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Boyd van Hoeij
Tomatometer-approved critic
Boyd van Hoeij is a freelance film writer based in Paris and Luxembourg. As a critic, he has covered the main film festivals (Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice...) and the major European releases for industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter since 2013. Before that, he was a contributing critic at Variety. Boyd is also the film editor of Winq magazine (Netherlands) and a regular contributor to Indiewire (U.S.) and Filmkrant (Netherlands). His book 10/10, about contemporary Francophone Belgian cinema, came out in September 2010. He's taught film criticism short courses and dissected classic movies frame-by-frame across the globe, including in such far-flung places as Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Portugal, Ireland and Palm Springs, Calif. He's been a panelist or moderator at festivals including Berlin, Cannes and Sydney and served on the Cannes Critics' Week jury in 2015.
If I told you that, I'd be out of work.
http://www.twitter.com/filmboyd
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Tori and Lokita (2022) |
The Dardenne-brothers formula contains no more surprises and their latest film confirms both the veracity of that statement and provides more proof that the formula is still pretty effective. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted May 25, 2022
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Brother and Sister (2022) |
A densely layered work full of allusions and themes including fame, jealousy and privacy but the frustratingly oblique storytelling keeps audiences removed from the characters and their often histrionic behaviour. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted May 21, 2022
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The Night of the 12th (2022) |
A moody and fascinating piece of work. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted May 20, 2022
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The Eight Mountains (2022) |
A film that, at almost 150 minutes, certainly takes too long to get going but that, in its final act, reaches some very satisfying emotional payoffs. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted May 19, 2022
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Final Cut (2022) |
This zombie comedy delivers the laughs, if not quite something substantial. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted May 18, 2022
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Olga (2021) |
A soberly staged but intense drama. (...) Budiashkina impresses as a gymnast and as the gloomy adolescent who tries so hard to be an athlete that she often forgets to simply be a teenager who doesn't need to have all the answers all the time. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 25, 2021
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Hive (2021) |
Though the cinematography and production design are quite bland, viewers will remain invested in the story because of Gashi's layered performance. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 23, 2021
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Bedevilled (2010) |
Too arty for K-horror buffs and too grisly and nonsensical for world-cinema aficionados. - Variety
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| Posted Oct 19, 2021
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The Middle Man (2021) |
The Middle Man offers plenty of classy polish and quirky charm, even if it never quite explores its own dark depths. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 14, 2021
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Official Competition (2021) |
Argentinian directors Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn keep the laughs coming, the pace brisk and the tone jocular, resulting in a fluffy but not altogether unserious exploration of the craft of acting. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Parallel Mothers (2021) |
Though (...) not quite a home run, this does feel like an exciting new direction for Almodóvar. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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The Staffroom (2021) |
A woman tries to survive in the shark tank that is the teachers' lounge in this promising Croatian debut. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Trenches (2021) |
An intimate visit to the Donbas trenches, where men (and one oddly portrayed woman) become the latest soldiers in history to experience trench warfare. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Lost Illusions (2021) |
The messy connections between truth, journalism, criticism, art and money are not only a mess for the characters but also for the viewer, who would benefit from a few more beautifully crystalized scenes in which form and content together create meaning. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Full Time (2021) |
This naturalistic feature isn't anyone's idea of a relaxing night out but it does paint a very accurate, at times nearly nerve-wrecking portrayal of what's pushing people to the brink in a lot of the Western world. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Another World (2021) |
Another familiar but solid entry in Stephane Brizé's series of films with Vincent Lindon that examine the world of labor and lay-offs in France. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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107 Mothers (2021) |
Doesn't quite convince as a single whole (...) but there are a lot of elements here that are absolutely fascinating. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Happening (2021) |
Diwan approaches her material in a familiar social-realist vein and films everything in a boxy aspect ratio that heightens the sense of intimacy. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Madeleine Collins (2021) |
Efira is well-cast as a Hitchcockian blonde (...) and her charisma papers over some of the film's screenplay's issues. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021) |
A magnificent, appropriately austere drama. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Mariner of the Mountains (2021) |
A beautifully multi-layered meditation on identity, individuality and destiny. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Promises (2021) |
Isabelle Huppert spearheads this solid political drama that raises some interesting questions. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Nobody Has to Know (2021) |
The first English-language feature from Bouli Lanners is a hushed but warm-blooded love story with several unexpected twists. - The Film Verdict
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Spencer (2021) |
