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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    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Road to Rio
    In the fifth and funniest of the Road movies, Hope and Crosby play third-rate vaudevillians rescuing heiress Dorothy Lamour from her wicked aunt (the incomparable Gale Sondergaard) in Latin America. [09 Apr 2000, p.10]
    • The Observer (UK)
  2. Monica
    The result is a film of quiet but considerable power.
  3. Lucky
    The film is a goldmine of small but perfectly formed parts.
  4. Godzilla Minus One
    It’s a testament to the quality of writing, and to the action direction, that this never feels as corny or as crass as you might expect.
  5. Stan & Ollie
    Throughout, there’s an intriguing interplay between the performers’ real and fictional personae that lends emotional weight to the “stuff and nonsense” of their act.
  6. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
    This is an archetypal Anderson film: mannered, fussy, obsessively designed – normally irksome traits, but in this alchemic instance it’s an utterly delightful combination.
  7. The Surrogate
    Writer-director Jeremy Hersh tackles the intersection of race, sexuality, class and disability with rare nuance in this wry indie drama, which observes sharply the trappings of millennial entitlement and liberal hypocrisy.
  8. The Three Musketeers - Part 2: Milady
    If anything, this follow-up is even more enjoyable, its appeal boosted by Milady slinking on to centre stage, her weaponised sexuality backed up by her private collection of daggers and swords.
  9. Columbus
    The message that brutalism is not only beautiful but therapeutic will probably have its detractors, but for those who, like me, love both pensive arthouse cinema and cantilevered concrete structures, it’s a rare treat.
  10. The Truffle Hunters
    Every bit as immersive as Victor Kossakovsky’s recent documentary Gunda, about a sow and her piglets, The Truffle Hunters serves as a timely reminder that the world does not turn to the industrialised rhythms of mankind alone, and that we lose track of its natural heartbeat at our peril.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Patton
    Made at the height of the Vietnam war, this remarkable film presents the second world war on an epic scale while painting a warts-and-all portrait of the military genius General George Patton (George C Scott), part mystic, part mad martinet. [28 Sep 2014, p.47]
    • The Observer (UK)
  12. The Surfer
    Crisply scripted by Thomas Martin and directed by Finnegan with a pleasing, no-frills intensity, The Surfer feels resolutely old-school. It’s a low-budget, hard-hitting comic bruiser of a picture: a midlife-crisis movie dressed up as a 1970s exploitation flick.
  13. The Creator
    Minor quibbles aside, this is a remarkable achievement, and a persuasive argument in favour of carte blanche creative freedom for Edwards in whatever he chooses to do next.
  14. XY Chelsea
    Hawkins seems beguiled by Manning’s natural charisma, and more interested in the highs and lows of her personal reckoning. These are fascinating in their own right, yet more context might have made this feel like more of a definitive portrait.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    True Grit
    Veteran Hathaway skilfully balances humour and action in a classic western handsomely photographed by Lucien Ballard, one of the great cinematographers, who came to this task immediately after The Wild Bunch. [14 Nov 1999, p.10]
    • The Observer (UK)
  16. The Front Runner
    There’s a thrilling charge to the film-making. Jostling, overlapping dialogue feels lived rather than written.
  17. May December
    The performances, from Moore and in particular Portman, are sublime: both bracingly unsympathetic and wildly enjoyable.
  18. Crazy Rich Asians
    To evaluate it solely on the basis of representation is to do it a disservice and to further narrow the parameters of how we’re allowed to talk about movies that feature “diverse” actors.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sunrise
    Murnau's first Hollywood film and one of the last great silent movies.
  20. Identifying Features
    Valadez’s expressionist images give texture to the abstract emotions of rage and pain.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Good Morning
    Full of humanity, humour and moments of pathos. [08 Jul 2012, p.45]
    • The Observer (UK)
  22. Midnight Traveler
    [A] remarkable documentary.
  23. The Brutalist
    The screenplay dwells obsessively on certain aspects and rushes blithely past others. The craft of the film-making, though, is exemplary.
  24. Cradle of Champions
    What makes it so compelling to watch is the choice of characters and the examination of what, beyond sporting glory, they are actually fighting for.
  25. Assassination Nation
    This is pure genre exploitation – a gleefully gory revenge flick that leaves its small-town streets awash with blood. It may also be one of the smartest, most perceptive commentaries on a contemporary society distorted and magnified by online hysteria that you are likely to wince your way through.
  26. Just Mercy
    As for Foxx and Jordan, their dialled-down discipline pays dividends, lending greater weight to those few moments (a courtroom showdown, a jailhouse breakdown) when Cretton briefly turns up the dramatic heat, with rousing results.
  27. A Hidden Life
    Malick links the lonely labour of working the land with the thanklessness of sainthood, asking questions about devotion, tradition and individual acts of resistance. Mileage (and the film is three hours) will likely depend on your tolerance for the director’s signature poetic style.
  28. Small Things Like These
    Small Things Like These casts a powerful spell.
  29. Booksmart
    Wilde expertly modulates the giddy highs and bittersweet lows of being a teenager, as demonstrated in the way the film’s house party climax crests and then crashes.
  30. Calm with Horses (The Shadow of Violence)
    Buoyed by Joe Murtagh’s screenplay, which keeps the warring elements of the narrative elegantly balanced throughout, the excellent ensemble cast create a complex emotional ecosystem through which our troubled antihero stumbles in search of his identity.
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