Film review archive

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C — 1024 results

• The Commitments (1991)

  Review preview for The Commitments

  16-year-old Andrew Strong has a voice that blows your socks off

  The trials and tribulations of a budding working-class Dublin soul band.
• Commitment To Life (2023)

  Review preview for Commitment To Life

  Jeffrey Schwarz, one of the most prolific documentarians working today and a man who has dedicated his life to redressing the balance in regard to LGBTQ+ narratives, is careful not to deliver only those stories which we have all heard before.

  Against a rich Hollywood backdrop, this film documents the true story of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles - and how an intrepid group of people living with HIV/AIDS, doctors, movie stars, studio moguls and activists changed the course of the epidemic.
• Communion (2016)

  Review preview for Communion

  A bleak film but a necessary one

  A documentary about a teenager who acts as a carer for every member of her family.
• The Commuter (2018)

  Review preview for The Commuter

  Intrigue peels away to reveal darker, deeper layers of complexity and corruption. The plot explodes.

  A man finds himself racing against time on a commuter train.
• Companion (2025)

  Review preview for Companion

  The thing that most suggests Companion isn't based on a lost Philip K Dick story is that it has more developed female characters.

  A weekend getaway with friends at a remote cabin turns into chaos after it's revealed that one of the guests is a robot companion.
• The Company Men (2010)

  Review preview for The Company Men

  It's well directed but even if most of the cast weren't phoning it in they would have real difficulty eliciting sympathy.

  Three corporate executives struggle to come to terms with losing their jobs.
• The Company of Wolves (1984)

  Review preview for The Company of Wolves

  An interesting attempt at updating old myths to make them fresh and relevant to contemporary audiences.

  The underlying sexual connotations of dreams and fairy tales are explored by the director of The Crying Game.
• Comparsa (2025)

  Review preview for Comparsa

  The documentarians strike a careful balance themselves, channelling the joy and energy of the group as they come together to create puppets or work on raps and drum routines but never forgetting the difficult and melancholy backdrop they’re doing this against.

  From the shadows of a Guatemalan neighbourhood scared into silence, two sisters lead a luminous rebellion.
• Compartment No 6 (2021)

  Review preview for Compartment No 6

  The everyday feel is acute – you can virtually smell the pickle jar vinegar and raw spirit and imagine a slight stickiness on the seats as Jani-Petteri Passi’s camera captures the scene with a looseness that rocks along with the rhythm of the train.

  A young Finnish woman escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the arctic port of Murmansk, but is forced to share the long ride and a tiny sleeping car with a Russian miner.
• Complaint No. 713317 (2025)

  Review preview for Complaint No. 713317

  The early scenes are sharply observed, and frequently funny. Shafiey understands how bureaucracy becomes theatre in the home.

  Retired couple Magdy and Sama just want a quiet life, which unravels when their fridge breaks down.
• A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures (2008)

  Review preview for A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures

  Though this is a funny, engaging film, I found myself asking how much of it is in good faith and how much is deliberate hyperbole for the camera.

  Does what it says on the tin - a personal documentary about a subject for which most blokes will have sympathy.
• A Complete Unknown (2024)

  Review preview for A Complete Unknown

  The world Dylan and the others inhabit...feels properly lived in.

  Biopic - following Bob Dylan from folk-singer to a worldwide sensation
• The Complete Yes Minister And Yes Prime Minister (1986)

  Review preview for The Complete Yes Minister And Yes Prime Minister

  Although viewers today will be used to a different style of political banter, the stories themselves haven't aged at all, and it's telling how easily the debates involved can be applied to politics today.

  A government minister, who subsequently becomes prime minister, struggles to get the better of the civil service.
• The Complex Forms (2023)

  Review preview for The Complex Forms

  This is an exercise in glamour in both its modern and archaic senses.

  There is an ancient villa where desperate people have the opportunity to solve their fate by selling their body to a mysterious entity in exchange for money. When enormous, centuries-old creatures emerge from the deep woods surrounding the villa, a series of strange and sinister events pushes three unlikely guests to band together to attempt a desperate escape.
• Compliance (2012)

  Review preview for Compliance

  The bottom falls out of sanity in a way that, despite being based on real events, feels deeply unsatisfactory.

  A drama based on the real life case of fast food restaurant employees who abused vulnerable young people on the orders of a stranger on the phone who claimed to be investigating shoplifting.
• Compliance (2026)

  Review preview for Compliance

  Mangione-Smith...is particularly successful at telling the story dynamically without compromising the found footage approach.