Stewart, while not quite offering an eerie copy of the princess's mannerisms, offers a magnificent portrayal of a woman who's forced by those around her to be an obedient introvert when she wants nothing more than be a happy-go-lucky extrovert. - The Film Verdict
Read More
| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Hold Me Tight (2021) |
Watching large chunks of this film feels like being transported into a trance-like reverie, albeit a reverie that quite often has nightmarish contours. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 19, 2021
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Vortex (2021) |
It feels like a more mature Noé has arrived... - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 17, 2021
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France (2021) |
More often than not, the staging feels conventional rather than uncompromising. The tone is rarely intense. On the contrary, it is hard to figure out what Dumont's vision really was for this work. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 16, 2021
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The Story of My Wife (2021) |
Cinephiles who are fans of Enyedi's work will be left wondering whether her idiosyncratic voice took an extended vacation when she made this film. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 16, 2021
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Selfie (2019) |
The reason that Selfie makes such an impression... is that it doesn't only focus on all the bad or hopeless things that surround the boys. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 14, 2021
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Titane (2021) |
Both richly cinematic and pregnant with nuance and meaning. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 13, 2021
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Je suis Karl (2021) |
Not quite right. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 10, 2021
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What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (2021) |
We see a highly accomplished work of cinematic art. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 05, 2021
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Ma Belle, My Beauty (2021) |
The acting from the central four actors is quite soulful, but we don't get enough access to these characters' inner conflicts. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 10, 2021
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The Strong Ones (2020) |
It is Zuniga's eye for telling everyday detail that makes the work stand out. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 20, 2021
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Ukraine Is Not a Brothel (2013) |
Green beautifully allows the material (and the characters) to speak for itself, revealing just how full of paradoxes and steeped in a male-chauvinist attitude even theoretically feminist movements can be, further underlining why they are necessary. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 20, 2021
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Adam & Evelyn (2018) |
The film's first two acts are too emotionally uninvolving and detached to turn this into a feature with possible crossover appeal... - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Oct 04, 2020
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Domingo (2018) |
Domingo is... shambolic, a story full of loose ends. This finally feels very appropriate for a film set at a key moment in Brazilian history that, at least at the time, felt hugely uncertain and disruptive. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Oct 04, 2020
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A Good Man (2020) |
The film finally feels oddly unengaging. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 22, 2020
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Love After Love (2020) |
A hushed but gorgeous melodrama. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 16, 2020
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Saint-Narcisse (2021) |
In Saint-Narcisse, LaBruce simultaneously manages to foreshadow his major themes and suggest something about his main character's inner state. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 15, 2020
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My Best Part (2020) |
A bittersweet comedy-drama that manages to be hilarious in one scene and extremely touching in the next. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 10, 2020
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Night of the Kings (2020) |
This captivating hybrid of a movie mixes fairy-tale and storytelling elements with a vividly drawn backdrop of heightened realism... and relies on images and sounds as much as the human voice to tell its multiple stories. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 08, 2020
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Honey Cigar (2020) |
[A] well-acted and intimate tale... - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 08, 2020
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The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020) |
Overly schematic in places, but fascinating. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 06, 2020
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My Tender Matador (2020) |
An intimate and classical portrait of two vastly different radicals. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 03, 2020
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(undefined) |
Another slab of Balkan miserabilism. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 03, 2020
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Ava (2020) |
Chastain is utterly convincing in another tough-as-nails role. If audiences stick with the movie, it's largely thanks to her movie-star charisma, which almost compensates for the increasingly ridiculous plot. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Aug 23, 2020
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Summer of 85 (2020) |
A story that's frequently awkward and a little painful to watch but also sincere and truthful about adolescence in a way seldom seen in films about teenagers made by middle-aged directors. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 17, 2020
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Moto Shel Hakolnoa Veshel Aba Sheli Gam (2020) |
The result is slightly messy, just like life, but the work's thematic undercurrents are always clear. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jun 23, 2020
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Persian Lessons (2020) |
Impressive ending and acting, though it has a wobbly handle on its characters. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 05, 2020
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