Independent (UK)
Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
4/5
MLK/FBI (2021)
[A] smart, incisive film.
Posted Jan 15, 2021
2
2/5
Stardust (2020)
The actor-musician, so magnetic in last year's EMMA., is convincing as a tortured glam rocker - just not the one who ever sang about Major Tom's interplanetary adventures.
Posted Jan 13, 2021
3
3/5
Robin's Wish (2020)
There's little sense of the depth of Williams's legacy here, or what the world lost beyond a husband, a friend, and a colleague. Perhaps that pain is enough.
Posted Jan 6, 2021
4
4/5
Pandemonium (2020)
Pandemonium is a valiant effort at the tightrope act of exploiting the humour of the predicament without making light of it.
Posted Jan 6, 2021
5
3/5
Pieces of a Woman (2020)
Kirby and Burstyn complement each other beautifully.
Posted Jan 4, 2021
6
3/5
We Can Be Heroes (2021)
Rodriguez's film has a simple nobility to it that does a lot to overcome the slapdash CGI and cheap sets. It's always easier to embrace something when it's made with sincerity and heart.
Posted Dec 28, 2020
7
3/5
Roald & Beatrix is gentle, handsome and well-acted family viewing, yet substantial Christmas-driven obliviousness is needed to overlook the factual sourness of its hero.
Posted Dec 28, 2020
8
1/5
Death to 2020 (2020)
9
3/5
The Midnight Sky (2020)
The Midnight Sky looks beautiful... But once the stakes are established, the film struggles to fill the rest of its time.
Posted Dec 23, 2020
10
4/5
The country should be proud of [Marcus Rashford's] work, and embarrassed that it's necessary.
Posted Dec 22, 2020
11
4/5
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
Levee is a force that pummels through the film... Davis burns through the pageantry.
Posted Dec 21, 2020
12
5/5
It would have been a miraculous celebration of neighbourly love even if it hadn't been released in the middle of a pandemic. But, in these circumstances, that sense of temporary relief feels intoxicating.
Posted Dec 17, 2020
13
The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Highly contrived and emotionally manipulative, but still undramatic.
Posted Dec 16, 2020
14
4/5
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Wonder Woman 1984 is a piece of hopeful, uncynical filmmaking. And it's ambitious enough to make up for its minor flaws - a little awkward CGI here, some clunky exposition there.
Posted Dec 15, 2020
15
3/5
Dreamland (2020)
It's fascinating to watch an actor like Robbie, who so consciously uses beauty as a tool to define the way her characters drift through the world.
Posted Dec 11, 2020
16
3/5
Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
Happy Death Day 2U, more importantly, never loses sight of its secret weapon: Rothe, who rolls with every punch this film throws at her.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
17
2/5
Resistance (2020)
The film is lazily manipulative here, as the sounds of an angelic children's choir are contrasted with scenes of brutal executions.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
18
4/5
Proxima (2019)
Alice Winocour's Proxima is a poignant tribute to a mother's resilience.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
19
3/5
Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)
It's a delight for fans to see how immersive this world actually feels.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
20
4/5
The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Although it remains largely faithful to the original, there's a fresh source of vitality to be found in Gyllenhaal's presence.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
21
3/5
Pavarotti (2019)
The film offers such a rich array of archival footage, interviews, and candid photography that it's no struggle to put together a picture of the kind of man Pavarotti was.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
22
2/5
The Front Runner (2018)
The Front Runner's timidity extends even to the portrayal of Hart himself... the film instead allows him to recede into the background, leaving Jackman and his trademark charisma with very little to do.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
23
3/5
Five Feet Apart (2019)
There's a sincerity here that undoes many of its excesses, thanks largely to the grounded chemistry of its leads.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
24
2/5
Stuber (2019)
Ultimately, Stuber wants to explore our own notions of masculinity.... Which would all be well and good, maybe, if Stuber was actually funny.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
25
3/5
I'm Your Woman (2020)
It's insightful and considered enough to act as a powerful rebuke to the male cinematic fantasy, though its flaws are as illuminating as its strengths.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
26
4/5
The Prom (2020)
Welcome to the glitzy, winsome, wonderfully ridiculous world of Ryan Murphy's The Prom.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
27
2/5
Trial by Fire (2019)
Trial by Fire... forces Willingham through a kind of poetic transformation.
