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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    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Scrap
    The well-acted, confidently crafted indie Scrap probes messy family dynamics with low-key but taut acuity, avoiding the usual poles of dysfunctional-clan comedy or high drama driven by yelling matches and shocking revelations.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Into the Wild
    Sean Penn delivers a compelling, ambitious work that will satisfy most admirers of the book.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Dennis Harvey
    Miss Juneteenth
    Miss Juneteenth richly captures the slow pace of ebbing small-town Texas life, even if you might wish there were a bit more narrative momentum to pick up the slack in writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples’ first feature.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Out of the Blue
    Chilling, often moving docudrama focuses not so much on the mayhem or murderer, but on the bewildered, occasionally courageous reactions of ordinary citizens caught in the inexplicable violence.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Dennis Harvey
    Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed
    Solid, straightforward docu should prove a durable broadcast and educational item for years to come.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    My Terrorist
    Sometimes first-person to a borderline-indulgent fault, docu still offers potent spur for discussion on the blurry line between forgiveness and tolerance toward terrorism.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Dennis Harvey
    The Toy Soldiers
    The Toy Soldiers sports a basic competence in assembly that slightly elevates its material. The same can’t be said of the performers, though they try, some achieving a semblance of naturalism, others more inept or hammy.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Dennis Harvey
    Madagascar
    Pleasant, if mediocre family fare.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Derrida
    An affectionate but aptly complex view of one of our epoch's great philosophers.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 60 Dennis Harvey
    The Ward
    Fans excited to see John Carpenter back in bigscreen action after nine years' absence will find limited cause for joy in The Ward, a horror opus that briskly -- maybe too briskly -- charts ghostly doings at a nuthouse.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    I Wish You All the Best
    The pleasant, polished drama provides a compassionate take on a high schooler undergoing considerable change, its only debit being the arguably too-neat depiction of that transitional circumstance.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    The Alchemist Cookbook
    This unclassifiable miniature involving a man in a trailer in the woods trying to contact the Dark Lord is as funny and distinctive as it is near-plotless.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Free Chol Soo Lee
    It’s a well-crafted enterprise that leaves its human subject a bit of an enigma, albeit one we empathize with enough to feel sorely disappointed that his tumultuous life never arrived at a place of security or peace.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America
    It does provide engrossing studies in human interest, as well as an empathetic look at the particular struggles of U.S. immigration in the new millennium.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Dennis Harvey
    Once Upon a Time Verônica
    “Veronica” is accomplished in aesthetics if not thematic weight, with a handsome look and some attractive soundtrack choices.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Super Size Me
    Primarily humorous in a believe-it-or-not fashion.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Le Week-End
    Bittersweet, charming yet often very thorny.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    China Blue
    Bleakly Dickensian as all this sounds, much of China Blue is charming, because its subjects are.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Uncle Howard
    This is no starry-eyed, heart-on-sleeve flashback but a low-key, respectful one, no less appealing for its relative reserve.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Zombieland
    Benefiting from the very different but very appealing comedy styles of Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg even when the script's wit runs thin, this should be catnip to jaded genre fans.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    The Corporation
    A surprisingly cogent, entertaining, even rabble-rousing indictment of perhaps the most influential institutional model for our era.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Space Cowboys
    Good escapist entertainment, and the effect is ingratiating.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    Prince Avalanche
    An unconventional, ultimately rather sweet buddy pic that’s an audiovisual treat.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 20 Dennis Harvey
    My Soul to Take
    This dumb, derivative teen slasher movie would be uninspiring coming from any writer-director, let alone one with several genre classics under his belt.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Dennis Harvey
    The Loved Ones
    Transcends mere torture porn -- though there's plenty for the squeamish to squirm over here -- in its deftly controlled mix of empathy, grotesquerie and sardonic humor.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Dennis Harvey
    Miss Meadows
    An eventual retreat into conventional thriller terrain isn’t managed with much panache or tension, and a limp happily-ever-after sequence underlines the pic’s failure to make very much of the twisted-fairy-tale aspect that is its most distinctive element.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Audrie & Daisy
    [A] powerful, well-crafted documentary.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    The Taste of Mango
    "Mango” tells a story that could have been told many different ways. Still, the path chosen feels unique — not least for conveying some awful truths by means palatable even to the most skittish viewer. It’s a peek down a long, dark tunnel that’s nonetheless suffused throughout by the light at its end.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    The Faculty
    Results may not be Nobel Prize material, but they're zesty and cogent.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Dennis Harvey
    Journey's End
    Journey’s End never feels over-talkative, dull or even particularly claustrophobic. Much of the credit goes to the astute writing and punchy yet understated staging. But primarily, the film keeps audiences engrossed in the personalities involved, their fatigue, disillusionment and residual humanity, as well as the tenderness they extend towards one another where needed.
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