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. Emma.
    In the lead role, Anya Taylor-Joy creates an admirably spiky character who is less likable than some of her screen predecessors, and all the better for it.
  2. Sonic the Hedgehog
    Marsden is charming enough, summoning surprising chemistry with Schwartz, and so it’s not total torture spending an hour and a half with the pair. Yet for better or worse, it doesn’t linger.
  3. Utoya: July 22
    This harrowing retelling of Norwegian rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik’s 2011 terrorist attack on the island of Utøya is less exploitative than Paul Greengrass’s brutal, Netflix-bound, English-language version, but the question remains: does a tragedy have to be turned into cinema for people to engage with it?
  4. Plus One
    Erskine, with her earthy chuckle and precision-tooled comic timing, is the real discovery here. She’s a smutty, sniggering joy in the role and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
  5. Underwater
    The murky cinematography further hinders a picture that looks as though it was shot through raw sewage.
  6. Parasite
    Thrillingly played by a flawless ensemble cast who hit every note and harmonic resonance of Bong and co-writer Han Jin-won’s multitonal script, it’s a tragicomic masterclass that will get under your skin and eat away at your cinematic soul.
  7. Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
    It’s the movie equivalent of a fairground ride with all the bolts loosened and the safety booklet blazed long ago when someone ran out of Rizlas.
  8. The Lighthouse
    Frat boy humour is dressed up in an expensive, arthouse jacket.
  9. Queen & Slim
    It’s a terrifically tactile film, full of the kind of deliciously observed detail that lingers in the mind long after the movie has finished.
  10. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
    It’d be easy to map Gilliam on to Grisoni, a film-maker dogged by his artistic misfires and the mess left in their wake. Really, though, he’s Quixote, stuck in a noble past and wilfully disconnected from a present that jostles uncomfortably close.
  11. Richard Jewell
    There is an elegant, even-handed character study buried within Clint Eastwood’s crisp procedural.
  12. The Grudge
    The cluttered parallel story structure – the fates of several different individuals over a period of two years are woven together – results in a series of mini-scares rather than a gradual build to a big one. And since we already know the fate of most of them, all the diseased yellow lighting and oppressive sound design in the world can’t engineer much tension.
  13. The Personal History of David Copperfield
    Astutely amplifying the absurdist – and remarkably modernist – elements of his source, Iannucci and co-writer Simon Blackwell conjure a surreal cinematic odyssey that is as accessible as it is intelligent and unexpected.
  14. Present.Perfect.
    [A] fascinating, troubling but overlong documentary.
  15. The Turning
    This contemporary adaptation of The Turn of the Screw takes the ornate enigma of Henry James’s gothic novella and whittles it down into something rather more flat and conventional.
  16. Line of Duty
    The tone veers haphazardly from tense, high-stakes cat-and-mouse chase to ill-judged satire.
  17. Waves
    Trey Edward Shults’s bombastic third feature crashes and recedes, leaving few revelations in its wake.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. Midnight Traveler
    [A] remarkable documentary.
  21. Bombshell
    The film can’t square the fact that its protagonists are the victims of sexism and yet perpetuate it by sheer virtue of working for a rightwing news channel.
  22. Seberg
    This portrait of a woman pushed to breaking point coheres around a fine, friable performance from Kristen Stewart.
  23. 1917
    For all the steel-trap visceral efficiency, it’s the more low-key moments that really pack a punch – those moments when we’re confronted with the simple human cost of war.
  24. Amanda
    The film shies away from any kind of political commentary, and as a result feels oddly sapped of fire or urgency.
  25. Mystify: Michael Hutchence
    The result is enlightening and affecting, providing a missing piece in the puzzle of a life prematurely ended.
  26. The Kingmaker
    More than 70 civil and criminal charges have been lodged against the family. Marcos flaunted her wealth while her country’s living standards plummeted, and Greenfield’s portrait is damning.
  27. 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.
  28. The Gentlemen
    Guy Ritchie’s latest gangster comedy presents itself as a harmless romp, but behind its wink-wink-nudge-nudge humour is a bitter and dated worldview.
  29. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
    It’s an absolute joy.
  30. Playing with Fire
    This is beyond inept.
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