Film review archive

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L — 844 results

• The Loneliest Planet (2011)

  Review preview for The Loneliest Planet

  The Loneliest Planet spins a carefully constructed net around your imagination.

  A young couple are taken by surprise on a trek deep into the Caucasus Mountains.
• The Loneliest Whale: The Search For 52 (2021)

  Review preview for The Loneliest Whale: The Search For 52

  The spirit of enquiry comes to the fore.

  A documentary about a whale whose unusual communication frequency cannot be understood by others.
• The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (1962)

  Review preview for The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner

  Overall, the film retains its power and impact.

  A rebellious teen gets preferential treatment in borstal after they discover he has a talent for running.
• A Lonely Place To Die (2011)

  Review preview for A Lonely Place To Die

  A thoroughly thrilling and unpretentious little flick that takes its genre by the scruff of the neck and drags it kicking and screaming through Scotland's menacing undergrowth.

  Mountain climbers become caught up in a game of cat and mouse after discovering a kidnapped girl buried in the wilderness.
• Loners (2019)

  Review preview for Loners

  Overall the film is competent, witty, intelligent.

  A group of introverts forced to socialise after the government declares a War of Loneliness must join together to fight for the right to be alone.
• Lonesome Jim (2005)

  Review preview for Lonesome Jim

  Some excellent performances and some gorgeous opening shots raise Lonesome Jim above average gentle-indie-dark-comedy standards.

  Struggling to make it on his own, a young man moves back into his parents' house, with ensuing awkwardness.
• The Longest Day (1962)

  Review preview for The Longest Day

  Crumbles under it's own epic intentions and lack of cohesion.

  An epic exposition of the D-Day landings, with a host of well known faces.
• The Longest Game (2014)

  Review preview for The Longest Game

  Their good-natured charm and sense of community makes this an easy film to like, but it's what isn't talked about, the context of impending mortality and the mean's drive to find joy in every moment of life that remains, that gives it its power.

  A documentary about a group of octogenarians and their love of paddle tennis.
• The Longest Wave (2019)

  Review preview for The Longest Wave

  You don't need to be a fan of board sports to enjoy the latest documentary from Joe Berlinger, but if you are you'll certainly get plenty of added value

  World champion windsurfer Robby Naish aims to surf the world's longest wave.
• Longlegs (2024)

  Review preview for Longlegs

  What Longlegs has in mind worked better by implication.

  In pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying spree.
• A Long Breath (2019)

  Review preview for A Long Breath

  Itani doesn't just offer straight-forward observation, also dipping her film into the realm of the abstract.

  Documentary snapshot of a couple in the troubled Tripoli district of Bal Al Tabbaneh.
• Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018)

  Review preview for Long Day's Journey Into Night

  This is immersive cinema, designed to be experienced rather than just watched.

  A man returns to the town of his birth 12 years after having committed a still-unpunished murder. Memories of the enigmatic and beautiful woman for whom he killed resurface, confronting him with unbearable revelations.
• Long Shot (2019)

  Review preview for Long Shot

  The politics are basic if not base and do not fulfil a rich man’s lunch hour.

  A journalist unexpectedly reconnects with his babysitter... who is now planning a run for the presidency and hires him as speechwriter.
• The Long Walk (2025)

  Review preview for The Long Walk

  Even with the odd flashback it is relentlessly linear.

  A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as 'The Long Walk', in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.
• A Long Way From Home (2013)

  Review preview for A Long Way From Home

  The film never goes anywhere, never develops any conflict and never feels believable.

  Meeting a holidaying couple causes a retired couple to reassess life.
• A Long Winter (2026)

  Review preview for A Long Winter

  Worse than incomplete, Haigh's film lacks a fully developed soul. This is in spite of striking aesthetic moments and sharply written scenes complemented by strong performances from the cast.

  Returning to his childhood home deep in the mountains, Mike is drawn back into the quiet rituals of family life as the clan prepares for the winter ahead.
• Looking For Hortense (2012)

  Review preview for Looking For Hortense

  An uneven film with occasional moments of genius.

