Film review archive

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O — 377 results

• On the Shore (2011)

  Review preview for On the Shore

  Never becomes truly immersive.

  In Nice, fifty-year-old police officer Michel Matarasso feels old, weary, and desperate for an all-consuming love.
• On The Sly: In Search Of The Family Stone (2017)

  Review preview for On The Sly: In Search Of The Family Stone

  Falls into the unfortunate category of documentaries that say more about the person making it than the intended subject.

  Documentary about funk star Sly Stone.
• On the Trail Of The Far Fur Country (2014)

  Review preview for On the Trail Of The Far Fur Country

  It's a brutal story, though full of good intentions and remembered with some affection.

  A filmmaker retraces the steps of a 1919 expedition which documented the voyage made by the Hudson Bay Company, discovering traces of Aboriginal Canada along the way.
• The Oak Room (2020)

  Review preview for The Oak Room

  Few films have ever depicted the art of storytelling as brilliantly as this.

  During a raging snowstorm, a drifter returns home to the blue-collar bar located in the remote Canadian town where he was born. When he offers to settle an old debt with a grizzled bartender by telling him a story, the night's events quickly spin into a dark tale of mistaken identities, double-crosses and shocking violence.
• Obey (2017)

  Review preview for Obey

  A stunning feature début for Marcus Rutherford.

  In the midst of the 2011 London riots, Leon grapples with the stark reality of his life and his relationship with his alcoholic mother while falling in love for the first time.
• Obsession (1949)

  Review preview for Obsession

  This neatly packaged film noir is proof that you don't need violence to create tension.

  A man plots revenge against his wife's lover.
• Obsession (1976)

  Review preview for Obsession

  Aided by richly layered performances from his leads De Palma wrings real emotion and drama from what could have been a deeply silly caper.

  A businessman hit by tragedy becomes obsessed with the past.
• Obsession (2025)

  Review preview for Obsession

  Obsession is not just a real indicator of talent but an absolute treat.

  A desperate wish for love goes terribly wrong.
• The Occupant (2025)

  Review preview for The Occupant

  Having developed an interesting idea and set the pieces in motion, the creative team doesn’t seem to know what to do with the middle portion of the film.

  When a guilt-ridden engineering geologist in transit from her remote assignment survives a helicopter crash, she must try to escape the harsh environment. But she is not alone.
• Occupation (2018)

  Review preview for Occupation

  Occupation is obviously very low budget and deserves to be credited for its efforts to achieve blockbuster status on a shoestring.

  After their small Australian country town is annihilated by an overwhelming airborne attack, a group of civilians evade capture and discover they are now among the last remaining survivors of an extraterrestrial invasion engulfing the entire planet.
• Occupation: Rainfall (2020)

  Review preview for Occupation: Rainfall

  The film throws ideas at the screen so much that it's not only for its two hours and change of runtime that it feels like more than one film at once.

  Two years after an alien invasion, the survivors fight back with the help of unexpected allies.
• Ocean's 12 (2004)

  Review preview for Ocean's 12

  Twelve is the new 11 and mediocre is the new good.

  Danny Ocean gets the gang back together to pull of a trio of European heists.
• Oceans Are The Real Continents (2019)

  Review preview for Oceans Are The Real Continents

  There’s a still photographic quality to the cinematography from Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci, with the studious, fixed framing matching the meter of the film and allowing time for us to appreciate the texture, not just of the lives of these characters but the spaces they inhabit.

  A trio of stories unfold against a backdrop of Cuba.
• Ocean's Eight (2018)

  Review preview for Ocean's Eight

  Violence and testosterone have been swiped in favour of mind games and dangerously seductive evening gowns

  Danny Ocean's estranged sister attempts to pull off the heist of the century at New York's star-studded annual Met Gala. Her first stop is to assemble the perfect all-female crew. Her second is to keep them in order
• Ocean's Eleven (2001)

  Review preview for Ocean's Eleven

  The plot may be off the credibility charts, but while you're in it you're loving it.

  Led by a charasmatic ex-con, eleven thieves plot the heist of three Las Vegas casinos during a prizefight - but one of them has more than money on his mind.
• Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

  Review preview for Ocean's Thirteen

  If ever a film seemed aimed squarely at a family matinee audience, this is it.

  The team undertake another heist.
• Oddity (2024)

  Review preview for Oddity

  It is a rare thing to come across a tale as carefully constructed as this one.

  A blind medium uncovers the truth behind her sister's death with the help of a frightening wooden mannequin.
• The Odd-Job Men (2021)

  Review preview for The Odd-Job Men

  As is almost always the case with this sort of casting, the essential 'truth' of these non-professionals is visible beneath the constructed story.

