Wendy Ide
Tomatometer-approved critic
Contributor, The Times of London.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Allelujah (2022) |
Richard Eyre’s film is jarringly uneven: such a collision of tones and conflicting messages that it undermines its own earnest coda in support of the NHS. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Winners (2022) |
Storywise it’s a slip of a thing, but it gains considerable appeal from its young, non-professional cast. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Other People's Children (2022) |
Deftly written, directed with a light hand and acted with honesty and heart, the picture captures moments of acute sadness without ever sinking into sentimentality. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) |
Billy’s inane babbling gets a little wearing, but the action sequences, featuring dragon-based mayhem, cyclopes and an army of formidable hell unicorns hopped up on candy, are pacy and fun. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Pearl (2022) |
Goth is riotously entertaining throughout, but two specific scenes, in both of which the camera rests solely on her face for an extended shot, capture the full force of her unnerving talent. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 18, 2023
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Four Lions (2009) |
The satire loses its edge a little by making the jihadists such imbeciles, but it’s very funny nonetheless. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Twice Colonized (2023) |
It’s a brave and generous undertaking from Peter, which is handled with respect and sensitivity by Alluna. - Screen International
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Northern Comfort (2023) |
Rather like the ill-fated plane, the comedy struggles to land. - Screen International
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Trading Places (1983) |
Trading Places cushions the social satire of its theme with broad comedy. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Don't Look Now (1973) |
This haunting thriller and study of the psychology of grief is one of the most accomplished, and most troubling, films by the British director Nicolas Roeg. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Mar 13, 2023
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The Middle Man (2021) |
Feels oddly rootless, never quite persuading as a piece of small-town Americana. Still, it is ruefully entertaining and looks terrific, with a colour palette of sullen blues and ill-natured yellows. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Scream VI (2023) |
The only notable development is just how rapidly a satirical skewering of genre formulas can become thuddingly formulaic. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) |
The story behind Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is almost as heartwarming as the tale that it tells... - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Project Wolf Hunting (2022) |
The inventively relentless action is rather let down by a screenplay that is leakier than a minor supporting character after one of the many stab rampages. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 05, 2023
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Subject (2022) |
It’s thought-provoking stuff, which also explores our own role, as audience members, in the voracious demand for other people’s stories. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 05, 2023
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I'M FINE (Thanks for Asking) (2021) |
A little rough around the edges certainly, but spirited and authentic, this is a low-budget African American indie that has a kinship with the Dardenne brothers’ brand of breadline urgency. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 05, 2023
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Electric Malady (2022) |
Lidén sidesteps the medical science around this somewhat contested disease, instead adopting a creative, dreamily poetic approach to evoking William’s lonely existence. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 05, 2023
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Creed III (2023) |
Jordan is doing double duty here, directing as well as starring in this solidly by-numbers chapter in the ongoing Creed saga. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Mar 05, 2023
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The Black Guelph (2022) |
It’s a little rough around the edges but there’s no denying the film’s unflinching potency. - Screen International
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| Posted Mar 01, 2023
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End of Watch (2012) |
This abrasive and brilliant Los Angeles cop drama contains two exceptional male-lead performances. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Feb 27, 2023
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What's Love Got to Do with It? (2022) |
The sparky chemistry between James and Latif leaves few surprises in how it all pans out, but it’s an unexpectedly, disarmingly sweet film. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 26, 2023
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The Independent (2022) |
If nothing else, this solid, by-numbers political thriller serves as a star-making vehicle for British actor Jodie Turner-Smith, who is nothing short of mesmerising as dogged cub reporter Elisha James. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 26, 2023
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Cocaine Bear (2023) |
It may not be Grizzly Man meets Scarface, but it leaves Snakes on a Plane standing on the runway. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 26, 2023
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Joyland (2022) |
The picture transcends the tragic romance narrative, to achieve something rather more complex and satisfying. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 26, 2023
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Art College 1994 (2023) |
It evokes a specific time and a place so vividly that you can almost taste the stale cigarette smoke and cheap beer. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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The Future Tense (2022) |
