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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    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Higher Ground
    There is something remarkable - you might even say miraculous - about the way Higher Ground makes its gentle, thoughtful way across the burned-over terrain of the American culture wars.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Dead for A Dollar
    It’s solidly and proudly a B picture, as the Boetticher dedication makes clear. But in an age of blockbuster bloat and streaming cynicism, a solid B movie — efficiently shot (by Lloyd Ahern II) and effectively acted (by everyone) is something of a miracle. Hill had a job to do. He did it. That’s worth something.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    The Land of Steady Habits
    Even though Anders and the people around him can be sorted into recognizable types (a fault, mostly of Mr. Thompson’s book), they are also amusing and awful in ways that can feel disconcertingly real.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Suffragette
    Suffragette is an admirably modest movie. It does not quite have the grandeur and force of “Selma,” and the script has a few too many glowingly emotive speeches. The final turns of the tale are suspenseful, but also a bit frantic. But it is also stirring and cleareyed — the best kind of history lesson.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Merci Pour Le Chocolat
    Mr. Chabrol's droll assault on petit-bourgeois security feels like a satire of "Ordinary People" directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Wonder Woman
    Its earnest insouciance recalls the “Superman” movies of the ’70s and ’80s more than the mock-Wagnerian spectacles of our own day, and like those predigital Man of Steel adventures, it gestures knowingly but reverently back to the jaunty, truth-and-justice spirit of an even older Hollywood tradition.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Days of Glory
    It is a chronicle of courage and sacrifice, of danger and solidarity, of heroism and futility, told with power, grace and feeling and brought alive by first-rate acting. A damn good war movie.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Police, Adjective
    So much in this meticulous and moving film is between the lines, and almost nothing is by the book.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Mille soleils (A Thousand Suns)
    Heartbreaking and thought-provoking, Mille Soleils traces connections between Senegal’s past and present, and reflects on a cinematic legacy that remains insufficiently appreciated, in the West and perhaps also in Africa.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    The Time That Remains
    The Time That Remains has the scope of a historical epic with none of the expected heaviness.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    The Nightingale
    This is a difficult movie because the questions it raises are not easy. There are sentimental and reassuring movies about vengeance, and comforting stories about the resistance to historical oppression. This isn’t one of those. You might say it’s too angry. Or too honest.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Samsara
    A spool of arresting, beautifully composed shots without narration or dialogue, Samsara is an invitation to watch closely and to suspend interpretation (another notion Sontag might have approved).
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Marie Antoinette
    A thoroughly modern confection, blending insouciance and sophistication, heartfelt longing and self-conscious posing with the guileless self-assurance of a great pop song. What to do for pleasure? Go see this movie, for starters.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Julieta
    Julieta is scrupulous, compassionate and surprising, even if it does not always quite communicate the full gravity and sweep of the feelings it engages.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Lambert & Stamp
    A loving, freewheeling new documentary by James D. Cooper, tells this origin story with panache and nostalgia.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Ford v Ferrari
    Ford v Ferrari is no masterpiece, but it is — to invoke a currently simmering debate — real cinema, the kind of solid, satisfying, nonpandering movie that can seem endangered nowadays.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Late Night
    Every time you think Late Night is settling into familiar tropes — about workplace politics, mean bosses, long marriages, fish out of water, bootstraps and how to pull them — it shifts a few degrees and finds a fresh perspective.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Strike
    Schlöndorff calls the film "a ballad inspired by true events," and its occasional bouts of clumsiness and sentimentality are inseparable from its power.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Howl
    Not quite a biopic, not really a documentary and only loosely an adaptation, Howl does something that sounds simple until you consider how rarely it occurs in films of any kind. It takes a familiar, celebrated piece of writing and makes it come alive.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Séraphine
    The mystery of Séraphine de Senlis -- who died in a mental hospital in 1942 and whose work survives in some of the world’s leading museums -- is left intact at the end of Séraphine. Rather than trying to explain Séraphine, the film accepts her.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Terror's Advocate
    It is one of the most engaging, morally unsettling political thrillers in quite some time, with the extra advantage of being true.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Black and Blue
    Its pulpy pop-cultural credibility is inseparable from its honest, brutal assessment of the state of the world. Its ideas about the nature and limits of heroism — about just how hard and terrifying the resistance to evil can be — are spelled out in vivid black and white.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    A Ciambra
    Mr. Carpignano has a shrewd sense not only of the character’s psychology, but also of the audience’s expectations, and our tendency to confuse realism with magical thinking.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Down with the King
    The trait Down With the King exhibits most powerfully is patience, something in short supply in modern cinema or, for that matter, the modern world.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    In Between
    In Between, Ms. Hamoud’s debut feature, is an unusually welcoming and engaging film, inviting you to become a part of the circle of friends it depicts with such energy and warmth. For that reason, it can also be frustrating.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    In Between Days
    Sensitive, modest, thrillingly self-assured first feature by So Yong Kim, was one of the standouts of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival -- exactly the kind of thoughtful, independent work one hopes to find there and too rarely does.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Suddenly
    When Suddenly finds its soul in the last half-hour, the title begins to make a lovely sort of sense.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Iraq in Fragments
    From 300 hours of material, Mr. Longley has created a collage of images, sounds and characters, an intimate, partial portrait of an unraveling nation -- a portrait that gains power partly by virtue of its incompleteness.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 A.O. Scott
    Maggie's Plan
    Ms. Miller’s choices are hard to argue with. She steers gracefully through a zigzagging plot, slowing down for quiet, contemplative stretches and pausing for jokes that are irrelevant but irresistible. She finds a tricky balance of farce, satire and emotional sincerity, a way of treating people as ridiculous without denying them empathy.
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