especially Masstouri, who resembles a leathery, bushy-haired John Garfield.
  33. Jojo Rabbit
    I suspect the strangely good-natured feel of the film will win the hearts of many viewers, but my own head remained too muddled by its uneven and oddly indecisive approach to embrace whatever quirky virtues it may possess.
  34. The Deer King
    The clear lines of the elegant 2D animation are not matched by the mythic muddle of the storytelling, an exposition-heavy slog of warring factions, convoluted webs of enchantment and a deadly, wolf-borne pandemic for good measure.
  35. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
    It’d be easy to map Gilliam on to Grisoni, a film-maker dogged by his artistic misfires and the mess left in their wake. Really, though, he’s Quixote, stuck in a noble past and wilfully disconnected from a present that jostles uncomfortably close.
  36. Cry Macho
    There’s something touching about seeing the 91-year-old Eastwood in such a reflective mood.
  37. Skin
    The film works hard to complicate the character of Widner, but flattens the pernicious culture that formed him.
  38. The High Note
    While The High Note doesn’t serve up any real surprises, it’s a pleasant diversion, a sunny, slick production that delivers an upbeat refrain of dreams realised and talent appreciated.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Geronimo: An American Legend
    Walter Hill is the living director closest to the great film-makers of Hollywood's Golden Age such as Raoul Walsh, John Ford and Howard Hawks, and Geronimo is his finest movie to date. Certainly it is his most humane. [16 Oct 1994, p.9]
    • The Observer (UK)
  40. Jumanji: The Next Level
    Jumanji: The Next Level keeps things upbeat and lively, thanks in no small part to the introduction of two counterintuitively revivifying characters – curmudgeonly old codgers whose gripes and aches provide a jolly counterpoint to the teen angst that fired Kasdan’s previous instalment.
  41. Moana 2
    The main selling point remains Moana herself: the sparkiest and most intrepid Disney heroine of them all.
  42. Mean Girls
    The scene-stealing standout is Avantika, playing sweet-natured Plastic dimwit Karen. Her comic timing is impeccable; her musical number, a boisterous Halloween party romp titled Sexy, is worth the price of admission alone.
  43. The Equalizer 3
    While there are no surprises here, there are visceral kicks to be found in the businesslike efficiency of McCall’s retribution, and the devilish glint in Washington’s eye as he delivers it.
  44. Memories of My Father
    Memories of My Father is a touch overlong and soapy and awkwardly structured. But it’s still an engrossingly watchable drama.
  45. The Hummingbird Project
    Part thriller, part family drama, part satirical commentary on the way that the pursuit of wealth is a cultural cancer that taints everything it touches, The Hummingbird Project is no less compelling for its odd mishmash of components.
  46. The Seagull
    The result is entertaining enough, particularly when Annette Bening whirls through a scene.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Let's Scare Jessica to Death
    Regular horror ingredients are all mixed up into something truly terrifying. [17 Dec 2006, p.8]
    • The Observer (UK)
  48. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
    He may be 80, but Ford carries the weight of the film, which, for all its gargantuan expense, feels a bit like those throwaway serials that first inspired Lucas – fun while it lasts, but wholly forgettable on exit.
  49. Wicked: For Good
    While Wicked: For Good repeats much of the same formula as the first picture, there is a crucial ingredient missing: humour. Without it, the spark is extinguished; the astringency that cut through the sentimentality of the first picture is gone.
  50. Pet Sematary
    The result may not be groundbreaking or, indeed, particularly scary. But it treats King’s story with reverent affection and, unlike the cover version of the Ramones title song that plays over the end credits, it won’t leave you nostalgically longing for the original.
  51. Last Letter from Your Lover
    Indecision and miscommunication, it turns out, are timeless. Sexiness less so, with Jones and Rizwan not quite able to summon the smouldering chemistry of Woodley and Turner.
  52. The Wedding Guest
    Patel excels as a smouldering, enigmatic antihero who gradually begins to drop his defences; Apte might be even better as the duplicitous femme fatale.
