Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) |
Star super-villain casting can’t save this awkward sequel. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) |
Made on a shoestring budget...and it shoes. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Scream VI (2023) |
Characters are distinctive, the script is witty and the action-packed direction deserves top marks. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Mar 09, 2023
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Creed III (2023) |
The Stallone-free debut from Michael B. Jordan bashes life into the boxing movie genre. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Mar 02, 2023
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January (2022) |
January is laden with potent metaphors that might be less impenetrable if you’re fully clued-up on Bulgaria’s post-communist transition — or might not. Ultimate unknowability is the endgame. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Feb 14, 2023
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Unwelcome (2022) |
Jon Wright’s unexpectedly fun home-invasion horror is built on fertile, if familiar, ground. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Feb 14, 2023
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Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023) |
The spray tans have more depth than the characters. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin (2023) |
Despite annoying lapses in M Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, it’ll have you hooked... - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin (2023) |
Another commendably original tale of the unexpected from Shyamalan. One of his best. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Feb 01, 2023
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
This is a movie so masterfully made, you can glide along its surface without quite realising all it’s asking of you. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Jan 27, 2023
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Piggy (2022) |
While this intelligent Spanish slasher gleefully sloshes on the high-tension splatter, it also delights in inverting generic tropes, dishing up a lip-smacking level of moral complexity. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jan 18, 2023
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Enys Men (2022) |
Enys Men (Cornish for Stone Island) suffers slightly from difficult second album syndrome, but is still extraordinary in its own right. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Jan 14, 2023
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Till (2022) |
A sensational acting showcase for Deadwyler, as Mamie shifts from devastated mother to reluctant activist. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Jan 14, 2023
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Black Adam (2022) |
Even the rock-solid charisma of Dwayne Johnson rolls off a cliff with this noisy and disappointingly boring load of CGI-laden superhero tosh. A DCU fail. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) |
This soulful sequel teams an emotional tribute to late star Chadwick Boseman with some spectacular visual action. A maturity milestone for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring Angela Bassett and Winston Duke. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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Cow (2021) |
The British auteur Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) turns to documentary with this powerful, cow’s eye view of the dairy industry. You may never look a pint of milk in the face again. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) |
Whodunnits are back with a vengeance. This inspired slasher twist boasts a thrilling satirical energy and a sizzling Gen Z cast, including Amandla Stenberg and Borat’s Maria Bakalova. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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Living (2022) |
National treasure Bill Nighy finally gets his shot at Oscars glory as a repressed civil servant in this immaculate British drama, penned by Sir Kazuo Ishiguro. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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Top Gun: Maverick (2022) |
Burnished 1980s blockbuster nostalgia as Tom Cruise and producer Jerry Bruckheimer prove they can still make ’em like they used to. Strap in for the thrillingly real aerial dog fights. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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The Worst Person in the World (2021) |
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind meets Fleabag in Norway with this smart romcom about a drifting bookshop worker (Renate Reinsve) nearing 30. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) |
The most brilliantly bananas movie of 2022 absolutely lives up to its title. Michelle Yeoh kicks all types of butt as a time-travelling laundromat manager in a multiverse of madness. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical (2022) |
‘We are revolting children, living in revolting times!’ Tim Minchin’s genius lyrics make this a smash hit, with Alisha Weir, for all ages. See you at the singalong version. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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Babylon (2022) |
Damien Chazelle film’s direction is breathtaking and jaw-dropping... - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 17, 2022
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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) |
As a spectacle it’s astonishing. But is this even a film? It’s more like a three-hour theme park ride. Or a superior version of those show-reel display loops they use in shops like Currys to show off how good the tellies are. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 17, 2022
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) |
Pinocchio’s spirited disobedience suddenly becomes a form of heroic resistance, rather than something to be squashed out of him. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 08, 2022
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Bones and All (2022) |
Dreamily shot, it’s all so achingly hip it hurts. But after two hours and 10 minutes of slow-burn meandering, I was hungry for more meat on these bones. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 03, 2022
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Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022) |
