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Isolated Nation

Isolated Nation is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Rhys Tarling.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
3.5/5
The Many Saints of Newark (2021) Rhys Tarling There's thrills to be had in this well produced if slap-dashedly plotted Mafia flick
Posted Oct 13, 2021  Edit critic review
2/5
Candyman (2021) Rhys Tarling The ideas are fascinating. But they lose resonance fast if they are trapped in a preachy mess of a thing.
Posted Sep 09, 2021  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) Rhys Tarling While retaining the basic story of its theatrically released sister cut, it's its *violent* opposite in its feeling: decadent, sincere and mythic.
Posted Mar 23, 2021  Edit critic review
1/5
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) Rhys Tarling Wonder Woman 1984 is an appalling misfire.
Posted Jan 06, 2021  Edit critic review
2/5
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Rhys Tarling Characters operate on one or two wildly unsophisticated levels: shouting plot details at one another or shouting reheated platitudes at one another.
Posted Dec 24, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) Rhys Tarling If you can't tell a Jesse Pinkman from a Walter White, this film is assuredly not for you
Posted Oct 17, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Joker (2019) Rhys Tarling The elements really came together for this unique one-off.
Posted Oct 09, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Rhys Tarling Ragnarok finds new avenues for Thor where it can... And his new funky, jock-y 'tude, in lieu of his usual pompous dignity, is appropriate for a thunder god adventurer who traverses the galaxy in search of epic quests.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Happy Death Day (2017) Rhys Tarling Happy Death Day is a slasher flick that oozes charm, humour and surprisingly little blood and gore. It's like Mean Girls meets Scream meets Groundhog Day.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
5/5
Logan (2017) Rhys Tarling Logan deals with regret, ageing, and familial love (maladjusted though that family might be) with the nuance and conviction of an arthouse movie from a hungry newcomer who's got something to say.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
2/5
Live by Night (2016) Rhys Tarling There are morsels of pleasure to be found here and there... No, it's not garbage. It's just a formless affair that feels destined to be relegated to the 2 and a half star pile on Netflix. It's a shame.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
3/5
Personal Shopper (2016) Rhys Tarling Personal Shopper is an absent-minded average film that nonetheless manages to occasionally jolt the heart exactly because large stretches of it are, putting mildly, sedate.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Manchester by the Sea (2016) Rhys Tarling Even if Manchester were not so technically accomplished and beautifully acted, it would still stand as a unique work, simply because you get the ineffable sense that the director has experienced himself what he's depicting on screen
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
2/5
Beauty and the Beast (2017) Rhys Tarling If we're being real, there is no reason for this to exist other than to guzzle money. None.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Things to Come (2016) Rhys Tarling Things To Come is bolstered by the terrific Isabelle Huppert, who is apparently chronically incapable of giving a boring performance.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Saban's Power Rangers (2017) Rhys Tarling I'll take a movie that is genuinely interested in its characters and not as much in whatever an army of computer technicians can conjure. Call this one a flawed but good start.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
3/5
Ghost in the Shell (2017) Rhys Tarling To praise Ghost in the Shell's visuals is not merely to convey its tasteful prettiness; its aesthetic enhances the film's themes and moody atmosphere, so even when Ghost in the Shell is getting slow and stupid, it's ambiently compelling.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
3/5
A Monster Calls (2016) Rhys Tarling It's a shame that A Monster Calls never ties together its fantasy and its reality; that its blunt epiphanies feel like predetermined arrivals.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Alien: Covenant (2017) Rhys Tarling Alien: Covenant is undoubtedly uneven, but the good easily outweighs the bad... I suspect that the only inarguable thing about Alien: Covenant is that it looks beautiful.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) Rhys Tarling Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is worthy and it's a hoot and a half to boot.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
2/5
Atomic Blonde (2017) Rhys Tarling It's too damn hard to follow, it's too wrapped up in its own cleverness, it's too damn long.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
3/5
Justice League (2017) Rhys Tarling It's a pleasurable first-draft of a film that's keeping the DC Universe on life support. Hardly a ringing endorsement, I know.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) Rhys Tarling It was the inventive and slick action sequences; edgy, topical humour; a silly American villain to contrast against the gentlemanly & extraordinarily British Kingsman - instead of meaningfully expanding the emotionality of its predecessor.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
Rampage (2018) Rhys Tarling It's completely without a pulse, despite the initial appeal of the Rock and his big mutant ape buddy George fighting other skyscraper sized beasties... This should've been a layup. It's not. It's a big fat expensive miss.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
It's for Your Own Good (2017) Rhys Tarling A sly satirisation of male insecurities and a fresh family comedy all in one.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
Mandy (2018) Rhys Tarling Mandy is deadly serious about loss and it conjures the kind of blackly ridiculous, balls-out campy imagery that puts other action/arthouse flicks to shame. Its influences are obvious, but it's a one of a kind.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
