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. Dragged Across Concrete
    Unfortunately, kind of a drag.
  2. Greta
    Mostly, though, as a B-movie, Greta works; the moments in which it leans into its own silliness are its best.
  3. A Dark Place
    Unfortunately, Scott is the most persuasive element in a film that is atmospherically photographed by Marcel Zyskind but let down by a clueless screenplay which borders, at times, on the risible.
  4. Red Joan
    This is film-making that feels rather dated and, unlike its resourceful protagonist, curiously risk averse.
  5. Wild Rose
    Jessie Buckley, who proved so electrifying in Michael Pearce’s psychological thriller Beast, lights up the screen as Rose-Lynn Harlan; a 23-year-old firebrand, fresh out of jail, wearing an electronic tag beneath white cowgirl boots.
  6. Little
    Directed by Tina Gordon Chism, co-writer of What Men Want, the film is cute enough, even if key ideas aren’t especially novel: it’s lonely at the top; we need to connect with our inner child; everyone is insecure as a teenager.
  7. Mid90s
    The attempts at authentic stoner dialogue soon become tedious, with too little plot or character development grounding the inanity (Hill’s self-written script also features an eyebrow-raising overuse of the N-word).
  8. La La Land
    Like the musical itself, the film has timeless charm and a brave sense of adventure. Bravo!
  9. Happy as Lazzaro
    Inviolata is Italian for “unspoiled”, and the word could apply to its people as much as their straw-gold land.
  10. Missing Link
    The film feels more like an elbow in the ribs than a slap on the wrist, revelling in the miscommunications between Susan the Sasquatch’s literal-minded monkey brain.
  11. Pet Sematary
    The result may not be groundbreaking or, indeed, particularly scary. But it treats King’s story with reverent affection and, unlike the cover version of the Ramones title song that plays over the end credits, it won’t leave you nostalgically longing for the original.
  12. The Sisters Brothers
    The film’s sometimes tiresome sense of humour is laddish in its embrace of viscera (blood, boils, vomit and live spiders all feature), but as the narrative trots (or, rather, plods) along, its men are revealed to be endearingly less so.
  13. Shazam!
    There’s a sense of Stranger Things camaraderie among Billy and his foster siblings, who are actually fun to spend time with, and the film’s message of found family is a sweet one. Still, its overblown finale overstays its welcome, teeing up the team as mainstays in the inevitable sequel.
  14. 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?
  15. Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story
    [An] affectionate, frequently amusing documentary portrait.
  16. 3 Faces
    And Shahrzad, a huge star from the 1960s and 70s who was banished after the revolution, is present as a voice rather than a face in the film, but is no less significant for the fact that she is not seen by the camera.
  17. Dumbo
    Something slightly disingenuous, perhaps, about the glib anti-corporate message of the film jars. The appeal of the original came from its purity and simplicity. This overcomplicated onslaught of manufactured magic could never really compete.
  18. At Eternity's Gate
    But for all the feverish visual invention, there’s a sluggishness to the storytelling that seems at odds with the frenzied creativity of the film’s subject.
  19. Us
    Hats off, too, to choreographer and movement consultant Madeline Hollander for bringing a shiversome physicality to the shadow roles that recalls the creepiest moments from Hideo Nakata’s Ringu.
  20. Sorry Angel
    The camerawork is unnecessarily showy, full of swirls and flourishes, which further distracts from the central story.
  21. The White Crow
    Equally impressive is the quality of the dance on screen.
  22. Cradle of Champions
    What makes it so compelling to watch is the choice of characters and the examination of what, beyond sporting glory, they are actually fighting for.
  23. Girl
    While the film may be flawed by some dramatic missteps, it remains buoyed by the surefootedness of Polster’s performance, which is engaging, believable, and wholly sympathetic.
  24. What Men Want
    Cameos from Pete Davidson and 30 Rock’s Tracy Morgan are enjoyable diversions but the jokes themselves are less high-concept, hinging on the men’s thoughts, which are mostly predictable (and predictably crass).
  25. Ben Is Back
    The material feels more like a play than a film, its drama shrunk down into a single, digestible day, but it’s affecting in its muted seriousness.
  26. Captain Marvel
    It’s just a pity that the movie that introduces her is so unremarkable.
  27. Border
    While the film defies neat genre classification, it has elements of physical horror – like a mating between the mind of David Cronenberg and something that crawled out of a compost heap.
  28. Fighting with My Family
    It’s a delicate balancing act that Merchant handles with aplomb.
  29. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
    While it takes a few dramatic liberties and could have benefited from a tighter edit, there’s a swell of goodwill as the story progresses that is hard to resist.
  30. Cold Pursuit
    The whole tone of this glib black comedy, with its cartoon bad guys and conspiratorial wink with each addition to the body count, seems rather dated.
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