Five star - Film Reviews

Latest Guardian Film Reviews sorted by Star Rating. Cut the crap!
  1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp – review
    This glorious film gets more fascinating and moving each time its seen, writes Peter Bradshaw
    5 stars
  2. The Raid – review
    This violent, intense and brilliant bulletfest from Indonesia puts western action movies to shame, writes Peter Bradshaw
    5 stars
  3. 2 Days in New York – review
    Family relations and cross-cultural mishaps might be the stuff of Hollywood cliche, but Delpy whisks it all into a delightful comedy, writes Steve Rose
    4 stars
  4. Even the Rain – review
    This smart fable stars Gael García Bernal as a heartthrob Herzog whose film crew starts to perpetuate the exploitation they hope to denounce, writes Mike McCahill
    4 stars
  5. The Dictator – review
    Sacha Baron Cohen's latest is an unashamed firework display of bad taste – and very funny, writes Peter Bradshaw
    4 stars
  6. Cannes 2012: Rust and Bone – review
    Jacques Audiard's moving love story, which surges out of the screen like a flood tide, deserves to be awash with awards, writes Peter Bradshaw
    4 stars
  7. Cannes 2012 review: Moonrise Kingdom
    Wes Anderson's elegant new film is eccentric but heartfelt – a soufflé of strangeness that rises superbly, writes Peter Bradshaw
    4 stars
  8. The Dictator – review

    Sacha Baron Cohen delivers an explosion of weapons-grade offensiveness, writes Peter Bradshaw

    4 stars
  9. All in Good Time – review
    A breezy British-Asian comedy about Bolton-based newlyweds who have to stay with family when their honeymoon is cancelled, writes Anna Smith
    4 stars
  10. Cannes 2012: The We and the I – review
    Michel Gondry's signature playfulness keeps an otherwise stifling schoolbus journey through the Bronx entertaining, writes Henry Barnes
    3 stars
  11. Cannes 2012: Paradise: Love – review
    In the first part of a trilogy, Ulrich Seidl explores the subject of sex tourism among rich, middle-aged white women. But does he tell us anything we didn't know already? asks Peter Bradshaw
    3 stars
  12. Cannes 2012: Reality – review
    Peter Bradshaw: Matteo Garrone's watchable satire on reality TV is played with gusto and heart — though is fundamentally a little predictable
    3 stars
  13. Cannes 2012: Mekong Hotel – review
    Apichatpong Weerasethakul's interesting but indulgent featurette is no more than a diverting footnote to his more acclaimed work, writes Peter Bradshaw
    3 stars
  14. Cannes 2012: Mystery – review
    Distinctive and confident, Lou Ye's intriguing if ultimately slightly preposterous noir-melodrama lives up to its name, writes Peter Bradshaw
    3 stars
  15. If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle – review

    The culmination of this tale of life in a Romanian young offenders' institute proves as despairing as it is tense, writes Mike McCahill

    3 stars
  16. Klitschko – review
    This conventional boxing story gains a piquant flavour from the Klitschkos' upbringing in a Soviet-era Ukraine, writes Andrew Pulver
    3 stars
  17. She Monkeys – review
    This worthwhile film is a tremulous, pained study of awkward emotions among teenage Swedish lesbians, writes Andrew Pulver
    3 stars
  18. How I Spent My Summer Vacation – review

    If he hadn't poisoned his reputation so utterly, this lively bankrobber caper might have put Mel Gibson back on top, writes Peter Bradshaw

    3 stars
  19. Beloved – review
    This musical switches between the 60s and the present with a light and charming touch, writes Peter Bradshaw
    3 stars
  20. Jeff, Who Lives at Home – review
    Susan Sarandon is worried about her grownup sons in this likable comedy that suffers a bit from indie self-consciousness, writes Peter Bradshaw
    3 stars
  21. Faust – review

    Peter Bradshaw: Sokurov's version of Goethe's tragedy is part bad dream, part music-less opera, with hallucinatory flashes of fear

    3 stars
  22. Mitsuko Delivers – review
    A whimiscal comedy from Japan in which our pregnant, broke but feisty heroine follows a wafting cloud to whatever awaits her, writes Andrew Pulver
    3 stars
  23. Dark Shadows – review

    Tim Burton plays the jokey 'darkness' of his style to totally predictable effect in his latest oddity-comedy, writes Peter Bradshaw

    3 stars
  24. Cannes 2012: Lawless – review

    John Hillcoat's moonshine drama looks handsome but its cocktail of violence and sentimentality sticks in the throat

