Grant Watson
Tomatometer-approved critic
Grant Watson is a film critic based in Melbourne, Australia. He currently reviews contemporary and classic film for his own website FictionMachine, as well as the film review websites FilmInk and VCinema. Between 2003 and 2009 he wrote the film column The Bad Film Diaries for the science fiction journal Borderlands; for which he was awarded the William Atheling Jr Award for Science Fiction Criticism and Review on two occasions. He has also previously worked as the screen events manager at Western Australia's Film and Television Institute, where he curated numerous film programs and retrospectives.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Notre Dame on Fire (2022) |
It is historical tragedy and nail-biting cinema blended together. It is one of the best films that Annaud has ever directed. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Mar 09, 2023
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The Poseidon Adventure (1972) |
When reviewed, for the benefit of 21st century moviegoers, this is a rather silly but sweet disaster flick with a lot of camp appeal. When critiqued, to better understand cinema, this really is a mold-breaking master work. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Tora-san, Wish You Were Here (2019) |
For new audiences Wish You Were Here is competent but not exceptional. For the fans it is something that feels genuinely unique, and tantalisingly leaves itself open for future visits to Shibamata. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Mar 02, 2023
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The Indian Fighter (1955) |
As with most pre-1960s westerns, The Indian Fighter is charming but problematic. It does mark an evolution in how the genre handled America’s first peoples from the middle of the century, but there remains a long distance to go. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Empire of Light (2022) |
Empire of Light looks great, sounds great, and – if you are willing to view it entirely on a superficial level – plays like an enjoyable simulacra of other much better films. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 27, 2023
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Something In The Dirt (2022) |
It is honestly rare to find artists whose work hits so accurately every single time. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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The Odd-Job Men (2021) |
This is not a comedy likely to make you laugh out loud, but rather one that invites warm smiles, and a comfortable recognition of certain kinds of people and behaviour. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 21, 2023
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Suburban Birds (2018) |
As a debut work, it is sensational, and suggests Qiu Sheng is yet another new generation Chinese director on whom to keep an expectant eye. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 20, 2023
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Gamera vs. Zigra (1971) |
It is the end of an era, and it is ending on the proverbial whimper. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 19, 2023
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Saddle the Wind (1958) |
The first act in particular strains to summon much energy beyond Cassavettes, and the second and third acts feel a bit woolly – as if nobody quite knows what the film should ultimately be about - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Kalev (2022) |
Ove Musting’s drama Kalev is a smart, well-paced blend of sports and political drama. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) |
This is a winning progression for Ant-Man and a wonderfully enjoyable blockbuster. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 15, 2023
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The Trail Beyond (1934) |
Is it good? Absolutely not, but it is an education on both Wayne and the genre that made him famous. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 14, 2023
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All Na Vibes (2021) |
Despite a very low budget, All Na Vibes is well shot and visually interesting. It sparks with inventive shots and framings, and belies its modest scope by hinting at a much larger world just off-screen. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Feb 08, 2023
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) |
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a good film, that much is certain. At the same time it fails to quite match the extraordinary impact of the original Black Panther. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 31, 2023
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You People (2023) |
It is that ultimate of frustrations: something reasonably good that should be great. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 30, 2023
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Jung_E (2023) |
A well-performed, attractive, and intelligent science fiction drama, and for serious SF enthusiasts those are often thin on the ground. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 28, 2023
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Stephen King's Thinner (1996) |
Thinner is jaw-droppingly bad: not only weirdly amateurish but regularly offensive. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 26, 2023
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The Outwaters (2022) |
I cannot in all honesty ever imagine sitting through The Outwaters again, but I am very glad to have sat through it once. It is a wonderful experiment, and the audience that does embrace it is clearly going to embrace it hard. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 23, 2023
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Black Adam (2022) |
Maybe there was a coherent film being developed at some point, but those days are long gone. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 20, 2023
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Censor (2021) |
It is a sensational idea of Bailey-Bonds to base her horror film around British film censorship. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 17, 2023
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The Pale Blue Eye (2022) |
The direction, production aesthetic, and performances are all top-class and make The Pale Blue Eye a tremendously enjoyable dark thriller. Watch it for the mood, and for Harry Melling’s brilliant performance. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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M3GAN (2022) |
It is honestly more enjoyable when seen with a like-minded crowd of viewers. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 14, 2023
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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) |
Rarely has a film’s title reflected its contents so well. While may not include everything all at once, it does boasts a range of genre approaches stacked on top of one another and blended into a variety of combinations. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 11, 2023
