Matt Wolf
Matt Wolf's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Variety
Associated Press
Guardian
The Arts Desk
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Allelujah (2022) |
Those of us of a certain vintage will delight in an array of talent, young and old, in the service of a defining figure in English letters whose twilight years find his anger, and affection, jointly intact. A hearty allelujah, indeed, for that. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Mar 20, 2023
|
|
|
|
Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical (2022) |
Matthew Warchus's screen iteration of his Roald Dahl-inspired ongoing London hit is an entirely separate triumph in and of itself, smartly adapted and ever so slightly reconceived so as to sneak the occasional nifty political reference. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Nov 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
Bones and All (2022) |
A film that, for all its graphic evisceration, is notably gutless. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Nov 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
All My Friends Hate Me (2021) |
The antithesis of the warm-and-fuzzy gatherings proffered onscreen over the years by the likes of Kenneth Branagh and Richard Curtis, Andrew Gaynord's film directing debut is compulsively watchable, in an increasingly grim way. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jun 10, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Humans (2021) |
Karam never loses sight of this family, who are seen to exhibit a decay mirrored in the physical disrepair around them. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jan 13, 2022
|
|
|
|
Limbo (2020) |
Throughout it all, the British Egyptian El-Masry is a marvel, never once overplaying his hand or italicising the role for effect. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2021
|
|
|
|
Off the Rails (2021) |
While no one would cite Mamma Mia! as a paragon of writing for our time, it at least makes sense within the particular world it describes. That's more than one can say for this collaboration between Jordan Waller and Jules Williamson. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jul 26, 2021
|
|
|
|
French Exit (2020) |
Pfeiffer's command of the material is so complete that she keeps you on side even when the material itself gets derailed. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2021
|
|
|
|
In the Heights (2021) |
The spirit of the film - sweet-natured but never syrupy - is in the commingling of people that itself is moving to behold at a time when we have been so long separated from the social whirl. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jun 22, 2021
|
|
|
|
Rare Beasts (2019) |
Piper makes a commendably edgy debut as writer-director onscreen while affording herself a stonking star part. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted May 21, 2021
|
|
|
|
Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (2020) |
Throw in footage of film adaptations of their work, ranging from A Streetcar Named Desire... and much more, and you have a riveting mosaic of two men marginalised by society who came to occupy pride of place in the cultural zeitgeist. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted May 17, 2021
|
|
|
|
Moxie (2021) |
A teen comedy with a thematic difference, Moxie has enough memorable moments to firmly establish comedian Amy Poehler as a director worth reckoning with in what is her second film... - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Apr 19, 2021
|
|
|
|
Sequin in a Blue Room (2019) |
And just as I was tiring of another lingering close-up of Sequin in the shower, I noticed something else: the extent to which the water droplets after a while could serve as a visual equivalent for the young man's tears. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Apr 19, 2021
|
|
|
|
Six Minutes to Midnight (2020) |
It's been some while since I've seen a movie so fully squander a fascinating real-life subject. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Apr 02, 2021
|
|
|
|
To Olivia (2021) |
If it's true that we all become stories in the end, let's hope they end up better told than this one. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Feb 22, 2021
|
|
|
|
Penguin Bloom (2020) |
Two genuinely lovely performances elevate an often-simplistic tale in Penguin Bloom... - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Feb 02, 2021
|
|
|
|
Blithe Spirit (2020) |
A muted Arcati only serves to expose the gathering hysteria around her, as ramped up in a final reel in which Elvira devolves into a simpering psychotic and Charles gets sectioned. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jan 16, 2021
|
|
|
|
I'm Your Woman (2020) |
The long-delayed ending settles for the preposterously sentimental, even as the movie as a whole rewrites a time-honored dictum whereby ignorance turns out to be tedium, not bliss. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Dec 14, 2020
|
|
|
|
Uncle Frank (2020) |
The film hits every emotional cue with a ponderousness only partially alleviated by a mighty cast. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Nov 29, 2020
|
|
|
|
No Hard Feelings (2020) |
Love triangles rarely feel more truthful or more tender than in No Hard Feelings, a beautiful film that announces debut director Faraz Shariat as a filmmaker worth reckoning with. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Nov 26, 2020
|
|
|
|
Words on Bathroom Walls (2020) |
The film wends a too-convenient path towards its hug-filled ending. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Nov 26, 2020
|
|
|
|
Rialto (2019) |
Even at its most unyielding, the film is carried along by its actors. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Oct 07, 2020
|
|
|
|
Get Duked! (2019) |
I didn't buy much of Get Duked!, I have to say, but in the ongoing competition that is any actor's career, I wish its central quartet all the luck in the world. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Aug 28, 2020
|
|
|
|
Perfect 10 (2019) |