    2 stars
  25. Cannes 2012: Broken – review
    Rufus Norris's drama of dysfunction and pain is often strained and self-conscious, but newcomer Eloise Laurence is a real find, writes Peter Bradshaw
    2 stars
  26. Iron Sky – review
    As net-spawned exploitation fodder goes, it's more inspired and likable than Snakes on a Plane or The Human Centipede, writes Mike McCahill
    2 stars
  27. The Source – review

    It could have been a neat, well-aimed satire, but myriad subplots dissipate the energy and comedy, writes Steve Rose

    2 stars
  28. Cannes 2012 review: After the Battle

    Yousry Nasrallah's attempt to yoke a stolid, state-of-Egypt drama to the Arab spring is a long, hard trudge, writes Xan Brooks

    2 stars
  29. Cafe de Flore – review
    A narcissistic and unpersuasive mosaic of dreams and flashbacks in which a poor superstar DJ mopes about finding multiple soulmates, writes Mike McCahill
    1 star
  30. Charlie Casanova – review
    This supposed satire about Ireland's self-pitying prosperous classes is so heavy-handed it's almost unwatchable, writes Peter Bradshaw
    1 star
  31. This week's new DVD & Blu-ray

    Haywire | True Blood: The Fourth Season | The Grey | Ghost In The Shell – Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society | Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things & Dead Of Night

    unrated
  32. Faust – review

    Sokurov's study on the corrupting effects of power, which won the Golden Lion at Venice, is a ponderous affair, writes Philip French

    unrated
  33. L'Atalante and the Films of Jean Vigo – review

    One stirring short and three mischievous masterpieces feature on this collection from the great French auteur who died in his prime, writes Philip French

    unrated
  34. All in Good Time – review
    A classic 1960s working-class drama translates beautifully into a comedy of contemporary British Asian family life, writes Philip French
    unrated
  35. Mark Kermode's DVD round-up
    Director Steve McQueen and actor Michael Fassbender team up again to create a harrowing psychodrama that could be compared with with a Last Tango – without the waffle, writes Mark Kermode
    unrated
  36. Beloved – review

    Catherine Deneuve is as wonderful in Christophe Honoré's homage to Jacques Demy's musicals as she was in the originals, writes Philip French

    unrated
  37. How I Spent My Summer Vacation – review

    Mel Gibson is on classic form as an unhinged outsider in this brilliantly staged but confusing prison thriller, writes Philip French

    unrated
  38. Café de Flore – review

    Jean-Marc Vallée's experimental film alternates between two tales, one fascinating, one drivel, writes Philip French

    unrated
  39. Jeff, Who Lives at Home – review

    Jay and Mark Duplass shift up a gear with this dark, funny slacker comedy, writes Philip French

    unrated
  40. Dark Shadows – review

    Tim Burton's new vampire drama is visually arresting but rather ordinary, writes Philip French

    unrated
  41. Yael Bartana: And Europe Will Be Stunned; Elizabeth Price: Here – review

    Yael Bartana tackles the complexity of Polish-Jewish history in a hauntingly poetic film trilogy, while in Gateshead Elizabeth Price continues her investigation of modernism, writes Laura Cumming

    unrated
  42. This week's new DVD & Blu-ray

    Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows | Shame | I.D. | Life Is Sweet | Castle Freak | Underworld: Awakening

    unrated
  43. The Dictator: 'Brave, insensitive, funny and horrible' - video review

    Sacha Baron Cohen's portrayal of a despot struggling to retain a grip on a fictional republic could be his most dangerous performance yet, says Henry Barnes

    unrated
  44. The Complete Humphrey Jennings: Volume Two: Fires Were Started

    Humphrey Jennings's wartime propaganda films mark the peak of the British documentary movement, writes Philip French

    unrated
  45. Mark Kermode's DVD round-up

    Critics of War Horse overlook the fact that the Great War movie was never created for an adult audience, writes Mark Kermode

    unrated
  46. Goodbye First Love – review

    Mia Hansen-Løve proves that less is more in a beautifully observed tale of a student's romantic entanglements, writes Philip French

    unrated
  47. Le quai des brumes – review

    Jean Gabin was at the height of his powers in Marcel Carné's 1938 masterpiece, writes Philip French

    unrated
  48. Piggy – review

    This competent revenge thriller starring Martin Compston and Paul Anderson holds few surprises, writes Philip French

    unrated
  49. Two Years at Sea – review

    Ben Rivers's documentary about a loner in the Highlands captivated critics. Audiences may be less than rapt, writes Philip French

    unrated
  50. Beauty and the Beast 3D – review

    A 3D update proves that Disney's witty animation has stood the test of time, writes Philip French

    unrated
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By Gideon Goldberg