"subtle critique" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe a critique that does not immediately appear to be one but, upon further inspection, has an underlying critical message. For example, "His poem, a seemingly lighthearted story about a summer camp, was actually a subtle critique of society's lack of support for the poor."
— was a subtle critique of a call for new anti-abortion laws.
It will be largely written up by the press as a (not especially subtle) critique of Ed Miliband.
I suspect Maltzan intended this to be seen as a subtle critique of the Modern's current expansion into marketing.
Its success is a subtle critique of America's longstanding policy in the Middle East of trying to isolate and ostracize its enemies.
She exhorted young people to educate themselves and "build a country worthy of your boundless promise" — an uplifting message that included a subtle critique.
Ostensibly about football, it is really a meditation on memory, bereavement and loss – and a subtle critique of the self-serving Sixties.
His best comedies provide subtle critiques of urban mores, combining laughter with tragic foreboding (La dama duende [1629; The Phantom Lady]).
His dictatorship was inimical to literary expression, yet Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare has produced marvellously subtle critiques of Hoxha even under his censorship.
As might be expected, early complaints came from poor places which felt they were being singled out by an organisation that reflected the ethos of wealthy countries.Now there are more subtle critiques, too.
Although Paul Hollander's essay is one of the more subtle critiques of anti-Americanism in his book, it nonetheless misrepresents its object, underestimating the very real role that the Bush administration has played in generating the current global spasm of hatred for the United States.
In fact, the more subtle critiques of ideology grasp the extent to which both liberation and manipulation can be embodied in the law.
