Stephen Dalton
Tomatometer-approved critic
| Publications: | Hollywood Reporter, Sight and Sound, Times (UK), Uncut Magazine [UK] |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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| No Score Yet | Werewolf (Wilkolak) (2018) |
A thematically rich combination of coming-of-age drama, wartime thriller and horror movie.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Dec 17, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Why Don't You Just Die! (Papa, sdokhni) (2018) |
A splatterpunk action comedy drenched in gleefully dark Russian humor.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Dec 13, 2018
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| No Score Yet | The Wedding (2018) |
The Wedding is rooted in potentially rich ingredients, but Abbas shoots it in such a flat, minor-key register that most of the dramatic energy dissipates.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Winter's Night (2018) |
Hitting emotional grace notes that belie his relatively tender years, 33-year-old South Korean auteur/director Jang Woo-jin offers a bittersweet rumination on love, marriage and midlife disillusionment in this quietly enchanting third feature.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Nov 28, 2018
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| 79% | Anna and the Apocalypse (2018) |
This schlocky horror picture show combines a zesty young cast with an infectious comic energy.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Nov 28, 2018
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| 75% | Second Coming (2014) |
The premise is pregnant with promise, but the conception is far from immaculate.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Nov 19, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records (2018) |
This love letter to one of Britain's first multicultural pop movements is an effortlessly enjoyable viewing experience with a rich, sunny, consistently uplifting soundtrack.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Nov 19, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Amra and the Second Marriage (2018) |
A rich, female-driven comedy with timely feminist bite.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Nov 14, 2018
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| 93% | CAM (2018) |
Cam is a suspenseful mind-bender with plenty of timely feminist subtext.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2018
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| 98% | They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) |
Nothing feels too sentimentalized or sanitized, but nor is it sensationalized for extra shock value either. These are the true accounts of survivors, after all, mostly talking decades after the events and grateful to be alive.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Oct 16, 2018
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| 93% | Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018) |
Plenty of classy ingredients here, but Wheatley's tentative first foray into the realm of adult drama is not the heart-bruising emotional assault course it could have been.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Oct 11, 2018
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| 34% | Johnny English Strikes Again (2018) |
Delivers little besides labored jokes, a moronic plot and characters so thinly drawn they make Mister Bean look like the work of prime-time Ingmar Bergman.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 30, 2018
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| 20% | Nekrotronic (2018) |
This bloodthirsty comic-book fantasy is let down by its infantile humor and derivative, incoherent plot.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 30, 2018
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| 29% | King of Thieves (2019) |
King of Thieves really should have delivered way more cinematic swag than it does.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 27, 2018
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| 86% | Let Me Fall (2018) |
Framing the plot in female-driven coming-of-age terms, with a tortured same-sex romance at its heart... gives this story a fresher angle than most drug movies.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 24, 2018
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| 100% | The Man Who Feels No Pain (2018) |
The Man Who Feels No Pain is a fun ride, unashamedly zany and eager to please, even if the humor is very broad and the sprawling plot too baggy for an action-driven piece.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 21, 2018
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| 89% | Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes (2018) |
A competent but conventional affair, highly watchable but low on fresh angles or bombshell revelations.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 18, 2018
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| 38% | Farming (2018) |
Farming is a great story ultimately defeated by its own unrelenting boorishness.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 17, 2018
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| 2/5 | 27% | Red Joan (2019) |
Dench lends emotional heft and nuance to her handful of scenes, but Red Joan is otherwise let down by leaden dialogue and one-note characters. ‐ Times (UK)
Read More | Posted Sep 14, 2018
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| 75% | Sew the Winter to My Skin (2018) |
Qubeka's largely wordless, diffuse, time-scrambled narrative feels willfully confusing at first, but it rewards patient viewers with its sensory riches and hypnotic rhythms.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 14, 2018
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| 71% | One Last Deal (2018) |
This warm-hearted charmer presses some obvious emotional buttons, but with enough deadpan humor and self-aware attitude to avoid schmaltzy overload.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 13, 2018
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| 4/5 | 94% | If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) |
If Beale Street Could Talk becomes a chronicle of crushed innocence and systemic injustice, but also a poetic paean to the healing power of love.‐ Times (UK)
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2018
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| 7% | The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2018) |
[A] half-baked, cumbersome, overlong psychodrama.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2018
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| 2/5 | 81% | Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018) |
Fahrenheit 11/9 is funny and mischievous in parts, but too little of it feels fresh or shocking. ‐ Times (UK)
Read More | Posted Sep 10, 2018
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| 3/5 | 90% | Widows (2018) |
A flawed but fascinating mismatch between director and project, Widows is tough on crime, but even tougher on the causes of crime.‐ Times (UK)
Read More | Posted Sep 10, 2018
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| 79% | Quincy (2018) |
Quincy is an effortlessly engaging portrait of a major musical icon whose laidback charisma, prodigious ego and poetic turn of phrase can still light up a movie screen.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 10, 2018
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| 83% | Gwen (2018) |
Ultimately, McGregor piles so much misfortune on his downtrodden heroines with so little dramatic justification, the net emotional effect is more numbing than moving.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 8, 2018
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| 100% | Gloria Bell (2019) |
Gloria Bell maintains a warm but rigorously unsentimental tone despite material which could easily lend itself to mawkish sentimentality.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 8, 2018
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| 82% | Ever After (Endzeit) (2018) |
The open-ended finale will not satisfy genre fans expecting a more conventional orgy of flesh-chomping carnage. But taken on its own terms, Hellgard's second feature is a smart and stylish treat. ‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 8, 2018
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| 61% | Vox Lux (2018) |
A deliciously rich treatise on toxic fame and weapons of mass seduction.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Love 1. Dog (Dragoste 1: Câine) (2018) |
Taken on its own uncompromising terms, Love 1. Dog has a certain stark beauty and slow-burn intensity.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 3, 2018
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| No Score Yet | All Alone (2018) |
A universal human story grounded in compellingly flawed characters and finely etched performances.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Sep 1, 2018
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| 100% | Amanda (2018) |
A low-key family drama with a shattering tragedy at its heart, Amanda is a quietly moving celebration of human resilience from French writer-director Mikhael Hers.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 31, 2018
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| 85% | The Festival (2018) |
Not exactly groundbreaking comedy, but Morris clearly knows his youthful audience demographic well, playing on their hang-ups as much as their aspirations.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Aug 22, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Volcano (2018) |
A mix of Kafka-esque road movie and contemporary western, rich in sumptuous visuals and lyrical strangeness.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jul 13, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Jumpman (2018) |
Guilty of heavy-handed social critique in places, but generally satisfying overall...‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jul 10, 2018
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| No Score Yet | 53 Wars (53 wojny) (2018) |
This compact psychological thriller is chiefly an impressive showcase for its star Magdalena Poplawska, whose pent-up intensity dominates almost every scene.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jul 10, 2018
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| 100% | Crystal Swan (2018) |
Crystal Swan is a largely conventional fish-out-of-water story at heart. But it is elevated above the routine by its excellent cast, especially Nassibulina, and plenty of visual flair.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jul 6, 2018
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| 14% | Damascus Cover (2018) |
Overstuffed with groaningly familiar espionage tropes.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jul 5, 2018
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| 83% | I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (Îmi este indiferent daca în istorie vom intra ca barbari) (2018) |
Jude... approaches a potentially prickly subject with his usual ironic humor and keen eye for flawed, fallible humanity.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jul 3, 2018
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| 75% | Putin's Witnesses (Svideteli Putina) (2018) |
A film laden with ominous clues for historians to study.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted Jul 2, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Chris the Swiss (2018) |
A stirring, suspenseful and technically accomplished work.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 22, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Load (Teret) (2017) |
Load to nowhere.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 18, 2018
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| 80% | The Dead and the Others (Chuva E Cantoria Na Aldeia Dos Mortos) (2018) |
The Dead and the Others is an admirably committed enterprise. Sadly, as a cinematic experience, it is flat and functional.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 17, 2018
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| No Score Yet | The State Against Mandela and the Others (2018) |
An inspired recycling of archive material.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 15, 2018
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| 68% | Asako I & II (Netemo sametemo) (2018) |
An oddly old-fashioned depiction of troubled romance whose mildly unusual premise ultimately leads nowhere very interesting.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 14, 2018
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| 33% | Murder Me, Monster (Muere, monstro, muere) (2018) |
A cryptic creature feature that never quite bites.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 14, 2018
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| 92% | The World Is Yours (Le monde ou rien) (2018) |
All this comic-book carnage is well orchestrated by Gavras, albeit utterly preposterous even by the reality-warping standards of action thrillers.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 14, 2018
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| No Score Yet | Dear Son (Weldi) (2018) |
A thorough and thoughtful piece of work, admirably serious in intent but a little flat in execution.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 14, 2018
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| 60% | My Favorite Fabric (Mon tissu préféré) (2018) |
An unpolished, underpowered, navel-gazing affair which strains too hard to map private emotional angst onto the genocidal horrors of Syria's civil war.‐ Hollywood Reporter
Read More | Posted May 11, 2018
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