What these two electric young stars really capture is the intense chemistry between two new lovers – that powerful, all-consuming pull. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Dec 03, 2022
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Barbarian (2022) |
Like the best horrors, it's 'about' stuff -- gentrification, abuse, toxic masculinity, taking responsibility. There's also plenty of jump scares. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Nov 30, 2022
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Aftersun (2022) |
Paul Mescal's film is a micro-masterclass in poignancy and heartbreak... - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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Aisha (2022) |
Black Panther star Letitia Wright shows she’s not all about blockbusters with this small, moving story of a Nigerian woman seeking asylum. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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The Menu (2022) |
Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy star in this dark comedy that serves up a few shocking surprises. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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My Father's Dragon (2022) |
Myself and my eight-year-old co-viewer failed to feel that invested in the disconnected storytelling. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Nov 11, 2022
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Enola Holmes 2 (2022) |
Shove over Sherlock – Enola Holmes is back in business in this droll and entertaining sleuthing adventure. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Nov 11, 2022
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Hilma (2022) |
Lasse Hallström fails to capture the essence of her boundary-transcending genius with his pretty chocolate box of a movie. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Nov 03, 2022
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Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues (2022) |
Enriched by Armstrong’s own mighty library of writings and tape recordings, the man that emerges is intriguingly complex: doggedly apolitical yet politically engaged. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Nov 03, 2022
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Confetti (2021) |
Dyslexia is still not officially recognised in China, something writer/director Ann Hu clearly aims to change with this awareness raising, semi-autobiographical story. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Oct 19, 2022
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
A movie that approaches big themes with deceptive simplicity. A work of absurdist genius. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Oct 19, 2022
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Decision to Leave (2022) |
At over two hours, Decision To Leave is an intricate and challenging thriller – thought-provoking and with style to spare. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Oct 19, 2022
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My Policeman (2022) |
The rest of the cast, also including Linus Roache as the older Tom, are perfectly capable, but there’s little to mark this out from the doom-laden queer miserabilism so en vogue in the Nineties and Noughties. A plodder. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Oct 19, 2022
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The Good Nurse (2022) |
Diffuse and oddly restrained, The Good Nurse just can’t decide what movie it wants to be...luckily, Chastain and Redmayne are so good you won’t care. A sporadically tense actors’ showcase that’ll leave you feeling glad of the NHS. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Oct 19, 2022
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Amsterdam (2022) |
The star-studded whodunnit isn’t as clever as it thinks it is. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Oct 05, 2022
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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) |
What’s so lovely is that Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris is a celebration of beauty and the importance of cherishing those special things in life that may seem silly to others but make us feel most like ourselves. - Metro Newspaper (UK)
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| Posted Oct 05, 2022
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Blonde (2022) |
Some of the recreation scenes are uncanny. If only she wasn’t required to spend so much of this movie either sobbing or naked or both. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Sep 22, 2022
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Ticket to Paradise (2022) |
As undemanding escapism goes, this is just the ticket... - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Sep 22, 2022
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Official Competition (2021) |
This movie-making industry satire is witty, intelligent and saved from potentially unbearable navel-gazing by the warmth, talent and sheer charismatic chemistry of Cruz and Banderas. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Sep 01, 2022
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The Forgiven (2021) |
Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain are brilliantly loathsome but it’s a journey not everyone will want to take... - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Sep 01, 2022
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Queen of Glory (2021) |
A low-budget gem whose glory lies in its own roughness. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Aug 26, 2022
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The Gray Man (2022) |
A $200,000,000 snooze fest. - metro.co.uk
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| Posted Jul 30, 2022
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Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022) |
No fewer than seven screenwriters are credited on this tiresome Kung Fu Panda rip-off... Characters are stereotypical and the lazy approach to Asian culture offensive. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2022
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Notre Dame on Fire (2022) |
I’d defy anyone not to catch the heat watching this spectacular minute-by-minute reconstruction of the blaze that engulfed Paris’s iconic cathedral on April 15, 2019. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2022
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