Allan Hunter

Allan Hunter
Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications: London Evening Standard, Screen International, Downtown Express, Daily Express (UK), The List

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
No Score Yet Marona's Fantastic Tale (L'Extraordinaire voyage de Marona) (2019) Told with charm, wit and invention, this is family entertainment with an appeal that should cross the generations. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 17, 2019
No Score Yet The Wonderland (2019) It is often very enjoyable but, for a simple coming of age tale in which Akane learns to count her blessings, it also feels as if a less elaborate approach might have achieved more of an emotional impact. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2019
No Score Yet The Prince's Voyage (Le Voyage du Prince) (2019) It should readily attract longterm fans of [Laguionie's] work and those seeking animation with sophisticated substance as well as a distinctive style. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2019
No Score Yet Children of the Sea (Kaijû no kodomo) (2019) Full of interesting concepts and accomplished animation, Children Of The Sea is less than the sum of its many parts and just seems to lose its way after a very promising beginning. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 13, 2019
No Score Yet Playmobil: The Movie (2019) Bland variations on familiar themes... leave Playmobil -The Movie in need of some of the adventurous spirit that it so relentlessly advocates. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 11, 2019
3/5 89% A Season in France (Une Saison en France) (2017) Sometimes plodding in its execution, A Season in France is never less than sincere in its emotions, capturing a sense of lives that can all too easily remain invisible. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 10, 2019
3/5 No Score Yet Balloon (2018) It is an engrossing mixture of adventure yarn and methodical police procedural that generates moments of pulse-racing tension and captures a sense of a country where paranoia reigns and nobody can be trusted. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 10, 2019
100% Mike Wallace Is Here (2019) Mike Wallace Is Here fondly celebrates his life but also questions Wallace's influence on the quality of public discourse in modern media. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 7, 2019
100% Midnight Family (2019) A compelling documentary that blends the engaging family dynamic of a Kore-eda drama with the socio-economic realities of a Ken Loach classic. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 7, 2019
No Score Yet Zero Impunity (2019) A wide-ranging, eye-opening film, it should attract the attention of serious-minded audiences willing to confront the subject matter and previously supportive of animation titles ranging from Waltz With Bashir to Another Day Of Life. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 3, 2019
4/5 91% Eating Animals (2018) If ever a single film could inspire you to turn vegetarian it is Eating Animals. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 3, 2019
5/5 98% The Lighthouse (2019) An oppressive, richly textured slow-burn of a psychological thriller, pitched somewhere between a silent cinema chiller and a Roman Polanski classic. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted May 28, 2019
No Score Yet Once in Trubchevsk (Odnazhdy v Trubchevske) (2019) A modest but precisely calibrated drama with a plangent feel for small-town life. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 23, 2019
2/5 51% Matthias and Maxime (2019) It is contrived and unpersuasive; characters grate, situations don't quite ring true, jokes are strained and it all feels oddly old-fashioned. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted May 23, 2019
60% Homeward (Evge) (2019) Nariman Aliev's first feature reveals a poise and maturity beyond his years. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 22, 2019
3/5 92% Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (2019) Tarantino's period mosaic is a compelling, provocative but, frankly, uneven affair. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted May 22, 2019
No Score Yet La Belle Époque (2019) A sweet, inventive Richard Curtis-style romantic-comedy crowdpleaser that deftly balances hearty laughs and heartwarming emotion. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 21, 2019
83% Lillian (2019) Uneven but never uninteresting, it is the kind of film that slips under the skin. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 20, 2019
4/5 74% A Hidden Life (Une vie cachée) (2019) It has the intensity of a Carl Dreyer silent film but also a timely urgency, as Malick asks us to consider how one individual can hope to make a difference in a world at the mercy of the evil that men do. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted May 20, 2019
52% Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed) (2019) Focused and thought-provoking, it should be welcomed as a return to form after the disappointment of The Unknown Girl. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 20, 2019
60% The Best Years of a Life (Les plus belles années d'une vie) (2019) Trintignant and Aimee still have great chemistry together and it is their tender charm that gives the film its heart. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 19, 2019
83% Room 212 (Chambre 212) (2019) Unashamedly theatrical and unapologetically fanciful, it may not be for all tastes but casts a warming glow that should attract incurable romantics, nostalgic cinefiles and fans of writer/director Christophe Honoré. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 19, 2019
100% Family Romance, LLC (2019) The abiding impression is of an intermittently fascinating film that is a minor work in the ever burgeoning Herzog canon. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 18, 2019
4/5 75% Sorry We Missed You (2019) The film's heart lies in its quiet observation of the lasting impact on family life. The unrelenting demands of work exact their toll in frayed tempers, critical absences and a lack of time to devote to the things that should matter most. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted May 17, 2019
