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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    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    See How They Run
    It’s a fine, if mild, escapist hoot.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Great Escape
    It shows how a cast of veteran actors (Richard Attenborough, Steve McQueen, James Garner et al), most with some military experience, can breathe life into conventional characters, and how excitement can be generated without endless explosions and special effects. [19 May 2002, p.9]
    • The Observer (UK)
  3. Pasolini
    “Narrative art is dead – we are in a period of mourning”; “To scandalise is a right, to be scandalised a pleasure”; “Refusal must be great, absolute, absurd…” Abel Ferrara’s infatuated tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini is littered with such gnomic bon mots, which could apply equally to either director.
  4. Baltimore
    The picture also doubles as a fascinating psychological study of fanaticism, with Poots’s expressive performance unpeeling the layers beneath Dugdale’s fervent belief in her cause.
  5. Corsage
    At moments, however, the pacing treads a fine line between stately and somnolent. What consistently mesmerises, however, is the lead performance by Krieps.
  6. Bergman Island
    Bergman Island has a languid, meandering pace and a plot that is governed by chance encounters and discoveries.
  7. The Menu
    Subtle it’s not, but it’s maliciously entertaining. It turns out that revenge on the ultra-wealthy is a dish best seared over a naked flame.
  8. The Delinquents
    It’s a teasing exploration of the cost of freedom and of the dualities of life.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ama Gloria
    One of the year’s most hypnotic performances nestles inside this seemingly modest French-language coming-of-age drama.
  10. Little Joe
    For some, Little Joe may seem too sterile to engage emotionally, but I found it glassily unsettling – even more so on second viewing. Inhale at your peril.
  11. Armageddon Time
    The family scenes, all jostling banter and suffocating love, are terrific.
  12. Freaky Tales
    With its VHS bargain-bin aesthetic, this is scuzzily enjoyable stuff.
  13. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
    The real star? Johnson’s crisply mischievous screenplay, which crams in so many laughs you almost don’t notice the occasional plot holes.
  14. Honey Boy
    This open-sore autobiography feels like the missing piece in the puzzle of this frequently brilliant, invariably self-jeopardising actor.
  15. Olga
    Shot with a documentary-style naturalism and propulsive restlessness that mirrors Olga’s ferocious drive, this is a terrific, timely feature debut.
    • 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)
  17. Midnight Family
    Captured by a camera that frequently rattles against the sides of the hurtling ambulance, the Ochoas’ night-time escapades are electrifying and urgent, doused in strobing emergency lights and powered by adrenaline.
  18. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
    There’s lots to love here, not least the animation itself, which uses split screens, Ben-Day dots and onomatopoeic text that mimic the tactile experience of reading physical comics – panels, hatching and primary colours intact and ready to leap off the page.
  19. Bring Them Down
    Bring Them Down is an impressive first feature from Christopher Andrews.
  20. Earth Mama
    It’s bleak at times, but there is a defiantly celebratory aspect to the film, which finds hope in the solidarity of Black women and dignity in Gia’s quiet stoicism.
  21. Smile
    The combination of a committed central performance from the increasingly gaunt and haunted Bacon, and a jarring, tortured score, makes for an enjoyably nasty brush with the smiling face of evil.
  22. Memoria
    The film takes a fantastical leap that viewers will find either breathtaking or ridiculous – probably a bit of both.
  23. Dog Man
    Dog Man, the half-dog, half-cop protagonist of Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants spin-off book series, is a gloriously funny creation.
  24. The Perfect Candidate
    Like Maryam’s approach to local politics, the film is well-meaning but occasionally naive.
  25. Girl Picture
    There are moments – Mimmi biting back her emotions as Emma dances for her alone at night – that tingle with discovery and promise.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cléo from 5 to 7
    It's a beguiling, slightly indulgent work, featuring a film-within-a-film starring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina. [28 Nov 2010, p.34]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mirror (1975)
    It's a beautiful, elaborately textured film, by some way Tarkovsky's most difficult, and not to be approached without first consulting some exegetical text. [15 Aug 2004, p.9]
    • The Observer (UK)
  28. Cow
    It’s not an easy watch, certainly – I cried more or less solidly through the last 30 minutes – but it’s an important one.
  29. 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.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Western
    All in all, Western is a movie that leaks into the heart. With rootlessness and security painfully entangled right to the end, our delight in these characters feels well-earned. [10 May 1998, p.8]
    • The Observer (UK)
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