About AJ Movie Reviews
We started in 2019 with a simple frustration: most film coverage tells you whether a film is worth watching without ever telling you what it is doing. A score with no argument attached is a recommendation engine, not criticism. So we built the opposite.
Every review on this site runs to roughly six hundred to eight hundred words and covers the same ground in the same order: what the film is about without spoiling it, how it is directed, how it is performed and photographed, what it gets wrong, and a verdict that states our position. If you disagree with a score, the reasoning is right there to argue with.
What we cover
Our library currently holds 31 full reviews across 12 genres, from Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai in 1954 to Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer in 2023. We also publish 4 ranked lists, 6 video episodes with full transcripts, and profiles for 23 directors.
We are deliberately curated rather than comprehensive. Rather than attempting to cover every release, we add films we can say something specific about, and we would rather have forty reviews with arguments than four hundred with scores.
How the site is organised
We structure the site as a map rather than a feed, because films make more sense in context than in chronological order of publication. There are four layers:
- Genre hubs state what a genre is for, what we look for in it, and collect every relevant review with criteria attached.
- Director profiles group films by the person making the decisions, and show how a body of work develops.
- Ranked lists place films against each other inside a defined frame — a decade, or a genre across all time — and explain the ordering.
- Individual reviews carry the detail: plot without spoilers, craft analysis, pros and cons, and a verdict.
Every page links upward to its hub and sideways to related work, so you can move from a single review into a subject without ever landing on a dead end. Our editorial policy explains the standards we hold ourselves to, and how we rate sets out exactly what our numbers mean.
Independence and funding
We do not accept payment for coverage, we do not accept gifts, press trips, or hospitality from distributors, and we do not run sponsored reviews. The site is funded entirely by advertising and by readers. Where a review discusses a film we were given access to in advance, we say so in the review itself.
Our artwork is original. Every poster image on this site is generated by our own design system rather than reproduced from studio marketing material, which is why the collection has a consistent look and why we never need to use a copyrighted still.
Who writes here
Two critics write for AJ Movie Reviews. Full profiles, specialisms and complete review lists are on each author page.
Corrections
If we get a fact wrong, we fix it and note the change at the foot of the review. If you think we have misread a film, write to us — we publish the more interesting disagreements. Our full policy is set out in our editorial policy.
Start reading
The genre hubs are the best entry point. Each one explains what a category is for before it lists anything.