There are no directing bells and whistles here, just a grown-up story expertly told.

| Jul 11, 2022

Director Steven Spielberg gives audiences a meticulously composed espionage thriller, which establishes a tense atmosphere from the start and keeps the viewer engaged throughout. [Full review in Japanese]

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 19, 2016

This is a filmmaker with a lifetime of skill and experience, crafting his vintage pictures with style and grace, and we're all better off for it.

| May 3, 2016

Bridge of Spies is a quality film featuring loads of commendable work, but Spielberg's glossy and exceedingly upbeat take on the material might make it more of a crowdpleaser than an Oscar contender.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 23, 2016

Bridge of Spies is a warm portrait of a friendship, an excitingly intricate story of realistically scaled suspense, and a visually ravishing and lovingly crafted rendering of mid-century America, where how you look matters much less than what you do.

| Dec 21, 2015

The genius of the casting is in the contrast: Hanks, the richly sympathetic screen actor, and Rylance, no less colossal a talent but one comparatively untried in cinema.

| Dec 1, 2015

[A] solidly entertaining Cold War thriller.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 1, 2015

An elegant, intelligent slice of popular entertainment that peppers its gripping intrigue with winning wit and humour.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 29, 2015

Bridge of Spies has some hold-ups and blockages. But in the best scenes the traffic flows fluently over the purling, perilous currents of cold war history.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 26, 2015

As a Cold War film, it's strong. As a window into Spielberg's mind, it's essential.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 24, 2015

So godlike is Spielberg's status that we often take his talents for granted. The strange, riveting mix of Bridge Of Spies is another sterling reminder that we shouldn't.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 22, 2015

Bridge of Spies is a heart-on-its-sleeve affirmation of American values -- not in the loaded contemporary sense of the term, but in the way the country was founded on values we have to work and fight to abide by.

| Nov 9, 2015

Authentic re-creations of the period, including duck-and-cover clips about a nuclear holocaust that frightened young students, serve as a reminder of a time, not unlike our own, when the threat of terror kept a steady and disturbing beat.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 6, 2015

Spielberg and Charman frame Donovan as a thin bulwark against the American government's attempts to work around its own supposed ideals at the height of the Cold War.

| Oct 23, 2015

Bridge of Spies connects Cold War paranoia to today's terror. That's a bridge worth building.

| Oct 22, 2015

Bridge of Spies is one of the most dexterous and pleasurable films of the year; a fine example of Spielberg's unique late style, which shows a grasp of viewer psychology any marketing guru might envy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 21, 2015

When all the international parties finally meet up at the shadowy titular bridge, we get to witness humanity - and classic filmmaking - at its finest.

| Oct 19, 2015

When a film is as enjoyable as this one, its timing so sweet, and its atmosphere conjured with such skill, do you really wish to register a complaint? Would it help?

| Oct 19, 2015

Spielberg, never quit making movies, you continue to remind me why I love them.

| Original Score: A | Oct 18, 2015

In Bridge Of Spies, Steven Spielberg finds the perfect use for Tom Hanks' squinty dignity.

| Oct 16, 2015