  The life of a tired academic becomes suddenly moe complicated after his wife asks him to pull strings to help a Serbian woman who is facing deportation.
• Looking For Life (2019)

  Review preview for Looking For Life

  This is a small, personal story with big implications.

  Documentary about two Haitian migrants who become stranded at the US-Mexico border, with no way forward.
• Look At Me (2004)

  Review preview for Look At Me

  The performances are delightful.

  A young woman finds herself torn between idolising her father and hating him for his indifferent attitude towards her.
• Look At Me (2018)

  Review preview for Look At Me

  We are spared the usual sugary score and the savant trope is nowhere to be seen. Instead we get the mess, the anger and the frustration much more common in real life.

  Lotfi, 40, is forced to come back to Tunisia when his ex-wife is unexpectedly hospitalised. He is now in charge of his autistic son Amr, nine, who ignores the dad he has never known.
• Look Away (2018)

  Review preview for Look Away

  The real horror lies behind the scenes.

  The life of an alienated high-school student is turned upside down when she switches places with her sinister mirror image.
• Look Back In Anger (1958)

  Review preview for Look Back In Anger

  The human tension at the heart of Osborne's creation is a potent as it ever was.

  A couple try to resolve their problems after a marriage becomes abusive.
• The Look Of Love (2013)

  Review preview for The Look Of Love

  This is a serious and entertaining character study - stripping down the lives of Soho and Raymond - that has the looks and acting talent to win over a crowd.

  Biopic of porn king Paul Raymond.
• Looney Tunes: The Day The Earth Blew Up (2024)

  Review preview for Looney Tunes: The Day The Earth Blew Up

  The film feels obliged to explain itself, indulging the audience too much.

  Porky Pig and Daffy Duck may be Earth's only hope when it is faced with the threat of alien invasion.
• Loopers: The Caddie's Long Walk (2018)

  Review preview for Loopers: The Caddie's Long Walk

  Neat little potted history that it is, it doesn't really require the viewer to know the sport in depth.

  The story of the bond between golfer and caddie.
• Looted (2019)

  Review preview for Looted

  Looted is all at once a localised crime drama, a tale of a difficult yet loving father-son relationship, an exploration of escapism's price, and a social realist anatomisation of a community.

  Rob spends his days stealing cars with his gang in a town on the English coast... but at night he returns home to his terminally ill dad.
• The Lord Eagle (2018)

  Review preview for The Lord Eagle

  Novikov's film has the virtue of being a simple tale that is well told.

  An old man and his wife find they have an unexpected guest one winter.
• Lord Of Misrule (2023)

  Review preview for Lord Of Misrule

  The film’s creature design is rather clichéd but the detail work elsewhere shines.

  The daughter of a vicar who has recently moved to a remote English village goes missing after its harvest festival.
• The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)

  Review preview for The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring

  Has its moments of genius.

  Frodo Baggins and his friends must destroy a powerful, malevolent ring before it falls into the wrong hands.
• The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003)

  Review preview for The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

  The Return Of The King is too long and slow. It has about five endings.

  Final part of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth trilogy.
• The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power - Season 1 (2022)

  Review preview for The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power - Season 1

  There is an absence of passion in the production which undermines everything else.

  A group of elves, dwarfs, humans and hobbits contend with events which could bring mass destruction to Middle Earth.
• The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power - Season 2 (2024)

  Review preview for The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power - Season 2

  There is a complete absence of vision alongside a dearth of passion that eats away at one’s soul as one watches.

  The rings of power are forged as the dark lord Sauron prepares to try to take control of Middle Earth.
• The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

  Review preview for The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers

  This is indeed the war of worlds

  The second installment of J.R.Tolkien classic fantasy epic.
• The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim (2024)

  Review preview for The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim

  To mix courtly and cavalry intrigue requires stable footing and the film is well poised.

  A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg.
• Lore (2012)

  Review preview for Lore

  Where it would have been easy to soften Lore, Shortland refuses to get sentimental, keeping us hanging on the edge with her as events grow more traumatic.

