Rebecca Harrison
Tomatometer-approved critic
I am a freelance film critic based in the UK. My main outlet is Sight & Sound, were I provide film reviews and festival coverage. Additionally, I have bylines for film-related content in Birth, Movies, Death; The New Statesman; Little White Lies; The Conversation; and The Mary Sue. In the past twelve months I've also begun working as a critic for BBC Scotland, with TV appearances and now regular reviewer appearances on BBC Radio Scotland's The Afternoon Show. Based on my work as a critic and film researcher I've been commissioned to write a book on The Empire Strikes Back for the British Film Institute's Film Classics Series.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Call Jane (2022) |
If Call Jane’s narrative is largely paint-by-numbers, its closing scene eschews narrative conventions. We are left with names, circumstances, the then-as-now cries for help, and the knowledge that there is so much more still to burn. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Dec 17, 2022
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Meet Me in the Bathroom (2022) |
For fans of 00s post-punk, Meet Me in the Bathroom’s intimate archive footage will scratch a nostalgic itch. But given that the film trades on the spectacle of pain rather than saying anything meaningful about it, I couldn’t help asking, ‘Is this it?’ - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Oct 18, 2022
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She Said (2022) |
As the camera lingers on the dreadful scenes of an abuser’s hotel room, women’s voices fill the space he once inhabited. Survivors become bigger, louder, and more powerful, with their own enduring cinematic legacy. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Oct 18, 2022
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Girls Can't Surf (2020) |
Girls Can’t Surf makes for a bittersweet historical record that will ensure women surfers’ contributions to the sport are never wiped out. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Sep 09, 2022
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Bullet Train (2022) |
It’s a shame that the filmmakers didn’t trust the spatial and dramatic tensions provided by the train journey, and opted instead for seen-it-all-before spectacle. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Sep 09, 2022
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True Things (2021) |
An uneasy psychological character study, the film brings the audience tantalisingly close to its protagonist and has them share her experiences of joy, depression and grief. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Jul 20, 2022
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Railway Children (2022) |
If young people can cope with war they can surely understand the complexities of their own identities and pasts. It’s a shame, then, that the film goes so hard on pushing the myth of a progressive England that it sells its audience short. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Jul 20, 2022
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House of Gucci (2021) |
The film is a tragi-comic triumph of operatic proportions. Thanks in no small part to stand-out star Lady Gaga, House of Gucci has made melodrama fashionable again. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Nov 25, 2021
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Limbo (2020) |
Look beyond your limited worldview, Limbo says, and see the bigger, more beautiful, and more complicated picture. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Nov 02, 2021
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Clueless (1995) |
With a huge impact on popular culture thanks to its fashion, performances, and stand-out soundtrack, Clueless is far smarter and wittier in its commentary on gender and class than its title would have you think. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Aug 27, 2020
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Tenet (2020) |
Tenet is a complex and yet deceptively simple film that has the capacity to leave you loving and loathing it at the same time. As it is so hellbent on telling us: yes, we can have it both ways. - Screen Queens
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| Posted Aug 27, 2020
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Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) |
A tedious and entirely predictable film that in spite of its super-sonic hedgehog lead manages to feel dull and slow. A wasted Jim Carey fails to save a movie in which none of the characters inspires any sympathy. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Aug 27, 2020
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Vivarium (2020) |
A postmodern mash-up of genres and aesthetic styles, Vivarium is a suburban horror story ideal for our capitalist - and pandemic - age. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Aug 27, 2020
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The Perfect Candidate (2019) |
A powerful film about systems of oppression and personal emancipation with glorious cinematography and a stand-out lead performance. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Aug 27, 2020
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Little Women (2019) |
A warm-hearted adaptation that sees the talented Gerwig directing with a keen eye for the parallels between women's lives in the 19th and 21st centuries. With stand-out performances from a wonderful cast, this is a charming and fresh take on Little Women. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Dec 19, 2019
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The Two Popes (2019) |
A surprisingly humorous film that reflects on power and how people use and abuse it, The Two Popes delivers stand-out performances from Hopkins and Pryce while never quite succeeding in shedding the feeling of an over-long stage play. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Dec 19, 2019
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Honey Boy (2019) |
Alma Har'el's exquisite direction creates dreamy transitions between Otis's past and present in a meditation on cinema's power both to trigger and to heal. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Dec 19, 2019
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Motherless Brooklyn (2019) |
A ponderous neo-noir that comes to life with rhythmic style thanks to some excellent performances and the discordant score - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Dec 19, 2019
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Ordinary Love (2019) |