Posted Dec 10, 2020
28
2/5
The Kissing Booth 2 (2020)
To The Kissing Booth 2's credit, it's not as aggressively problematic as its predecessor.
Posted Dec 9, 2020
29
3/5
Wasp Network (2019)
Director Olivier Assayas offers a political thriller that's rich in detail, but primarily invested in human cost.
Posted Dec 9, 2020
30
3/5
Fanny Lye Deliver'd bristles with the promise brought on by a new era, even if its approach feels busy and overworked.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
31
3/5
Family Romance, LLC (2020)
Family Romance, LLC feels too casual to satisfactorily delve into the topic of identity in the modern world, but it does offer up a few intriguing vignettes.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
32
3/5
It's exactly as silly and outlandish as it needs to be, while still paying sincere respect to one of Europe's great cultural quirks.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
33
4/5
The Old Guard (2020)
None of this would work without someone like Gina Prince-Bythewood behind the lens.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
34
2/5
Scoob! (2020)
For a modern reboot, SCOOB! feels instantly dated. And its only contribution to the Scooby-Doo mythos is a thuddingly lame backstory to how he got his name.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
35
4/5
Saint Frances (2020)
[Kelly] O'Sullivan's screenplay, much like her performance, is sweet without ever turning sickly. Alex Thompson's direction, in turn, carefully matches her tone.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
36
2/5
The Way Back (2020)
For all the film's contrivances, Affleck still draws us into the lost soul at its centre.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
37
4/5
Clemency (2019)
Clemency is proof of just how effortlessly [Woodard] can lead a film.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
38
3/5
How to Build a Girl (2020)
Feldstein's charms are brilliantly weaponised here.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
39
3/5
Young Ahmed (Le jeune Ahmed) (2020)
[Filmmakers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne] are clear-sighted and righteous in their approach.
Posted Dec 8, 2020
40
4/5
It's the great procession of humanity - mercy and defeat and callousness all included.
Posted Dec 4, 2020
41
2/5
Black Beauty (2020)
To those whose bedroom walls were never adorned with photographs of wild, galloping herds, Black Beauty reads as pretty, but emotionally vacant.
Posted Dec 4, 2020
42
2/5
It's hard to figure out quite where Christmas on the Square is headed in any given moment, despite the film borrowing liberally from festive classics.
Posted Dec 4, 2020
43
2/5
Jungleland (2020)
Here is a world of seedy gangsters and flame-hearted girls, with a plot that slowly unravels with each increasingly implausible turn.
Posted Dec 4, 2020
44
3/5
Falling (2020)
The journey is brutal, the destination turns out to be a dead-end - but credit goes to Mortensen for still making the effort seem worthwhile.
Posted Dec 3, 2020
45
4/5
Happiest Season (2020)
It's the performances, each funny and grounded in their own way, that make Happiest Season feel like such a gift.
Posted Nov 30, 2020
46
3/5
Possessor: Uncut (2020)
An entertaining techno thriller... led by actors whose mere presence does the leg work whenever Cronenberg's script falters.
Posted Nov 30, 2020
47
2/5
Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)
It may speak eloquently to its fanbase, but it's guaranteed to baffle any outsider.
Posted Nov 23, 2020
48
3/5
All that's really needed to understand Arquette's motivations are the words of his brother, Richmond: "David wants love"... For all its bravado and mystique, what's most striking about You Cannot Kill David Arquette are these simple truths.
Posted Nov 23, 2020
49
3/5
Billie (2020)
There's a lingering sense that Kuehl understood something deeper, but Billie never seems all that curious to find out what that might be.
Posted Nov 13, 2020
50
4/5
Jingle Jangle might just be this season's showstopper.
Posted Nov 13, 2020