John Anderson

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Los Angeles Times, Variety, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
For 559 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 40% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

John Anderson's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Museo
Lowest review score: 0 Bio-Dome
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 322 out of 559
  2. Mixed: 197 out of 559
  3. Negative: 40 out of 559
559 movie reviews
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    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Notebook
    The taste with which one is left is not savory, exactly, but it certainly lingers.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Kings of Summer
    [The Kings of Summer] is much more interested in the laughs that can be mined from character rather than plot. Galletta’s script, Vogt-Roberts’ direction and the distinctive play of the actors, notably Offerman and Mullally, lets the viewer know who everyone is right away, and the gag lines flow.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Lucy The Human Chimp
    Lucy the Human Chimp is a creative assemblage of sundry parts: The archival footage, of which there is a wealth; the news coverage given Lucy when she was a celebrity; and extensive restagings and re-enactments, a device that in many documentaries is either stiff or profoundly unreal but under Alex Parkinson’s direction—and with Lorna Nickson Brown in the role of Janis Carter—rings true.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Unfrosted
    Unfrosted is a bonbon, a truffle, a trifle and a distraction from dispiriting news and disappointing drama upon which one can gorge as if it were a package of Fig Newtons. No, too healthy: Honey Smacks.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Master of Light
    Master of Light is a film not just about art and redemption but a character sorting out his life, and what he truly believes about art.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Wish You Were Here
    Despite its dubious inhabitants, the film consistently entertains by throwing the kinds of curves one should see coming but doesn’t.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Circumstance
    This is a movie about longing, desire, desperation and the abandonment of principle - quite a collection of themes, all universal.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Last Looks
    Mr. Hunnam is a charismatic center of attention, Ms. Baccarin perhaps more so for some of us, and Mr. Gibson, though doled out sparingly, is deftly funny.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Brighton Rock
    The film is almost distractingly beautiful to look at, something that accentuates the tension between the film's conflicting quantities, i.e., the glories of the physical world, and the corrupted humanity it hosts.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Our Idiot Brother
    Goofily funny, and silly, and in many ways follows the currents of contemporary comedy into the gulf stream of inanity. And yet Ned turns out to be a strangely moving figure, a comic foil worthy of affection, perhaps even respect.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Together Together
    Sweet, funny, a little melancholy and a little obvious.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Metal Lords
    A romance, bromance and good-natured send-up of teenage obsession.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Jerry West: The Logo
    “The Logo” is directed by “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris, who is too much of a presence in his own movie. It’s his first documentary. It may be the first one he’s seen. Documentarians usually hide themselves unless they have something to add, which he doesn’t.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Carry-On
    With Taron Egerton as its hero and Jason Bateman as its villain, it is a perfectly serviceable two hours of action and angst
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Convergence: Courage in a Crisis
    It’s a humanistic endeavor, essentially, out of which emerge memorable people doing heroic work in inglorious places.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    BS High
    The lack of oversight revealed in BS High is appalling—Ben Ferree, a former investigator for the Ohio High School Athletic Association, is one of the film’s biggest assets, a somewhat removed, detail-oriented observer who debunks Mr. Johnson’s claims at every turn.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    I Came By
    Mr. Bonneville, having a well of viewer good will on which to draw, makes a perversely convincing villain, the extent of whose offenses are progressively appalling.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Depraved
    If Mr. Fessenden had a gospel to preach it would be about the virtues of low-budget, intellectually rigorous, topical, mayhem-rich movies. Of which Depraved is a perfect example.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    We Are Freestyle Love Supreme
    Mr. Miranda may be the drawing card of We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, but director Andrew Fried has made a documentary about friends, rhythm and, in every sense, time.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery
    Ms. McDonald resorts to some rather standard practices—fleeting graphics, subtitles and numbers—but the strength of the movie is its interviewees, including journalists Joe Castaldo, Alexandra Posadzki (“There was no plan. Why was there no plan?”) and Amy Castor, as well as Taylor Monahan of the crypto service MyCrypto.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Queen & Slim
    In Queen’s case, this means a tiger-striped stripper dress and snake-print go-go boots, which she will wear for the rest of the movie. It makes for terrific visuals, but like the sex scene to come it’s not a dignified enough use of this actress, and makes a blaxploitation film out of something that seemed to harbor loftier ambitions.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary
    “Yacht Rock” is the yacht rock of documentaries.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Grey
    Mr. Carnahan has till now been pigeonholed, and rightly, by comedy shoot-'em-ups like "Smokin' Aces" and "The A-Team." But here he is with The Grey - certainly an adventure film but one with a spiritual ingredient that is both surprising and fiercely resonant.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    America: The Motion Picture
    One of the funny things about America: The Motion Picture—not all of which is screamingly funny—is that the more you know about America’s past, the more amusing it probably is (the past and the film).
