Deborah Ross
Tomatometer-approved critic
| Publications: | The Mail on Sunday (UK), The Spectator |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40% | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) |
The film just doesn't tell a clear story. Instead, it jumps constantly from set piece to set piece without ever offering any through line or time to get to know a character.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Nov 15, 2018
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| 93% | Wildlife (2018) |
Dano is so attuned to his characters and their despair and vulnerabilities that even when they behave hatefully, as they do, or become revoltingly self-absorbed, as they do, you can't just wash your hands of them. You care.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2018
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| 64% | Peterloo (2019) |
It was like being trapped in an episode of Poldark. I kept half-hoping Demelza would drift in with one of her kidney pies and give us all a break.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Nov 1, 2018
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| 4/5 | 83% | My Dinner with Hervé (2018) |
Dinklage is superb, not just peeling back Villechaize layer by layer, but conveying simultaneously a man who was manipulative and aggressive...but also lonely and vulnerable and plain sad. ‐ The Mail on Sunday (UK)
Read More | Posted Oct 29, 2018
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| 76% | Dogman (2018) |
Dogman... is bleak, unflinching, oppressive, masculine (very), violent (shockingly) and basically everything you'd expect me to hate. Except I didn't.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Oct 18, 2018
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| 88% | First Man (2018) |
There are moments of awe, admittedly, and you will wonder afresh at such a magnificent achievement, but it still becomes a chronological plod.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Oct 11, 2018
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| 90% | A Star Is Born (2018) |
But, but, but... I did cry, and Lady Gaga is truly sensational, fabulous, a revelation. I had no idea.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Oct 4, 2018
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| 84% | The Wife (2018) |
Her performance is better than the film, but it's such a magnificent performance that it more than carries the day.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 27, 2018
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| 99% | Faces Places (Visages, villages) (2017) |
This is a film that puts old women centre stage and it's the best film that puts old women centre stage since... nope, can't think of one.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 20, 2018
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| 92% | Crazy Rich Asians (2018) |
And what it's doing right is showing white people that they don't own Hollywood any more, and maybe everyone wants to applaud that. In this way, it's a terrific film.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 13, 2018
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| 69% | The Seagull (2018) |
This adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play is handsomely mounted, as they say, and features a stellar cast, but it won't be setting the world alight.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2018
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| 61% | Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) |
It stars Idris Elba, a suitably great and charismatic actor, but even he cannot save this from seeming like a history lesson, as delivered by one of those teachers who can't seem to breathe life into a subject. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 67% | Powder Room (2013) |
The message... is nothing new, but its portrayal of young women desperately trying to have a good time while actually having a miserable time isn't something I can remember seeing before, and it feels emotionally right. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 79% | Saving Mr. Banks (2013) |
It is not a taxing film. You always know where it's going and, with its rather melodramatic flashbacks, there is no ambiguity as to where it is coming from, but neither matters as much as they should as there is just so much joy to be had otherwise.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 71% | Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) |
It's a pedestrian script, with tons of exposition, tons of signalling, and jarring vernacular oddities... The Butler does not serve its own subject matter well.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 86% | Seduced And Abandoned (2013) |
The film is funny, and sad, and insightful if you've no idea what a movie deal looks like, which I hadn't. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 91% | Philomena (2013) |
It is quiet, restrained, unfussy, and has, at its heart, an injustice so grave it will make your blood boil. You will also cry. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 98% | The Selfish Giant (2013) |
It never feels particularly fresh, but it does feel real and true, is superbly performed, and it does pack quite an emotional punch. I had to gather myself afterwards, and I'm still gathering myself, and may be gathering myself for some time to come. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 94% | Captain Phillips (2013) |
My heart was in my mouth throughout. It is nail-bitingly exciting, even if you know the outcome, and I think I can safely say it's a better film than the one I thought I was going to see.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 37% | The Fifth Estate (2013) |
Those in the know say Cumberbatch's performance captures the physical Assange perfectly, but the film fails to get a handle on him as a personality, or offer any kind of insight into what his true motivation might be. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 86% | What Maisie Knew (2013) |
I don't know where the directors (Scott McGehee and David Siegel) discovered Miss Aprile, or how they elicited her performance but, my God, she knocks it out the court. Over and over.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 94% | Kuma (2012) |
Tells a supremely clever and involving story. Which is also moving.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 87% | Alan Partridge (2014) |
I love the character of Alan Partridge so much... He is a genius creation; just wrong enough and inappropriate enough and narcissistic enough to be comic, but never so wrong he's entirely unbelievable or unsympathetic.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 65% | The Heat (2013) |
