The Observer (UK)'s Scores

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For 1,640 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 3.3 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: 893 out of 1640
  2. Mixed: 714 out of 1640
  3. Negative: 33 out of 1640
1640 movie reviews
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  1. Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
    Informative, exhaustively researched, but never dry or didactic, this is a phenomenal achievement by Grimonprez, who holds his own country to account for its shameful role in this sorry tale.
  2. Flee
    This is a triumph-of-the-human-spirit story as dramatic as the most finely wrought melodrama, with flashes of vintage newsreels reminding us that it is all “real”.
  3. Nickel Boys
    A masterpiece.
  4. The Boy and the Heron
    The lush orchestral score, by regular Miyazaki collaborator Joe Hisaishi, is shimmering and exultant. All the elements are in place. So it seems almost churlish to note that this is middling Miyazaki at best.
  5. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
    What becomes clear from the film, which vividly details the cultural backdrop as well as Goldin’s work, is that fear has never been part of Goldin’s vocabulary, either creatively or personally.
  6. Hit the Road
    It’s that blend of heartbreak and joy, profundity and absurdity that is the key to this enchanting movie’s magical spell.
  7. They Shall Not Grow Old
    I’ve often argued that cinema is a time machine, but rarely has that seemed so true.
  8. Anora
    Anora deepens and darkens with each twist and turn and provides a violent corrective to so many Hollywood fairytales.
  9. The Favourite
    Amid such strangeness, the central performances keep us grounded.
  10. The Brutalist
    The screenplay dwells obsessively on certain aspects and rushes blithely past others. The craft of the film-making, though, is exemplary.
  11. La Chimera
    There’s something about the folkloric quality of Rohrwacher’s films, their embrace of a kind of earth magic, that prompts people to describe them as fairytales. But this is perhaps misleading. La Chimera is no twinkly escapist fantasy, it’s a film full of grit, thorns and greed.
  12. The Worst Person in the World
    Blending melancholy wistfulness with unruly energy and piercing humour, it’s a down-to-earth tale of love and death, boosted by a brilliantly believable central performance and elevated by fantastical moments of hallucinogenic horror and ecstatic joy.
  13. Licorice Pizza
    Like all the best evocations of times past, Licorice Pizza has no answers – only an enraptured sense of awe that makes Anderson’s joyous film feel like a very personal memory.
  14. All of Us Strangers
    It’s a remarkable achievement – a raw and potent piece of storytelling that grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go.
  15. Procession
    What could have been a disaster in the hands of a less sensitive film-maker ends up an extraordinary feat of care, collaboration and creativity.
  16. Blue Is the Warmest Color
    Certainly the performances by Léa Seydoux (already an important screen presence) and newcomer Adèle Exarchopoulos are extraordinary. Their portrayal of a blossoming, fragmenting relationship is shot through with genuine grace and conviction even when the film itself descends into indulgence.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    To Have and Have Not
    Casablanca is its model, and though a minor classic, it isn't in the same league. [30 Jul 2000, p.10]
    • The Observer (UK)
  18. Sugarcane
    The sickening facts of the case are presented with a respectful restraint but it’s impossible to watch this and not feel a cold, hard rage on behalf of the victims.
  19. Green Border
    It’s a supremely accomplished work.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Days and Nights in the Forest
    It brings to mind Chekhov, Jean Renoir and Love's Labour's Lost and is quite exquisite. [28 Jul 2002, p.9]
    • The Observer (UK)
  21. Oppenheimer
    For the most part, the film is a towering achievement. Not surprisingly, given Nolan’s preference for shooting on Imax 70mm film, the picture has a depth of detail you could drown in.
  22. Cold War
    There’s a sustained tension between the concisely epic sweep of the narrative and boxy confinement of the 4x3 frame that perfectly matches the film’s twin themes of freedom and incarceration.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Scarface
    Some of the humour is dated, but mostly it's astonishingly modern, full of unforgettable images. Muni is stunning and George Raft, who, like Sinatra, enjoyed the company of mobsters, gives an iconic performance: his cool, coin-tossing habit is referred to both in Singin' in the Rain and Some Like it Hot. [09 Apr 2006, p.18]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    High and Low
    As well as being a skilfully developed thriller and a study in moral dilemma, High and Low is a precise and devastating anatomy of postwar Japanese society. [31 Jan 1999, p.11]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Gold Rush (1925)
    This technically simple, endlessly inventive film balanced laughter and pathos; its cabin fever sequence is unsurpassed. [28 Feb 2010, p.24]
    • The Observer (UK)
      • Posted Jun 25, 2025
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Lavender Hill Mob
    Inventive, economic, masterly.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Deer Hunter
    The Deer Hunter is a rich and powerful picture that without a trace of patronisation or the slightest touch of cultural superiority, speaks eloquently for the inarticulate.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Treasure Island
    Attractively staged, it is one of numerous versions of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure and is most notable for an unforgettable, over-the-top performance by Robert Newton as an eye-rolling Long John Silver. [7 May 2006, p.2]
    • The Observer (UK)
  29. Killers of the Flower Moon
    It is, it has to be said, something of a stretch to believe that this regal woman would be drawn to a dullard such as Ernest, but Gladstone and DiCaprio manage to convince us that this is more than a partnership of expediency – it’s a marriage of real love.
  30. For Sama
    With footage as raw and dramatic as this, it’s a credit to composer Nainita Desai that her score remains restrained and understated throughout, emphasising subtler themes of endurance and empathy, while gesturing gently toward the possibility of hope – of love – even in the midst of tragedy.
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