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Meaning of Hitler
    This ambitious and mutedly angry film also assumes an ironic tone in examining the Hitler phenomenon from angles political, sociological, psychological and, very intriguingly, cinematic.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Mr. Harrigan's Phone
    Stephen King fans will respond immediately to the atmosphere writer-director John Lee Hancock creates at the outset of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone—a world of perpetual autumn and incipient unease, a white-clapboard Maine where the chill gets into the bones and the soul.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    #Skyking
    While Ms. Gillespie can’t solve the mystery of why exactly her subject did what he did, she has created a novel kind of crime film, one aided in no small way by what seems to be the complete flight recording from Russell’s mad act. And a group of loved ones willing to listen to it.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Old Dads
    The writing sometimes collapses into overkill, but sometimes it is precisely on point.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
    Helmers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin... don’t quite get to the issues behind the trio’s infamous performance at the historic Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow last year, but the young women’s vulnerability and defiance make for stirring viewing.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn
    A rehashing of decades-old race relations in New York, or anywhere in America, might seem superfluous given more recent events, but Mr. Muhammad’s point isn’t to stir up anger. It’s to decry damage—the waste of a promising young life and the collateral wreckage visited upon a family and friends.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Your Place or Mine
    We can all see where this is going. In fact, if it didn’t go there we’d feel cheated, even though the route—as navigated by writer-director Aline Brosh McKenna, who wrote “The Devil Wears Prada” and co-created “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”—is as roundabout as the performances and casting are straightforward.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    After the Bite
    There are clashes of philosophy and practical action that need sorting out, and After the Bite treats both sides with respect.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Charlie Victor Romeo
    The screenwriter/playwrights have processed the characters’ last words in ways that imbue them with as much humanity as possible.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Get Away
    Cheerfully horrifying.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal
    There are degrees of villainy in “Operation Varsity Blues,” but it’s hard to peg the privileged, bribe-paying parents as the worst of a bad lot. Besides, they have to live not just with their criminal convictions but with those wiretapped conversations, in which they reveal what they really think of their own children.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Citizen K
    As constructed, Citizen K serves as a briskly paced primer into all things Putin, Russian and, incidentally, Khodorkovskian.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Adrienne
    It’s also a film made by her grieving husband. On paper, it shouldn’t work at all. It works measurably better on screen.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Frankenstein
    Is this movie better seen in a theater than at home on Netflix? Yes, no and what can one say? Watch it anyway.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    One to One: John & Yoko
    Musically, the film is best viewed and heard as an artifact.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Just Mercy
    The pacing is good, the atmosphere authentic, and even the paperwork — which is where the real revolutions in law occur — has a certain kinetic quality to it. And while viewers might think they know where the film is going, and what the payoff is going to be, they’ll still be caught off guard emotionally.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse
    “Disaster Is My Muse” differs from other “American Masters” programs by having a subject who is alive, well, loves his wife, Françoise (who appears frequently and to great effect), and about whom there is a more than generous amount of documentation (as in drawings) and footage.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Les Misérables
    An eager, earnest, broadly constructed pageant of ideas and characters whose greatest asset may be the service it pays to literature. [01 May 1998, p.F1]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The House of Yes
    In addition to its terrifically bratty performance by the epically bratty Posey, House of Yes contains some of the smarter (and smarter-assed) writing of the year.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Small Axe: Mangrove
    It’s unclear what if anything Mr. McQueen or his co-writer, Alastair Siddons, lifted from judicial transcripts, but the inherent boundaries of a courtroom help give more shape and momentum to the storytelling. The setting also allows the characters to stop telling each other things they’d never say.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Titan: The OceanGate Disaster
    Director Mark Monroe’s nearly two-hour Titan: The OceanGate Disaster is the most exhaustive exploration thus far.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Sister
    Likely to create considerable nervous tension among viewers who think they've seen this all before. They haven't.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Extra Man
    Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini show the same appreciation for eccentrics and humanity they brought to "American Splendor" and Mr. Dano's Louis is a delicately wrought wonder.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Butter
    The film grows increasingly mirthful as the characters come into focus, and the casting is the key: Ms. Garner, who also helped produce the film, has a gift for catty roles, and Ms. Wilde is so funny she should play hookers all the time.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    St. Vincent
    Naturally, Mr. Murray is a joy to watch. And he has brought so much joy to so many grumpy people he deserves whatever accolades he can accrue, even for a career-assessment comedy like St. Vincent.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Accountant
    An effective and even affecting pop thriller.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    While We Watched
    He may not be the most charismatic news anchor in the history of TV but Mr. Kumar has nerve, arguing with bellicose callers, singing to them while they rant (and promise to kill him) and sometimes getting them to sing along. As captured by Mr. Shukla, he also works tirelessly on behalf of something that you suspect wouldn’t be quite so despised if it weren’t also the truth.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    A Million Miles Away
