Film review archive

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R — 637 results

• Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)

  Review preview for Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

  Every theatrical device in the book is here and everything that makes a film interesting is not.

  Tom Stoppard directs his first play about minor characters from Hamlet.
• Rosetta (1999)

  Review preview for Rosetta

  A masterpiece of realist cinema.

  An isolated teen hunts for a job... and friendship.
• Rosewater (2014)

  Review preview for Rosewater

  A solid, and certainly heartfelt effort.

  The story of Maziar Bahari, the journalist who was detained for 188 days in Iran.
• Rosita (2005)

  Review preview for Rosita

  Horrific, heart-breaking and yet also hopeful, Rosita is a must-see piece of film-making.

  Documentary about a Nicaraguan girl aged nine who gets pregnant after being raped and has to fight for an abortion.
• Rough Aunties (2009)

  Review preview for Rough Aunties

  When I watched this film, many in the audience were in tears.

  A documentary looking at a women's organisation dedicated to rescuing abused children.
• The Rover (2014)

  Review preview for The Rover

  Only the gun speaks

  In the near future, a man tracks the gang who stole his car across the outback, forcing the injured man they left behind to help him.
• Royal Bonbon (2002)

  Review preview for Royal Bonbon

  Uninvolving unless one has a interest in and knowledge of Haitian history and culture.

  A vagrant lays claim to the kingdom of Haiti.
• A Royal Night Out (2015)

  Review preview for A Royal Night Out

  Lacks a sense of danger

  The royal princesses have a VE Day adventure.
• The Royal Road (2015)

  Review preview for The Royal Road

  If you are willing to drift along Olson's stream of consciousness, there are pleasures along the way, but not all her meanderings make the connections she hopes for.

  Cinematic essay considering the history of California and the personal desires of the director.
• R-Point (2004)

  Review preview for R-Point

  Make no mistake about it: R-Point is one confusing trip - but never without purpose.

  Soldiers at war see ghosts in the charnel house.
• Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

  Review preview for Rabbit-Proof Fence

  Christopher Doyle's cinematography has a rawness that belies the romance of the outback. The

  True story of three mixed race Aboriginal girls who walk home across the breadth of Australia.
• Rabbit Trap (2025)

  Review preview for Rabbit Trap

  The film’s success hinges on its unwillingness to take sides.

  When a musician and her husband move to a remote house in Wales, the music they make disturbs local ancient folk magic, bringing a nameless child to their door who is intent on infiltrating their lives.
• The Rabbi Goes West (2019)

  Review preview for The Rabbi Goes West

  There are no easy answers here. Geller and Peary are at pains not to take sides.

  Portrait of a Hasidic rabbi who relocates from Brooklyn, New York to Bozeman, Montana with the hopes of spreading Chabad — his brand of orthodox practice — throughout "Big Sky Country".
• Rabid (1977)

  Review preview for Rabid

  The scene where a train full of commuters realise there are infected people among them is one of the most riveting depictions of mass panic ever recorded.

  A young woman's strange mutation, triggered by experimental surgery, triggers an epidemic of aggression.
• Rabid (2019)

  Review preview for Rabid

  Rose has the qualities of an archetypal, folkloric figure, enduring the same events over and over again in different places, in different forms.

  A remake of David Cronenberg's original, in which experimental plastic surgery leads to a sudden outbreak of disease.
• The Racer (2020)

  Review preview for The Racer

  The Racer strikes a good balance between teasing out issues around doping and delivering on character-driven drama.

  Summer 1998 – the opening stages of Le Tour de France are relocated to Ireland. Belgian rider Dom has been one of the best support riders on the Tour for the last 20 years but he secretly harbours a desire to wear the yellow jersey just once before his career is over.
• Racer And The Jailbird (2017)

  Review preview for Racer And The Jailbird

  As entertaining as the above is with its two charismatic leads, it is not an especially novel path for a 'crime couple' thriller to take, and it is in the last act that Racer kind of goes off the rails.

  In the Belgian underworld, a secret threatens a couple's romance.
• Race To Witch Mountain (2009)

  Review preview for Race To Witch Mountain

  Once the action gets going, it’s easy to forget that the plot has left for the planet La-La and just enjoy the fun.

