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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    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Hidden Fortress
    There are two epic set pieces (a slave revolt and a peasant fire festival), numerous battles (including an extended fight with lances between two samurai) and endless felicitously staged scenes. In his first widescreen picture, Kurosawa revelled in a shape disparaged at the time, and stuck with it thereafter. [24 Mar 2002, p.9]
    • The Observer (UK)
  2. Minari
    What makes this more than just another formulaic feelgood film is the grit with which Chung evokes the hardscrabble lives of his characters, balancing the dreamier elements of the drama with a naturalism that keeps it rooted in reality.
  3. Barry Lyndon
    One of the most beautiful of all Stanley Kubrick’s films, originally released in 1975, this slyly savage tale of social climbing in the 18th century is also arguably his funniest.
  4. The Farewell
    Ultimately, it’s all about balance, a yin and yang of roots and identities, humour and pathos that comes together into a satisfying, bittersweet wedding banquet of a movie.
  5. Great Freedom
    The power of Sebastian Meise’s subdued prison drama comes not from big, brash moments but from subtle details. Sound design that hints at the aching emptiness outside the frame and beyond the walls.
  6. System Crasher
    Most essential is the central performance: Zengel’s oscillating wild joys and storming furies are painful to watch. A moment when she howls for her mother (always tantalisingly out of reach) brought me to tears.
  7. Gunda
    To call the film meditative would be to undersell Kosakovskiy’s instinct for drama and tension.
  8. The Power of the Dog
    The weathered earth tones of Campion’s subdued colour scheme conceal a vivid and full-blooded emotional palette.
  9. Mr. Bachmann and His Class
    It’s an investment in time, certainly, but this profound and hopeful picture justifies every second of its three hours and 38 minute running time.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Alien
    The film is superbly paced, imaginatively designed, consistently suspenseful and never attracts an unintentional laugh. [2003 re-release]
  11. 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.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Foreign Correspondent
    Hitchcock's second Hollywood movie is a hugely enjoyable espionage thriller. [05 Jan 1997, p.12]
    • The Observer (UK)
  13. The Quiet Girl
    It’s one of the most exquisitely realised films of the year.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
    It's a classic with special effects that could scarcely be improved on. [18 Apr 2004, p.13]
    • The Observer (UK)
  15. Long Day's Journey Into Night
    It’s dazzling, baffling and staggeringly ambitious.
  16. Azor
    As far as the plot is concerned, almost nothing happens, and yet Andreas Fontana’s sinewy debut teems with unseen threat. He crafts an atmosphere of grubbiness despite all the polished surfaces.
  17. About Dry Grasses
    About Dry Grasses tiptoes around the edge of being suffocatingly verbose, and there are scenes that could stand a tighter edit. Still, the meaty, novelistic writing and exceptional quality of the performances make for a rich and engrossing viewing experience.
  18. Hard Truths
    Great turns don’t always amount to a great picture, and the unfortunate consequence of this no-frills directing approach is that the film-making can feel rather flat and functional – a display cabinet for the acting rather than a vital piece of storytelling.
  19. A Star Is Born
    Its Oscar-bait earworm tune may be entitled Shallow, but the film itself is as deep and resonant as Bradley Cooper’s drawl, and as bright as Lady Gaga’s screen future.
  20. The Father
    For all its apparent structural complexities, The Father is not quite as mysterious as its creators would have us believe.
  21. Parallel Mothers
    It’s Cruz who sets the tone, with a performance that radiates warmth and is refreshingly forgiving of her character’s flaws. She has never been better.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mildred Pierce
    A great actress at her sado-masochistic best in a noir melodrama worthy of her talents. [28 Mar 2001, p.9]
    • The Observer (UK)
  23. Poor Things
    It’s an alchemic combination, this continuing collaboration between Lanthimos and Stone . . . together they unleash in each other an extra level of uninhibited artistic daring that, one suspects, must be rooted in an uncommon degree of mutual trust.
  24. So Long, My Son
    So measured is the pacing, so sinuous the timeline, so understated the subtle ache of the performances that you don’t immediately realise that Wang Xiaoshuai’s exquisite three-hour drama has been performing the emotional equivalent of open-heart surgery on the audience since pretty much the first scene.
  25. Apollo 11
    A celebration of human endeavour, and of a rare moment of global unity.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Good Morning
    Full of humanity, humour and moments of pathos. [08 Jul 2012, p.45]
    • The Observer (UK)
  27. If Beale Street Could Talk
    The result is another mesmerising and wholly immersive experience from a film-maker whose love of the medium of cinema – and fierce compassion for Baldwin’s finely drawn characters – shines through every frame.
  28. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
    Tonally, Can You Ever Forgive Me? cuts an elegant path between humour and pathos.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
    This, you feel, is really a story with roots in the nation, not just a fiction snatched out of the busy air. [16 Apr 1950, p.6]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Imitation of Life
    Marketed as a glossy weepie but in fact an outstanding piece of social criticism that goes to the root of postwar American life. [26 Sep 2010, p.56]
    • The Observer (UK)
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