J. Hoberman

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The New York Times, Variety, Village Voice
For 976 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 39% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 58% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

J. Hoberman's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Alphaville
Lowest review score: 0 A Hole in My Heart
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 590 out of 976
  2. Mixed: 312 out of 976
  3. Negative: 74 out of 976
976 movie reviews
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Ocean's Eleven
    The movie is slick and studiously cool -- with plenty of visual flourishes but not too much soul.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Into Eternity
    It is meant to boggle the mind and inspire awe-and it does.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Seabiscuit
    More mystical than mysterious, Seabiscuit is a proudly cornball sentimental epic -- a reverential paean to a vanished America that's steeped in inspirational uplift and played for world-historical pathos.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Rhythm 'n' Bayous: A Road Map to Louisiana Music
    The performances are uneven, but the spirit never flags.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Aliens of the Deep
    Often thrilling almost-feelie.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Raising Victor Vargas
    Tender and funny.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Girl with a Pearl Earring
    Wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and silently beseeching, she's (Johansson) even more a screen for projection here than in "Lost in Translation"; surrounded by a gaggle of over-actors, she glows with understatement.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
    I got a charge out of Going Upriver, but as more than one person has noted, the movie's ideal spectator would be Kerry himself.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    I Vitelloni [re-release]
    Moving from cafés to poolrooms to movie theaters, it's the prototypical male ensemble film.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Morvern Callar
    More engrossing than convincing.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Joe Gould's Secret
    A quietly ambitious, well-wrought, and tastefully poignant treatment of two local literary legends.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Owning Mahowny
    Owning Mahowny shares the earlier ("Love and Death on Long Island") film's crisp precision, but it's a far more rigorously sublimated and abstract account of l'amour fou.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    The Eel
    This simple, sinuous fable may not be among Imamura’s greatest films–it lacks the crazy libidinal energy of The Pornographers or Eijanaika–but it could hardly have been made by anyone else.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Assault on Precinct 13
    A surprisingly credible action flick.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    James' Journey to Jerusalem
    A deceptively modest fable of innocence abroad that resonates with the situation within Israel and without.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Heading South
    An intelligent movie, not so much salacious as affecting but ultimately less analytical than overwrought, Heading South makes its points in the first 20 minutes.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    8 Mile
    Extremely clever in its use of self-deprecation, it's guaranteed to bring down the house at any remotely sympathetic venue.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    The Return
    Primordial and laconic, this remarkably assured debut feature has the elegant simplicity of its title.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Redbelt
    With his 10th feature--an entertaining tale of high-stakes martial arts--Mamet has infused the sleight of hand with a measure of two-fisted action.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Fahrenheit 9/11
    If Moore is formidable, it's not because he is a great filmmaker (far from it), but because he infuses his sense of ridicule with the fury of moral indignation. Fahrenheit 9/11 is strongest when that wrath is vented on Bush and his cohorts.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Downtown 81
    Doesn't dawdle and, despite some eye-rolling dialogue, is a generally amiable time-trip.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Panic
    Steeped in metaphor as it is, Panic offers a more naturalistic analysis of male midlife crisis than the grotesquely overpraised "American Beauty."
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Hellboy
    To his credit, del Toro does not flinch from the ridiculous. But he is equally sensitive to Hellboy's pulp poetry.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    One Hour Photo
    Romanek's movie is a bit too pat and pleased with its undeniable ambitions, but the setup resonates with quiet desperation. There's not a single vicarious glorch.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    We Are What We Are
    This promising first feature is nearly as apt to use the power of suggestion as to ladle up the gore, triumphantly creepy, and just arty enough to have secured a slot in last year's New York Film Festival.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    The Interpreter
    The Kidman character is an exotic--and even unlikely--creature, usefully fueling Penn's annoyed but fascinated incredulity.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    The Secret of the Grain
    Escalates into visceral allegory with an abandon and cruelty that seem positively Romanian. The last 30 minutes more than redeem the preceding two hours.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    The Girlfriend Experience
    Grey isn't the first porn actress to go straight, but she may be the first to allegorize her own situation--projecting an on-screen self-confidence that’s indistinguishable from pathos.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Sicko
    It’s as a rhetorician that Moore is most original and effectively demagogic.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 J. Hoberman
    Kaboom
    Kaboom does have an excellent punchline, although even at 86 minutes it feels too long-mainly because Araki can't help letting his camera linger over his performers. Hard to blame him-he's assembled the best-looking cast in town and it's largely his gaga appreciation that makes the movie so much fun.
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