  To young aliens crashland on Earth and enlist the help of a cabbie to retrieve their spaceship and save the planet.
• Radiance (2017)

  Review preview for Radiance

  It’s a love story of sorts, but one which demands a lot more of its protagonists – and its audience – than most of its ilk.

  A writer of film versions for the visually impaired falls for a photographer who is losing his eyesight, together they learn to see the radiant world.
• A Radiant Girl (2021)

  Review preview for A Radiant Girl

  The best scenes are those where the human condition and awareness of teenagers everywhere at the cusp of adulthood encounters the unfathomable.

  Paris, summer 1942. Irene is Jewish and French. She is 19 and living a life of passions - Her friendships, her new love, her desire to be an actress. Nothing suggests that Irene's time is running out.
• Radical (2023)

  Review preview for Radical

  There’s a reason why formulas work and this one is marked: Caution, may make you cry.

  In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential… and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story.
• Radioactive (2019)

  Review preview for Radioactive

  A further challenge is the credibility of the chemistry - it's in two senses that a flame flickers between the Curies, and in both it convinces.

  The story of Marie Curie and her discoveries in physics.
• Radiograph Of A Family (2020)

  Review preview for Radiograph Of A Family

  Although an intensely personal document, it's possible to see inside it, the bones of wider tensions in society.

  The director's dual portrait of her parents.
• Radio Days (1987)

  Review preview for Radio Days

  Warmth emanates from its mature, observational roots. The gags represent the best of Allen's comedic evolution.

  A young comics fan tries to escape from the suffocating influence of his Jewish family in Forties New York.
• Radium Girls (2018)

  Review preview for Radium Girls

  The trick to working with material like this is to make sure that one doesn't overdo it. If anything, Pilcher and Mohler strip back the real horror of the story.

  In the 1920s, a group of factory workers take legal action after some of their colleagues become seriously ill due to radium exposure.
• The Rage: Carrie 2 (1998)

  Review preview for The Rage: Carrie 2

  Come back Mr De Palma, all is forgiven.

  Girl uses psychic powers to exact vengeance on sleezy jocks.
• Raging (2025)

  Review preview for Raging

  Theo Lozada’s cinematography is crucial to the drama’s effect.

  A young man who witnesses a mysterious plane crash begins to confront his own trauma.
• Raging Bull (1980)

  Review preview for Raging Bull

  De Niro’s renowned devotion to the art of acting has never been so tested as it is here.

  An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring destroys his life outside it.
• Raging Grace (2023)

  Review preview for Raging Grace

  Raging Grace is a Gothic thriller with the potential to appeal to a wide audience. It’s also a fierce critique of the racism embedded in a culture which still treats it as normal for some perfectly capable people to be waited on by others, and to treat them as less than human in the process.

  An undocumented Filipina immigrant is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter when she secures the perfect job, taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminal old man. The new position pays well and guarantees a roof over their heads but very soon, she realise that something is amiss.
• The Raid (2011)

  Review preview for The Raid

  Bruce Lee is back, and he's Indonesian.

  An elite SWAT team try to clear out an apartment complex controlled by a drug dealer, but nothing goes to plan.
• Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)

  Review preview for Raiders Of The Lost Ark

  Demonstrates what an action movie ought to be.

  Indiana Jones races the Nazis to find the lost Ark of the Covenant.
• The Railway Children (1970)

  Review preview for The Railway Children

  The charm of the film is that despite their desperate situation the children find a world of beauty and wonder.

  After their father is arrested, three Edwardian children are left to their own devices and become fascinated by the local railway line.
• Railway Men (2018)

  Review preview for Railway Men

  There is bravery on display here, not just in the way that the drivers continue to operate trains that they consider to be potential death traps but also in their frank discussions on camera.

  Life for rail workers on Tunisia's rundown Normal Line.
• The Rainbow Bridge Motel (2018)

  Review preview for The Rainbow Bridge Motel

  This film is sufficiently lacking in passion that one would struggle to believe the central couple love each other if they didn't keep saying so.