  Teenager Lore and her four younger siblings are left to fend for themselves after her Nazi SS parents are taken into Allied custody.
• Lore (2023)

  Review preview for Lore

  Throughout, the performances are solid, the lighting and sound work good, and the writer/director teams well synchronised, making the whole thing flow smoothly despite the changes in style.

  On a weekend trip to Scotland, four scare-loving friends book a ghostly horror-themed camping excursion. That night around the campfire, their guide encourages them to tell the most twisted stories that they know and to burn a totem that will help feed the evil that lives there. Tales of sinister spirits, demons lurking in the shadows and the truest forms of malevolence emerge.
• Lorelei (2020)

  Review preview for Lorelei

  With women like this so often reduced to a sexy and destructive cliché by male directors, it's interesting to observe her from a more human angle.

  Reformed ex-con Wayland returns to his hometown and reconnects with his high school girlfriend Dolores, now a single mom with dreams of Hollywood in Doyle’s fable-like tale of second chances.
• Loren & Rose (2022)

  Review preview for Loren & Rose

  The dialogue is as flat as the lighting and direction.

  The appetiser is an introduction, the dessert is a farewell in this story of an indelible bond forged between a promising young filmmaker and an iconic actress.
• Lorni - The Flaneur (2019)

  Review preview for Lorni - The Flaneur

  Hussain is magnetic in the main role - with Shem every inch the cool, flaneur, with his leather coats and desert dry observations

  Shillong is a small town with a self-fashioned out-of-work private detective who escapes the monotony of his drab life when he is tasked with investigating the disappearance of objects of great cultural value. Looking for one thing, he discovers something else…
• Loro (2018)

  Review preview for Loro

  It takes real directorial skill to deliver something so shallow across two and a half hours and keep the audience gripped.

  A seedy, ambitious Puglian property developer sets his sights sets on Rome and access to Berlusconi’s inner circle.
• The Losers (2010)

  Review preview for The Losers

  Clichéd archetypes these characters might be, but the cast playing them are immensely likeable and, most importantly, funny.

  A special forces team are out for vengeance after being left for dead by their handler.
• The Lost (2006)

  A teenager kills two girls just to see what it will feel like.
• The Lost Bladesman (2011)

  Review preview for The Lost Bladesman

  It is a shame that this lushly shot martial arts epic suffers from a confusing plot and some awkward dialogue that overwhelms good performances, fine action scenes and a dark take on the often glorified Chinese warlord period.

  A legendary warrior struggles to break free of the warlord who hopes to control him.
• The Lost Boys (1987)

  Review preview for The Lost Boys

  Most of those who fell for this film when it came out still love it today. There's just one problem: it really isn't very good.

  Cult brat pack movie about a boy trying to save his big brother from becoming a vampire.
• Lost Boys (2020)

  Review preview for Lost Boys

  A sort of freefall trip through both the director’s subconscious and the Cambodian underbelly.

  Documentary tracking one of the director's attempts to find his drug addict friends after they vanish in Cambodia.
• The Lost City (2022)

  Review preview for The Lost City

  The Lost City proves just how much extra mileage you can get from a well-worn premise if you get the casting right.

  A romance novelist is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes that she can lead him to the lost city’s treasure from her story.
• Lost Course (2019)

  Review preview for Lost Course

  Lost Course maintains an observational purity, expertly tracking developments as they happen through a tapestry of views.

  A documentary about a a grassroots democratic movement in the southern Chinese village of Wukan.
• The Lost Daughter (2021)

  Review preview for The Lost Daughter

  The film comes into its own because of Gyllenhaal's non-judgemental perspective, even sympathy, for the small suffocations of motherhood.

  A holidaying professor finds an encounter with another family triggers memories of motherhood from her past
• Lost Highway (1997)

  Review preview for Lost Highway

  Lynch is a master of space and sound and the world of Lost Highway is at once beautiful and downright evil.

  A mysterious murder is only the beginning of the strangest story ever told.
• Lost Holiday (2019)

  Review preview for Lost Holiday

  What's missing here is any real sense of stylistic conviction.

  Two bored twenty-somethings decide to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy socialite.