  A found footage horror film about the modern surveillance state, dark web crime, and political conspiracy.
• Complicity (2018)

  Review preview for Complicity

  Delicate and patient in its approach, very traditional in its structure right up until the end, Complicity is rich in poetic representations of Japanese food culture and rural life.

  An illegal Chinese immigrant in Japan gets a job using a false ID and forms an unexpected bond with his employer.
• Compulsus (2022)

  Review preview for Compulsus

  There’s a self-consciousness about the film which sometimes allows style to overwhelm substance.

  Women who have experienced misogynistic violence decide to take justice into their own hands.
• Computer Chess (2013)

  Review preview for Computer Chess

  It's the boxy Apple Mac precursors that are the real stars in many ways. It's hard not to feel a warm glow of affection for them, assuming you are a viewer of a certain age.

  Early nerds congregate at a convention with a surreal twist.
• Conan The Barbarian (1981)

  Review preview for Conan The Barbarian

  There really is only one person in the world who could play Conan, as sympathetic and brutal as he is, and Arnie definitely pulls it off.

  Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a muscle-bound brute in the days of sword and sorcery.
• Conan The Barbarian (2011)

  Review preview for Conan The Barbarian

  Fans of this type of fare will find plenty to like, but the final article remains a bit of a missed opportunity, never quite climbing the spectacular heights the character deserves.

  The legendary Cimmerian warrior battles to save the land where he lives from an encroaching evil force.
• Concerned Citizen (2022)

  Review preview for Concerned Citizen

  Haguel inverts viewers' habits, breaking conventions like a trickster.

  Drama about the perils of gentrification
• Concessions (2026)

  Review preview for Concessions

  It is faint praise to say that it's pleasant enough, but faint praise is what I can muster.

  Oddball staff, wacky clientele and ageing Hollywood idols cross paths in a small town cinema on the day of its closure.
• Conclave (2024)

  Review preview for Conclave

  Director Edward Berger and his director of photography Stephane Fontaine have made every frame art.

  Drama surrounding the election of a new Pope.
• Concrete Plans (2020)

  Review preview for Concrete Plans

  Ultimately there are only so many possibilities, but director Will Jewell manages some effective sleight of hand nonetheless.

  High in the remote Welsh mountains, five builders renovate a farmhouse. Two of them take a dislike to Ukranian Viktor. When payments are late, tempers fray and one man makes an astonishing proposition.
• Concrete Utopia (2023)

  Review preview for Concrete Utopia

  Um is interested in how such landscapes seduce us into particular ways of thinking.

  Survivors from a massive earthquake struggle for a new life in Seoul.
• Confession (2020)

  Review preview for Confession

  Both leads are excellent.

  A story about a man who has been pointed out as the culprit of a locked-room murder and his lawyer approaching the truth.
• Confession (2022)

  Review preview for Confession

  Snow can be tough to shoot in, especially on a small budget, but the wintery prospects work well here and suit a theme of emotional coldness and concealment.

  An up-and-coming district attorney takes on the case of a young woman who has accused three men of sexual assault.
• Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind (2002)

  Review preview for Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind

  This is Clooney's debut as a director and he does a terrific job.

  A game show host becomes a CIA hitman in his spare time.
• Confess, Fletch (2022)

  Review preview for Confess, Fletch

  This isn't just light but unserious. One has the sense that those involved were having fun and watching it so did I.

  After becoming the prime suspect in multiple murders, Fletch strives to prove his innocence while simultaneously searching for his fiancé's stolen art collection.
• Confetti (2021)

  Review preview for Confetti

  Zhu is excellent and her performance really elevates the film.

  When she discovers that her daughter has dyslexia, an ordinary Chinese mother is ready to cross an ocean in order to ensure that she gets the specialist help she needs.
• Congo: The Doctor Who Saves Women (2015)

  Review preview for Congo: The Doctor Who Saves Women

  What's remarkable is that director Diabang manages to keep the stories feeling fresh, each one shocking to hear.

  A portrait of pioneering gynaecologist Denis Mukwege and the clinic in which he helps women who have been left with severe injuries following rape.
• The Conjuring (2013)

  Review preview for The Conjuring

  If it sometimes feels like Wan's falling back on the tricks of the trade, he's also often able to spin something unexpected out of the familiar.

