Stephen Dalton
Stephen Dalton's reviews (from any publication) always count toward the Tomatometer
because this critic is a Tomatometer-approved critic.
| Publications: | Hollywood Reporter, Sight and Sound, Times (UK), Uncut Magazine [UK] |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20% | All Eyez on Me (2017) |
A ploddingly pedestrian dramatization of Tupac Shakur's brief, tumultuous life.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jun 15, 2017
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| No Score Yet | An Insignificant Man (2016) |
An Insignificant Man is journalistically fuzzy and unashamedly partial. But it also has the appealing zeal of an idealistic passion project, and has generated an impressive amount of newsworthy buzz for a first-time feature.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jun 6, 2017
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| No Score Yet | West of the Jordan River (2017) |
A dry and sometimes depressing film, but informative and humane too.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jun 5, 2017
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| 48% | Churchill (2017) |
Cox aside, this pedestrian drama is hobbled by too many monodimensional characters and too much overly explanatory dialogue that feels like a dry high school history lesson ...‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 29, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Fortunata (2017) |
This compassionate character study strains to hit the same kind of female-centric heights as vintage Pedro Almodovar, but it falls short and ends up something of a soapy hot mess instead.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 28, 2017
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| 80% | The Merciless (Bulhandang) (2017) |
The Merciless is a superior slice of hardboiled pulp fiction in the blossoming "Korean Noir" style.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 25, 2017
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| No Score Yet | I Am Not a Witch (2017) |
A fable-like story about a young African girl banished from her village for alleged witchcraft, it blends deadpan humor with light surrealism, vivid visuals and left-field musical choices.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 25, 2017
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| 20% | Alive in France (2017) |
Scholarly cinephiles and punk-rock purists who fetishize a certain kind of old-school bluesman authenticity may find engaging material here, but the shapeless home-movie feel and sketchy lack of context ultimately borders on self-sabotage.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 22, 2017
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| 80% | David Stratton: A Cinematic Life (2017) |
A Cinematic Life ultimately serves as a comprehensive and absorbing primer on a century of Australian cinema.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 22, 2017
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| 40% | Mobile Homes (2017) |
Boasts a few pleasingly poetic flourishes, but it suffers from some common first-time director flaws, notably a listless narrative, thinly developed characters and a relentlessly somber mood.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 22, 2017
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| 83% | Okja (2017) |
Okja is peppered with lost-in-translation lines and clunky tonal shifts.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 19, 2017
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| 0% | It Was Fifty Years Ago Today... Sgt Pepper and Beyond (2017) |
Even blessed with such a rich subject and vast reserves of archive footage, It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! still has the threadbare feel of an unauthorized cash-in.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 16, 2017
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| 90% | Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2017) |
A minor but touchingly human subplot to the financial crash, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail is both an affirmation and an indictment of the American Dream.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 15, 2017
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| 18% | Absolutely Anything (2017) |
Absolutely Anything is a good idea but is executed poorly, with a lame take-home message about great power demanding great responsibility.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 8, 2017
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| 58% | Urban Hymn (2017) |
Urban Hymn unfolds in predictably schematic steps and flat, stilted dialogue.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 8, 2017
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| 24% | Unlocked (2017) |
Apted ... brings nothing fresh to the formula besides the minor innovation of dropping an action heroine into a male-dominated field.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 4, 2017
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| 88% | Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017) |
Heavy on glib generalizations but light on sharp insights or juicy revelations.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Apr 28, 2017
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| 100% | Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of The Grateful Dead (2017) |
Although devoted Deadheads will be the prime target audience, Long Strange Trip also provides a detailed primer for curious rock fans who never bought into the cult around the band.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2017
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| 53% | Mad to Be Normal (2017) |
Mad to Be Normal boils a fascinating subject down into a slightly clunky, simplistic bio-drama.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Apr 3, 2017
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| 95% | Karl Marx City (2017) |
Dozens of documentaries have been made about the repressive Communist regimes of the former Eastern bloc, but few have been as visually striking or as deeply personal as Karl Marx City. ‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Mar 27, 2017
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| 69% | Death in Sarajevo (2016) |
Throwing together multiple characters in a single luxury hotel, this Altman-esque ensemble drama has lofty aims, but misses the target.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Mar 1, 2017
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| 71% | Junction 48 (2017) |
While the fuzzy take-home message of peaceful coexistence is something most viewers can get behind, it is also too simplistic and banal to sustain an entire movie.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Animals (Tiere) (2017) |
Pays obvious dues to Hitchcock, Polanski and Lynch, but is too stylish and self-aware to fall into the trap of mere pastiche.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Erase and Forget (2017) |
Erase and Forget manages to botch the mission, getting lost in arty ambiguities and lofty political aspirations instead of attacking its juicy target with the required amount of laser-guided military discipline.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 27, 2017
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| 84% | Afterimage (Powidoki) (2017) |
After 90 years and more than 50 films, Wajda has earned the right to make stagey period pieces like Afterimage, minor codas to a gloriously symphonic career.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 22, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Hostages (2017) |