  53. Antlers
    It’s satisfyingly gross – there’s plenty of black bile, crunching bones and half-chewed bodies. Russell, best known for her radiant portrayal of a domestic abuse survivor in Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress, is clever casting too.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Last Tycoon
    A generally lacklustre affair. [03 Mar 2013, p.44]
    • The Observer (UK)
  55. Chemical Hearts
    Heavy-handed symbolism aside, this is a decent little drama which digs into the bewildering limbo state between childhood and the adult world – a time in which everything hurts, heads are full of hormones and time stretches out interminably.
  56. The Broken Hearts Gallery
    The premise of writer Natalie Krinsky’s directorial debut sounds cheesy, and it is, but watching the brooding Nick softening to putty in our goofball heroine’s presence while she remains sparkily oblivious is an earnest pleasure.
  57. Instant Family
    The tone is weird, seesawing between broad comedy (Tig Notaro and Octavia Spencer as hardened adoption agency workers) and manipulative melodrama (I hate to admit it, but a standoff between Pete, Ellie and Lizzy moved me to tears).
  58. Thor: Love and Thunder
    For the most part, however, this romp, which pits Thor against Christian Bale’s cadaverous God-slayer, is superficial stuff – a film that brings a greeting-card triteness to its themes of love and sacrifice; that harvests internet memes (screaming goats) in the service of easy laughs.
  59. The Festival
    It delivers its “lessons” with a light touch, allowing Nick a couple of moments of genuine, relatable pathos... but encouraging the audience to take his self-loathing with a pinch of salt.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Saint Jack
    Bogdanovich's best film since his fall from grace in the mid-Seventies, and produced by Roger Corman who gave him his first jobs on low-budget drive-in movies. [18 Aug 2002, p.8]
    • The Observer (UK)
  61. Days of the Bagnold Summer
    Interlocking vignettes swing from laugh-out-loud comedy to piercing melancholia, but at the centre of it all there is a genuine sense of rebirth and renewal – no mean feat for a small movie with a big heart and a surprisingly wide-ranging vision.
  62. France
    France is watchable, if not subtle, but the picture labours its message with an overstretched running time and an oddly anticlimactic structure.
  63. Cold Pursuit
    The whole tone of this glib black comedy, with its cartoon bad guys and conspiratorial wink with each addition to the body count, seems rather dated.
  64. Somebody I Used to Know
    It’s a wasted opportunity. Brie is clearly a gifted comic actress who deserves better material than this.
  65. Jules
    It’s a gently inoffensive little comedy from Marc Turtletaub (producer of Little Miss Sunshine and director of Puzzle), with an amiably jovial score. But the picture is elevated by its handling of melancholy themes of ageing and loneliness, and a superb gruff-yet-vulnerable performance from Kingsley.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    White Christmas
    It's creaky sentimental stuff, redolent of the Eisenhower era, but the songs are (mostly) excellent, and Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney are delightful. [14 Dec 2008, p.17]
    • The Observer (UK)
  67. Escape from Pretoria
    A pacy screenplay, co-written by director Francis Annan and adapted from a book by Jenkin, rarely flags, but it’s the nervy camera, hugging the characters at hip height, the better to scrutinise each locked barrier to freedom, that most successfully builds the tension.
  68. Mary J Blige's My Life
    Footage of recent concerts and meet and greets is included to showcase both her imperious glamour and how far she’s come, yet we never really get a sense of where she’s been, let alone My Life’s musical and cultural context.
  69. Migration
    A screenplay by White Lotus creator Mike White elevates proceedings with an enjoyably sardonic bite.
  70. a-ha: the Movie
    Fans will no doubt find the film fascinating, if a little dispiriting: it may be like eavesdropping on your parents, only to discover that they’re on the brink of divorce.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
    Despite a curiously disjointed narrative and Frankie Laine on the soundtrack, it's well-staged, turning what in real life was a brief skirmish into a mythic confrontation. [29 Jun 2014, p.48]
    • The Observer (UK)
  72. After Blue (Dirty Paradise)
    It’s an overlong, indulgent slog.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Rabid
    Early, low-budget Cronenberg horror flick, emetic in intention and effect. [08 Oct 2000, p.10]
    • The Observer (UK)
  74. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
    While I had more time than many of my fellow critics for the two previous movie spin-offs from the Sega video game series, it turns out that you can, in fact, have too much of a good thing.
