Andrew Barker

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Variety
For 214 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 40% higher than the average critic
  • 8% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 10.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Andrew Barker's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 55
Highest review score: 100 Newtown
Lowest review score: 0 Mother's Day
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 74 out of 214
  2. Mixed: 107 out of 214
  3. Negative: 33 out of 214
214 movie reviews
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    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Andrew Barker
    Newtown
    Structured more like a requiem than a polemic, the doc ebbs and flows in accordance with the cycles of mourning as it speaks with parents of the murdered children, as well as the teachers, priests, doctors and neighbors afflicted with survivor’s guilt, elegantly and devastatingly capturing the tenor of a small town that will carry these scars for at least a generation.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Andrew Barker
    Never Rarely Sometimes Always
    At once dreamlike and ruthlessly naturalistic, steadily composed yet shot through with roiling currents of anxiety, Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a quietly devastating gem.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Andrew Barker
    The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography
    This portrait of the artist as an old woman is a gentle-hearted gem, as profoundly subtle as it is subtly profound.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Andrew Barker
    Like Crazy
    An exquisite, beautifully acted gem of a film, one that should serve as a prelude to bigger things for stars Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin, as well as director Drake Doremus.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Andrew Barker
    Love & Mercy
    A wonderfully innervating cure for the common musical biopic, Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy vibrantly illuminates two major breakthroughs — one artistic, one personal — in the life of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Andrew Barker
    Win It All
    Funny, warm, and broken-in in all the right ways, Win It All marries Swanberg’s loping, observational style with a plot that wouldn’t have been out of place in an old-school Warner Bros. melodrama, and ends up dealing a surprisingly strong hand.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Andrew Barker
    Finders Keepers
    [A] hysterical, insightful and genuinely empathetic documentary.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Walking Out
    Its unabashedly folky, less-is-more approach proves quietly moving.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Bodied
    Pummeling, overlong, and at times a bit too proud of its own provocations, Bodied is nonetheless a feverishly entertaining spectacle, and Kahn’s willingness to put every liberal piety on the Summer Jam screen proves intoxicating.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Skate Kitchen
    Skate Kitchen has plenty to say about the lengths to which young women must go to clear out a little breathing room in testosterone-heavy spaces, but it is first and foremost an irresistible hangout movie.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Served Like a Girl
    Brassily shot, and assembled with no shortage of energy and humor, Served Like a Girl provides a close, emotionally vivid look at the often ignored female experience of the military.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
    At times there’s a genuine sense of daring to the film’s freewheeling anarchy, its refusal to stick to a central theme or impart any sort of lesson.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Night Owls
    The execution here is impressively adroit, with a clever script enlivened by two charmingly compatible lead performances from Rosa Salazar and Adam Pally.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Their Finest
    Their Finest is the sort of crowd-pleaser that knows the difference between satisfying its viewers and flattering them, all the while showcasing surprising performances from Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin, and an entirely unsurprising one from Bill Nighy — a master scene-stealer pulling off yet another brazen heist.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    A Poem Is a Naked Person
    Even the less immediately engaging material here helps build an uncannily cohesive snapshot of a very specific time and place, and the past decades have only given it a bittersweet edge.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Stray Dog
    Though Stray Dog is slowly paced and at times a bit repetitive, Granik and her crew rarely risk losing their audience’s attention, and they uncover a wealth of images that are alternately striking, symbolic and singular.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Born to be Blue
    Upending the conventions of the musical rise-and-fall formula while still offering a relatively straightforward three-act narrative, the film is anchored by an Ethan Hawke performance that ranks among the best of his career.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    The Light of the Moon
    [ Jessica M. Thompson’s ] simply-structured film is harrowingly effective in its streamlined, low-frills way: sensitive without ever being sanctimonious, brutally frank without ever lapsing into exploitation.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Kill the Messenger
    The film taps into far deeper, richer veins of material than it has the time to properly mine. It’s nonetheless a flinty, brainy, continually engrossing work that straddles the lines between biopic, political thriller and journalistic cautionary tale, driven by Jeremy Renner’s most complete performance since The Hurt Locker.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Hold the Dark
    Boasting the sort of shocking brutality and unnerving menace that has become Saulnier’s signature, Hold the Dark is also a strangely seductive film, and one that understands the difference between simple plot resolution and catharsis, leading us on a journey into Alaska’s frigid heart of darkness that poses more questions than it answers.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Eden
    Hansen-Love, who co-wrote the script along with her former-DJ brother Sven, zeroes in on the signature experiences of ’90s club life with expert precision.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Mr. Roosevelt
    This riotously endearing comedy is substantially funnier, sharper, and more peculiar than that premise is bound to make it sound.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Creed
    With his “Rocky” spinoff, Creed, writer-director Ryan Coogler confirms every bit of promise he displayed in his 2013 debut, “Fruitvale Station,” offering a smart, kinetic, exhilaratingly well-crafted piece of mainstream filmmaking, and providing actor Michael B. Jordan with yet another substantial stepping stone on his climb to stardom.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Brothers Hypnotic
    Lively, funny and at times philosophical, Brothers Hypnotic tackles the challenges of maintaining an independent music career, as well as some knotted generational conflicts, and handles it all with great sensitivity.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Monkey Kingdom
    The eighth entry in Disney’s eco-minded Disneynature series, Monkey Kingdom may well be its cheekiest, funniest and most purely entertaining.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids
    Demme proves he’s still a wily master of the craft, and the director’s work here makes this more than just a fans-only proposition.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Wonder Woman
    Wonder Woman is the first major studio superhero film directed by a woman, and it shows in a number of subtle, yet important ways.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Emma.
    There’s something quite comforting in seeing her (Austen) work returned to a more natural habitat: adapted into handsome, clever, faithfully unambitious films like Autumn de Wilde’s Emma.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Disobedience
    None of these three characters are tidy, but neither is desire, nor faith, nor love, and Lelio resists every opportunity to make them so.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Andrew Barker
    Stronger
    Green looks for small but meaningful ways to complicate and deepen the well-trod story he’s telling, and by the end, those complications help the film earn its uplift.
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