  A family find that their new rural home is already occupied - by something supernatural.
• The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)

  Review preview for The Conjuring: Last Rites

  The Conjuring is in its biggest state of non-belonging since its beginning.

  Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities they must confront.
• Connect (2018)

  Review preview for Connect

  There are things that ring very true in Connect - the way in which a family, particularly father and son, don't talk.

  A young man contemplates suicide after losing someone close to him. He never feels that it’s possible to share his feelings until a care home owner Jeff becomes a source of support and a flirtation with a single mother presents a reason to choose life.
• Consecration (2022)

  Review preview for Consecration

  It’s good to see that Smith is still willing to risk biting off more than he can chew.

  Summoned to the Mount Saviour convent deep in the Scottish Highlands following the mysterious death of her priest brother, a woman finds herself increasing convinced that he did not commit suicide, and starts her own investigation as the nuns prepare a consecration ceremony to purify the holy site, which may harbour a dark secret.
• Consequences (2018)

  Review preview for Consequences

  Shooting under predominantly grey skies in landscapes built of concrete, chipboard and peeling plaster, director Darko Stante invites the audience to share Andrej's feelings of confinement and hopelessness.

  A teenager is forced to choose between a charismatic young man he meets in a detention centre and his own sense of moral integrity.
• The Conspirator (2010)

  Review preview for The Conspirator

  The parallels with The Global War On Terror are obvious, but feel over-egged.

  The story of Mary Surratt, charged as a co-conspirator after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
• Constantine (2005)

  Review preview for Constantine

  Constantine is best enjoyed by ignoring the Milton-centric mythology and surrendering to the movie's lush atmosphere and wicked performances.

  The comic book adventures of a chain smoking paranormal gumshoe in post-apocalyptic LA.
• The Constant Gardener (2005)

  Review preview for The Constant Gardener

  The choice of [director] Meirelles, who made City Of God with street children in Rio, was inspired.

  A diplomat uncovers a web of deceit as he investigates the death of his wife.
• Contact (1997)

  Review preview for Contact

  Sentimentality washes over the cold, technical body of the screenplay.

  A radio ham finds proof of aliens.
• Contagion (2011)

  Review preview for Contagion

  After a compelling start and a long, immersive second act, sadly Contagion starts to peter out towards the end.

  A thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.
• The Contestant (2023)

  Review preview for The Contestant

  An intriguing piece of work which probes the psychology of contestant, producers and viewers alike.

  The story of a Japanese reality TV star left naked in a room for more than a year, tasked with filling out magazine sweepstakes to earn food and clothing.
• Control (2006)

  Review preview for Control

  Only 15 minutes into this instant classic I thought ‘this is a bloody masterpiece’.

  The short, anguished life of Joy Division's lead singer.
• Control (2022)

  Review preview for Control

  There are some smart ideas here which help to keep the film interesting even if they never quite achieve their potential.

  Locked in a mysterious room and commanded by an unknown voice, Eileen must complete several tasks in order to save her daughter’s life. As the tests and the stakes intensify to the point where succeeding seems well nigh impossible, Eileen is forced to discover she has some unexpected skills and kinetic powers.
• Convenience Story (2022)

  Review preview for Convenience Story

  Much tighter and less purely whimsical than it looks on the surface.

  One day, when a struggling screenwriter steps out to buy dog food, he stumbles into a mysterious convenience store where he discovers he can find anything his heart desires.
• The Conversation (1974)

  Review preview for The Conversation

  Coppola may have made films of a more spectacular nature but here he makes a virtue of a introversion - so that the film's horror moment is all the more vibrantly terrible when set in relief.

  A surveillance expert's conscience starts to trouble him after a particularly difficult job.
• Con Artist (2009)

  Review preview for Con Artist

  This excellent documentary is almost as subversive as its subject.

  Profile of Eighties New York art scene enfant terrible, Mark Kostabi.
• Cooked: Survival By Zipcode (2018)

  Review preview for Cooked: Survival By Zipcode

  Helfand does a good job of explaining how easy it is for those who are unaffected (and even some of those who are) to overlook what's going on.

  Considering the way that economically disadvantaged communities suffer the brunt of natural disasters.
• Cooking Price-Wise (1971)

  Review preview for Cooking Price-Wise

  Frankly, [Price] could probably read a phone book and make it entertaining, but there’s much more to enjoy here.

  Vincent Price demonstrates how to cook dishes from around the world using easy-to-access 1970s ingredients.