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Sam Wigley

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

Movies TV Shows
Eno (2024) 97% EDIT “Using new generative software, director Gary Hustwit explores Brian Eno‘s creative strategies using a jigsaw puzzle of interview sequences designed to screen in random order, an inspired approach that comes with its own limitations. ” – Sight & Sound Dec 22, 2025 Full Review What Marielle Knows (2025) EDIT “Frédéric Hambalek’s dark but hilarious film about a teen with telepathic powers feels designed to make parents wince. ” – Sight & Sound Nov 5, 2025 Full Review The Blue Trail (2025) 100% EDIT “The engine sputters out, but the film encourages you to trail your hand in the water and enjoy the drift.” – Sight & Sound Nov 5, 2025 Full Review Samsara (2011) 75% 3/5 EDIT “Jaw-dropping in colour and splendour, but if the constant awe gets a bit tiring, at its best you can genuinely feel some great wheel turning.” – Total Film Aug 23, 2012 Full Review The Turin Horse (2011) 87% 4/5 EDIT “If you've got the stomach for it this is an intoxicating vision of life at the end of its tether.” – Total Film May 23, 2012 Full Review Buck (2011) 90% 3/5 EDIT “Breaking the cycle of abuse, Buck's deep-rooted respect for these dignified animals is truly inspiring.” – Total Film Apr 2, 2012 Full Review North Sea Texas (2011) 83% 4/5 EDIT “Drawing affecting performances from a fledgling cast, Defurne's film is a poignant snapshot of square-peg adolescent desire, vibrantly set against a colourful backdrop.” – Total Film Mar 26, 2012 Full Review The Island President (2011) 98% 4/5 EDIT “Nasheed may be a small fish in a big geopolitical pond, but his enterprise and optimism are a welcome complement to eco doc doom and gloom.” – Total Film Mar 19, 2012 Full Review Patience (After Sebald) (2012) 90% 4/5 EDIT “As Jonathan Pryce reads passages and academic voices take turns to chew over Sebald's visionary opus, B&W footage of country roadsides and wind-blasted coastlines turns rural Suffolk into something truly otherworldly.” – Total Film Jan 16, 2012 Full Review Demons Never Die (2011) 13% 2/5 EDIT “More interested in street cred than plot cred: never has a bunch of kids looked less likely to want to end it all.” – Total Film Jun 1, 2011 Full Review The Four Times (2010) 92% 3/5 EDIT “The goats are the stars in Michelangelo Frammartino's dialogue-free portrait of a remote Calabrian farming community.” – Total Film May 25, 2011 Full Review Outside the Law (2010) 76% 3/5 EDIT “Exciting but one-sided, Bouchareb's film is a Melville-lite study of honour among dangerous men.” – Total Film May 10, 2011 Full Review Battleship Potemkin (1925) 100% 5/5 EDIT “Nearly 90 years on, Eisenstein's masterpiece is still guaranteed to get the pulse racing.” – Total Film Apr 26, 2011 Full Review Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010) 90% 4/5 EDIT “Interviews with Spitzer, those exclusive madams and vengeful Republicans are woven into a compulsively fascinating probe of power and its dark side.” – Total Film Mar 2, 2011 Full Review Just Wright (2010) 47% 2/5 EDIT “Take a pro basketball player with a career-threatening knee injury and an ugly-duckling nurse and you've got the blueprint for a steamroller of sopp that knows no shame.” – Total Film Sep 16, 2010 Full Review 1 Day (2009) 53% 4/5 EDIT “The film has a cheeky comic streak that offsets all the streetwise grandstanding.” – Total Film Nov 6, 2009 Full Review 31 North 62 East (2009) 8% 1/5 EDIT “Even John Rhys-Davies as the PM struggles to lend gravitas to the comically earnest dialogue and knee-jerk conspiracy theorising.” – Total Film Sep 18, 2009 Full Review Rumba (2008) 85% 4/5 EDIT “Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon prove worthy heirs to the gangly genius of Jacques Tati in this surreal comic gem.” – Total Film Jul 31, 2009 Full Review Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country (2008) 97% 4/5 EDIT “Shaky recordings, interspersed with reconstruction scenes at the VJ HQ, look surprisingly sharp and give Burma VJ an unforgettable and powerful immediacy.” – Total Film Jul 17, 2009 Full Review Sleep Furiously (2008) 71% 4/5 EDIT “It's unusually tender and eccentric, and Koppel's personal sadness at the passing of this way of life is palpable.” – Total Film May 29, 2009 Full Review The International (2009) 57% 3/5 EDIT “Leaving behind the aromatic fantasy of Perfume, Tom Tykwer weighs in with a tense and exhilarating entry into the spy genre. This is an espionage thriller well worth investing in.” – Total Film Feb 27, 2009 Full Review Import/Export (2007) 84% 4/5 EDIT “Yet his unerring eye for the absurdity of human behaviour and the rituals we invent for ourselves makes this a blackly humorous treat.” – Total Film Oct 3, 2008 Full Review Aleksandra (2007) 88% 4/5 EDIT “Shot in shades of bleached-out khaki brown and augmented by a heart-rending orchestral score, it's a unique and intensely moving elegy for wasted lives.” – Total Film Sep 26, 2008 Full Review Times and Winds (2006) 87% 4/5 EDIT “We've seen this kind of picturesque rural drama before, but director Reha Erdem still hews a rich poetry from the material. The story's elegantly structured around the five daily calls-to-prayer given from a parapet with stunning views.” – Total Film Aug 29, 2008 Full Review Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains (2007) 80% 4/5 EDIT “Jimmy Carter may not be the most memorable ex-White House resident, but his post-presidency record as a battler for humanitarian causes takes some beating.” – Total Film Aug 15, 2008 Full Review
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