Jocelyn Noveck

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For 206 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Jocelyn Noveck's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 The Tragedy of Macbeth
Lowest review score: 25 Unhinged
Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 12 out of 206
206 movie reviews
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    The neatest trick is how Barbie, starring a pitch-perfect Margot Robbie — and after a minute you’ll never be able to imagine anyone else doing it — can simultaneously and smoothly both mock and admire its source material. Gerwig deftly threads that needle, even if the film sags in its second half under the weight of its many ideas and some less-than-developed character arcs.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    If people breaking into song delights rather than flummoxes you, if elaborate dance numbers in village squares and fantastical nightclubs and emerald-hued cities make perfect sense to you, and especially if you already love “Wicked,” well then, you will likely love this film. If it feels like they made the best “Wicked” movie money could buy — well, it’s because they kinda did.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    She Said, a worthy entry to a film genre that includes “Spotlight” and of course “All the President’s Men,” isn’t just about the power of journalism. It’s also about courage, from the women who suffered sexual harassment or assault at Weinstein’s hands and came forward at personal risk — to their careers, reputations or well-being.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Hedges is as excellent as he was in “Manchester By the Sea,” but it’s fair to say the movie belongs to Roberts. It’s a career peak, and a performance that deserves to be seen no matter how crowded your holiday moviegoing schedule.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Greyhound is perhaps not so much a thriller as a very spare, economical drama.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Talk about timing. When he began making Little Fish, an intimate and affecting romance in a sci-fi setting, director Chad Hartigan had no idea the world would be coping with a real pandemic in the real 2021. Watching this fictional society begin to fray in panic feels just a tad too close for comfort.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    At one point we get an action-flick style montage, which feels odd, as does the often overly obvious, swelling musical score. It’s hard to go too far wrong, though, with a story as compelling as Tubman’s and an actress as vivid as Erivo.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    [An] absorbing new documentary.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    The story itself is unremarkable, even thin — there are no surprising twists or turns, no big lessons in the script by Nicolaas Zwart — but the relationship at its core is hugely entertaining to watch.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Somehow, this amusingly chaotic mashup of genres finds a way to strike a final note that’s simple and true.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    What “Blonde” IS is ambitious. Far-reaching, at times perhaps too far.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Usually a cinematic heist is spectacular — in its success or its failure. Reichardt has removed all spectacle, telling instead a moody tale of a man who makes a dumb mistake and slowly loses everything, like a tumble down a mountain in slow motion.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Of course, you might ask, at a time of such turbulence in the world, what do 19th century upper-class romantic machinations have to do with, well, anything? To which we say: Whatever! Bring it on. Distract us with your lovely frocks flowing straight from the bosom, your exquisite bonnets with feathers, your real-estate porn in the countryside and your smart dinner-table repartee. We could do a lot worse.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Assuming it’s true, the film is a poignant and moving coda to a career spent chronicling personal indignities amid broader social ills like poverty and unemployment.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    A diversion like Save Yourselves! might just save your week.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    We walk away from this funny, sad, scary film acutely reminded that if fame has two sides, one of them is pretty darned horrible.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    What makes “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” especially enjoyable, then — and the best since the 2001 original — is not that Bridget finds a way yet again to triumph over doubts and obstacles. It’s that she still makes us care so darned much.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    In the Burtonian spirit, let’s just say it took a long time to bake it, yes, but the director has recovered the recipe — at least enough to make us smile, chortle, even guffaw, for 104 minutes. And we can be happy with that.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    By the end of this illuminating film, we’re forced to confront something much deeper and more insidious: society’s need to divide humans into a binary system, and the sometimes disastrous results for those born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that isn’t neatly “male” or “female.”
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    “Let me entertain you,” Williams seems to be screaming through every scene. Mostly, he succeeds.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    It’s an absorbing ride, and Schimberg works with confidence and brio.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    All these elements, wacky or not, come together in a charming mishmash that adds something ultimately very important to the childbirth comedy genre: the message that childbirth is profound, yes, and full of wonder. But also, like life, it can be funny — and a bit of a mess.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Luckily we get to look long and and hard at this Emily, brought provocatively to life by O’Connor and her star. Strange or not, it’s hard to look away.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    What distinguishes this debut feature from Andrew Onwubolu, aka Rapman, is firstly its storytelling structure, making welcome use of the writer-director’s rap talents to serve as a Greek chorus. And secondly its cast, with several vital performances of note, especially from heartbreakingly vulnerable newcomer Stephen Odubola.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    With flashy, colorful and user-friendly graphics, the film traces industry consolidation: the few companies who have 70% of the carbonated drinks market, for example, or 80% of the baby food market. Such realities violate the spirit of antitrust legislation, they argue.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Karam is adapting his own Tony-winning work here, a play inspired by the 2007-2008 financial crisis. In doing so he achieves something quite rare: He makes an intimate and devastating family drama even more intimate and devastating.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    [Michell] imbues his last film with so much charm, wit and good storytelling that he, too, cannot help but win.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    Sincerity is what anchors this film — especially Swinton Byrne’s astonishingly sincere performance.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    The destination may be startling but, thanks to a magnetic star turn from Krieps, the voyage is never boring.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Jocelyn Noveck
    The misunderstandings are too numerous to describe. But the proceedings are beautifully paced, and the movie feels light and airy, like a pleasant dream.

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