Tom Dawson

Tom Dawson
Tom Dawson's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s): BBC.com Total Film Film4 The List
Publications: BBC.com, Total Film, Film4, The List

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
3/5 93% Pandora's Box (1929) Pandora's Box is a richly atmospheric work, and Pabst is equally at home in Berlin high society or in London's impoverished East End, where Lulu encounters Jack the Ripper. - BBC.com EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 16, 2020
4/5 50% Battle in Heaven (2006) A simultaneously austere and visceral work, one steeped in mystery and longing. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2019
2/5 42% Goal! The Dream Begins (Goal!: The Impossible Dream) (2005) Of the actors, it's Alessandro Nivola in the role of a playboy midfielder who provides Goal!'s most entertaining performance. It's a pity then that the world he inhabits in the film is depicted in such cartoonish terms. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2019
4/5 99% Moolaadé (2004) Mooladé is a masterful work, which eloquently conveys the central conflict between tradition and modernity in our global economy. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2019
4/5 80% Czech Dream (2003) Czech Dream is much more than a sophisticated stunt. As the filmmakers lay bare the process of advertising. we become aware of the comprehensive strategies by which we as consumers are targeted. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2019
4/5 82% Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) Fittingly for a film with such an all-inclusive title, July finds something wondrous in peoples' interactions in everyday life. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 25, 2019
4/5 90% L'Eclisse (1962) The plot is minimal: what's remarkable here is how the formalist Antonioni creates and maintains the atmosphere of alienation, finding visual correlatives for his characters' psychological states. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 25, 2019
4/5 91% Café Lumiere (2004) There are conscious echoes here of Tokyo Story, yet this is very much Hsiao-Hsien's vision of what it's like to be young and adrift in a contemporary metropolis. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 25, 2019
3/5 100% Lizard (2004) Beneath the slapstick and one-liners lies an undeniably moral film, which preaches a comforting message of divine forgiveness. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 25, 2019
4/5 No Score Yet Heimat 3 (2004) Driven along by a dynamic original score, and boasting some striking widescreen compositions, it's another impressive feat of multi-stranded cinematic storytelling from Reitz. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 25, 2019
3/5 85% Bombon: El Perro (2005) Thanks in part to the impressively dignified performance of the non-professional Villegas and to some accomplished landscape cinematography, this serves as an amiable tribute to Patagonia itself and the resilience of its inhabitants. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 24, 2019
3/5 93% La demoiselle d'honneur (The Bridesmaid) (2004) Locating his story in a recognizably everyday world, Chabrol maintains a quietly menacing atmosphere in which dark undercurrents such as the disappearance of a young girl lurk beneath a facade of normality [and] respectability. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 24, 2019
5/5 91% Nashville (1975) Altman offers up a sprawling mosaic of American society: we're given impressionistic glimpses of individual lives, moments of intimacy within the babble of everyday existence. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 24, 2019
4/5 82% Private (2005) Shooting with hand-held digital video cameras, Costanzo achieves a powerful immediacy, particularly when conveying the chaos and terror of the nighttime raids endured by the family. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 24, 2019
4/5 14% Ma Mere (2005) The cast deliver brave, accomplished performances, with Huppert's Héléne a compelling mixture of menace and fragility. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 23, 2019
3/5 77% The Keys to the House (2004) [Andrea Rossi] conveys the joyful, charming and sometimes exasperating sides of his vibrant character. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 23, 2019
5/5 97% Sideways (2004) Unfolding at a relaxed tempo, and unobtrusively edited, Sideways is a welcome throwback to 1970s Bob Rafelson and Jerry Schatzberg. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 23, 2019
4/5 86% 2046 (2005) Wong Kar-wai's sumptuous tale of romantic heartbreak is now finally ready to be released: the end result is a work which combines formal cinematic brilliance with an operatic intensity of feeling. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 23, 2019
3/5 82% Triple Agent (2003) It's an undeniably dialogue-heavy film, but the performances are assured and it's shot and directed with elegant simplicity. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 22, 2019
4/5 93% Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai) (2004) Although it's perhaps overlong, Nobody Knows is shot with Ozu-esque beauty over four seasons and exceptionally acted by its non-professional cast. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 22, 2019
3/5 94% The Story of the Weeping Camel (2004) Davaa and Falorni immerse the viewer in their chosen world. Their patient, observational approach pays dividends, allowing us to appreciate the resilience, cheerfulness and resourcefulness of the nomads. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 18, 2019
3/5 64% The Flower of Evil (2003) Shows little concern with thriller conventions or with interior psychology, as Chabrol is content to simply push his characters around like pieces on a chess board. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 17, 2019
2/5 71% Freeze Frame (2004) This low budget debut feature swiftly squanders an interesting premise of a man under perpetual self-surveillance to become a garbled and illogical thriller. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 17, 2019
