David Sims

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The Atlantic, The A.V. Club
For 469 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 47% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

David Sims' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 One Battle After Another
Lowest review score: 10 Dolittle
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 316 out of 469
  2. Mixed: 104 out of 469
  3. Negative: 49 out of 469
469 movie reviews
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    • 64 Metascore
    • 65 David Sims
    Kinds of Kindness
    I enjoyed plenty of its nearly three-hour run time, suffered through other parts, and was practically praying for the credits by the end. Most of all, I salute Lanthimos for getting back to his freaky roots, only this time on American soil.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 95 David Sims
    Janet Planet
    What impressed me most about Janet Planet is what a work of cinema it is, visually alive and inventive even with a small budget and fairly languid plotting pace.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 David Sims
    Inside Out 2
    Although it’s often charming and relatable, it’s a letdown when you consider the heights such a project could reach.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 65 David Sims
    The Watchers
    The Watchers is carefully paced, character-focused, and quite sincerely emotional, interested less in the manner of the scares and more in how they’re affecting the ensemble gathered in the woods.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 David Sims
    In a Violent Nature
    There are no quick cuts here, no goofy ways of hiding gore from the audience: Nash wants the viewer to engage with the pure terror of what’s going on just as much as he wants them to sit in the tedium of it.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 85 David Sims
    Hit Man
    It’s also just a sexy, fun movie for grown-ups that believes in its story rather than empty spectacle. . . this is a rare romantic comedy to see with a roaring crowd.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 David Sims
    Challengers
    Challengers is a great example of how a director can temper his preoccupations just a little in order to reach beyond the art-house crowd.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 85 David Sims
    La Chimera
    I’d forgive anyone for thinking this all sounds a little too precious, but that’s Rohrwacher’s storytelling skill: She can make such a fairy tale feel familiar without sapping it of its dreamlike charm.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 55 David Sims
    Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
    The result is a functional if unspectacular film that makes no outsize effort to speak to cultural conversations around the movie.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 65 David Sims
    Immaculate
    It’s a straightforward piece of genre silliness, an 89-minute thrill fest crammed with the requisite jump scares and creepy religious imagery. But it’s also part of a larger body of evidence that Sweeney, unlike the guileless characters she often portrays, is carefully constructing her career in ways that suit her skill set.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 David Sims
    Civil War
    As with all of his movies, Garland doesn’t provide easy answers. Though Civil War is told with blockbuster oomph, it often feels as frustratingly elliptical as a much smaller movie. Even so, I left the theater quite exhilarated.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 65 David Sims
    Love Lies Bleeding
    That willingness to shock sets Love Lies Bleeding apart from a lot of other neo-noirs, where cool, smoky restraint is the norm.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 95 David Sims
    Dune: Part Two
    Villeneuve’s film is a grand success, working on an even broader canvas than the first Dune—but it’s tinged with deep mournfulness, a quality that sets it apart from its blockbuster contemporaries.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 David Sims
    Drive-Away Dolls
    Running only 84 minutes long and stuffed with chaotic plot twists, Drive-Away Dolls is a perfect winter trifle.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 10 David Sims
    Madame Web
    I almost admire the sheer lack of effort on display in the acting, storytelling, and set pieces. To say that Johnson in particular phoned this performance in would be an insult to Alexander Graham Bell.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 85 David Sims
    Godzilla Minus One
    It’s scary. I’ve seen plenty of Godzilla movies and enjoyed most of them, but the title character has rarely been so frightening to behold.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 45 David Sims
    Argylle
    It’s all perfectly agreeable nonsense.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 David Sims
    The Iron Claw
    It’s rich with feeling, shrouded in darkness, but not despairing as it digs into the trials the Von Erichs faced, without merely dismissing the family as cursed.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 David Sims
    Wonka
    Wonka is saccharine, yes, but if you’re going to indulge, it’s better to be in the hands of a master confectioner.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 95 David Sims
    The Boy and the Heron
    What’s important is that the film is alive and awake with energy. This is no marble mausoleum of a movie—it’s more of a bold reinvention than a somber farewell.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 David Sims
    Napoleon
    How Scott is able to pump out these grandiose set pieces with such practiced ease (and a little CGI embellishment) is beyond me; he remains one of Hollywood’s finest craftsmen of action sequences, and I’ll miss him when he’s gone.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 David Sims
    Maestro
    It’s a celebration of the man, but also a quiet tragedy, with many regrets piling up to a muted and devastating conclusion.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 25 David Sims
    Next Goal Wins
    It’s undeniably the worst film Waititi has ever produced, a hash of lazy jokes and “random” humor centered on one of the most uncomfortable lead performances I’ve ever seen in a comedy.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 95 David Sims
    Fallen Leaves
    Again, Fallen Leaves is a comedy, and a consistently funny one, even if most of its laugh lines are gruffly delivered.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 55 David Sims
    Nyad
    By making Nyad a narrative film, the movie succumbs to a lot of boring biopic-storytelling shorthand; Nyad sometimes states her goals and fears aloud in the middle of conversation. Much of the thuddingly expositional dialogue cannot escape the sense that it sprouted from an expanded Wikipedia page.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 David Sims
    Dream Scenario
    Dream Scenario morphs from a Charlie Kaufman–esque cringe comedy into a simmering nightmare thriller, staging some genuinely unsettling hallucinations but failing to knit them into any larger narrative.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 David Sims
    The Holdovers
    A few belly laughs abound, but it’s the deep care for its characters that makes The Holdovers really sing.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 David Sims
    The Killer
    Although The Killer is a crisply told piece of pulpy neo-noir, it also has an element of self-parody to it, laying out a consummate professional’s precise process and then dashing it into chaos at every chance.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 85 David Sims
    Anatomy of a Fall
    Triet skillfully spins the viewers’ sympathy into a worst-case scenario, literally putting these feelings on trial, and it serves to compound the excitement. It’s a simple question, really: What if a domestic drama got crossed with a courtroom thriller? Anatomy of a Fall is the glorious answer.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 30 David Sims
    The Exorcist: Believer
    The Exorcist: Believer brushes up against an interesting notion—this time, the Catholic Church refuses to approve an official exorcism, citing concerns over the safety of the procedure. But the end result is not much different; it’s still a bunch of adults standing in a room yelling prayers and exhortations at possessed girls.
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