Stan & Ollie (2018) Rhys Tarling Friendship and comedy make for awkward, hilarious, and ultimately touching bedfellows in Stan and Ollie.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
A Star Is Born (2018) Rhys Tarling It's a splendid Hollywood Romance, sure, but the little textural details - the licks of sweaty hair plastered to shiny, crinkled foreheads - tell of frailty and authenticity.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Rhys Tarling Bohemian Rhapsody is an expensive cosplay. It is plotted with the passion of a Wikipedia summary article. It hums along inoffensively for 2 hours.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
The Children Act (2017) Rhys Tarling The Children Act is something to see on its cast alone. Fortunately the plot is quite interesting on its own as well.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
The Shape of Water (2017) Rhys Tarling Like the best film monsters, it's difficult not to feel some sympathy for him. Because his spiritual rot born out of toxic masculinity began a long time ago and there's nothing he can do about it.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Meal Tickets (2016) Rhys Tarling The film occasionally makes fascinating detours into what's going in the life of Will Stoker as he faces his own artistic dilemmas and demons.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
3/5
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) Rhys Tarling If you're well and truly done with these movies, don't bother checking this one out; it's not exactly a redefinition. It's more of a reprise that sounds better than it has in a long time.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Wonder Woman (2017) Rhys Tarling Gadot - who I'm not yet convinced is a great actor - is one hundred percent perfect in this role, to the extent that it would be a much poorer movie without the zeal and charisma which she brings to the titular Princess of the Amazons.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Get Out (2017) Rhys Tarling Get Out makes imagining such a thing beyond the realm of an intellectual exercise. But by extension this leaves me even more disturbed at the times I tacitly nodded in approval myself. Get Out got under my skin.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Free Fire (2016) Rhys Tarling It's perhaps the only interesting oddity about Free Fire, this unresolved struggle between deathly serious gritty visuals and winking juvenilia. Everything else is competent, diverting enough, but pretty forgettable.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Tower (2016) Rhys Tarling Although Tower is made with consummate skill and artistry that rivals some of the best fictional films of this year, the event it depicts is nothing but the worst nightmare played out in reality.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
I Am Not Your Negro (2016) Rhys Tarling Director Raoul Peck weaves a breathtaking cinematic tapestry. Drawing from old interviews and college lectures, popular movies, blues music, and Baldwin's poetic words, Peck takes us on a tour of history.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
1.5/5
Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) Rhys Tarling I get a little sad when I think what could have been if someone who gave even half a piss about the Transformers was given the creative reigns.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
1/5
The Mummy (2017) Rhys Tarling The Mummy is just dull, lifeless - devoid of human spark. There are no genuine conversations; there are no relationships that even halfway try to convince.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
3/5
American Made (2017) Rhys Tarling American Made occasionally amuses and provokes a hearty guffaw or two by its end. As a biopic it's insubstantial, but as a Tom Cruise vehicle it's alright..
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
1/5
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) Rhys Tarling The fact that it winds up as empty and cynical as any made-by-a-committee movie is what murders it.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
mother! (2017) Rhys Tarling Mother! begins tolerably if uncomfortably, like an itchy scar. The experience of Mother! is the scar widening and deepening with each act of cruelty and bizarre inhumanity until it's overflowing with ooze.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
2/5
Breathe (2017) Rhys Tarling Everybody else is a haze of very British window-dressing and they play their parts without fuss or sentimentality. Lest you construe that as a compliment, I'll make it clear that it's a shame, because a little bit of syrup might've spiced things up.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) Rhys Tarling It's the clinical framing of the violence, it's the unexpected bursts of cruel humour during its most wretched moments, that make you wonder whether you're watching a straightforward morality tale or nihilistic art-house film disguised as a morality tale.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) Rhys Tarling Blade Runner 2049 refines Blade Runner's themes and widens its scope with such immaculate skill and savvy calculation that, ironically, I don't think it could have nearly the same impact as Blade Runner did
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Detroit (2017) Rhys Tarling In the end, it comes off as a stylish but lightweight exercise. This story deserved more.
Posted Sep 26, 2019  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Good Time (2017) Rhys Tarling For the most part, you'll either be rolling your eyes or laughing uproariously. Either way, the final scene, which continues as the credits roll, is so unexpectedly gracious and tender that don't be the least bit surprised if a couple of tears spill.
Posted Sep 26, 2019  Edit critic review
4/5
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) Rhys Tarling Three Billboards humanises vile scumbags without cheaply sanding off their edges or making them strawmen makes it one of the more challenging and rewarding films I've seen in recent memory.
Posted Sep 26, 2019  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Borg vs. McEnroe (2017) Rhys Tarling Danish director Janus Metz helmed Borg McEnroe. He imbues the tennis scenes with idiosyncratic artistry.
Posted Sep 26, 2019  Edit critic review
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