The sensitivity beneath the pair's apparent toughness is evident at every turn, and the bittersweet ending feels right for a movie that may not be perfect but nonetheless should be seen. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Aug 10, 2020
|
|
|
|
Good Manners (2017) |
The film is violent where it needs to be but also stealthily affecting and riveting throughout. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2020
|
|
|
|
Love Sarah (2020) |
The cakes look great, but it's back to the recipe books in almost every other way for Love Sarah, a subpar film from director Eliza Schroeder about the struggles of a west London patisserie in the age of Brexit. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jul 16, 2020
|
|
|
|
Back Roads (2018) |
If you're going to engage with adultery and incest and lord knows what else, you'd be well-advised to exhibit a subversive sense of playfulness and daring along the way. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2020
|
|
|
|
Love's Kitchen (2011) |
Director James Hacking has chosen the recipe marked "formulaic" for a project that, on the big screen at least, comes across as decidedly small beer. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2020
|
|
|
|
Can You Keep a Secret? (2019) |
Marking her first fictional feature, the director Elise Durán has to push mighty hard to keep enough plates spinning to see us through an attenuated 90 minutes. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted May 01, 2020
|
|
|
|
What Richard Did (2012) |
The acting could not be bettered, from the principals on down. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Apr 30, 2020
|
|
|
|
Cuck (2019) |
I'm afraid I spent most of Cuck rolling my eyes. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Apr 21, 2020
|
|
|
|
Plus One (2019) |
Maya Erskine's commitment to her part is total, which in context comes as a decidedly mixed blessing. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Feb 05, 2020
|
|
|
|
Ordinary Love (2019) |
How refreshing to find a movie that actually views people in middle age as sexual beings. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Dec 05, 2019
|
|
|
|
Harriet (2019) |
On more than one occasion, Harriet seems caught in that not-unusual limbo between wanting to honour its subject while avoiding the mess, whether physical or emotional, that goes with it. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Nov 25, 2019
|
|
|
|
Judy (2019) |
Zellweger finds the amalgam of fragility and fury that drove Judy Garland for as long as was possible. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Oct 04, 2019
|
|
|
|
Late Night (2019) |
And yet time and again, Mindy Kaling's script seems itself in need of doctoring from one of Katherine's put-upon scribes. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jun 06, 2019
|
|
|
|
Red Joan (2018) |
The dynamics between Joan and the men in her orbit rarely rise above the pulpy, and one can't help but feel after a while as if her character is being as insistently patronised by the material as she is by those who insist on calling her "the little lady" - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Apr 22, 2019
|
|
|
|
At Eternity's Gate (2018) |
Dafoe, eyes shining, is at his considerable best when words fall away and Van Gogh interacts with a world that risks driving him mad. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Apr 03, 2019
|
|
|
|
Old Boys (2018) |
Cyrano de Bergerac is only faintly detectable in this protracted and tiresome comic adaptation. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Feb 25, 2019
|
|
|
|
A Private War (2018) |
Heineman is far better off letting Pike's unforced charisma and sense of purpose carry the day. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Feb 19, 2019
|
|
|
|
All Is True (2018) |
Bardophiles may forgive a lot just to hear these actors recite passages from The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, even if one has to wonder whether the real-life Will really was so self-obsessed as to drop his own poetry into casual conversation. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Feb 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Vice (2018) |
The larky over the lofty is McKay's admirable strategy throughout. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jan 25, 2019
|
|
|
|
Beautiful Boy (2018) |
This is harrowing stuff, to be sure, but the movie for the most part feels oddly becalmed. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jan 18, 2019
|
|
|
|
Life Itself (2018) |
The voiceover narration alone makes one wonder how this script ever survived a first readthrough. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jan 06, 2019
|
|
|
|
A Star Is Born (2018) |
And whatever tears you may shed at the end feel entirely earned, as is one's respect for a movie far better than one might have imagined: a film director is born. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Oct 05, 2018
|
|
|
|
The Wife (2017) |
A strong cast flails in what amounts to a glorified TV movie. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Sep 28, 2018
|
|
|
|
The Seagull (2018) |
Annette Bening in full flow is always worth one's attention, and a distinguished supporting cast for the most part matches her a large part of the way. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Sep 10, 2018
|
|
|
|
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) |
More visually alluring and confident than its stratospherically successful forbear, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again beats to a genuine heart, as well. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jul 20, 2018
|
|
|
|
The Bookshop (2017) |
Following hard on the lamentable Book Club, here's another film that appears not to know what to do with the landscape of the printed word. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted Jul 02, 2018
|
|
|
|
Nothing Like a Dame (2018) |
And when Nothing Like a Dame draws to a close with audio of Dench reciting "our revels now are ended", the only possible response is to insist that they are not. - The Arts Desk
Read More
| Posted May 04, 2018
|