  In order to get through his one-week probationary contract, a young Moroccan plumber has to deal with equally eccentric colleagues and customers.
• Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

  Review preview for Odds Against Tomorrow

  The striking framing by director Robert Wise and cinematographer Joseph C Brun...adds an extra layer of menace to the urban environment.

  In need of quick money, a fallen former cop recruits a hard-bitten ex-con and a debt-ridden nightclub singer to pull off a bank job. But as the animosity between them boils over, the entire plan threatens to implode.
• The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale (2019)

  Review preview for The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale

  Korean comedies are known for their quirkiness and The Odd Family combines this with a set of principal characters so wilfully obnoxious that it would be difficult not to like them.

  When a pharmaceutical company's illegal experiments inadvertently create a zombie, the strange Park family finds it and tries to profit from its unexpected viagra-like effect.
• Odd Man Out (1947)

  Review preview for Odd Man Out

  Even if almost all of Johnny's journey into darkness takes place on foot, only his first steps are truly pedestrian.

  An injured IRA man goes on the run in the forbidding back streets of Belfast.
• O'Dessa (2025)

  Review preview for O'Dessa

  It feels as if a collection of fantasy and dystopian science fiction archetypes have been poured into a blender and swirled around to produce the script and visuals.

  A musical about a farm girl in search of her destiny. She travels to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love and faces the ultimate test.
• Ode To Joy (2019)

  Review preview for Ode To Joy

  The mix of a humorous story with a well-set pace can’t cover up that the scientifically inaccurate lead element makes the story feel far too contrived.

  A man who suffers sudden bouts of paralysis whenever he experiences strong emotions finds his efforts to avoid joy put to the test when he falls in love.
• Odyssey (2025)

  Review preview for Odyssey

  Maberly herself is unforgettable in a gem of a role.

  A ruthless estate agent finds herself in debt to some vicious gangsters.
• The Odyssey (2026)

  Review preview for The Odyssey

  This retelling is the one you seek.

  After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, the sirens and Calypso along the way.
• Oedipus Rex (1967)

  Review preview for Oedipus Rex

  If Oedipus Rex is a challenging film for those used to more conventional aesthetic approaches this is thus with good reason and, in many respects, the entire point.

  Pasolini's reworking of the tale of Oedipus. Out to own as part of the Pier Paolo Pasolini Volume 2 box set.
• The Offering (2020)

  Review preview for The Offering

  There's a lot of good work here, particularly in the way that Durall trusts his actors to fill out key aspects of the narrative without words.

  A man racked by guilt undertakes a complex scheme to win back the woman he abandoned 20 years previously.
• The Offering (2022)

  Review preview for The Offering

  Corduner is on exceptional form and imbues the early part of the film with warmth and hope.

  Saul works as the undertaker for the local Hasidic community, and a corpse carries a Jewish demon with plans for his unborn child. His family must dive into Kabbalah lore to ward off the entity and protect their future.
• Office Royale (2021)

  Review preview for Office Royale

  Kazuaki Seki’s playful satire sticks closely to comic book form.

  Naoko is a 26-year-old office worker. Her job is typical, but her workplace has fierce fights among different cliques. One day, Naoko's company is targeted by office ladies from all over Japan.
• Official Competition (2021)

  Review preview for Official Competition

  These are easy targets although there’s a lot of enjoyment to be hand in seeing them hit so accurately.

  In search of significance and social prestige, a billionaire businessman decides to make a film to leave his mark. To do it, he hires the best: a stellar team... but they have egos to match.
• Official Secrets (2019)

  Review preview for Official Secrets

  There’s a refreshing straight-forwardness to Gavin Hood’s Official Secrets.

  The true story of British Intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun, who prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion leaked a top-secret memo.
• Offseason (2021)

  Review preview for Offseason

  Keating is a master of building up atmosphere and is much more interested in that than in conventional plot mechanics.

  After receiving a mysterious letter, a woman travels to a desolate island town and soon becomes trapped in a nightmare.
• Off The Rails (2021)

  Review preview for Off The Rails

  This high-speed dash through the story, gets away with some of its failings thanks to its sheer velocity but it just as often hurtles past what could be a poignant moment, when you wish Williamson would just take a breath.

  After the death of an old friend, a group of 50somethings go on an interrail trip with her daughter.
• Off The Rails (2022)

  Review preview for Off The Rails

  Even if you've never given parkour a second thought, Day will help you to see it through fresh eyes but, more importantly, to see the boys behind the bravado and the stunts, trying to make their way in the world just like everybody else.

