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Observer (UK)

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Chocolat (2000) Philip French Everything comes easy in this movie -- love, reconciliation, redemption, re-creation and even death. It's also an easy film to enjoy.
Posted Feb 17, 2026  Edit critic review
Pretty in Pink (1986) Philip French There are some good lines and uniformly strong performances.
Posted Feb 14, 2026  Edit critic review
The Investigation of Lucy Letby (2026) Wendy Ide With no new revelations pertaining to the case, the main talking point from this documentary looks likely to be the footage of the arrests. Bar the noise and the rubbernecking, there is little of real substance to add about the harrowing case.
Posted Feb 10, 2026  Edit critic review
Wuthering Heights (2026) Wendy Ide This is less a respectful literary adaptation than a come-hither invitation to crawl down the cinema aisle on all fours and lick the screen. I enjoyed it immensely.
Posted Feb 10, 2026  Edit critic review
Send Help (2026) Wendy Ide It’s enjoyably lurid stuff, and McAdams is a blast. It’s just a pity that a third-act twist seems a little too familiar.
Posted Feb 10, 2026  Edit critic review
The Chronology of Water (2025) Wendy Ide It’s not an easy watch, but this celebration of unlovely femininity -- of bodies that leak blood and pain -- is a perfect fit for Stewart, who has repeatedly been drawn to women who refuse to fit tidily into society.
Posted Feb 10, 2026  Edit critic review
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Philip French What makes it an exciting kinetic experience in the cinema is the epic sweep, the contrast between the serene beauty of the settings and the astonishing action sequences.
Posted Feb 10, 2026  Edit critic review
Erin Brockovich (2000) Philip French It has a sparkling script by Susannah Grant, is superbly photographed by Ed Lachman and gracefully edited by Anne V. Coates. But the movie is dominated by Julia Roberts as Erin.
Posted Feb 06, 2026  Edit critic review
A Face in the Crowd (1957) John Gillett This savage satire deals mercilessly with the excesses of comercial television and fan hysteria.
Posted Feb 05, 2026  Edit critic review
Vanishing Point (1971) Tom Milne Fairly predictable and fairly dispiriting.
Posted Feb 05, 2026  Edit critic review
Days of Heaven (1978) Philip French It is through objects and through the physical world that this wonderfully contrived picture moves us, not through its characters, who remain distant and shadowy.
Posted Feb 04, 2026  Edit critic review
Camille (1936) C.A. Lejeune Camille reveals, as no film before it, the curious conflict between bone and spirit that is so much the mainspring of Garbo's power.
Posted Feb 04, 2026  Edit critic review
Ace in the Hole (1951) C.A. Lejeune There is nothing wrong with Ace in the Hole except that, in its alleged design of discrediting sensationalism, it is utterly and unashamedly sensational itself, and leaves one with the arid feeling that the only really bad stunt is the unsuccessful one.
Posted Feb 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Arabesque (1966) Penelope Gilliatt Every joke is an ogle, and every third line should have been cut.
Posted Feb 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Primate (2025) Wendy Ide Unfortunately, the ape itself is rather less convincing. Still, this animal rampage delivers plenty of scares.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Shelter (2026) Wendy Ide The plot is thin, the dialogue rudimentary. But the action is glorious. Statham’s deadly grace as a fighter has rarely been better showcased.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Kangaroo (2025) Wendy Ide It’s generic stuff -- the adorable redemption arc is as predictable as the boxing kangaroo comedy interlude. But it’s a wholesome, likeable option for younger audiences, and a refreshingly human alternative to machine-tooled studio offerings.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Is This Thing On? (2025) Wendy Ide It might not have the awards-bait immediacy of [Bradley Cooper's] first two pictures, but for me this is the work of a director growing in confidence, who no longer feels the need to flex his film-making muscles in every frame.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Nouvelle Vague (2025) Wendy Ide Nouvelle Vague is more than just an in-joke for cineastes -- it’s an invitation to make something alive and radical that pisses off the right people.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
House (1985) Philip French Despite the genial presence as a sceptical neighbour of George Wendt, one ends up almost hating this film for its insensitivity.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
My Bloody Valentine (1981) Philip French The Canadian producers of George Mihalka's My Bloody Valentine do everything they can to make us believe that the grisly events depicted... are happening in America and not the Maritime Provinces. Their reasons are not patriotic.
Posted Jan 29, 2026  Edit critic review
State of Statelessness (2024) Barbara Ellen The final story, about a son’s discovery of a family secret in Dharamshala following the death of his father, is the most intriguing and accomplished.
