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. Surge
    Whishaw’s intensity is gripping to watch but the character remains opaque; whether we’re meant to read Joseph as experiencing psychosis or simply suffering the unforgiving conditions of city life under capitalism is ambiguous.
  2. John and the Hole
    While the result may not be quite as deep as the cavern at the centre of the story, it has an enticing sliver of ice at its heart.
  3. X
    The latest film from horror director Ti West (The House of the Devil), about a porn movie shoot gone wrong, is ripe with playful winks and nudges.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I Stand Alone
    You won't easily forget Seul Contre Tous and you won't rush to see it for a second time. [21 Mar 1999, p.6]
    • The Observer (UK)
  5. Master
    Diallo utilises the visual language of horror – red lighting, empty shower stalls, a gnarled hand that emerges from under the bed – to express the terror of racism and the rot of its legacy.
  6. Nope
    The film too often seems to be heading somewhere extraordinary, only to disappear into an ambitious conceptual hole that, while occasionally startling, is ultimately less than the sum of its parts.
  7. The Feast
    The Feast requires a degree of commitment; it avoids jump scares in favour of a long, slow build of tension – so slow that at times the characters appear to be in the grip of a kind of paralysis – that pays off with an explosively grisly final act.
  8. Cry Macho
    There’s something touching about seeing the 91-year-old Eastwood in such a reflective mood.
  9. Baby Done
    Tinder-dry delivery bolsters the film’s gentle humour, and while the momentum sags a little in the second half, the natural chemistry between Matafeo and Lewis keeps the audience invested and the story relatable.
  10. Onward
    The emotional impact is true and clean. The fractious bond between the brothers and their aching anger at the loss of a parent are evoked with exquisite sorrow and clarity.
  11. Captain Marvel
    It’s just a pity that the movie that introduces her is so unremarkable.
  12. Robin's Wish
    It’s certainly informative and affecting, but the limited use of early archive footage and the emphasis on Williams’s decline and suffering make for bleak viewing.
  13. Gunda
    To call the film meditative would be to undersell Kosakovskiy’s instinct for drama and tension.
  14. 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.
  15. The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future
    Blending science fiction and magical realism, environmental catastrophe and family secrets, Francisca Alegría’s heady mystery is an ambitious and murkily atmospheric debut.
  16. 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.
    • 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)
  18. The Little Stranger
    There are pacing issues in a brooding, cautious middle section, but nothing terminal. There is also the problem that this elusive supernatural mystery has been mismarketed as a horror – unfortunate, certainly, but not the fault of the film.
  19. Studio 666
    The running time is an issue – a punchy seven-inch single approach would have been preferable, rather than this jam session of a screenplay, which doesn’t know how to end. But the tonal blend of goofy and gory is oddly endearing.
  20. Military Wives
    This crowd-pleasing comedy drama from the director of The Full Monty hits all the right notes.
  21. Dream Horse
    With its hero’s journey structure, punchily edited racing scenes and warmly drawn oddball community (a widow, Maureen, is obsessed with Tunnock’s Tea Cakes), the film is shamelessly predictable and thoroughly feelgood.
  22. Orlando, My Political Biography
    Weighty themes are handled with a refreshing lightness of touch.
  23. The Duke
    While The Duke is never quite as surprising as the case that inspired it, it nonetheless retains a much-needed astringent streak.
  24. The Photograph
    LaKeith Stanfield and Issa Rae light up a beautiful-looking movie that weaves together love stories from the past and present.
  25. Polina
    Though the film suggests a hardiness borne of her working-class background and mobster father, Polina remains fairly opaque. At least the contemporary dance sequences are beautifully mounted; French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj has a co-director credit on the film.
  26. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
    The film’s teen protagonists, meanwhile, are chaste children’s book heroes, but the horror, based on illustrator Stephen Gammell’s drawings, has a gruesome quality that feels too full-on for youngsters.
  27. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
    The film works its showy magic. Or perhaps enforces its magic would be more accurate.
  28. 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.
  29. 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.
  30. The Life Ahead
    The main selling point is Loren, who combines world-weary abrasiveness with a sense of something softer, turning Rosa into a believably divided character who puts a brave face on the future while seeking refuge from the past in the sanctuary of her lonely basement.
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