Nicholas Barber

Nicholas Barber
Nicholas Barber's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s): BBC.com indieWire Newsweek Independent (UK) Independent on Sunday Metro (UK) Daily Express (UK) TheWrap
Publications: BBC.com, indieWire, Newsweek, Independent (UK), Independent on Sunday, Metro (UK), Daily Express (UK), TheWrap

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
4/5 60% Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) In its old-fashioned, uncynical way, WW84 is one of the most enjoyable blockbusters to be released since 1984. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 15, 2020
2/5 51% The Midnight Sky (2020) The story may have links with today's reality, but it never feels real. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 9, 2020
4/5 85% Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) It's the ripped-from-the-headlines relevance that makes it so fascinating, and it's the boiling rage at current politics that makes it so bracing. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 21, 2020
4/5 95% Soul (2020) It doesn't hit its target, but its target is the key to life, the universe, and all that jazz. You can't aim much higher than that. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 13, 2020
B 94% Mandibles (Mandibules) (2020) What makes "Mandibules" so refreshing is that, just as its anti-heroes don't care about how they are supposed to behave, Dupieux has an airy disregard for how a chase thriller or a horror movie is supposed to proceed. - indieWire EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2020
3/5 98% One Night in Miami (2020) As unbalanced as it might be, One Night in Miami is a well-acted history lesson and a sincere tribute to the men, their friendship, and their inspiring cultural importance. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 8, 2020
B 100% Sun Children (Khorshid) (2020) The ambition to cover so many related issues is admirable, and, overall, Majidi does so with tremendous, crowd-pleasing skill. - indieWire EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2020
C No Score Yet Sportin' Life (2020) It's self-indulgent, but never boring. - indieWire EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2020
D 36% Mainstream (2020) The plot is just as predictable as the themes. Everyone watching will know where it's going, although the viewer's imagined version of the screenplay will likely be shrewder than the one written by Coppola and Tom Stuart. - indieWire EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2020
A- 96% The Human Voice (La Voz Humana) (2020) You can't help but wish that "The Human Voice" was longer, with more characters, more Spanish locations, and more of the director's trademark twists. But the restricted setting is what makes the film so timely and so touching. - indieWire EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2020
B 100% The Duke (2020) This is the kind of British film with international appeal: the venerable cast, genial tone, inspirational story, and mischievous English eccentricity are all present and correct. Settle in, preferably with a nice cup of tea to hand, and enjoy. - indieWire EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2020
3/5 73% Mulan (2020) It's best enjoyed if you're expecting a solid tween movie rather than a monumental cinematic landmark. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 3, 2020
5/5 81% I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) [I]t seems completely sincere in its concern about ageing, illness, pain, regret, and the connections we make to art and other people. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 2, 2020
70% Tenet (2020) In the end, "Tenet" isn't one of Nolan's most satisfying films. But after I've seen it four or five more times, maybe I'll change my mind. - TheWrap EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 21, 2020
98% Paris Is Burning (1991) Fun, yes, but also heartbreaking. - Independent on Sunday EDIT
Read More | Posted May 18, 2020
2/5 91% The Invisible Man (2020) Move along: there's nothing to see here. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 26, 2020
2/5 78% Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) However popular the film becomes, though, I doubt that anyone will adore it as much as it evidently adores itself. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2020
75% The Gentlemen (2020) There is no denying the nostalgic if somewhat guilty pleasure of experiencing Ritchie's madly tangled plots and colorful language once again. - TheWrap EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 19, 2019
2/5 20% Cats (2019) Cats isn't the cat-astrophe that everyone either feared or hoped for back in July, but it isn't a triumphant vindication of Hooper's vision, either. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 18, 2019
3/5 51% Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) All The Rise of Skywalker does is wrap up everything a second time, answering the same questions and revisiting the same themes. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 18, 2019
1/5 52% Charlie's Angels (2019) Rather than having a story, the film has a string of rote action sequences, and each of these sequences goes the same way. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 22, 2019
2/5 77% Frozen II (2019) When your story relies on snow statues coming to life at convenient moments and acting out arguments that took place 30 years earlier, that's probably a sign that your screenplay could do with another two or three drafts. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 14, 2019
1/5 47% Last Christmas (2019) What did George Michael do to deserve this? - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 6, 2019
4/5 78% Doctor Sleep (2019) Credible in its characterisation, rich in mythological detail, and touchingly sincere in its treatment of alcoholism and trauma, the film is impressive in all sorts of ways. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 31, 2019