  Two urbex and parkour-obsessed teenagers face-up to reality following the death of their friend.
• Of An Age (2022)

  Review preview for Of An Age

  Though small in scale and modesty told, this is a tremendously ambitious film, gambling everything on creating and selling a chemistry without which it would all fall to pieces. It gets away with it.

  In the summer of 1999, a 17-year-old Serbian-born Australian amateur ballroom dancer experiences an unexpected and intense 24-hour romance with a friend's older brother.
• Of Fathers And Sons (2017)

  Review preview for Of Fathers And Sons

  What makes the film all the more poignant is the fact that the children are, of course, despite all this, like kids anywhere else.

  The director embeds himself with a radical Islamic family in Syria to ask what the future holds for their kids.
• Of Fish And Foe (2018)

  Review preview for Of Fish And Foe

  Whilst Heathcote's film doesn't always flatter, it does succeed in capturing a disappearing lifestyle at a critical point in history.

  Study of one of Scotland's last salmon fishing families as they find themselves accused of welfare violations.
• Of Gods And Men (2010)

  Review preview for Of Gods And Men

  Beautiful imagery and subtle acting sustain it well, but still the pace will be too slow for many.

  Based on a true incident, the film is set in a Cistercian monastery in North Africa in the 1990s, where eight French monks live in cordial harmony with the local population... and what happens when violence encroaches.
• Of Love And Other Demons (2009)

  Review preview for Of Love And Other Demons

  There are many difficult questions hidden below the surface of this seemingly straightforward love story, and Hidalgo seems adept at finding them

  An adolescent girl thought to be possessed after becoming infected with rabies is placed in the care of a priest who falls passionately in love with her.
• Of Skies and Earth (2011)

  Review preview for Of Skies and Earth

  The use of humor becomes poignant given how impoverished these kids are, their indomitable spirit shining through even when the world deals them a bum hand.

  Life is tough for a gang of Filipino street children.
• Of The Devil (2022)

  Review preview for Of The Devil

  Delivers what fans will be waiting for exactly on time, like a well structured piece of pornography.

  When unconventional treatments lead to a boy with brain cancer being possessed by an ancient evil, his parents must fight not only for the child's life but for his very soul.
• Of Time And The City (2008)

  Review preview for Of Time And The City

  When Davies says “The world was young and oh, how we laughed,” he sounds like Death waiting to take it all away.

  A portrait of 20th Century Liverpool.
• Oh Canada (2024)

  Review preview for Oh Canada

  Simply put, the viewer is constantly tempted to attribute the character’s old man’s ramblings both to the author of the source novel and to the filmmaker adapting it.

  A documentary filmmaker, who is terminally ill, reflects on his life.
• Oh, Hi! (2025)

  Review preview for Oh, Hi!

  If either the sense of danger associated with Isaac’s position was greater or the well of comedy ran deeper Brooks could have been on to something.

  Iris and Isaac’s first romantic weekend getaway goes awry.
• Oh Mercy! (2019)

  Review preview for Oh Mercy!

  Based on Mosco Boucault’s documentary Roubaix, Commissariat Central, and using the actual interrogation transcripts, Desplechin shoots for a different tone.

  A police chief in northern France tries to solve a case where an old woman was brutally murdered.
• Okavango: River of Dreams (Director's Cut) (2020)

  Review preview for Okavango: River of Dreams (Director's Cut)

  The aim here is not to give chapter and verse on the habits of the various animals we are to meet but rather to admire them in their habitat.

  An insiders’ view of one of the greatest river systems on the planet, presented as a love letter, exploring the layers of paradise, limbo and inferno in a natural history echo of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a river of dreams, or beauty of conflict and turmoil.
• Okay (2002)

  Review preview for Okay

  A rich, dark comedy which finds humour and truth in the reality of everyday relationships.

  Danish black comedy about family relationships.
• Okja (2017)

  Review preview for Okja

  Bong keeps it all on the move with immense visual flair, innumerable chases and excellent effects.

  Young girl Mija must risk everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend - a massive animal named Okja.
• Okko's Inn (2019)

  Review preview for Okko's Inn

  A simple but lively tale with bright, attractively designed animation by Studio Ghibli alumnus Kitarô Kôsaka that will capture the imagination of young viewers.

  After losing her parents in a car accident, Okko starts living in the countryside with her grandmother who runs a traditional Japanese inn, where she meets some friendly ghosts.
• Okurimono (2024)

  Review preview for Okurimono

  Beautifully shot and measured in its purpose, Okurimono invites the viewer to patiently discover the emotional layers of a story about generational pain and the need to constantly address it to pave the path for rejuvenation.

  Returning to her home country to prepare her late mother's home for sale, a Japanese woman finds a collection of letters that alter her perception of her mother's experiences as a survivor of the nuclear bombing.