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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Score Yet | Never Here (2017) |
An elusive, allusive, classy psycho-thriller debut.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 19, 2017
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| 80% | Sheikh Jackson (2017) |
Salama ... uses playful juxtapositions and time-jumping plotlines to make serious points about compassion, generational friction and family dysfunction.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 15, 2017
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| 71% | Breathe (2017) |
Its noble intentions [are] hobbled by a trite script, flat characters and a relentlessly saccharine tone that eventually starts to grate.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Black Kite (2017) |
The central drama is deadeningly flat, a chessboard of mono-dimensional ciphers arranged across a schematic grid of good and evil.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Cult of Chucky (2017) |
A lean 91 minutes long, Cult of Chucky is part self-spoofing slasher, part lowbrow bloodbath and all guilty pleasure.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 8, 2017
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| 90% | Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (2017) |
Fiennes rejects rock-doc conventions like talking heads, archive footage and linear narrative. Which is commendably bold on one level, but may leave some viewers scratching their heads and craving a little more context.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 8, 2017
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| 0% | Stratton (2017) |
West aims for a kind of Jason Bourne or Mission: Impossible feel, but he falls short in budget, star power and explosive spectacle.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 1, 2017
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| 20% | Eat Locals (2016) |
A low-budget British vampire comedy with more bark than bite, Eat Locals feels like a school reunion project for survivors of Guy Ritchie's early gangster films.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 31, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Cold Hell (Die Hölle) (2017) |
Puts a smart contemporary spin on lurid giallo-style ingredients, minimizing the voyeuristic violence and maximizing the feminist revenge elements. This stylish, fast-moving exercise in hard-boiled pulp noir punches way above its weight.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 29, 2017
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| 75% | Leatherface (2017) |
The gory carnage is sparingly but vividly staged, the suspense-driven plot twisty enough to tax the brain.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 27, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Meda or The Not So Bright Side of Things (Meda sau Partea nu prea fericita a lucrurilor) (2017) |
Pavlu's prize-winning performance is the key bright spot here. Brooding and haunted, he conveys a stoic air of quiet desperation with minimal fuss.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 23, 2017
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| No Score Yet | Attraction (Prityazhenie) (2017) |
As serious sci-fi, Attraction barely leaves the launchpad. But as superior bubblegum spectacle, it easily blasts into orbit.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 16, 2017
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| 14% | Overdrive (2017) |
[A] formulaic adolescent male button-pusher ... witless and brainless but not entirely joyless.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 14, 2017
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| 80% | The Ghoul (2017) |
Tunley confirms his mastery of macabre moods here. Now he needs a bigger budget and a broader canvas.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 11, 2017
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| 17% | 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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| 100% | 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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| 85% | 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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| 92% | 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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| 19% | 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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| 87% | 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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| 100% | 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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| 71% | 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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| 20% | 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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| 87% | 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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| 89% | 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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