John Anderson

Select another critic »
Los Angeles Times, Variety, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
For 564 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 1 point 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 Nothing Like the Holidays
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 326 out of 564
  2. Mixed: 198 out of 564
  3. Negative: 40 out of 564
564 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 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.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Things Heard & Seen
    There is a bit of gore toward the end of Things Heard & Seen that seems gratuitous, like a bone thrown to the genre audience. But it also points out how smart the film has been for so long, and so allergic to clichés, while still being satisfyingly scary.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Together Together
    Sweet, funny, a little melancholy and a little obvious.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    Sisters with Transistors
    That the film is online because of the Covid-19 pandemic might be considered a silver lining: Not only will more people be able to see it, but they can, and should, experience it through headphones. A big screen would be nice, too, given Ms. Rovner’s hallucinogenic way with pictures. But the sound, as she would probably agree, is paramount.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Monday
    All in all, Mr. Papadimitropoulos maintains a delicate balance between the wryly hilarious and the heartbreaking, and sometimes the high wire trembles. But danger is intoxicating, and Chloe and Mickey—along with their audience—spend much of “Monday” delightfully drunk.
    • 22 Metascore
    • 50 John Anderson
    Vanquish
    Mayhem is the point. And on that, at least, the movie certainly delivers.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Our Towns
    Joy may not be sweeping the nation portrayed in Our Towns, exactly. But a certain amount of happiness abounds.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    Tina
    The otherworldliness of “Tina,” which exists for many minutes in a kind of vacuum created between the various silent images and the distanced voiceover, is transporting; the ambient score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans helps transform what might have been a series of mere tawdry recollections into a kind of prison memoir.
    • 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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Own the Room
    The world may be divided into “developed,” “developing” and “under-developed,” but the young people here seem to pay no attention to such differences. They may be thinking locally, but they’re aspiring globally.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell
    Anyone expecting “Biggie” to be some version of “Unsolved Mysteries” will be disappointed. But it’s unquestionably an affectionate, entertaining and even enlightening portrait.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Shook
    Shook has the requisite twists to make it much more than a straightforward horror-shocker, and the sharp turns are sufficient to have viewers profoundly dizzy about where it’s all going to go.
    • 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.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 30 John Anderson
    Bliss
    Ideas being realized on screen? It’s something Mr. Cahill’s characters accomplish far more effectively than does the director himself.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    Palmer
    Mr. Timberlake has displayed his many gifts in multiple formats, but nothing quite like “Palmer,” not in his character’s complexities or in the way he navigates Palmer through the social circumstances explored by Ms. Guerriero’s canny script. Young Ryder Allen is also something to see: He makes Sam’s matter-of-fact self-acceptance funny, yes, but inspiring as well.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    One Night in Miami
    The depths of the characterizations are commensurate with the complexities of the men, making Malcolm the most resounding. Mr. Ben-Adir does him justice.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Penguin Bloom
    Penguin Bloom is alternately despairing and inspiring—more of the former than the latter, I found, simply because of the production’s honesty, and the lifetime of difficulty the Blooms’ story suggests.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 John Anderson
    Wolfwalkers
    The film is terrific fare for kids. But the underpinnings of its fantastical story lie in tortured Irish history, English imperialism, and the use of religion to rationalize oppression; there’s a hum of yearning for a pre-Christian Hibernia of pagans, Druids and nature worship. Adults will be eager to see where it’s all going to go.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 John Anderson
    Baby God
    Given how early the illicit-insemination angle of Fortier’s history is revealed, viewers will suspect that even worse is to come, and they will be right. But that doesn’t mean those same viewers might not have other questions.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    My Psychedelic Love Story
    Mr. Morris is among the most intellectual of documentary makers, but on an artisanal level his trademark is the head-on confrontation, the face-to-face interview. In refining that process, he developed the Interrotron, which enables him to interview a subject eye-to-eye while still having that subject look directly into the camera.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Zappa
    It’s a rare documentary portrait that doesn’t oversell its subject.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John Anderson
    Uncle Frank
    Uncle Frank feels like a memoir, and also feels extraordinarily true, and fresh, thanks to the untrammeled terrain it visits, at least in New York.
    • 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.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 John Anderson
    Crazy, Not Insane
    Dorothy Lewis, the subject of director Alex Gibney’s collagist masterpiece Crazy, Not Insane, is out to demolish “the myth of pure evil.” As such, she may be among the most dangerous women in the world. She is certainly a “pioneer,” as one colleague calls her, adding that pioneers are often not treated very well.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 50 John Anderson
    Jiu Jitsu
    Jiu Jitsu is an ambitious undertaking in its way, one that will probably tickle hardcore martial-arts and samurai movie fans, although the attraction may be more academic than adrenaline-fueled.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 John Anderson
    The Last Vermeer
    It’s a clever gesture, but also points out what’s ultimately wrong with director Dan Friedkin’s postwar thriller: It knows a lot about art history and presumes we know nothing.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 John Anderson
    Belushi
    Being a person who grew up with him as a live cultural presence, I’m a highly biased fan of the man. Still, like its subject, “Belushi” is sometimes simply too much.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 John Anderson
    The Forty-Year-Old Version
    Even when it falters The Forty-Year-Old Version exudes confidence—the director has confidence in her lead actress, and vice versa; both trust the writer, whose more amusing lines are often contained in asides between characters discussing.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 John Anderson
    The Glorias
    An overlong, unfocused and distractingly stylized take on Ms. Steinem’s life.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 John Anderson
    The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte hosts the Tonight Show
    Ms. Richen has a problematic subject for a documentary, and the problems extend beyond the limitations of footage. She needs to sell the event, thus her lineup of marginally relevant characters gushing about it.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »