Ben Croll

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IndieWire, TheWrap
For 172 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 56% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 40% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 6.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Ben Croll's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 The Shape of Water
Lowest review score: 10 Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 139 out of 172
  2. Mixed: 29 out of 172
  3. Negative: 4 out of 172
172 movie reviews
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    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    France
    The film isn’t a total wash. Seydoux finds ways to move and emote through her Noh mask, and Dumont finds interesting avenues to explore, tracking the uneasy dance between compassion and commodification when dealing with hot-button stories. Only it’s all too much, too long, too repetitive, too one-note, too contemptuous of the very idea of cinematic pleasure to really land.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    Deception
    Deception, as a novel and as a film, offers a curio for obsessives, a postcard for archivists, and a not-too-interesting bump in the road for everyone else.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    The Story of My Wife
    Like pouring yourself a warm glass of milk or slipping into a hot bath, the languid and visually sumptuous romance lulls you into a sleepy sense of calm, never asking for more than gentle aesthetic appreciation for its impeccable craft.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    It's Only the End of the World
    Dolan shoots in tightly held close-ups, forgoing spatial staging for the immediate pleasures of fabric and light. Whereas similar imagery filled his previous films with energy and life, here it just makes the somber piece feel more claustrophobic and inert.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    Coma
    If, when printed and sent off for posterity, a snapshot like “Coma” offers a small degree of archival value — while answering the question Bonello poses at the start — it might also arrive as a postcard from a time all-too-thankfully gone by.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    Brother and Sister
    Brother and Sister seems more like a retread (and a retreat) than anything that’s come prior, marking a new step forward for the lauded director by taking a disappointing step back.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    Peterloo
    Mike Leigh’s expansive, exhaustive, and extraordinarily thorough portrait of early 19th-century political activism is, to put it one way, deliberate in pace and tone. To put it bluntly — and in an argot more readily familiar to its cast of working-class characters — the film is bloody well dull.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    Waiting for the Barbarians
    It’s all perfectly well-done, and it all recedes into memory the instant you leave the theater.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    A Rainy Day in New York
    For all its stodgy touches, the film itself is like a cast-in-amber relic of the not-so-distant past.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    The Electric Kiss
    Unable to neatly reconcile its two narrative premises, the film loses momentum, pushing well past the brisk runtime and zippy pace this kind of material usually depends on. That overextension also affects tone, as Salvadori never quite settles on how sharp the film should be.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    Marcello Mio
    Those with buy-in might find themselves won over, as, on its own terms, Marcello Mio offers a heartfelt and even occasionally moving show of artistic trust and collaboration, playing as an unambiguous love note from a filmmaker to his favorite star.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Croll
    Hacksaw Ridge
    A blood-soaked, bone-crunching hymn to religious devotion and faith, Hacksaw Ridge doesn’t hum Mel Gibson’s favorite themes; it shouts them.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 45 Ben Croll
    Vivarium
    Feeling simultaneously overstuffed and undercooked, Lorcan Finnegan’s Vivarium tries to ring a warning bell about, well, a lot of things. In the end, though, it works best as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of filmmakers biting off more than they can chew.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 42 Ben Croll
    Victoria and Abdul
    Victoria & Abdul is an otherwise benignly toothless, pleasantly glossy affair, but it does force us to confront one tricky question: When treating a subject as fraught as British imperial rule, when does a film’s benign inoffensiveness become offensive in and of itself?
    • 53 Metascore
    • 42 Ben Croll
    Viceroy's House
    This material could make for a powerful work, but Viceroy’s House is certainly not it.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 42 Ben Croll
    Golda
    Ultimately, “Golda” holds three firm beliefs: That Meir is a leader to admire, that Mirren is an actress to adore, and that all interactions must be reverse engineered to fit this limited scope. It makes for a superficial biopic and blinkered bit of history, but does give the venerable performer a new accent to chew on and the chance to blow some smoke.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 42 Ben Croll
    Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno
    “Mektoub, My Love” is never about anything more than its own style.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Croll
    Orphan
    Immaculate and inert, Orphan plays like a Spruce Goose power ballad too leaden to lift.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 30 Ben Croll
    The Last Face
    A spectacularly misjudged mix of humanitarian intentions and gonzo-terrible execution.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 25 Ben Croll
    The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez
    Wim Wenders’ 3D snoozefest The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez is not a good movie. It’s not a good movie, and at the same time, it doesn’t fail so spectacularly so to provide a compelling secondary reading.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 25 Ben Croll
    Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
    There are sequences and stand-alone shots that will stick with you long after you’ve washed the insipid narration from memory.
    • 10 Metascore
    • 10 Ben Croll
    Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo
    Toxically indulgent ... Add up nothing but the shots of jiggling butts and you’ll have an hour’s worth of footage.
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