Gigineishvili strikes a careful balance between nerve-jangling action yarn and forensic procedural, even if this methodically non-judgmental approach sometimes risks slipping into aloof detachment.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 15, 2017
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| 100% | The Party (2017) |
Over 71 crisp minutes of fast-paced verbal combat, Potter tests the age-old theory that it's all fun and games until somebody gets knocked unconscious.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 13, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Inflame (2017) |
Let down by its frustratingly disjointed and diffuse narrative, Inflame is very much a debut film. It feels like Ozcelik has important things to say, but has not yet figured out the cinematic language to articulate them.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 13, 2017
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| 77% | Viceroy's House (2017) |
Chadha has distilled a fascinating and epic true story into a starchy, stuffy, sanitized period piece that never fully engages on an emotional or educational level.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 12, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Wild Mouse (Wilde Maus) (2017) |
This genial farce deals in familiar and occasionally glib material, but with a redeeming undertow of self-deprecating humor.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 12, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Requiem for Mrs.J (Rekvijem za gospodju J) (2017) |
There is something much more playful and affirmative going on below the surface here, a stifled scream of defiant humanity against a mercilessly cruel universe.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 12, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Occidental (2017) |
A visually and sonically striking ensemble piece that plays mischievous games with audience expectations ...‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2017
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| 86% | The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) |
Seemingly torn between more refined art house pretensions and knowingly pulpy schlock, The Autopsy of Jane Doe ultimately feels like an unsatisfactory compromise between the two.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Dec 20, 2016
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| 71% | I, Olga Hepnarová (Já, Olga Hepnarová) (2017) |
A modestly gripping debut which never quite musters the dramatic gravitas that such an emotionally charged true story should.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Nov 17, 2016
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| 88% | United States of Love (Estados Unidos de Amor) (2016) |
Even if the message is a little muddy, United States of Love is plainly the confident work of a fast-maturing young filmmaker with a strong voice and a sharp visual sense.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Nov 17, 2016
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| 60% | I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016) |
A lightly gothic murder ballad made with great finesse and a fine cast.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Oct 6, 2016
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| 96% | The Fencer (Miekkailija) (2017) |
The man and his motivations remain oddly elusive in this blankly heroic, clunkingly predictable portrait.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 29, 2016
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| 51% | Mascots (2016) |
The jokes are uneven, the caricatures often overly broad, and the plot almost nonexistent.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2016
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| 93% | Lady Macbeth (2017) |
Lady Macbeth mostly operates within established period conventions, but draws fresh blood from antique material thanks to a sparky cast, subtle nods to contemporary race and gender issues, and a hefty shot of gothic melodrama.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 9, 2016
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| 67% | Free Fire (2017) |
Alas, for all its stellar talent, Free Fire is a scattershot exercise in genre homage that ultimately misses the target.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 9, 2016
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| 61% | High-Rise (2016) |
There is a goldmine of rich material here, all beautifully shot, but fatally lacking in focus or momentum.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 18, 2016
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| 100% | The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead (2015) |
Director Wes Orshoski, who previously co-directed a laudatory 2010 profile of Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, builds a solid case for the band's historic importance in this funny, fast-moving, fan-friendly documentary.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 17, 2016
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| 79% | Elstree 1976 (2016) |
A genial study of fleeting fame and its aftermath.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 2, 2016
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| 93% | Under The Sun (2016) |
Under The Sun is a fascinating study in state propaganda and the darker truth that hovers just outside the frame.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Apr 27, 2016
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| 87% | Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) |
Aiming for the same kind of affectionate comic tone as The King's Speech, this gentle musical farce from director Stephen Frears hits more than a few flat notes, but still delivers gentle laughs and classy star performances.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Apr 13, 2016
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| 100% | Virgin Mountain (Fúsi) (2015) |
[A] charmingly offbeat rom-com.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 29, 2016
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| 50% | Hardcore Henry (2016) |
Billed as the first-ever action movie filmed entirely from the hero's first-person viewpoint, Hardcore blasts along like a supercharged computer-game shoot-em-up, bursting with sick humor and splatterpunk violence. ‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 25, 2016
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| 93% | The Last Man On The Moon (2016) |
Take a pinch of Top Gun, stir in a generous dollop of The Right Stuff, add a light sprinkling of Mad Men and you have the formula for this uplifting documentary portrait of former Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 24, 2016
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| 73% | The Commune (Kollektivet) (2017) |
Entertains at a TV sitcom level, with its pithy dialogue, its chorus of thinly drawn caricatures and its cozy sense of mockery towards the failed social experiments of past generations. But as serious cinema, it feels limited for the same reasons.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 23, 2016
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| 57% | War on Everyone (2017) |
Misfiring buddy-cop comedy is a less than lethal weapon.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Feb 12, 2016
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