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Pamela Hutchinson

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance writer, critic and film historian, specialising in silent cinema and womens film history. She contributes regularly to publications including Sight & Sound and the Guardian as well as appearing on Radio 4. She is the founder and editor of silent cinema website SilentLondon.co.uk and the author of the BFI Film Classic on G. W. Pabsts Pandora's Box (1929).

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Eight Postcards from Utopia (2024) 93% EDIT “Radu Jude and philosopher Christian Ferencz-Flatz scrape at the surface of post-Revolutionary Romania using 30 years of TV commercials – some sections work better than others, but there’s a grim comedy to this spearing, sardonic montage. ” – Sight & Sound Dec 19, 2025 Full Review Sleep #2 (2024) EDIT “In the absence of any more salacious acts caught on camera, it’s likely Warhol would approve. One hopes he would also enjoy this captivating film, which offers concrete evidence of a celebrity-artist’s cultural immortality.” – Sight & Sound Dec 19, 2025 Full Review Little Veronika (1929) EDIT “I was thoroughly charmed by this film. Von Nagy is gorgeous, of course, but more alive than most ingénues” – Silent London Oct 26, 2022 Full Review Blue Bayou (2021) 75% 3/5 EDIT “Multi-hyphenate Justin Chon has crafted an impressive melodrama, rich in Louisiana atmosphere and with a timely message, but Blue Bayou is marred by its reliance on symbolism and sentiment.” – Empire Magazine Dec 6, 2021 Full Review Herself (2020) 94% 3/5 EDIT “Herself tells a compelling story, but combining a tough realist drama about domestic abuse and homelessness with an optimistic tale of solidarity weakens the foundations of this otherwise admirable film.” – Empire Magazine Sep 8, 2021 Full Review I'm Your Man (2021) 95% 4/5 EDIT “I'm Your Man is science-fiction with soul and a romance written for adults. Just like its mechanical hero, this tender film is attractive, smart and cunningly designed to win your heart.” – Empire Magazine Aug 13, 2021 Full Review Fatima (2020) 57% 2/5 EDIT “Fatima raises some intriguing questions about faith but sadly fails to make us believe in anything more comforting than the climate of fear, distrust and grief that flourishes during wartime.” – Empire Magazine Jun 25, 2021 Full Review Land (2021) 69% 2/5 EDIT “In her directorial debut, Robin Wright boldly strikes out for new territory, but the film is all too conventionally fenced in, lacking a narrative as compelling as its own dramatic Wyoming scenery.” – Empire Magazine Jun 4, 2021 Full Review Luxor (2020) 91% EDIT “An apparently slight, but deeply rewarding film, Luxor reveals its purpose slowly, in fragments of growing significance.” – Sight & Sound Feb 21, 2021 Full Review Beginning (2020) 91% EDIT “In contemplating the horror of a subservient life, Kulumbegashvili has created a quite extraordinarily compelling film.” – Sight & Sound Feb 18, 2021 Full Review Blithe Spirit (2020) 28% 2/5 EDIT “This Blithe Spirit dilutes the original's heady cocktail, serving up a sugary punch rather than a dry martini.” – Empire Magazine Jan 12, 2021 Full Review The Roads Not Taken (2020) 44% 4/5 EDIT “Elle Fanning and Sally Potter triumph again. It's not always an easy watch, but The Roads Not Taken tackles a distressing subject with care and invites us to reconsider our preconceptions.” – Empire Magazine Sep 8, 2020 Full Review Summerland (2020) 78% 4/5 EDIT “Arterton triumphs again and Swale marks herself as a director to watch. Summerland successfully combines an intelligent feminist fable and a lesbian love story with a slick period tearjerker.” – Empire Magazine Jul 28, 2020 Full Review Clemency (2019) 92% 4/5 EDIT “Alfre Woodard gives an unforgettably moving performance in Chinonye Chukwu's slow-burning, perfectly observed drama about the repercussions of state-sanctioned violence, in which the stakes could hardly be higher.” – Empire Magazine Jul 15, 2020 Full Review The Booksellers (2019) 90% 4/5 EDIT “Unputdownable documentary that evokes the thrill of reading preloved pages and reveals that a passion for collecting is not just a hoarding instinct, but a way to preserve and share culture.” – Empire Magazine Jun 30, 2020 Full Review The General (1926) 92% EDIT “The General is one of the funniest, most ingenious, and gosh-darn exciting films you will ever see in your long and happy life.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review Arctic (2018) 91% EDIT “Arctic is an engrossing movie and sometimes almost unbearably tense film, shot smartly by debut director Joe Penna.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) 99% EDIT “The soldiers of WWI are here little more than motion-capture figures for Jackson's team to drape with colour and sound and stereoscopy. An army of Gollums: not wearied by age perhaps, but certainly contemned by technology.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review Bait (2019) 100% EDIT “Bait is a fantastic movie, and will intoxicate anyone who loves the art and craft of film. The pacing stumbles a little towards the end, it's true, but I left the cinema enthralled and full of excitement about the medium.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review My 20th Century (1989) 100% EDIT “Enyedi's film has the capacity to make ideas and inventions that are now familiar seem new again, to imbue them with the sense of wonder and magic that they once held.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review 1918: Journey's End (2018) 91% EDIT “Dibb's sensitive incorporation of, or tribute to, traces of archive imagery is intriguing and very satisfying.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review Wonderstruck (2017) 68% EDIT “Haynes is doing something more interesting than reconstruction. His film, carried along by Carter Burwell's brilliantly alive score, creates an almost silent movie -- a wordless communion between two periods of time.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review Shiraz: A Romance of India (1928) 100% EDIT “This is a film to wallow in. Hat-tip to the illustrious Anglo-German cinematography team of Henry Harris and Emil Schünemann. It takes repeat viewings of Shiraz to satisfy your hunger for those gorgeous landscapes and grand palaces.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review EDIT “While this film doesn't contain the fluid editing style that Pabst's later silents were noted for, it has plenty of visual panache, some intense performances and a carefully sustained atmosphere of mounting hysteria.” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review Michael (1924) 94% EDIT “How could it not be a wonderful film, with Dreyer directing, and two other estimable filmmakers in the cast?” – Silent London Apr 21, 2020 Full Review
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