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Alistair Harkness

Alistair Harkness's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
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It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley (2025) 98% EDIT “Dispelling myths about Buckley’s tragic drowning in 1997, and shifting away from the obvious parallels with his own musician father Tim Buckley...it refocuses attention on his astonishing voice and the women who raised, supported, loved and shaped him. ” – Scotsman Feb 17, 2026 Full Review Whistle (2025) 60% EDIT “Why said whistle is found in a high school is given only cursory attention by director Corin Hardy...but he also knows this is just an engine for delivering funhouse jolts, which he does with plenty of dumb-fun brio. ” – Scotsman Feb 17, 2026 Full Review GOAT (2026) 81% EDIT “Though formulaic, Goat’s got scrappy charm – and its painterly animation style gives it and a pleasingly rough-hewn feel.” – Scotsman Feb 17, 2026 Full Review My Father's Shadow (2025) 98% 4/5 EDIT “ Though didactic in places, the film’s lyrical, child’s-eye perspective gradually captures the vibrancy (and therefore hope) of the people, even as they face the ongoing spirit-crushing oppression of a rigged political system. ” – Scotsman Feb 10, 2026 Full Review The Shepherd and the Bear (2024) 4/5 EDIT “Director Max Keegan doesn’t amp up this conflict though; embedding himself in the community his approach is more reminiscent of Frederick Wiseman’s as he quietly observes his subjects, revealing a more nuanced picture of the complexities of rural life.” – Scotsman Feb 10, 2026 Full Review Hamlet (2025) 82% 3/5 EDIT “...it’s a gritty, bloody, pretty streamlined take on Shakespeare’s thematically evergreen, if very familiar, tale of familial treachery, revenge and madness.” – Scotsman Feb 10, 2026 Full Review The Chronology of Water (2025) 90% 4/5 EDIT “The result is a film that captures something truthful about the way creativity works and how trauma never quite leaves you. And Poots really is mesmerising. ” – Scotsman Feb 10, 2026 Full Review Twinless (2025) 97% 4/5 EDIT “Darkly funny but heartbreaking too, it’s a very assured piece of filmmaking, with O’Brian especially good playing a kind of soulful meathead not always able to find the right words to articulate what he's going through. ” – Scotsman Feb 10, 2026 Full Review Send Help (2026) 93% 4/5 EDIT “Raimi delights in setting all this up, but it’s McAdams’ entertainingly unhinged transformation from corporate doormat to vengeful Bear Grylls that drives the action, with Linda enjoying her newfound dominance perhaps a little too much. ” – Scotsman Feb 10, 2026 Full Review Primate (2025) 78% 2/5 EDIT “Sadly, the rest of this 90-minute primate-fronted slasher movie proves a bit of a slog thanks to co-writer/director Johannes Roberts’ that’ll-do approach to the plot and characters.” – Scotsman Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Shelter (2026) 63% 2/5 EDIT “Those of us holding out for Statham’s John Wick or Leon might have to accept the fact that 2013’s Safe was his best shot.” – Scotsman Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Nouvelle Vague (2025) 92% 4/5 EDIT “As infuriating as Godard no doubt was, though, Linklater...treats the making of Breathless as the joyful pursuit of art for art’s sake. It’s a joy that infuses every frame of Nouvelle Vague.” – Scotsman Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Is This Thing On? (2025) 86% 4/5 EDIT “...the film is pretty funny as it revels in the machinations of the grassroots comedy scene...” – Scotsman Feb 2, 2026 Full Review The History of Sound (2025) 70% 2/5 EDIT “But as film zeroes in on Mescal's Lionel as he embarks on an illustrious, decades-spanning career in search of the happiness he once felt, it never soars emotionally; the epic sweep of the story is mostly at odds with the thinly conceived characters.” – Scotsman Jan 22, 2026 Full Review No Other Choice (2025) 97% 4/5 EDIT “...[Park Chan-wook's] proven ability to glide between different modes of storytelling within a single movie makes this a state-of-the nation satire devoid of assaultive polemics and rich in pulpy genre thrills...” – Scotsman Jan 22, 2026 Full Review H Is for Hawk (2025) 80% 2/5 EDIT “Though the scenes with Foy and Mabel the goshawk are well done, too much of it is composed of unconvincing, theme-explicating scenes that feel as intrusive as the over-bearing score and the performative smoking Foy’s Macdonald indulges in through out. ” – Scotsman Jan 22, 2026 Full Review Saipan (2025) 92% 2/5 EDIT “Given Ireland ended up doing pretty well at the 2002 World Cup, the film succeeds only in making it all seem like a meaningless storm in a teacup. ” – Scotsman Jan 22, 2026 Full Review 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) 92% 4/5 EDIT “As the middle part of a new trilogy, the film certainly embraces its second-act status, expanding the ideas and setting up a concluding chapter with another provocative cliffhanger. ” – Scotsman Jan 13, 2026 Full Review The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) 95% 4/5 EDIT “...it’s the film’s immediate and primal ability to connect audiences directly to the atrocity it’s exploring that justifies its existence. ” – Scotsman Jan 13, 2026 Full Review Rental Family (2025) 87% 2/5 EDIT “...the Japanese practice of hiring actors to pretend to be family members gets a sentimental treatment in Rental Family, a fairly innocuous vehicle for Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser. ” – Scotsman Jan 13, 2026 Full Review Giant (2025) 61% 2/5 EDIT “...the film coasts by on the standard rise-and-fall structure of the sports movie. ” – Scotsman Jan 6, 2026 Full Review Hamnet (2025) 86% 2/5 EDIT “Like a glum spin on Shakespeare in Love, Hamnet, in the end, plays too much like primo Oscar bait. ” – Scotsman Jan 6, 2026 Full Review The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (2025) 80% 2/5 EDIT “... while there’s nothing wrong with providing pure cinematic silliness for five, six and seven-year-olds, there’s no joy or craft in the jokes on offer; it’s just a barrage of zaniness. ” – Scotsman Dec 18, 2025 Full Review Peter Hujar's Day (2025) 92% 4/5 EDIT “...Peter Hujar’s Day offers a fascinating snapshot of the life of an artist in a much mythologised time.” – Scotsman Dec 18, 2025 Full Review Song Sung Blue (2025) 78% 3/5 EDIT “...Song Sung Blue’s stranger-than-fiction tale of a Neil Diamond impersonator’s turbulent life comes with the sort wild twists that almost justify the celebrity downsizing. ” – Scotsman Dec 18, 2025 Full Review
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