A bleak but beautifully shot love story about surviving cancer and the harsh, day-to-day realities of sustaining romantic relationships with two excellent lead performances. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Dec 19, 2019
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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) |
The Rise of Skywalker pays dividends in fan service, and it pushes every nostalgic button on its dashboard. It's very funny, and by twists and turns incredibly sad, too, with surprises so big that Han Solo's ego looks small by comparison. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Dec 19, 2019
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Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) |
A surprisingly progressive return to form for the Terminator franchise. Dark Fate goes back to its 90s roots and allows its female leads to shine in preposterous but comically camp action sequences. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 27, 2019
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Monos (2019) |
Beautiful, intense, and surreal, Monos is a startling ensemble film about child soldiers that attacks the senses with its brutal imagery and eerie, scratching score. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 27, 2019
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Black and Blue (2019) |
Despite Naomie Harris's best efforts, Black and Blue turns the harsh realities of racism and white supremacy into a spectacle that feels way off-target. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 27, 2019
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Our Ladies (2019) |
A must-see riot of girl power and teen spirit that redefines how girls get to have sex and talk about sexuality on screen. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Oct 14, 2019
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Judy (2019) |
On the glittering surface of things, Judy is critical of her abusers - yet I left the theatre feeling more dejected than a witch caught with no umbrella in the rain. - Screen Queens
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| Posted Oct 10, 2019
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Make Up (2019) |
Claire Oakley's genre-bending debut feature slowly reveals itself as a lesbian romance that's as much about learning to love yourself as your lover, and it's a gorgeous and inventive piece of cinema. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Oct 10, 2019
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Animals (2019) |
A gorgeous, sometimes bitterly on the nose evocation of the choices women face when they want to grow up but can't stop having fun, Animals is a bold film in love with its two firebrand female leads. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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The Hummingbird Project (2018) |
In a film so dull it would make the flap of a hummingbird's wing feel liked it lasted for eternity, a stellar cast is squandered on shallow characters and a what-were-they-thinking script. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Photograph (2019) |
A languorous love letter to Mumbai that plays with the cinematic conventions of romance. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Stuber (2019) |
An unfunny comedy of epic proportions... I watched this film so you didn't have to. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Sometimes Always Never (2018) |
A little too try-hard Wes-Anderson-whimsical in its visual style, Sometimes, Always, Never succeeds as a sweet and emotionally resonant tale about grief, loss, and remembering those who are still there. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Only You (2018) |
A well-observed and intimate film that, despite its painfully straight-white storytelling, invites us to share an emotional experience with its relatable characters. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Diego Maradona (2019) |
An overtly (and sometimes over) sympathetic documentary that is ambitious in its attempt to humanise the man behind the myths. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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The Dead Don't Die (2019) |
A millennial-friendly ironic mashup of deadpan comedy and zombie horror that offers a commentary on the climate emergency - and no matter what, it's going to end badly. - The Afternoon Show
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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My Favorite Fabric (2018) |
My Favourite Fabric is a finely tuned film that ultimately empowers Nahla in her quest for sexual satisfaction and intimacy. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Little Tickles (2018) |
A confident and startling debut, Bescond and Métayer's film will make you laugh and cry. It is a compelling and necessary story in the era of #MeToo, and one that will no doubt be important to survivors of abuse as well as film lovers. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Rocketman (2019) |
Rocketman ramps the camp up to 11, throws on some sequinned spectacles, and sparks fireworks of pure joy in glitzy song-and-dance routines. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Ad Astra (2019) |
Ad Astra has a glorious surface when viewed from a distance. Look at the details in closer proximity, though, and there are many unresolved conflicts in a story that doesn't necessarily have so much to recommend it. - Birth.Movies.Death.
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story (2018) |
I Used to be Normal does great work at getting behind the screaming headlines and shrieking stereotypes to the emotional and psychological realities of women's experiences. - The Mary Sue
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| Posted Oct 02, 2019
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Lux Æterna (2019) |
The problem with Lux Æterna is that it fails to fully see or hear women as real people. - Birth.Movies.Death.
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| Posted May 20, 2019
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Pain and Glory (2019) |
A glorious ode to the power of cinema and an absolute delight to watch. - Birth.Movies.Death.
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| Posted May 20, 2019
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Bull (2019) |
A mesmerising film, and one that will linger in the imagination long after the sounds of the crickets have faded. - Sight & Sound
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| Posted May 16, 2019
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