3/5 70% Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) This franchise needs to be terminated. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 23, 2019
4/5 80% Jojo Rabbit (2019) Waititi's riposte seems to be that, actually, it is vital that we laugh at Nazis - and Jojo Rabbit ensures that we do just that. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 7, 2019
5/5 90% The Lighthouse (2019) Eggers balances its nightmarish grimness with humour in the bleak tradition of a British kitchen-sink sitcom, a Beckett play, and the aforementioned Withnail and I. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 4, 2019
26% Gemini Man (2019) It's difficult to care that one man is a carbon copy of the other when neither of them seems especially human, anyway. - TheWrap EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 26, 2019
2/5 41% The Laundromat (2019) The topic deserves a more substantial, more searching film than this jeu d'esprit - and Oldman and Banderas definitely deserve to be in that film. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2019
3/5 71% The King (2019) Slightly too fond of its dour mood and its fey leading man, this diary of a wimpy king is recommended principally to people who want to watch Chalamet lounging around being sad, often while he's got off his top off. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2019
3/5 68% Joker (2019) However unusual its grungy 70s styling may be, Joker is ultimately nothing but a flimsy, two-hour supervillain origin movie... - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2019
3/5 83% Ad Astra (2019) Ad Astra is enjoyable as a two-fisted action movie and as a hard sci-fi rumination. But, weighed down as it is by emotional baggage, it doesn't quite get to the stars. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 30, 2019
3/5 91% Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) Of course, he has baddies to fight and innocent bystanders to save, but this is the lightest and silliest of Marvel's films, which is what makes it so enjoyable, but also, ultimately, what makes it so forgettable. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 2, 2019
4/5 97% Toy Story 4 (2019) It's a smaller, less moving, and mercifully, less traumatising entertainment than the last one, less satisfying in its plotting and less provocative in its themes. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 13, 2019
3/5 85% Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (2019) It is essentially a goofy, good-natured hang-out comedy. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted May 23, 2019
3/5 92% Bacurau (Nighthawk) (2020) Some bits definitely work better than others, but there is definitely no wilder film. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted May 20, 2019
3/5 97% Pain and Glory (Dolor y gloria) (2019) But unless you view Pain and Glory through a filter of deep affection for Almodóvar, you will see it as minor work: not painful, but not glorious, either. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted May 19, 2019
4/5 96% Atlantics (2019) Dreamy yet sensual, fantastical yet rooted in uncomfortable facts, Diop's beguiling film may even have reinvented a genre. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted May 19, 2019
3/5 88% Les Misérables (2020) Ly's debut is certainly impressive. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted May 16, 2019
3/5 54% The Dead Don't Die (2019) Silly and arch as The Dead Don't Die may be, its vein of fatalism is touching and even profound. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted May 15, 2019
2/5 68% Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019) There may even be something daring and anarchic about a film which stubbornly refuses to make any sense whatsoever. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted May 8, 2019
50% A Dog's Journey (2019) There is apparently a sizable overlap between people who like films in which cute dogs scamper around happily, and people who like films in which cute dogs drop dead every half an hour. - TheWrap EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 30, 2019
3/5 94% Avengers: Endgame (2019) [I]t is slick and affectionate enough for its three-hour running time to pass quickly. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 24, 2019
50% The Holiday (2006) Isn't it reassuring to know in these troubled times that it's possible for gorgeous rich people to find love? - Independent on Sunday EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 2, 2019
38% American Dreamz (2006) Still, if American Dreamz doesn't quite come together, it's more rewarding than lots of films that do. Like an episode of The Simpsons directed by Robert Altman, it's a smart, cynical sprawl. - Independent on Sunday EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 1, 2019
45% Jennifer's Body (2009) Instead of playing like a hip outsider's subversive new genre-mash, Jennifer's Body comes across as a tame, derivative vehicle for the girl from the Transformers franchise. - Independent on Sunday EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 28, 2019
2/5 46% Dumbo (2019) If Burton ever knew what kind of film he wanted to make, that's something else which was forgotten. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 28, 2019
3/5 84% The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) The Lego Movie seemed to be an outpouring of sublime genius. Its sequel seems to be the product of hard labour. It ends up feeling like the forced corporate cash-in that the original cartoon could well have been, but wasn't. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 4, 2019
61% Alita: Battle Angel (2019) Her sunny disposition is refreshingly unusual in this type of sci-fi, but her lackadaisical attitude towards her past life does sap the narrative of its urgency. If she doesn't care who she used to be, then why should we? - TheWrap EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2019
5/5 85% Girl (2019) One of the most agonisingly well-observed films about being an adolescent that I've ever seen. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 24, 2019