5/5 88% Bad Education (2004) Few other films this year are likely to match this combination of formal beauty, narrative playfulness and heartfelt personal feeling. - The List EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 17, 2019
4/5 100% The Ice King (2017) Movingly conveys both Curry's brilliance and his inner torment. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 21, 2018
2/5 42% Den of Thieves (2018) It's proficiently put together but decidedly derivative, right down to the Usual Suspects-esque twist ending. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 30, 2018
3/5 80% The Nothing Factory (A Fábrica de Nada) (2017) Blurring the fiction/documentary lines (it features non-professional actors), it's spiced with eccentricities: alongside Marxist theorising, we get ostriches and even a song- and-dance number. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 23, 2018
4/5 83% A Woman's Life (Une vie) (2017) There's poignancy too, thanks to Brize's build-up of telling details and Chemla's subtle turn. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 9, 2018
4/5 87% Mountain (2018) Tracing how the world's peaks came to be viewed as playgrounds, it needs to be seen on the big screen for its vertiginous images of high-altitude adventurers. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 15, 2017
3/5 93% Most Beautiful Island (2017) This is a taut, timely drama, even if the pay-off doesn't quite match the build-up. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 30, 2017
4/5 85% Beach Rats (2017) This dreamily shot US indie is an insightful study of sexual repression and awakening, featuring a compelling lead performance from Brit newcomer Dickinson. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 24, 2017
4/5 96% Trophy (2017) Trophy challenges audience preconceptions, revealing the complexities of the issues at stake. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 14, 2017
4/5 90% Ferrari: Race to Immortality (2017) Blending archive footage, contemporary interviews and dramatic reconstructions, the film reminds us how dangerous the sport could be. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 30, 2017
3/5 80% The Reagan Show (2017) The film's analysis is somewhat superficial, but comparisons to current White House incumbent Donald Trump's vows to "make America great again" are inevitable. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 3, 2017
4/5 98% In Between (2018) The personal is the political in Maysaloun Hamoud's vibrant, taboo-breaking debut feature ... - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 21, 2017
4/5 100% My Journey Through French Cinema (Voyage À Travers Le Cinéma Français) (2017) Including clips from nearly 100 films made between the '30s and '70s, he pays heartfelt tribute to the directors, stars and composers who ignited his passion. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2017
4/5 98% God's Own Country (2017) Newcomer Lee has crafted a timely romantic drama, rooted in a keenly observed rural environment. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 28, 2017
3/5 63% The Odyssey (L'odyssée) (2016) An attractive if conventional biopic of French underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 14, 2017
5/5 97% Le Doulos (1962) Superbly shot in high-contrast monochrome, it unfolds in a stylised universe where character is defined by actions and costumes rather than words. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 7, 2017
4/5 92% Land of Mine (Under Sandet) (2017) Bringing to light a little known and far from honourable chapter of Danish history, this is convincingly acted and insanely tense. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 31, 2017
3/5 94% Howards End (1992) Choice performances from Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, but any social criticism is weakened by the veneration of the privileged milieu. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Jul 24, 2017
3/5 80% Risk (2017) A critical docu-portrait of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, shot over a six-year period in which he was under house arrest in Norfolk and then holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy following sexual assault allegations. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 26, 2017
3/5 76% Stockholm, My Love (2016) Occasionally rambling, it's kept afloat by an eclectic soundtrack and Christopher Doyle's striking urban lensing. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 13, 2017
4/5 93% Daughters of the Dust (1991) It's lushly photographed and costumed, plus dreamily confusing, yet it vividly brings a past to life. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted May 30, 2017
2/5 79% McLaren (2016) Donaldson does a fine job of celebrating his subject's many achievements. Yet compared to, say, Ayrton Senna, McLaren himself doesn't cut a compelling figure. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted May 23, 2017
4/5 91% Frantz (2017) François Ozon crafts a sombre monochrome melodrama, which adopts its female protagonist's perspective and skilfully plays with viewers' expectations. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted May 12, 2017
4/5 72% Suntan (2017) Troubling but compelling, this unflinching thriller deftly builds to its chilling conclusion. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 25, 2017
4/5 99% I Am Not Your Negro (2017) With every word taken from Baldwin's own prolific literary output and public appearances, the film couldn't be more timely in presenting a despairing analysis of how racial injustice bedevils American society. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Apr 6, 2017
4/5 95% Graduation (Bacalaureat) (2017) Masterfully filmed in long takes, this slow-burner lays bare a world of systemic corruption. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 28, 2017
4/5 94% All This Panic (2017) Avoiding the pitfalls of prurience and sensationalism, this dreamily photographed film reveals its young subjects to be vibrant and articulate individuals. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 20, 2017