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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    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 John Anderson
    Lovelace
    There aren't many bright spots in Lovelace, although one is Amanda Seyfried's intoxicating smile, and another is the retinal insult delivered by a 16mm projector flaring out at the audience during the movie's opening moments, and which feels like an accusation. It's the odd film that indicts you just for watching. But Lovelace is an eccentric piece of cinema, made by unlikely people.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 John Anderson
    In a World...
    To call Lake Bell a magnetic, intelligent, blithely screwball leading lady in the Carole Lombard tradition might be selling her short. With In a World… , a rollicking laffer about the cutthroat voiceover biz in Los Angeles, she proves herself a comedy screenwriter to be reckoned with.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 10 John Anderson
    I Give It a Year
    Shockingly, the kind of cringe-inducing material upon which Mr. Mazer has built a career as a writer for Sacha Baron Cohen ("Bruno," "Borat," "Da Ali G Show") doesn't work when rendered by types who could have been cast in "Notting Hill" (someone even makes a Hugh Grant joke). It's rather close to excruciating.
    • 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.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    Gideon's Army
    Like the film itself, Porter’s handful of devoted, charismatic attorneys do a righteous job of reminding people that the accused are innocent until proven guilty, and that the criminal justice system seems otherwise disposed.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    My Best Day
    Witty, wacky, multicharacter comedy My Best Day features a rural milieu that’s authentically American.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    Augustine
    Soko is terrific, but it is Mr. Lindon who delivers the performance of the film, his internalized consternation amounting to an eloquent dispatch from the war between the sexes.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 John Anderson
    Frances Ha
    Frances Ha also marks the rare instance in which an actress has the perfect role at the perfect time. Ms. Gerwig's work here is fragile, delicate, subject to bruising; something that could wither under too much attention. Perhaps Ms. Gerwig is the greatest actress alive. And maybe Frances Ha is just the ghost orchid of independent cinema.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Star Trek Into Darkness
    Noisy, frenetic, grandiose and essentially a soap opera, director J.J. Abrams's second contribution to the franchise has everything, including romance: Never before have Capt. James T. Kirk and his Vulcan antagonist, Mr. Spock, seemed so very much in love.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    This Is Martin Bonner
    A mood piece, a character study and an exercise in poetic gesture possessed of a sort of evanescent, secular spirituality.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    The World Before Her
    While much of The World Before Her speaks to global womanhood, other aspects are more specific to India, but that’s what gives the film much of its life and spark.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 John Anderson
    Stranger Things
    One of the assets of Stranger Things is its air of mystery, and the actors give the indelible impression that they have much locked away inside.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 John Anderson
    Thale
    A nutty Norwegian mashup of drollery, myth and jolts to the nervous system, Thale does a deft dance between grossout comedy and horror fantasy. Still, it’s too wordy by half, saying what it should be showing
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 John Anderson
    Ain't in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm
    What keeps Ain’t in It for My Health from being a really satisfying portrait isn’t a lack of access, but a lack of intimacy.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    The House I Live In
    The scope of the subject is such that when Mr. Jarecki's voiceover cuts into the narrative, imposing a personal angle on the national story, it reduces the sense of significance its creator aimed for. But that's a fairly backhanded endorsement of a very potent movie.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 John Anderson
    Taken 2
    Less magical is the blind adherence to formula evident in most of Taken 2. As they might say in the advertising department, it's an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride. But it could have been much more.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Sleepwalk with Me
    Sleepwalk With Me makes the subject palatable, funny and maybe even touching.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 John Anderson
    Samsara
    It's a purely sensory journey until the pictures start making editorial comments, in slaughterhouses and garbage dumps.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 John Anderson
    Ornette: Made in America (1985)
    Years after its initial release, Ornette: Made in America, part of Milestone's continuing "Project Shirley," still feels fresh - its moves always surprising, yet always somehow perfect.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Lawless
    Lawless is one of those films that, through seeming serendipity, has a cast that defines its moment. There have been others - "The Breakfast Club," "The Godfather" and "Silverado," to name one irrelevant and two relevant examples. But Lawless really lucked out.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    Side by Side
    The situation is fascinating, and given an illuminating investigation here.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 John Anderson
    The Expendables 2
    Does it all have to be so tedious? To the movie's credit, many of the inside jokes are pretty funny, and Mr. Lundgren is close to hilarious as a dissipated Swede named Gunner.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    The Awakening
    The film benefits enormously from having the luminous Rebecca Hall as its lead. It also gains an ominous gravity from the haunted, wounded and wobbly England in which it's set.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    Cosmopolis
    Conventional it is not. Engrossing it is.
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