Nigel M Smith

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The Guardian
For 61 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 44% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.4 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Nigel M Smith's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Jackie
Lowest review score: 20 Freeheld
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 61
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 61
  3. Negative: 5 out of 61
61 movie reviews
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    • 21 Metascore
    • 20 Nigel M Smith
    A Family Man
    It’s run-of-the-mill, and crassly manipulative.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    Paint It Black
    Like its distraught protagonist, Amber Tamblyn’s Paint It Black is unforgiving, flawed and ferocious.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Nigel M Smith
    Wakefield
    Cranston acts the hell out of the role, like he’s performing Macbeth in a room. Unfortunately his commitment isn’t enough to sell Wakefield as anything more than a hollow character study, with an unappealing tool at its core.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    The Ticket
    Admirably cynical until it loses its way in the final stretch, The Ticket nevertheless maintains a provocative allure, bolstered by a fiercely committed performance from Dan Stevens.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    Salt and Fire
    For all his faults as a narrative film-maker, Herzog can at least be counted on to keep his non-documentary excursions unpredictable.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    All This Panic
    Gage’s remarkably intimate portrait of female youth on the verge leaves you with a largely hopeful feeling that this particular group of women will make good on that advice.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Nigel M Smith
    The Transfiguration
    The Transfiguration is a character study first and foremost, spending all of its time with Milo. Problem is, he’s so opaque that as a protagonist, he’s completely impenetrable.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    Lovesong
    Keough and Malone convey a palpable sense of yearning for one another during these sequences, but Kim and Bradley Rust Gray’s barebones script doesn’t match their efforts.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 20 Nigel M Smith
    The Book of Love
    As well as its plot being eerily similar to that of Demolition, it’s just as misguided.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    All We Had
    It’s Holmes brazen performance that remains the chief drawing point in seeking out All We Had. She burrows deep under the skin of Rita, a woman firmly aware of her many flaws and tragically unable to address them.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    Miss Sloane
    Chastain single handedly prevents it all from veering off the rails by dominating Miss Sloane with her forceful presence. She grounds her heroine to ensure you’re with her.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Nigel M Smith
    I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House
    It’s commendable that Perkins seems wholly uninterested in the tropes of the genre: there’s only one jump scare, hardly any gore and no final girl. The elusiveness of the narrative, however, grows weary fast.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Nigel M Smith
    Their Finest
    At its core, it’s really just a workplace love story that grows increasingly uninterested in its plucky heroine’s journey in favour of hitting familiar rom-com notes – and to give audiences another reason to love Bill Nighy.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    Frantz
    Ozon is often at his best when working with women, and he has a fabulous talent in Paula Beer to bring his protagonist, Anna, to vivid life. She’s stunning in the role.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Nigel M Smith
    Denial
    Under the workmanlike direction of Mick Jackson (The Bodyguard), what should have been a rousing and ragingly topical crowdpleaser, instead feels more like a Lifetime movie.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Nigel M Smith
    Jackie
    It’s a singular vision from an uncompromising director that happens to be about one of the most famous women in American history. Jackie is not Oscar bait – it’s great cinema.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids
    As Jonathan Demme’s concert documentary Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids indisputably shows, Timberlake is only truly in his element when on stage being a showman.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    Chuck
    Falardeau draws exceptional character work from his cast.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    All I See Is You
    Even as All I See Is You descends into soapy nonsense, it remains visually engaging.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    A Monster Calls
    Ultimately, it tries a little too hard to wring those tears.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    Peter and the Farm
    Dunning recounts spellbinding tales that led to the gradual downfall of his expansive Mile Hill Farm, and the destruction of his two marriages.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    Sully
    Hanks delivers an internal and sympathetic performance. Eastwood doesn’t burrow too deeply into his protagonist’s psyche, other than to visibly demonstrate that he’s haunted by the landing. Still, Hanks, who’s uncommonly, well, sullen, for much of the film, goes a long way to convey Sullenberger’s conflicted anguish.
    • 11 Metascore
    • 20 Nigel M Smith
    Nine Lives
    It’s lazy on every level.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Nigel M Smith
    Five Nights in Maine
    Her two exceptional stars do their best to convey their animosity via simmering glances. But in the end, Curran’s muted approach does them no favors. Instead of being boldly subtle, Five Nights in Maine just comes off as evasive.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    Spa Night
    Despite its setting and Korean American cast, Spa Night unfurls in a largely expected manner, with David struggling to embrace his identity because of his strict religious upbringing, while trying to make his family proud. He’s portrayed so opaquely that’s it’s difficult to connect with his dilemma.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    Author: The JT LeRoy Story
    Author is less a run-through of one of the biggest controversies to plague the literary world in the past century, than an illuminating study of the enigmatic and driven woman behind the phenomenon.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Nigel M Smith
    The Hollars
    A mawkish family comedy, intent to please, The Hollars plays like an extended sitcom.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    Ghostbusters
    Though hats are respectfully doffed, this is a four-woman show, deftly managed to allow all the leads – McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones – a chance to showcase their own distinct brands of comedy.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Nigel M Smith
    In a Valley of Violence
    As the violence escalates, an absurdist dose of humor is added to the mix, injecting the film with a distinctly modern sensibility that is welcome and does not let up.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Nigel M Smith
    Blood Father
    As comeback projects go, Blood Father is stellar. It’s a wonder Quentin Tarantino, the king of career resurrection, didn’t get to Gibson first. The actors completely tears into the role of Link, a battered and disgruntled ex-con. Richet matches him, delivering a muscular and deliriously entertaining B-movie that is sure to play like gangbusters with genre aficionados.
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