A.O. Scott

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The New York Times
For 2,141 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 48% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

A.O. Scott's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Crime + Punishment
Lowest review score: 0 Blended
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,187 out of 2141
  2. Mixed: 735 out of 2141
  3. Negative: 219 out of 2141
2141 movie reviews
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    • 63 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Triangle of Sadness
    This, in the end, is a very bad movie, executed with enough visual polish and surface cleverness to fool the Cannes jurors, something Ostlund has done twice. Shame on them! But maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    The Eyes of Tammy Faye
    The Bakkers were many things to many people: appalling, inspiring, laughable, sad. This movie succeeds in making them dull.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Mama Weed
    The list of charges against this watery café au lait of a crime caper is extensive — wearisome ethnic stereotypes, cop-movie clichés, awkward pacing, a labored plot — but the chief transgression is that it wastes the time and talent of one of the supreme screen actors of our time.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    The Woman in the Window
    The result is something that intermittently looks and sounds like a good movie without ever actually being one.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Rebecca
    This Rebecca can’t really suffer in comparison to its predecessor. To suffer it would need nerves, a pulse, a conscience, or at least some idea of its reason for being.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Antebellum
    Written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, and propelled by the charisma of Janelle Monáe, it lines up moments of possible insight and impact and messes up just about all of them.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    The Lovebirds
    Rae and Nanjiani do their best, but neither the dialogue nor the direction serves their talents adequately.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Gemini Man
    The idea of confronting an unknown second self is full of rich, uncanny potential — there’s a literary tradition going back at least to Edgar Allan Poe — but Gemini Man squanders it, along with what might have been two interesting performances.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Joker
    To be worth arguing about, a movie must first of all be interesting: it must have, if not a coherent point of view, at least a worked-out, thought-provoking set of themes, some kind of imaginative contact with the world as we know it. Joker, an empty, foggy exercise in second-hand style and second-rate philosophizing, has none of that.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    The Goldfinch
    It looks and sounds like a movie without quite being one. It’s more like a Pinterest page or a piece of fan art, the record of an enthusiasm that is, to the outside observer, indistinguishable from confusion.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    The Beach Bum
    What The Beach Bum celebrates as transgression is pure tedium. What it takes for divine lunacy is frat house doggerel. The booze flows freely. The women are topless and ornamental. The cars and boats are fast and expensive. There’s nothing much worth writing about.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Miss Bala
    This version, in the dreariest Hollywood-remake tradition, turns a grim, morally ambiguous story into a fable of empowerment. That might be kind of fun if it didn’t feel so tired and timid.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Bohemian Rhapsody
    A baroque blend of gibberish, mysticism and melodrama, the film seems engineered to be as unmemorable as possible, with the exception of the prosthetic teeth worn by the lead actor, Rami Malek, who plays Freddie Mercury, Queen’s lead singer.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Life Itself
    Unreliability is a fascinating and tricky conceit for novelists and filmmakers. It should not be confused with bad writing. There is a lot of that here, and also, to confuse matters further, a lot of good acting.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 20 A.O. Scott
    Just Getting Started
    In spite of the charm and discipline of the stars, the jokes misfire and the scenes creak and stumble.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 20 A.O. Scott
    Geostorm
    Geostorm uses digital technology to lay waste to a bunch of cities and hacky screenwriting to assault the dignity of several fine actors.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Bushwick
    The filmmakers feign boldness in tackling national politics, but revert to coyness and caricature when it comes to local matters, gesturing toward a multiculturalism that isn’t even skin deep and sweeping gentrification under the rug.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 20 A.O. Scott
    Nocturama
    Without a real-world correlative for the actions it depicts, Bertrand Bonello’s new film would merely be tedious and pretentious rather than repellent.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 20 A.O. Scott
    The Mummy
    The “Mummy” reboot from 1999, directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, was kind of fun. Monster movies frequently are. This one, directed by Alex Kurtzman and starring Tom Cruise, is an unholy mess.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 20 A.O. Scott
    Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
    Its pleasures are so meager, its delight in its own inventions so forced and false, that it becomes almost the perfect opposite of entertainment.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 20 A.O. Scott
    Sleepless
    Sleepless, directed by Baran bo Odar, sets a low bar for itself, and then trips over it.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Me Before You
    This floppy British romance, directed by Thea Sharrock and adapted by Jojo Moyes from her best-selling novel, sits at the point where tedium, ridiculousness and heartfelt sentiment converge, separated by an all-but-imperceptible distance.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Nina
    Ms. Mort’s writing lacks psychological texture, and her direction generates little intensity, or even continuity.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 10 A.O. Scott
    The Huntsman: Winter's War
    Its badness is not extreme, but exemplary: It’s everything wrong with Hollywood today stuffed into a little less than two hours.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
    It is about as diverting as having a porcelain sink broken over your head.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Pan
    The dominant emotion in Pan is the desperation of the filmmakers, who frantically try to pander to a young audience they don’t seem to respect, understand or trust.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Brand: A Second Coming
    Brand: A Second Coming wants to tell the story of a man overcoming temptation and trading a shallow approach to life for something more sustaining and profound. It’s undone by its own shallowness, and by the limited appeal of its subject.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    Fantastic Four
    This Fantastic Four, directed by Josh Trank from a script he wrote with Simon Kinberg and Jeremy Slater, feels less like a tale of superhero beginnings than like a very long precredit opening sequence.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 20 A.O. Scott
    Entourage
    You could accuse it of glamorizing the shallow hedonism it depicts, but that charge would only stick if the movie had any genuine flair, romance or imagination.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 A.O. Scott
    San Andreas
    The most disturbing thing about this may be how dull and routine it seems. Computer-generated imagery can produce remarkably detailed vistas of disaster — bridges and buildings collapsing; giant ships flung onto urban streets; beloved landmarks pulverized — but the technology also has a way of stripping such spectacles of impact and interest.
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