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Phil Hoad

Phil Hoad's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
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Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Back to the Past (2025) 2/5 EDIT “There are some passable sequences, such as a cart-borne escape down a hillside tea plantation. But the fight choreography is rote gun-fu -- surprisingly, as it's overseen by old master Sammo Hung -- and often chopped into restrictive closeups.” – Guardian Jan 29, 2026 Full Review Grizzly Night (2026) 2/5 EDIT “Doeren clearly has a feel for the bear necessities, but the human interest hardly gets its boots on.” – Guardian Jan 27, 2026 Full Review Heavyweight (2025) 3/5 EDIT “A shrewd probing of the pressure-cooker environment of modern combat sports.” – Guardian Jan 21, 2026 Full Review Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros (2023) 100% 3/5 EDIT “There is always another new flavour for the chef to try, another beautiful framing for the director to make... But the main frustration is that the only bite we get of the many marvels concocted here is with the eye.” – Guardian Jan 2, 2026 Full Review The Great Flood (2025) 56% 3/5 EDIT “The suggestion is that emotional responses to this relooping drama can be somehow calibrated. It feels like an apologia, complete with cut-and-paste disaster imagery, for algorithmic entertainment.” – Guardian Dec 15, 2025 Full Review Troll 2 (2025) 58% 2/5 EDIT “The characterisation is token, and the quip embellishment is weak. Norse mythology is an atypical starting point for monster movies, but deploying it as rotely as this, the film has little chance of standing out from the mockbuster wallpaper.” – Guardian Dec 1, 2025 Full Review Measures for a Funeral (2025) 4/5 EDIT “Fully committed to a radical irresolution, this simultaneously alienating and beautiful film bears repeat viewing.” – Guardian Nov 26, 2025 Full Review Valley of the Shadow of Death (2024) 3/5 EDIT “If nothing else Valley of the Shadow of Death makes the descent into an impossible moral quandary look fabulously attractive.” – Guardian Nov 10, 2025 Full Review Winter in Sokcho (2024) 3/5 EDIT “The three focused performances at the centre give Winter in Sokcho its solid centre, and if Kamura can’t quite thematically corral the wary faceoff between hotelier and guest, he is always on his toes emotionally speaking.” – Guardian Nov 3, 2025 Full Review The Last Sacrifice (2024) 5/5 EDIT “It is a sophisticated analysis, clued in to how real life and fiction combine to stir up the silt of the imagination in ways propitious to manifesting the supernatural. ” – Guardian Oct 29, 2025 Full Review Diablo (2025) 71% 2/5 EDIT “If the Cormac McCarthy rip-off wasn’t enough, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza’s ponderous thriller also gives El Corvo a couple of scenes lifted from The Terminator, and the villain from Enter the Dragon’s blade-hand for good measure.” – Guardian Oct 21, 2025 Full Review Sunlight (2024) 91% 4/5 EDIT “Conti manages the feat of being funny, emotionally astute and kinda sexy throughout.” – Guardian Oct 14, 2025 Full Review Souleymane's Story (2024) 100% 4/5 EDIT “The issues are fundamentally the same: the enforced invisibility of a class of economic migrants who are now so numerous that many game the system, doubling their exploitation. Sangaré’s exemplary, unfeigned performance helps them speak.” – Guardian Oct 13, 2025 Full Review London Calling (2025) 48% 2/5 EDIT “This underworld knockabout has its moments, but sharper writing could have lifted it way higher.” – Guardian Oct 6, 2025 Full Review Killing Faith (2025) 76% 4/5 EDIT “If not quite in the top tier of 21st-century westerns, this supernatural oater from director Ned Crowley has a distinctive silhouette.” – Guardian Sep 29, 2025 Full Review Scurry (2024) 2/5 EDIT “One thing you have to admit is that the film is paced nicely for the experience of two people trapped in a tunnel; it’s both somehow agonisingly underwritten and, with the antic camera and incessant score, strangely overblown. ” – Guardian Sep 29, 2025 Full Review Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback (2025) 3/5 EDIT “Somehow this blend of hardcore procedural and Scooby-Doo amateur sleuthing gets by on sheer energy alone.” – Guardian Sep 23, 2025 Full Review Tape (2024) 3/5 EDIT “Even though this revival doesn’t fully capture the present moment, the ferocious source material still has an innate grip.” – Guardian Sep 16, 2025 Full Review Somnium (2024) 81% 2/5 EDIT “Appealing though its crisp sci-fi premise makes it, Racheal Cain’s debut feature nonetheless feels as if it has been directly imprinted with far too many secondhand pop-cultural memories.” – Guardian Sep 1, 2025 Full Review Afternoons of Solitude (2024) 88% 4/5 EDIT “Afternoons of Solitude is an unblinking look at bullfighting and the surrounding culture of bravado and machismo, expertly shot and edited with a sense of ritualistic order imbibed directly from the sport.” – Guardian Sep 1, 2025 Full Review COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing (2025) 2/5 EDIT “With the franchise’s five pop groups not even named as they decide to put on a show, the film just leaves a blanket impression of ultra-pious self-empowerment and aspiration... More’s the pity, as the animation is absolutely top-drawer.” – Guardian Aug 25, 2025 Full Review Asian Persuasion (2023) 2/5 EDIT “The film doesn’t exactly cover itself in glory, a shame considering Tolentino’s evident zeal for promoting Asian representation.” – Guardian Aug 18, 2025 Full Review A Road to a Village (2023) 3/5 EDIT “A robust look at the costs of breakneck modernisation that has you rooting for the stragglers and casualties.” – Guardian Aug 18, 2025 Full Review Wolf Children (2012) 95% 5/5 EDIT “Swept up in potent nostalgia for early parenthood, childhood and the cradle of nature itself, this is a modern classic.” – Guardian Aug 12, 2025 Full Review That Alien, Sound (2025) 2/5 EDIT “Self-infatuated scenes sprawl out for too long with all the discipline of an Echo Park hipster improv group after a long night on the edibles. ” – Guardian Aug 12, 2025 Full Review
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