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Tentacles (1977) |
As Jaws‘ Mayor Vaughn might say, ‘you yell “barracuda”, everybody says “huh? what?” You yell ‘octopus’… everybody probably still says ‘huh? what?’ - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 08, 2023
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Incantation (2022) |
This is far and away the best horror feature in what has been an excellent year. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 06, 2023
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Speak No Evil (2022) |
This is a slow-building, relentlessly threatening piece of horror. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 05, 2023
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The Almond and the Seahorse (2022) |
I watched The Almond and the Seahorse (the title gets explained) with the best of hopes for it. It covers important territory and sparks worthwhile discussions. That the film itself flounders and fails is hugely disappointing. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 04, 2023
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Beijing Bicycle (2001) |
Even more than 20 years on, it is an exceptional film. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 04, 2023
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Nope (2022) |
Nope continues Peele’s winning streak of smart, surprising, and hugely effective thrillers. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 03, 2023
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Testament (1983) |
There is a fantastic intimacy to Testament, one that separates it from its contemporaries. The rural setting and geographical distance from any explosions create an eerily quiet and more insidious apocalypse. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 02, 2023
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Strange World (2022) |
This is the worst kind of disappointing film: one that never needed to be. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Jan 01, 2023
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7 Women and a Murder (2021) |
While a little disappointing, it would be a stretch to call it bad. At less than 90 minutes in length, 7 Women and a Murder is never at risk of outstaying its welcome, and indeed acts as a pleasant diversion for an evening - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 30, 2022
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
What ultimately pushes it for me from good to great is that sensational undercurrent of the uncanny: the strange behaviour, the sudden punctums of violence, along with the constant growing threat of it. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 24, 2022
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Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) |
Watching them try to cope with this unfolding And Then There We None set-up is like watching The Lord of the Flies populated by a cast of narcissistic incompetents. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 21, 2022
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Save the Tiger (1973) |
The film is a meticulously painted portrait of a deeply flawed human being, and through it finds something to say about the growing cynicism and bleak reality of 1970s America. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 19, 2022
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Dive (2022) |
This is an excellent feature, and a story powerfully told. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 19, 2022
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Moonage Daydream (2022) |
Brett Morgen’s David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream boasts a pitch-perfect technique in eulogising the iconic pop star’s life and art. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 15, 2022
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Yearning (1964) |
It punches well above its weight in terms of personal drama, social commentary, and entertainment value. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 14, 2022
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Orca (1977) |
This is a ham-fisted and ironic delight. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Blanquita (2022) |
Blanquita is a powerful and disturbing work. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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She Said (2022) |
We will miss this kind of quality adult cinema when it is gone. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Dec 01, 2022
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The Three Musketeers (1948) |
This is breezy, competent fare for a Sunday afternoon: entertaining, but undistinguished. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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The Spine of Night (2021) |
It is a rare thing for a film to impress and disappoint at the same time, but that is certainly the case with The Spine of Night. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Nov 28, 2022
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Eye for an Eye (1996) |
Crass, manipulative, and deeply insincere, it is a marvel that it received a theatrical release at all. It is entirely impossible to recommend. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Nov 28, 2022
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Psycho (1998) |
If Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s widely celebrated thriller Psycho (1960) is not one of the most unfairly maligned features of its decade, then it must surely be one of the least-well understood. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Nov 28, 2022
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Moonfall (2022) |
The problem with Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall is not that it is silly; we have all come to terms with the ridiculous nature of his disaster pictures a long time ago. The problem is that it is rather boring. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Nov 08, 2022
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Catherine Called Birdy (2022) |
Whether or not you enjoy Catherine Called Birdy will, as always, come down to personal taste, but it is difficult to imagine a film with this subject matter and this style being made better than writer/director Lena Dunham has already done. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Nov 05, 2022
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Lightyear (2022) |
Anything interesting about the character has been stripped from him, and what is left is a by-the-numbers science fiction film with a plot already mined out by generations of earlier movies. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Nov 02, 2022
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The Founder (2016) |
Thanks to a strong, character-focused script by Robert Siegel (The Wrestler) and engaging performances across the board, it all turns out to be pretty riveting stuff. - Fiction Machine
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| Posted Nov 01, 2022
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