It’s a fascinating, intellectually agile work that manages to be both intensely personal while also relevant to anyone who has ever questioned whether they really know their home country. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Limbo (2023) |
It’s a distinctive work, both visually – the stark black and white photography accentuates the uncanny, almost lunar pockmarks on this scarred terrain – and in terms of its intriguingly detached outback noir storytelling. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Sisi & I (2023) |
A film which, while it offers few surprises, at least carries itself with a regal dignity for the most part. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Silver Haze (2023) |
A handsomely shot but scattershot and uneven drama. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Femme (2023) |
Subversive, unsettling and sexually charged. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Music (2023) |
Schanelec’s approach draws the audience in, even as it holds them at arm’s length; she is uncommonly fond of wide shots. It’s an oddly fascinating endeavour. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Seneca - On the Creation of Earthquakes (2023) |
It’s a film that features a lot of empty posturing, extravagant wigs, distracting set design full of stuff that is inexplicably on fire in the background, and numerous over-masticated performances. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 21, 2023
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Inside (2023) |
Key to the picture’s success is the way that different elements seem to be in dialogue with each other. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 21, 2023
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Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker (2023) |
A deep dive into sports psychology... - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 20, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) |
The film’s main asset is Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror: his performance, with its velvet-soft line deliveries and unfathomable, boundless rage, is the magnetic core of this incoherent effects-dump of a movie. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 19, 2023
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The Inspection (2022) |
Fiercely candid, in its condemnation of the brutality that is enmeshed in the training programme, and in its celebration of the bonds and brotherhood that grow between fellow cadets. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 19, 2023
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Nostalgia (2022) |
[A] meandering but richly detailed drama. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 19, 2023
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The Son (2022) |
Zeller explores how sadness repels; how people involuntarily recoil from depression, perpetuating the isolation of the sufferer. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 19, 2023
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Kill Boksoon (2023) |
Overall, it’s serviceable stuff that, like Boksoon herself, struggles with the emotional connections in life, but sure knows how to land a punch. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 19, 2023
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Sharper (2023) |
There’s much to enjoy here. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 19, 2023
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The Beast in the Jungle (2019) |
[A] distinctive, if slightly over-long, adaptation... - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 18, 2023
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The Survival of Kindness (2022) |
It’s striking, thought-provoking filmmaking, although it rather runs out of steam and ideas in the third act. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 18, 2023
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The Echo (2023) |
An intimate, immersive portrait of a way of life – its rhythms, hardships and its communal joys – told through the eyes of the young people who rarely question it. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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The Siren (2023) |
A striking, bleakly beautiful account of living in a war zone, which captures a specific and traumatic moment in Iranian history while obliquely acknowledging the present-day dissent against the current regime. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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She Came to Me (2023) |
The combination of a first-rate cast, a rippling, frequently witty score and a highly-strung, madcap plot — which itself wouldn’t be out of place in a comic opera — makes for a quirky, offbeat spin on the relationship drama. - Screen International
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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The Fault in Our Stars (2014) |
The subject matter — a pair of teenage cancer sufferers meet and fall in love — could have been mawkish mush, but there’s a sharp, abrasive wit and anger that tempers the tear-jerking with humour. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Feb 13, 2023
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Somebody I Used To Know (2023) |
It’s a wasted opportunity. Brie is clearly a gifted comic actress who deserves better material than this. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 12, 2023
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Nothing Lasts Forever (2022) |
Once in a while there comes a documentary that has the potential to permanently shift the way you look at its subject. Nothing Lasts Forever is one of them. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 12, 2023
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Epic Tails (2022) |
The decent quality of the animation of this English-language French production is rather let down by some shockingly poor voice performances and a couple of ear-bleeding musical numbers. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 12, 2023
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Blue Jean (2022) |
It’s as persuasive as it is powerful. - Observer (UK)
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| Posted Feb 12, 2023
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