Ben Kenigsberg

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The A.V. Club, The New York Times, Time Out, Time Out London, Variety, Village Voice
For 1,125 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 29% higher than the average critic
  • 7% same as the average critic
  • 64% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Ben Kenigsberg's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 57
Highest review score: 100 The Girl and the Spider
Lowest review score: 0 Date Movie
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 394 out of 1125
  2. Mixed: 595 out of 1125
  3. Negative: 136 out of 1125
1125 movie reviews
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Kenigsberg
    Poupelle of Chimney Town
    Trying to get a read on the film — while admiring its palette and off-kilter character details (Lubicchi has an odd vampire overbite) — keeps “Poupelle” fun for a while. But the film ultimately shies away from its most disturbing ideas, falling back on a comforting sentimentality.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Ben Kenigsberg
    The Velvet Queen
    The movie operates on two basic levels. One is philosophical, as the camera watches two men who are themselves looking through viewfinders experience the sensations of a place where humans rarely disrupt the natural order.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Ben Kenigsberg
    Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss
    “Into the Abyss,” which mixes material from Juice WRLD’s tour stops with interviews and hangout and recording vignettes, isn’t particularly focused.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Ben Kenigsberg
    Joy Womack: The White Swan
    To a degree, Womack’s audacious career path has been shoehorned into a conventional profile format.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Ben Kenigsberg
    Last and First Men
    Johannsson’s stark, uncompromising passion project is always striking to the eye even in moments when the narrative lulls.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Ben Kenigsberg
    The Summit of the Gods
    On limited terms — capturing the physicality of mountain climbing within the ethereal medium of animation — The Summit of the Gods is distinctive.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Ben Kenigsberg
    Keep Sweet
    While the ethical issues of the property situation add complexity, the film’s efforts to balance the arguments on both sides aren’t convincing.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Kenigsberg
    Procession
    To judge Greene’s experiment, not least because of its visible salutary effects, feels like intruding on private breakthroughs. But the discomfiting power of Procession comes from its ability to show and, to all appearances, facilitate them.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Ben Kenigsberg
    3212 Un-redacted
    The lack of labeling only raises questions, slightly marring what otherwise plays like a thorough, outraged exposé.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Kenigsberg
    Mayor Pete
    Showing Buttigieg at one public appearance after another, “Mayor Pete” more often plays like outtakes from the trail than an inside glimpse.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Ben Kenigsberg
    A Cop Movie
    Ambitious, heady and distinctive, if easier to admire in theory than engage with moment to moment, A Cop Movie has a conceptual strangeness that’s difficult to overstate.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 30 Ben Kenigsberg
    Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
    Absent formal rigor, the “Paranormal Activity” concept doesn’t offer much else.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Kenigsberg
    Attica
    There is a fascination in hearing about the logistics of the riot and just how surreal events were for the prisoners.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Kenigsberg
    Ron's Gone Wrong
    As family entertainment, it’s fine.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Ben Kenigsberg
    Pharma Bro
    Hodge is not always on Shkreli’s side, but he appears convinced he’s made a well-rounded portrait, as opposed to a dubious, bottom-feeding, bro-to-bro testimonial.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Kenigsberg
    Old Henry
    Old Henry makes a solid, honorable go of proving once again that the foursquare western isn’t dead, though in paying homage to its forebears, it inevitably stands in their very long shadows.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 Ben Kenigsberg
    No One Gets Out Alive
    The movie has not bothered to connect its ideas.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 20 Ben Kenigsberg
    The Starling
    Blatant product placement, unconvincing bird effects and awful soundtrack selections all undermine a potentially wrenching, difficult premise with utter bogusness.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Ben Kenigsberg
    I Am Not Alone
    The talking heads, who discuss events in the past tense, sap the protest material’s momentum, and a score by Serj Tankian (who appears as a commentator) is unnecessarily manipulative.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Kenigsberg
    The Nowhere Inn
    Formally lively, The Nowhere Inn is a true meta exercise in the sense that the more derivative and self-conscious its conceptual gambits seem (stick around: The reflexivity continues after the end credits), the more it proves its ostensible point.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Kenigsberg
    Dating & New York
    A winning cast helps sell that familiar premise — not just Reale and Young-White, who have definite chemistry and an easy-flowing banter, but also the brassy, scene-stealing Catherine Cohen.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Kenigsberg
    The Alpinist
    The movie could stand to demystify how some of its most terrifying early shots were filmed. (Later on, we’re told Leclerc agreed to carry a small camera himself to shoot part of a conquest in Patagonia.) But it does capture its subject’s philosophy.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Kenigsberg
    The Year of the Everlasting Storm
    The omnibus film The Year of the Everlasting Storm assembles pandemic-made shorts from around the globe. But with just two decent segments out of seven, this anthology uncannily replicates the sensation of feeling trapped.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Kenigsberg
    Worth
    For all the ways in which it might give short shrift to the politics or policy of the fund, Worth is uncommonly moving by the standards of biopics and certainly by the standards of movies that risk addressing 9/11 so overtly.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Ben Kenigsberg
    Kipchoge: The Last Milestone
    The athleticism, physics and what one person calls the “bit of ballet” of the event are all stirring to witness.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Kenigsberg
    No Man of God
    For anyone who has heard audio of Bundy, Kirby’s impersonation will sound chillingly close to the real killer’s deadened, yet at times disturbingly raffish, cadence. Wood is persuasive, too, although Kit Lesser’s script writes the character as a cliché.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Ben Kenigsberg
    Isabella
    While the pieces more or less fall into place, trying to solve the mysteries of Isabella may be missing the point.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Ben Kenigsberg
    Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac
    The new movie is less cohesive than “Biggie and Tupac,” and Broomfield is not suited to documentaries with willing subjects.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Ben Kenigsberg
    The Outsider
    What’s especially peculiar about the focus on Shulan is that, in other respects, The Outsider is an ensemble piece, distributing screen time among a half a dozen people planning for the museum’s opening.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Ben Kenigsberg
    The Meaning of Hitler
    The Meaning of Hitler takes a multifaceted, often counterintuitive approach to examining the underpinnings of fascism.
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