98
The Shawshank Redemption review
A banker sentenced to life finds a way to stay human inside a system built to strip that away. Darabont's adaptation is patient, unfashionably sincere…
★★★★★ 5.0/5
Founder & Lead Critic
A. J. Whitlock
A. J. Whitlock founded AJ Movie Reviews after a decade of writing about film for regional publications and a film society newsletter that nobody else wanted to run. He holds a degree in Film Studies and has worked as a projectionist, a cinema duty manager, and a very bad film festival volunteer. His reviews focus on structure, craft, and what a film is actually arguing rather than what it claims to be about.
A review is an argument, not a verdict. If I have not told you what the film is trying to do, I have not done my job.
Specialisms
- Narrative structure and adaptation
- American cinema 1970-2000
- Crime and thriller
- Film preservation and restoration
- 23Reviews published
- 2019Writing here since
- ManchesterBased in
Reviews by A. J. Whitlock
All 23 reviews, highest scored first.
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98
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97
The Godfather review
Coppola turned a pulp bestseller into an American tragedy about the price of inheritance. Fifty years on, the lighting alone still teaches cinematogra…
★★★★★ 5.0/5
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96
Goodfellas review
Thirty years inside the mob, told at a pace that never lets you catch your breath. Scorsese's most complete film and the one that made every other gan…
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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96
Parasite review
A poor family infiltrates a rich household, and the film turns into something else entirely. The staircase motif is not decoration — it is the thesis.
★★★★★ 5.0/5
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96
Seven Samurai review
A farming village hires seven wandering swordsmen to defend it from bandits. Seventy years on, it is still the most influential action film ever made.
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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96
The Dark Knight review
Nolan used a superhero budget to make a Michael Mann-style crime film about the limits of order. Ledger's Joker is the argument, not the decoration.
★★★★★ 5.0/5
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95
Mad Max: Fury Road review
A two-hour chase across a desert wasteland with almost no dialogue and an extraordinary amount of practical stunt work. The best action film of its de…
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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95
Pulp Fiction review
Three stories, shuffled, told with a confidence that independent film had not seen before. The structure is the innovation; the dialogue is the delive…
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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95
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring review
The first and best of the trilogy, and the film that proved a sincere fantasy adaptation could be a serious piece of filmmaking rather than a novelty.
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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95
The Silence of the Lambs review
A trainee FBI agent must earn the cooperation of an imprisoned cannibal to catch an active killer. The film is about being looked at, and it never let…
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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94
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind review
A couple erases each other from their memories after a breakup, and the film follows the erasure from the inside. Kaufman's best script and Carrey's b…
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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94
Whiplash review
A jazz drummer and a conductor engage in a two-hour war of attrition over whether greatness justifies cruelty. The film refuses to answer, which is wh…
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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93
Get Out review
A Black photographer visits his white girlfriend's family estate and slowly realises something is very wrong. Peele's debut is a perfectly engineered …
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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93
Oppenheimer review
Three hours on the man who built the atomic bomb, structured as a legal thriller and shot largely in close-up. Nolan's most mature film.
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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93
Se7en review
Two detectives chase a killer who stages murders around the seven deadly sins, in a city where it is always raining and never gets dark enough to slee…
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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93
The Social Network review
The founding of Facebook told as a deposition drama, with a script that treats every conversation as a battle. Fincher's most perfectly controlled fil…
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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91
The Grand Budapest Hotel review
A legendary concierge and his lobby boy navigate a stolen painting, a family fortune, and the collapse of Europe. Anderson's funniest and saddest film…
★★★★½ 4.7/5
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89
Fight Club review
An insomniac office worker and a soap salesman start a fight club that becomes a movement. The most misread film of its era, and deliberately so.
★★★★½ 4.6/5
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89
La La Land review
A jazz pianist and an aspiring actress fall in love in Los Angeles, and the film builds to a finale that has divided audiences since release.
★★★★½ 4.6/5
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88
Gladiator review
A Roman general is betrayed, enslaved, and fights his way back through the arena. The film that proved the sword-and-sandals epic could still work.
★★★★½ 4.6/5
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88
The Departed review
An undercover cop and a mob mole race to unmask each other inside the Massachusetts State Police. Scorsese's most propulsive late film.
★★★★½ 4.6/5
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87
Forrest Gump review
A man with a low IQ drifts through three decades of American history without understanding any of it. Warm, technically brilliant, and more troubling …
★★★★½ 4.5/5
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84
Joker review
A failed comedian in a decaying Gotham slides into violence. Phoenix is extraordinary; the film around him is derivative and uncertain about what it i…
★★★★½ 4.4/5
Index
Year, genre and score for every review.
| Film | Year | Genre | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Shawshank Redemption | 1994 | Drama | 98 |
| The Godfather | 1972 | Crime | 97 |
| Goodfellas | 1990 | Crime | 96 |
| Parasite | 2019 | Thriller | 96 |
| Seven Samurai | 1954 | Action | 96 |
| The Dark Knight | 2008 | Action | 96 |
| Mad Max: Fury Road | 2015 | Action | 95 |
| Pulp Fiction | 1994 | Crime | 95 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | Fantasy | 95 |
| The Silence of the Lambs | 1991 | Thriller | 95 |
| Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | 2004 | Romance | 94 |
| Whiplash | 2014 | Drama | 94 |
| Get Out | 2017 | Horror | 93 |
| Oppenheimer | 2023 | Biography | 93 |
| Se7en | 1995 | Thriller | 93 |
| The Social Network | 2010 | Biography | 93 |
| The Grand Budapest Hotel | 2014 | Comedy | 91 |
| Fight Club | 1999 | Drama | 89 |
| La La Land | 2016 | Romance | 89 |
| Gladiator | 2000 | Action | 88 |
| The Departed | 2006 | Crime | 88 |
| Forrest Gump | 1994 | Drama | 87 |
| Joker | 2019 | Drama | 84 |
How to reach the team
We answer every substantive email, publish corrections when we get things wrong, and welcome disagreement with our scores. If you think a review misreads a film, tell us why — the argument is more interesting than the verdict.