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. Bones and All
    In the elegant balance of these seemingly incongruous elements, Guadagnino has outdone himself.
  2. Man with a Movie Camera
    This is an exuberant manifesto that celebrates the infinite possibilities of what cinema can be.
  3. The Green Knight
    If the result sends viewers scuttling back to Armitage’s uniquely accessible version of the source text, then that would be marvellous indeed. But there is enough here that is dazzling and enthralling for Lowery’s movie to stand proudly as a grand work of poetry in its own right.
  4. Enys Men
    What Enys Men “means” will differ for each viewer. For me, it is (like Bait) a richly authentic portrait of Cornwall, far removed from any tourist-friendly vision. . . I’ve seen the film three times so far, and I can’t wait to dive into it and be swept away again. Bravo!
  5. How to Have Sex
    Here’s a cause for celebration for fans of British cinema: a feature debut that launches not one but two of the most promising talents to arrive in movie theatres for a long while.
  6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    It’s not just Nicholson’s performance that makes this film a masterpiece; it’s the fact that Forman was able to prevent that performance from capsizing the whole enterprise.
  7. The Royal Hotel
    A psychological thriller, it’s all the more tense for Green’s smart understatement of the genre elements.
  8. The Zone of Interest
    The impact all but knocks the breath from your body.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    They Were Expendable
    Beautifully photographed in black and white by Commander Joseph August, this moving picture has images and sequences that show Ford at his poetic and humanistic best. [13 Aug 2006, p.20]
    • The Observer (UK)
  10. The Tales of Hoffmann
    This sublimely orchestrated marvel takes fantasy film-making to a new level, looking back to the dramatic choreography of silent cinema and forward to the colourful ecstasies of Ken Russell.
  11. One Fine Morning
    Hansen-Løve hits a career high note, delivering a quietly thoughtful and ultimately life-affirming portrait of the strange interaction between loss and rebirth. It’s a miraculous balancing act that pretty much took my breath away.
  12. Burning
    It’s chilling and brilliant.
  13. 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Deliverance
    Adapted from the novel by the poet James Dickey (who plays the small, significant role of a sheriff in the moral coda to the journey), it's a riveting, resonant film, the male rape sequence as shocking as it was 35 years ago. [28 Oct 2007, p.20]
    • The Observer (UK)
  15. Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
    Ultimately, it’s the film’s sheer strangeness – that peculiarly magical, lapsed-Catholic sensibility that runs throughout all of Del Toro’s most personal works – that makes this sing and fly.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Passion of Joan of Arc
    This was Falconetti’s only major film, and over a period of a year under Dreyer’s direction (a combination of cruelty and patience) her extraordinarily expressive face made for one of the greatest, most harrowing screen performances.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
    Strongly scripted and deliciously acted, full of riveting confrontations as the emotionally intense events unfold. Though a feline Elizabeth Taylor overplays her role, Paul Newman is excellent as her brooding husband, but it's Burl Ives as dying patriarch 'Big Daddy' who's the ultimate revelation. [13 Aug 2006, p.10]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Postman Always Rings Twice
    More film gris than film noir, it offers a biting moral conundrum at every turn. [17 Oct 2010, p.4]
    • The Observer (UK)
  19. 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.
  20. Only You
    Vividly rendered, and filled with tangible yearning, it strikes a balance between romantic passion and mundane domesticity, as the skin-prickling attraction of new love is tested by the day-to-day tribulations of real life.
  21. Widows
    Widows is a sinewy treat that seamlessly intertwines close-up character studies, big-picture politics and audaciously reimagined heist-movie riffs.
  22. The Captain
    The stark beauty of Florian Ballhaus’s black-and-white cinematography and painterly framing can’t conceal the ugliness that unfolds as the death toll mounts and Herold starts to believe his own grotesque creation.
  23. Nickel Boys
    A masterpiece.
  24. Babyteeth
    There’s a fearlessness to Murphy’s film-making, a slightly wayward, maverick spirit. I can’t wait to see what she does next.
  25. Son of Saul
    I struggle to remember the last time a non-documentary film proved so profoundly, soul-shakingly distressing. This is as it should be – anything less would be immoral and irresponsible.
  26. Out of Blue
    Having now seen the film three times, I find myself loving it all the more for its imperfections. When a film-maker aims this high, how can one do anything but watch in wonder?
  27. Pieces of a Woman
    The film is acutely perceptive on the effect of a bereavement on other people.
  28. 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.
  29. They Shall Not Grow Old
    I’ve often argued that cinema is a time machine, but rarely has that seemed so true.
  30. 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.
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