This is a disappointment as, ultimately, the stars' chemistry just can't see off the lazy, sloppy formulaic execution. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 92% | Frances Ha (2013) |
Yes, it is rather kooky, and highly self-conscious... but it's also sweet, endearing, touching, and features proper women you can actually believe in, and who aren't just drippily searching for love, which is something of a novelty.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 63% | Filth (2014) |
Filth is ghastly and unpleasant, but also kind of brilliant, and therein lies both the reward and the rub. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 91% | Blue Jasmine (2013) |
It's brilliantly watchable, if not mesmerising; and brilliantly performed, particularly by Cate Blanchett, who will knock your socks off, and may knock them off so explosively there is every chance you will never retrieve them again.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 68% | About Time (2013) |
Try as I might, and I did try, I just could not find it interesting or affecting, in any way.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
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| 89% | The World's End (2013) |
Either I've been slowly losing my sense of humour over the years - nope, just checked my pockets; still there - or these films been operating to the law of diminishing returns.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 99% | Wadjda (2013) |
Though people will talk about how it breaks boundaries and how pioneering it is, that's not what you most need to know. What you most need to know is that it's fascinating, involving, moving, an entirely excellent film in its own right.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 82% | The Moo Man (2013) |
It's a peculiarly moving and, somehow, emotionally satisfying portrait of a compassionate, decent man who loves his animals. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 60% | The Bling Ring (2013) |
It's taut, makes its point without hammering it home, well acted (particularly Emma Watson; I know!) and visually delicious.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 49% | Redemption (2013) |
This is a film that wants to be more than a mindless action flick and it tries, desperately, but just can't deliver. A pity, although it does prove your first instinct was right: a British thriller starring Jason Statham is all you need to know.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 67% | I Am Nasrine (2013) |
It is affectionate, humane, tender and, ultimately, optimistic.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 95% | Behind the Candelabra (2013) |
Yes. It is fabulous. No other word for it, unless that word is "glorious."‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 65% | Byzantium (2013) |
It's melancholia at its most trying.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 82% | Something in the Air (2013) |
So it's not, I can now see, uneventful, but it does feel as if it is, as Assayas's style is so free-flowing and the takes are so meanderingly long. This does give it a ring of emotional truth... but it is also frustrating. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 49% | The Great Gatsby (2013) |
This is fantastically enjoyable, and a blast. It is wild and rampant and thrilling. It's the best film I've seen since the last best film I saw, whatever and whenever that was. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 46% | I'm So Excited! (2013) |
It's thin, banal, boring, unwitty and, if satirical, then poorly satirical, and poorly satire is no good to anyone. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 53% | The Look of Love (2013) |
Although it wants to be a tragedy - I could feel it straining at the leash to go in that direction - it never quite pulls it off, so to speak. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 74% | Love Is All You Need (2013) |
A romantic comedy that isn't romantic or comic or much of anything. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 80% | The Place Beyond The Pines (2013) |
Its themes are familiar - guilt; redemption; manliness; those fraternal sins - but Cianfrance's artistry and the actors' riveting performances hook you in, and may even bring depth.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 68% | Trance (2013) |
Trance is so in love with its dream-within-dream conceits it pays little attention to anything else. It pays little attention to detail, and you know how such things bother me.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 89% | Compliance (2012) |
It's not an easy watch, which is kind of the point, and I'm not even sure what genre it is. Psychological horror? Thriller? But it will haunt and resonate.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 47% | Welcome to the Punch (2013) |
As a rule, I love James McAvoy with all my heart, but he just isn't cut out to be a scowling, hardened action hero. Too sweet, too downy, never sufficiently unreconstructed enough. I always want to pet him.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 86% | Robot & Frank (2012) |
It's OK, I guess, as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough, and, in the end, settles for what I most feared it would settle for: sentimentality. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 87% | Arbitrage (2012) |
So slyly and craftily entertaining even though it probably doesn't bear close scrutiny, I didn't much care. It wasn't epic. It didn't ask me to ponder the meaning of life. And it's good.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 66% | Cloud Atlas (2012) |
It's a cold and distanced and, yes, rather boring experience during which we feel nothing for any of the characters. It is three hours without actually getting anywhere near the place it should have got to. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 60% | Hitchcock (2012) |
Would have been much better off if it had taken a moment to sit down and decide on its own sensibility... It might have settled on the one, and retained its focus. But it didn't, so it doesn't, and it tells us nothing.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 45% | Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012) |
Soaringly pointless. No point to it whatsoever. I looked. I looked everywhere for a point, even under my cinema seat. But I came up empty-handed. It's 90 minutes of sheer, total, utter pointlessness.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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