Phil de Semlyen
Select another critic »For 310 reviews, this critic has graded:
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50% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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47% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 4.1 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Phil de Semlyen's Scores
- Movies
- TV
Score distribution:
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Positive: 171 out of 310
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Mixed: 135 out of 310
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Negative: 4 out of 310
310
movie
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Phil de Semlyen
Food is a gift of love here – and romance courses through this delightful film.- Time Out
- Posted May 25, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
If Kidnapped aims to dive into the subconscious of its characters, it gets stuck on the surface.- Time Out
- Posted May 25, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Kubi is often wildly funny in Kitano’s straight-faced style, and it’s never less than a lot of fun. Fans of visceral, cynical action movies will lose their heads over it.- Time Out
- Posted May 24, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Like a kind of cinematic Lego set, Ben Hania takes the building blocks of filmmaking and constructs from them something cathartic, affecting and original.- Time Out
- Posted May 24, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
The overall effect is one of wonderment, eccentricity and heartache that will connect deeply with anyone who recently spent an extended period stuck in close proximity with other human beings.- Time Out
- Posted May 24, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
It’s hampered by a pedestrian script and an improbable ending, but always catches fire when the supercharged Law is on screen.- Time Out
- Posted May 23, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Serrated with political edge, Scorsese’s true-crime epic is impeccably constructed and utterly gripping.- Time Out
- Posted May 23, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
A thriller of real psychological and emotional depth, Triet’s film is a treat. Watch it with a partner and argue about it afterwards.- Time Out
- Posted May 22, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Even with its cramp-preventing intermission, Occupied City’s epic runtime doesn’t deliver the same accretion of emotional power that makes, say, Claude Lanzmann’s nine-hour Holocaust doc, Shoah, so great. Instead, it begins to open itself up to monotony and worse, glibness.- Time Out
- Posted May 20, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is full of delights, poignant, peppery and plain life-enhancing. For anyone navigating the rocky journey into young adulthood, or any parent trying to help, it’ll feel like a hand stretched out in solidarity. Just like Judy Blume intended.- Time Out
- Posted May 17, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
While watching a bunch of Nazis get offed in a variety of grisly ways offers some midnight movie thrills, the stakes only get lower and lower.- Time Out
- Posted Apr 25, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Serenity, wonderment and worry mix in this awe-inspiring, musical tour of the Earth’s waterways.- Time Out
- Posted Apr 18, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Candy-coloured fun for greying gamers and fresh-faced wee’uns that does the basics well but not much more.- Time Out
- Posted Apr 6, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
A mostly CG-free, witty, grown-up drama that revels in strong, propulsive storytelling? Sometimes they do make ’em like they used to.- Time Out
- Posted Apr 5, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Thanks to its pointed message about violence against women and injustice, this is a thriller with even sharper edges. Somewhere beneath its enthralling depiction of obsessive police work is a cry from the heart against a broken system.- Time Out
- Posted Mar 31, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Some of that tension dissipates in a more low-key third act that foregrounds the excellent Foïs and Colomb as a mother and daughter at loggerheads, but The Beasts is still a compelling, tragic study of human conflict in a scarily believable context.- Time Out
- Posted Mar 30, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
This take on Alan Bennett’s pre-pandemic play, a love letter to the NHS set on a geriatric ward in Wakefield’s beloved-but-threatened Bethlehem Hospital (‘The Beth’), ticks along amiably enough for an hour or so. Then, like a hand grenade in a tombola, a harrowing third-act twist detonates beneath it and narrative and tonal destruction ensues.- Time Out
- Posted Mar 16, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Beyond the music, Meet Me in the Bathroom makes a compelling study of the whole idea of a ‘scene’: how does it happen, why does it end and what’s it all about?- Time Out
- Posted Mar 9, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
It’s not going to win too many trophies, but Champions is still a cheering watch.- Time Out
- Posted Mar 8, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Even in those well-executed gnarlier moments and winky character beats, Scream VI feels a lot more dated than the genre it’s deconstructing.- Time Out
- Posted Mar 8, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
After the self-satisfied The Gentlemen and the slick but sparkless Wrath of Man, it’s a nice reminder that at his best, Ritchie remains an accomplished teller of tall tales.- Time Out
- Posted Mar 3, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
The Fallen Sun is a satisfying enough way to kick off a Luther Cinematic Universe.- Time Out
- Posted Mar 2, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
With Slate, his co-creator, co-writer and ex-partner, director Dean Fleischer Camp charts a world in which a semi-orphaned talking shell not only makes perfect sense, but becomes a perfect vessel to share painful, relatable truths about life. Dementia, loneliness and heartbreak are all writ large in Marcel’s world.- Time Out
- Posted Feb 16, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
You can see the sweat on stage, but it’s harder to detect in the filmmaking.- Time Out
- Posted Feb 8, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
If you’re looking for a more granular account of the Oxy epidemic and its perpetrators, Emmy-nominated miniseries Dopesick and investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe’s bestseller ‘Empire of Pain’ both have your back. But All the Beauty and the Bloodshed plots a slightly different kind of narrative: one that’s full of defiance and emotion.- Time Out
- Posted Jan 18, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Are its cultish mysteries for everyone? Undoubtedly not. But if there’s a place in your heart for dark, folky mind-benders that plug into the cosmic energy of remote, oceanic terrain (ie your favourite film would be a cross between The Wicker Man and The Lighthouse), you should take a trip across Jenkin’s freaky landscape asap.- Time Out
- Posted Jan 13, 2023
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- Time Out
- Posted Jan 11, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
The effect is eerie, profound and emotional. As a mirror back onto humanity’s foibles and criminal excesses, EO is the perfect heir to Bresson’s long-suffering Balthazar.- Time Out
- Posted Jan 11, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Spielberg gets the chance to do something he’s never done before and make a miniature high-school film full of giddy subversions and emotional truths.- Time Out
- Posted Jan 3, 2023
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- Phil de Semlyen
Chilly, severe, distancing, utterly captivating and made with formidable filmmaking IQ, Tár is a movie very much in the mold of its ever-present central character: world-renowned conductor and fully functioning sociopath Lydia Tár.- Time Out
- Posted Dec 23, 2022
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