  75. Our Time
    Reygadas has made a career out of a confrontational lyricism, finding poetry in images that could be considered mundane or even ugly – but the film is nearly three hours long. You have to question how much time spent loitering next to the carburettor is actually justified.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Indian Runner
    In the character of Joe, David Morse and Penn have created an authentic hero of everyday life, and in a generally well acted picture, Charles Bronson as the boys' father reveals for the first time in some years his more vulnerable side and demonstrates what a fine actor he is. [01 Dec 1991, p.60]
    • The Observer (UK)
  77. Nightbitch
    Nightbitch would have worked better if it had been pushed further in either direction – as an intimate interrogation, or as a full-bore bestial freakout. This uneasy middle ground feels like a missed opportunity.
  78. Deadpool & Wolverine
    A film can be obnoxious and simultaneously very funny, and Deadpool & Wolverine is frequently hilarious. But it’s also slapdash, repetitive and shoddy looking, with an overreliance on meme-derived gags and achingly meta comic fan in-jokes.
  79. DC League of Super-Pets
    It’s formulaic, uninspired stuff, an artless, mirthless mess that leans heavily on the familiarity of the characters – Batman, Wonder Woman and others cameo – while also undermining the integrity of the DC universe.
  80. Drive-Away Dolls
    The film has a boisterous energy, but it’s puerile, phoney and frequently rather cringe.
  81. Loro
    There’s a sloppiness and incoherence in the storytelling.
  82. The Croods: A New Age
    The film’s second half suffers from frantic pacing and overstuffed action sequences.
  83. Fast X
    Disbelief is not so much suspended as detonated.
  84. The Pale Blue Eye
    While the picture looks wonderfully atmospheric throughout, with its frostbitten monochromes and consumptive colour palette, the story disintegrates into a lurid and rather silly final act.
  85. Summerland
    What a lovely, hopeful and rather magical movie this is.
  86. Where Is Anne Frank
    This handsome but uneven animation weaves together excerpts from the diary with the quest of Kitty – the imaginary friend to whom Anne addressed much of it – to locate the young writer in present-day Amsterdam.
  87. The Beach Bum
    It’s not unfunny watching McConaughey smoke a joint from between Isla Fisher’s toes, but some viewers may find themselves less enamoured of Moondog than the film is.
  88. The Devil All the Time
    However dark the narrative may seem, there’s a strong streak of black humour that accompanies the horror, often facilitated by a pointedly chosen tune.
  89. Clifford the Big Red Dog
    The film is best when it sticks to children’s caper mode, jostled along by gentle toilet humour, bad-tempered barnyard animals and a scene of two kids driving a van across Manhattan.
  90. Never Let Go
    This kind of horror storytelling is only as successful as its final act. And, unfortunately, Never Let Go drops the ball, along with the bloodstained machete, just when it should be ramping up the tension.
  91. J.T. Leroy
    Dern brings a hungry, manic energy to Albert, a sad and troubled woman who used LeRoy as a vehicle to process her own childhood trauma, while Stewart’s performance is typically interiorised and exacting.
  92. Old
    If we can’t believe the characters, how are we meant to accept the film’s central premise?
  93. Yesterday
    There’s a zesty spark between Patel and James, and for a while the film chugs along happily on the goodwill bought by the soundtrack. Then one honkingly misjudged scene knocks the whole movie off key, heralding a toe-curling, tone-deaf terrace chant of an ending.
  94. Ambulance
    At the core of the film, partially concealed by Bay’s posturing and swagger, is a bracing, slickly executed B-movie.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kidnapped
    Skillfully adapted by prolific TV playwright Jack Pulman from Stevenson's classic adventure yarn. [02 Feb 2003, p.8]
    • The Observer (UK)
  96. Close to You
    It’s clearly a passion project for Page, so why then does his performance feel so lifeless and inert?
  97. Megalopolis
    For all its big-hitting visual ambition, philosophical window dressing and pick-and-mix literary references, this is a work of screaming emptiness.
  98. Aquaman
    The film isn’t totally unenjoyable, but it isn’t particularly coherent either.
  99. Military Wives
    This crowd-pleasing comedy drama from the director of The Full Monty hits all the right notes.
  100. The Other Fellow
    It’s an intriguing idea that might, perhaps, have sustained a short film.
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