Dana Stevens

Select another critic »
Slate, The New York Times
For 1,386 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Dana Stevens' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 Killers of the Flower Moon
Lowest review score: 0 Sorority Boys
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 783 out of 1386
  2. Mixed: 462 out of 1386
  3. Negative: 141 out of 1386
1386 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Lantana
    Astonishingly well acted film, so much so that it seems unfair to single out any of the performances. Mr. Lawrence's camera sense is as sure and unobtrusive as his feel for acting. The movie just seems to happen, to grow out of the ground like a thorny plant, revealing the intricate intelligence of its design only in hindsight.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Ghost World
    It's surely the best depiction of teenage eccentricity since "Rushmore," and its incisive satire of the boredom and conformity that rule our thrill-seeking, individualistic land, and also its question-mark ending, reminded me of "The Graduate."
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Almost Famous
    What Mr. Crowe has done is nonetheless remarkable. He has made a movie about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll that you would be happy to take your mother to see.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Les Destinées
    Like a good novel, Les Destinées is many things: a family chronicle, a series of psychological portraits, a sumptuous re-creation of the past. But the film is also a pointed tribute to the French tradition of quality and distinction, a tradition in which it clearly includes itself.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    The Kids Are All Right
    The movie we've been waiting for all year: a comedy that doesn't take cheap shots, a drama that doesn't manipulate, a movie of ideas that doesn't preach. It's a rich, layered, juicy film, with quiet revelations punctuated by big laughs.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    The Babadook
    The Babadook creates tension not with jump scares or chase sequences but with judicious editing and slow-burn suspense—that is, until it descends into a final half-hour of harrowing emotional and physical intensity, an extended climax that made me gasp aloud, hide my eyes, and weep at least twice.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Force Majeure
    As the couple’s widening rift exposes the gender and class assumptions that underlie their marriage... Force Majeure morphs into a biting critique of modern masculinity, of traditional parenting roles, and possibly of the institution of marriage itself.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    The LEGO Movie
    A clever, vividly imagined, consistently funny, eye-poppingly pretty and oddly profound movie … about Legos.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
    Stupendously entertaining.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Mr. Turner
    Mr. Turner does resemble "Topsy-Turvy" in its meticulous yet vibrant recreation of the past and its ever-expanding thematic amplitude. This is a movie not only about one particular artist, but about art as both a field of human endeavor and an object of shifting cultural and economic value.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Mystic River
    Mystic River is the rare American movie that aspires to -- and achieves -- the full weight and darkness of tragedy.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Dana Stevens
    Carol
    The director Todd Haynes and the novelist Patricia Highsmith fit together like a hand and glove - a beautifully manicured hand and a sleek gray-green leather glove, two images that figure prominently in Carol.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Freaky Friday
    Since her character wears no historical costumes and suffers from no debilitating ailment, it is likely that Ms. Curtis will be overlooked when Oscar season rolls around. This is a shame, since it is unlikely that any other actress this year will match the loose, energetic wit she brings to this delightful movie.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    The Son
    To call The Son a masterpiece would be to insult its modesty. Like the homely, useful boxes Olivier teaches his prodigals to build, it is sturdy, durable and, in its downcast, unobtrusive way, miraculous.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    The Agronomist
    It seems almost unthinkable that such a charismatic, generous and lively man could be gone. It also makes you understand what it means for a country like Haiti to lose a citizen like Jean Dominique.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Toy Story 3
    A near-perfect piece of popular entertainment, a children's classic.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Godzilla Minus One
    Come for the skyline-destroying radioactive dino, stay for the delicately etched portrait of recovery and self-forgiveness. Or vice versa. Just don’t miss the chance to remind yourself why the world fell for Godzilla in the first place.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Lawless Heart
    By allowing the stories to play off one another and allowing layers of meaning to accumulate before we even notice them, the filmmakers capture some of the essential strangeness of life -- the way our relations are governed by laws that remain invisible to us until art reveals their workings.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Memento
    A brilliant feat of rug-pulling, sure to delight fans of movies like "The Usual Suspects" and "Pi."
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    No
    It’s the rare political satire that can sound the depths of irony as No does and still end on a note of ambivalent hope.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Sweetgrass
    Though Sweetgrass has moments of great beauty, the film is never nostalgic or idealizing about its human or ovine subjects. It shows the relationship of human and domesticated animal—and the relationship of both to nature—as a productive and symbiotic yet often brutal struggle.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    The Wrestler
    The Ram is sometimes--often, even--a manipulative, self-pitying man, but Rourke and Aronofsky paint his portrait with a rigorous dignity.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Ten
    A work of inspired simplicity.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Jafar Panahi's Taxi
    Taxi is a subversive piece of underground filmmaking; for all its lighthearted banter and formal playfulness, the film maintains an undercurrent of anxiety and danger.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Son frère
    Stringent, clinical and almost unbearably moving.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
    You realize you are witnessing a psychodrama of novelistic intricacy and epic scope.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Metropolis (re-release)
    Metropolis retains its power to overwhelm, trouble and move because it is connected to the deep anxieties of modern life as if by a high-voltage cable.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    The Brutalist
    The magisterial (yet also often funny) performances from virtually every member of the cast, the rigor which with it explores complex characters and ideas, and the sheer painterly beauty of its compositions make this one of the few movies this year I almost immediately went back to see for a second time.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Avatar
    Is it or is it not stupendously friggin' rad? And the answer is yes. For most of the first hour, a good portion of the second, and even many of the 40 minutes left after that, Avatar is stupendously friggin' rad.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Dana Stevens
    Madadayo
    It's not one of Kurosawa's great films.... But it is, within its own proportions, nearly perfect.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »