Dennis Harvey

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Variety
For 1,462 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 48% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 9.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Dennis Harvey's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 57
Highest review score: 100 The White House Effect
Lowest review score: 0 The Hottie & the Nottie
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 560 out of 1462
  2. Mixed: 718 out of 1462
  3. Negative: 184 out of 1462
1462 movie reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror
    A slippery thesis doesn’t detract from the pleasures of this documentary from genre scholar and programmer Kier-La Janisse. She draws on alluring clips from more than 100 films, plus myriad interviews, to survey an alternately lurid and surreal cinematic (as well as television) field of mostly rural tales inspired by traditional superstitions and lore.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Whale Rider
    Combines straightforward coming-of-age narrative with Maori mysticism to most engaging effect.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    The Mill and the Cross
    Neither conventional costume drama nor abstract objet d'art, this visually ravishing, surprisingly beguiling gamble won't fit any standard arthouse niche. Still it could prove the Polish helmer's belated international breakthrough.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 30 Dennis Harvey
    Don't Go
    All this adds up to a big “whatever.” Don’t Go isn’t sure whether it wants to be a frightening fantasy or a poignantly warm-and-fuzzy one.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Boy and the World
    Beyond its sheer, intense variety and ingenuity, Abreu’s animation remains so appealing throughout because it always feels handmade.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Star Maps
    Stays consistently interesting through some risky tonal shifts.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Light From Light
    Neither thriller nor sentimental whimsy, Paul Harrill’s second feature (following 2014’s equally low-key “Something, Anything”) is a quietly matter-of-fact drama that utilizes a “haunting” story hook for non-religious yet affirming ends.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Red Rooms
    In contrast to most movies about serial killers, this one offers nary a glimpse of violence, let alone any wallowing in sadism. Yet somehow that makes it all the more icky — at times the squirm factor is such that you may think no shower could wash a viewer’s taint-by-association away.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    In the Shadow of Beirut
    Despite so much cause for grief, what’s striking about the protagonists is their cordiality and resilient hopefulness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Mickey and the Bear
    Straightforward but skillfully nuanced ... There’s nothing wildly original in form or content to this modest tale. But it’s never obvious or melodramatic, delivering a satisfying degree of emotional resonance while providing James Badge Dale an arresting role as the problematic dad.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Working Woman
    This second narrative feature by Israeli documentarian Michal Aviad is a strong drama that eschews melodramatic contrivance, making its points via cool (yet sometimes squirm-inducing) observation.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Whose Streets?
    Whose Streets? is not a movie intended for those seeking an explanatory recap, let alone “balanced” analysis, of the original case itself. What it does offer, however, is a pulse-taking of one community’s response — variably constructive, occasionally chaotic — to perceived institutionalized abuse by law enforcement.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
    Mixing hilarious standup footage with admiring if not exactly cuddlesome behind-the-scenes glimpses.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
    A sturdy recap of the titular organization’s short, tumultuous history.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Dennis Harvey
    The White House Effect
    Engrossing as well as damning.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Dennis Harvey
    Surfwise
    Somewhat forced happy ending aside, the pic holds together well.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    The Winslow Boy
    Very English, very period and very polite.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Torn
    Though Torn flirts with filmmaking-as-therapy, it doesn’t dig discomfitingly deep.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Chained for Life
    At times Schimberg’s gambits feel too coy, their aim too dry despite the sensational hooks. But more often than not, the immediate impact is engagingly droll, and there’s no questioning the overall adventurousness, confidence and originality.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Searching for Sugar Man
    A winning musical detective story about a failed, forgotten early '70s rocker.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Dennis Harvey
    Home Movie
    A modest charmer.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Black Bear
    This adventurous seriocomedy has enough surprising elements and off-kilter humor to keep one intrigued, even if the payoff is debatable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks
    While best enjoyed by the already converted, it provides enough showbiz insight and interpersonal drama to entertain newbies.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Speak No Evil
    The director shoots and cuts almost every scene so that the most innocuous action seems charged with the expectation that something awful is about to erupt, cranking viewer tension to an unpleasant degree.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    The Green Fog
    If this hour-long collage might fairly be summed up as little more than an inspired goof, of primary interest to cineastes, it’s nonetheless one whose giddy fun will hold up for such an audience through repeat viewings.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story
    Engaging documentary draws on plentiful archival footage and A-list interviewees, and should lure dedicated nostalgists.
    • 5 Metascore
    • 10 Dennis Harvey
    The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence)
    Six just wants to shock, though his imagination is so primitive that the effort is strained and a bit pathetic. Initially abrasive, the whole enterprise grows simply tedious well before the now-epically-scaled titular phenom is unveiled in the prison yard.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Dennis Harvey
    55 Steps
    August, whose English-language films have seldom compared well to his distinguished Scandinavian ones, can’t elevate this material much above the flat, pat TV-movie earnestness it seems content to aim for.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Women Who Kill
    A shaggy, banter-driven quasi-thriller in the mode of “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (or the “Thin Man” movies, for that matter), Women Who Kill offers a drolly amusing, lightly macabre variation on the standard lesbian romantic comedy.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Welcome to Leith
    The conflict between different notions of freedom, law-enforcement problems, and an atmosphere of escalating violent threat make Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker’s documentary as engrossing as a fictional thriller.
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