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Nathanael Hood

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Ever since I saw THE SHINING in college, I've been a devoted fanatic for cinema. My discovery of a collection of Roger Ebert reviews further convinced me that film criticism was the field I was destined for. After getting a Master's degree in Film Theory at New York University, I buckled down as a film writer. For the last 9 years I have worked as a freelance film critic for a number of different sites. I began on my personal film blog Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear. But In 2014 I began working professionally, getting work published on TheYoungFolks.com, RogerEbert.com, TheRetroSet.com, MovieMezzanine, Mubi.com, AudiencesEverywhere, UnseenFilms, and ChristianityToday.com. I publish around 150 full-length reviews, editorials, think pieces, retrospectives, and interviews a year through all of these different outlets. Thank you for your consideration.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
High and Low (1963) 97% EDIT “All of this is done by Kurosawa with an eye for detail... It’s so striking that it almost completely distracts the audience from realizing that High and Low is one of the great master’s most pessimistic and nihilistic films.” – The Young Folks Aug 13, 2025 Full Review The Life of Chuck (2024) 80% 9/10 EDIT “Here is a film that rewards repeat viewings and active imagination to understand.” – Unseen Films Jun 21, 2025 Full Review Conclave (2024) 93% 8/10 EDIT “"A tense thriller with a heart, a brain, and a soul."” – Unseen Films Feb 26, 2025 Full Review Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. (2024) 66% 6/10 EDIT “"The operative word to describe Bonhoeffer[is] sincere. It sincerely believes in Bonhoeffer’s life and faith as extraordinary."” – Unseen Films Dec 1, 2024 Full Review Elemental (2023) 73% 5/10 EDIT “Watching it, I couldn’t escape the impression that I was seeing something Frankensteined together from other, better Pixar movies. ” – Unseen Films Jun 24, 2023 Full Review A Still Small Voice (2023) 93% 8/10 EDIT “[Arguably] the most honest depiction of what hospital chaplaincy work feels like.” – Unseen Films Apr 25, 2023 Full Review Women Talking (2022) 90% 9/10 EDIT “Not only is it one of the best films of 2022, but I’d also argue it’s destined to take its place as one of the most theologically nuanced and morally courageous films ever made about Christianity.” – Unseen Films Feb 23, 2023 Full Review RRR (2022) 96% 10/10 EDIT “After years of Hollywood franchise glut...watching S. S. Rajamouli’s Telugu-language epic RRR is like taking that first breath of outside air after being cooped up all day in an office building with no air conditioning.” – Unseen Films Jun 18, 2022 Full Review The Batman (2022) 85% 8/10 EDIT “"... a veritable breath of fresh air in an industry glutted with visually banal superhero films with plots that feel written by committee."” – Unseen Films Mar 16, 2022 Full Review The Ascent (1977) 100% EDIT “A film of uncommon power and even more uncommon brilliance.” – The Young Folks Mar 1, 2022 Full Review Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021) 88% 8/10 EDIT “Lin-Manuel Miranda could not have found better material for his directorial debut.” – Unseen Films Jan 14, 2022 Full Review Procession (2021) 98% 10/10 EDIT “What kind of saintly compassion does a child abuse survivor need to willingly play the role of someone else's rapist? I'm not sure, but these six survivors have it. Their strength and bravery are nothing short of literal miraculousness. So is this film.” – Unseen Films Jan 3, 2022 Full Review Celebration (2018) 100% EDIT “[Celebration is] a madcap collage of bits and pieces that somehow coalesce into something greater than the sum of its parts.” – The Young Folks Dec 28, 2021 Full Review Blue Bayou (2021) 75% 8/10 EDIT “Blue Bayou is above all a damning indictment of a broken immigration system that's been hijacked by bureaucrats who see the enforcement of the letter of the law as more important than actually helping people.” – Unseen Films Oct 27, 2021 Full Review The Lost Leonardo (2021) 98% EDIT “Properly captures the sense of dread, corruption, and duplicity that lurks at the heart of the art world.” – Unseen Films Oct 27, 2021 Full Review Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021) 91% 8/10 EDIT “The film's no trite memorial, it's an autopsy. It gets as messy and uncomfortable as the man himself.” – Unseen Films Jul 12, 2021 Full Review Star Trek Beyond (2016) 86% 7/10 EDIT “The breeziest and most enjoyable film of the [Kelvin] Timeline [and] the one most reminiscent of the beloved 1960s television show.” – Unseen Films Jun 14, 2021 Full Review Bo Burnham: Inside (2021) 95% 9/10 EDIT “An astonishing exorcism of the trauma, rage, fear, and helplessness felt by a world told to shelter in place.” – Unseen Films Jun 3, 2021 Full Review The Fate of Lee Khan (1974) 100% 7/10 EDIT “Angela Mao almost steals the show as reformed pickpocket Hai Mu-tan with a delightful sequence where she secretly robs a rich gambler and is forced to return his things without his noticing.” – Unseen Films Jun 1, 2021 Full Review Nomadland (2020) 93% 9/10 EDIT “One of the melancholy pleasures of Chloé Zhao's masterful new film Nomadland is determining where the fact ends and the fiction begins.” – Nate Hood Reviews Mar 15, 2021 Full Review The White Tiger (2021) 91% 8/10 EDIT “You could draw a direct through-line from old Hollywood gangster movies to this one.” – Nate Hood Reviews Feb 15, 2021 Full Review Derek DelGaudio's In & of Itself (2020) 100% 10/10 EDIT “A once-in-a-lifetime movie of a once-in-a-lifetime performance pleading for inter/intra-personal compassion and empathy.” – Unseen Films Feb 3, 2021 Full Review His House (2020) 100% 9/10 EDIT “This is horror filmmaking at its most intelligent and fearless.” – Unseen Films Jan 19, 2021 Full Review Residue (2020) 94% 10/10 EDIT “As Gerima peels back the layers of history and memory, past melds with present as does the imagined with the real.” – Unseen Films Nov 29, 2020 Full Review Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (2021) 73% 4/10 EDIT “The film's main issue is that there's no cohesive throughline.” – Unseen Films Oct 8, 2020 Full Review
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