  A couple's dream wedding fails to go to plan.
• The Rainbow Experiment (2018)

  Review preview for The Rainbow Experiment

  The Rainbow Experiment bites off a silly amount and manages to chew most of it with gusto.

  When a science experiment goes wrong and a teenager is horribly burned, the repercussions threaten to tear the school community apart.
• The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection: Commemorative Edition Volume Two (1972-1982) (2007)

  Review preview for The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection: Commemorative Edition Volume Two (1972-1982)

  One of the leading lights in New German Cinema.

  Eight-disc box set of films, charting the latter part of the New German Cinema auteur's career.
• The Rainmaker (1997)

  Review preview for The Rainmaker

  Not typical Grisham, it is closer to autobiography than fiction.

  A young lawyer with high ideals takes on a corrupt insurance firm.
• A Rainy Day In New York (2019)

  Review preview for A Rainy Day In New York

  Throughout, it’s uncomfortable viewing due to the sheer awkwardness of the subject matter.

  A man plans a romantic getaway with his girlfriend... only for a chance meeting to send things off course.
• Rain Catcher (2026)

  Review preview for Rain Catcher

  A stylish and twisty psychological thriller that easily goes the distance in terms of plot, even if the scripting is uneven in places

  A photographer takes snapshots of strangers, sharing them online as 'Rain Catcher' but he is unsettled when he spots a mysterious woman who is photographing him.
• Rain Man (1988)

  Review preview for Rain Man

  This is not a great film. It is not a terrible film, either. It is a long film.

  A man discovers his humanity on a road trip with his autistic brother.
• Raise The Red Lantern (1991)

  Review preview for Raise The Red Lantern

  With its beautiful look and haunting themes and sublime performances, Raise The Red Lantern is Yimou’s master work.

  The fate of a concubine in a rich man's household.
• Raising Arizona (1987)

  Review preview for Raising Arizona

  Too many events in Raising Arizona are so ludicrous and out of place that they contradict the requirements of almost any genre.

  It's downhill all the way after a couple steal a kid.
• Raising A School Shooter (2021)

  Review preview for Raising A School Shooter

  The Barkfors should be commended for the simplicity of their directorial choices, which elevate the emotional impact and make it easier for the viewer to relate to this very sensitive subject matter.

  Three parents of American teenagers who committed school shootings speak out.
• Raising Colors (2018)

  Review preview for Raising Colors

  Raising Colors treads on unfashionable grounds and emerges victorious.

  Drama about a young woman who decides to join the French Navy.
• Rally Road Racers (2023)

  Review preview for Rally Road Racers

  Richard Lewis and Steven Parker’s excellent sound design...really brings the races to life and cinema viewers will feel the thrum of the engines in their bodies as they watch cartoon cars sprint across the screen.

  A young slow loris challenges a champion cane toad over a race along the Silk Road which the fate of his village could depend on.
• Rambling Rose (1991)

  Review preview for Rambling Rose

  The film is like a work of art that exists outside movements and influence, perfectly formed.

  Teenage innocent nymphomanic orphan captivates Southern family during the Thirties.
• Rams (2020)

  Review preview for Rams

  Caton gets to exercise his acting muscles more than usual and the chemistry between the two performers is strong, leading to some poignant moments towards the end.

  A decades-long feud between two sheep farming brothers comes to a head when disaster strikes their flocks.
• Ran (1985)

  Review preview for Ran

  One of the greatest works of art in cinematic history.

  A warlord splits his kingdom between his sons only to see the older two cause chaos as they battle for supremacy in this vivid Japanese reworking of King Lear.
• Rancho (2021)

  Review preview for Rancho

  The verite approach means that the film has a fragmented feel that would have benefited from a tighter edit but it has plenty of interesting things to say

  Prison portrait of a maximum-security jail in Argentina.
• The Ranger (2018)

  Review preview for The Ranger

  Horror has taken us to cabins in the woods many times before, but it has rarely done so with such spirit.

  A gang of young punks on the run from the cops encounter something nasty in the woods.