Posted Jan 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Mercy (2026) Wendy Ide It’s pulpy, propulsive fun, but it reads alarmingly like a feature-length advertisement for mass surveillance.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
Saipan (2025) Wendy Ide A droll and gently entertaining blend of sports movie and soap opera.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
The History of Sound (2025) Wendy Ide This is a handsome and impeccably tasteful work from South African director Oliver Hermanus... But it is subdued almost to the point of coyness, a story of passion undone by its polite execution.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart (2026) Barbara Ellen This is a robust documentary... The miracle is not only that Elizabeth managed to survive her ordeal, but that she went on to become an impressive spokesperson for survivors of sexual violence.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
North (1994) Philip French North the boy has everything and faces no real threat, while North the movie is a parasitic ragbag of movie references.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
Misery (1990) Philip French At once wonderfully original and aware of its ancestry, this astonishing film is a taut, darkly comic thriller.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
The American President (1995) Philip French This is a romantic fairy-tale intended to amuse, inspire and get Clinton re-elected, not to raise questions, and as such it's a smooth entertainment.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
Bulk (2025) Wendy Ide I can’t say that it all makes a great deal of sense, but the film’s playfulness and teasing meta humour is appealing.
Posted Jan 20, 2026  Edit critic review
The Rip (2026) Wendy Ide Despite, or perhaps because of all the jostling egos, shouting and shooting, this is a baggy mess of a picture that fails to muster much in the way of suspense, or even to persuade us that we should care one way or another.
Posted Jan 20, 2026  Edit critic review
Rental Family (2025) Wendy Ide Although Fraser plays the character with an almost childlike naivety, there’s something rather off-putting about this big wet sponge of a man who believes all too readily in the roles he is assigned to play.
Posted Jan 20, 2026  Edit critic review
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Wendy Ide DaCosta’s film is a macabre morality tale about the best and worst of human nature. It is utterly brutal, and one of the most compelling so far.
Posted Jan 17, 2026  Edit critic review
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) C.A. Lejeune The exhibition of scientific gadgets will delight the inquiring mind, and the account of planetary intentions proves highly reassuring.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Stand by Me (1986) Philip French Stand By Me is an economical, gentle, truthful tale.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Gaslight (1944) C.A. Lejeune It is a fierce, Victorian period piece; deliberately played for horror and handsome in a rich and stuffy way.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Becoming Victoria Wood (2026) Wendy Ide It was an untimely loss that still stings. This unshowy but affectionate documentary salutes her singular talent and charts her journey.
Posted Jan 12, 2026  Edit critic review
Giant (2025) Wendy Ide For a film about a fighter who was famous for his footwork, this is disappointingly plodding stuff.
Posted Jan 12, 2026  Edit critic review
Hamnet (2025) Wendy Ide The film’s potency is derived as much from the physicality of the performances -- Mescal’s restless, questing agitation, Buckley’s open book of a face -- as it is from the dialogue.
Posted Jan 09, 2026  Edit critic review
Beaver Valley (1950) C.A. Lejeune Beaver Valley is a little beauty... It is drawn direct from life, but composed directly for the cinema. The skill and innocence that once went into the presentation of cartoon animals have been applied, but with a new vigor, but without the new vulgarity.
Posted Jan 08, 2026  Edit critic review
Alice in Wonderland (1951) C.A. Lejeune Alice in Wonderland is a far less stimulating achievement, except in the sense that it may drive lovers of Lewis Carroll to frenzy, but let it be said at once that there are some delightful things in it.
Posted Jan 08, 2026  Edit critic review
A Few Good Men (1992) Philip French Certainly it poses some important questions. But because the authors are so intent on creating an exciting melodrama that appeals alike to hawks and doves, the issues are fudged and no one really gets his way in court.
Posted Jan 08, 2026  Edit critic review
The Sure Thing (1985) Philip French A dissappointing campus comedy.
Posted Jan 08, 2026  Edit critic review
*batteries not Included (1987) Philip French I found the film highly resistible.
Posted Jan 07, 2026  Edit critic review
Empire of the Sun (1987) Philip French Even though you might be impressed by the portentous mood, you'll wonder how a film that comes to look like a sanitised fusion of The Go-Between and Tenko can have been derived from a novel that has been favorably compared to A High Wind in Jamaica.
Posted Jan 07, 2026  Edit critic review
The Princess Bride (1987) Philip French A captivating, wonderfully witty swashbuckling fairy-tale.
Posted Jan 07, 2026  Edit critic review
Song Sung Blue (2025) Wendy Ide It’s almost too obvious to draw a parallel between the directorial approach and the pleasantly forgettable, unapologetically corny music at its rhinestone-encrusted heart, but this is the very definition of middle-of-the-road film-making.
Posted Jan 06, 2026  Edit critic review
Re-Animator (1985) Philip French Neither really funny nor truly frightening, it is too self-consciously bent on acquiring instant cult status.
Posted Jan 05, 2026  Edit critic review
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) C.A. Lejeune It isn't a very good picture.
Posted Dec 31, 2025  Edit critic review
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (2025) Wendy Ide The animation style might have evolved since the first cinematic outing for the rectangular undersea goofball in 2004, but the fourth film adventure for SpongeBob and his best friend, Patrick the starfish, is reassuringly familiar in other ways.
Posted Dec 22, 2025  Edit critic review
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