100% First Love (Hatsukoi) (2019) An exhilarating cocktail of bloodbath violence and tar-black humour that will be catnip to Midnight Madness programmers and Miike devotees. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 17, 2019
89% Atlantics (Atlantique) (2019) An intense romance notable for the craft of the filmmaking and Diop's original approach to complex issues of love, loss and the forces for change that can rise from the ashes of tragedy. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 16, 2019
83% Deerskin (Le Daim) (2019) Dupieux manages to sustain credibility and an air of unpredictability as he leads the viewer through a series of improbable developments. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 15, 2019
No Score Yet As Happy As Possible (Rêves de jeunesse) (2019) Alain Raoust's first feature in over a decade is an assured, quietly captivating portrait of a young woman whose experiences reflect wider currents in a country adrift in an age of uncertainty. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 15, 2019
3/5 93% Tucked (2018) Tucked... is far from perfect, but it has more than enough heart and humanity to win you over. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted May 13, 2019
2/5 88% Diamantino (2019) There are some stray, scattered laughs to be found here and there, but ultimately Diamantino is more exhausting than entertaining. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted May 7, 2019
88% Framing John DeLorean (2019) The film is hugely impressive in the scope of those interviewed. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted May 1, 2019
100% Our Time Machine (2019) This captivating documentary should strike a universal chord. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 29, 2019
60% Flawless (Haneshef) (2018) Stav Strashko gives a competent performance as Eden, but Flawless never makes the most of its many worthy elements. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 29, 2019
33% Only (2019) The actors serve a sombre, reflective screenplay with suitably understated performances. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 28, 2019
78% Aamis (Ravening) (2019) Hazarika is an accomplished storyteller with an engaging talent for well-crafted, unusual fare but this provocative, transgressive love story just never quite adds up to an entirely satisfying whole. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 27, 2019
3/5 83% Loro (2019) Loro is a sprawling, unexpectedly melancholy film. Sharply entertaining in places, it only seems to scratch the surface of a complex life and the country in which it flourished. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 16, 2019
2/5 30% Red Joan (2019) It is perfectly respectable but the focus is soft, the peril is mild and the pulse is rarely raised. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 15, 2019
56% Marie Antoinette (2006) Marie Antoinette may have too much cake and not enough revolution but for the most part it is fun. Just leave your prejudices at the door. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 1, 2019
No Score Yet Push (2019) Fredrik Gertten's lively, approachable documentary on the global housing crisis should leave audiences feeling engaged, enraged and with plenty to discuss afterwards. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 1, 2019
No Score Yet Ridge (Säsong) (2019) Ridge (Säsong) captures the dreamy haze of a Swedish summer in images of light and landscape and little fragments of random lives. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 1, 2019
No Score Yet Tiny Souls (2019) Tiny Souls doesn't shy away from harsh reality, but is distinguished by the way it draws out the signs of optimism and normality that endure against all the odds. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 30, 2019
91% The Edge of Democracy (2019) Petra Costa's riveting documentary provides an authoritative overview of recent Brazilian history, revealing the way it is also closely woven into her own family story. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 29, 2019
No Score Yet The Reformist (Reformisten) (Femimam) (2019) Khankan is a charismatic figure, which makes the documentary all the more compelling. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 27, 2019
No Score Yet A Stranger (Fraemling) (2019) A Stranger becomes more flinty and noir-like as it unfolds. The fatalistic air is enhanced by the film's shadowy look and the brooding menace of the music score. It is a compelling story, but we are left with many questions of our own. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 27, 2019
100% The Disappearance of My Mother (2019) Captures the complexities of a woman who has spent a lifetime challenging the influence of the fashion industry and staring down the unflinching gaze of the camera. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 25, 2019
No Score Yet The Rest (2019) The Rest offers a potent expression of high hopes meeting grim realities as those who have fled Syria or Afghanistan seek a fresh start in a Europe filled with hostility. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 25, 2019
No Score Yet On the Inside of a Military Dictatorship (2019) On The Inside Of A Military Dictatorship brings clarity to a complex situation, but works best as a methodical, fair-minded history lesson rather than something with alluring new insights to offer. - Screen International EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 25, 2019
3/5 80% Sorry Angel (Plaire, aimer et courir vite) (2019) Sometimes a challenge to piece together, the lengthy Sorry Angel still emerges as a thoughtful, melancholy remembrance of love and loss. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 18, 2019
4/5 84% Girl (2018) On an emotional level, it is a tough, empathetic drama with a performance that convinces in both body and soul. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2019
4/5 92% Benjamin (2018) Every insecure moment, awkward encounter and romantic longing fuels a tale in which the real and the imagined softly blur. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 11, 2019