    Writer-director Alejandra Márquez Abella never makes the slightest suggestion that José isn’t going to get where he’s going, but neither does she make A Million Miles Away into any kind of ethnic agitprop.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Pandora's Promise
    Some parts of the film are drily academic, but much of it is quite beautiful and artfully put together by the director.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Elysium
    Mr. Damon brings both a weary optimism and convincing physicality to Max, who is no revolutionary. He just wants to live, and is willing to don an exoskeletal combat suit and fight robots to do it.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    White Bird in a Blizzard
    White Bird in a Blizzard is an alibi for Mr. Araki to flex his considerable muscle as a visual artist, using a palette that ranges from the blissful to the grotesque, and an atmospheric score by those eminences of the ambient, Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Desierto
    It’s a nail-biter, a solid thriller, an immigration-themed takeoff on that old chestnut “The Most Dangerous Game,” in which humans are both predator and prey. It’s not particularly nuanced. In fact, its lack of nuance is its most distinguishing characteristic.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
    Ms. Newton is the kind of performer who seizes one’s attention immediately; Mr. Allen is, by nature of the story, relegated to more of a supporting role as the narrative progresses, but he’s an amiable presence.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Joy
    Ms. McKenzie is terrific and carries much of the film, and director Taylor (“Sex Education”) seizes every opportunity to adorn it with period flavor, portraying Manchester and a Manchester hospital as they were 50 years ago.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Faye
    We are set up to dislike her, but we do not. We like her very much, despite, or thanks to, the potent sense of diva that lingers in the air.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Honor Society
    Ms. Rice (“Mare of Easttown”) is the main attraction, and a revelation; her direct address of the camera grows less frequent as present-tense time catches up with her schemes, but she remains magnetic throughout.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Surveilled
    What Mr. Farrow does in his very concise, urgent documentary is track how governments and worse are using, abusing and will continue to employ technology by which they can pickpocket your personal data.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Thursday Murder Club
    It’s easy to smile at The Thursday Murder Club, with its veteran performers chewing the scenery and still having the teeth to do it. Does that sound ageist? It might, if the charms of this lighthearted, star-studded confection weren’t all about its main characters being advanced in years and still as sharp as an insulin injection.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Luther: The Fallen Sun
    With enough suspense, action and violence for crime-thriller fans and enough Idris Elba for Idris Elba fans, Luther: The Fallen Sun needn’t have a message as well. But here it is: Tell Alexa to get out of your house. And take Siri with her.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Treatment
    Odd, funny film.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Funny Games (2008)
    While the movie's star -- and ruler, and ship's captain, and grand poobah -- is Haneke himself, his actors are sublime.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    My Dead Dad
    Smartly directed, deftly edited, with a cast of performers who all get a chance to show what they can do.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Fury
    World War II is often called the “last good war,” which has also meant that it was the last global conflict out of which the studios could make an unabashedly heroic movie. Fury is not that movie. And because it is not, it provides a few psychic disturbances beyond its shocking gore, burning soldiers blowing their brains out, children hanged from trees by the SS and imminent rape.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Battle of the Sexes
    An extremely good-natured, upbeat recounting of the infamous Bobby Riggs-Billie Jean King “man vs. woman” match of 1973.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Self Reliance
    For a movie with such a nose for nuttiness, its human element is genuine and warm.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
    Brain Candy is not for kids. But adults, especially those cursed with a twisted, jaded or perverse sense of humor, will find plenty in it to laugh about. [12 Apr 1996, p.F12]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Downton Abbey
    Mr. Fellowes, being something of a genius at briskly established plotlines and characterizations, clearly knew that a regal visit would be an ideal way to show off the best and worst of each Downton habitué.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Grace Lee Project
    What she finds is good for her and good for us -- a journey of realization for anyone who's ever felt lost in the crowd.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Lucky
    A lot of Lucky is philosophical mischief, some of it is tediously ruminative, and some moments achieve a loveliness that belies the film’s craggy desert terrain, the earthiness of its characters and even the landscape of Mr. Stanton’s body.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Society of the Snow
    The length of his film is an essential element in Mr. Bayona’s message about desperation and hope and, dare one say it, the resilience of the spirit. The soiled, ailing, sunburned husks of men who emerge from the mountains are heroes, though they look every bit like ghosts.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Spawn
    The special effects are effective and aggressive, although one might occasionally confuse a divine vortex with a flushed toilet.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson
    Ms. Zenovich possesses the interviewer’s most valuable skill, knowing when to shut up.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Hyena
    The visuals are kinetic, the pacing frenetic; the violence, or at least its aftermath, doesn’t just border on the excessive, it makes major incursions. But given the criminal milieu at hand, nothing less would have seemed plausible, or equal to the heightened, sordid sensibility Mr. Johnson creates in the film’s opening moments and maintains right up to an ending that is among the more perverse in recent memory.
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