Joshua Rothkopf

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Empire, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Time Out
For 1,122 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 48% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Joshua Rothkopf's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Vertigo
Lowest review score: 20 The Back-up Plan
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 487 out of 1122
  2. Mixed: 576 out of 1122
  3. Negative: 59 out of 1122
1122 movie reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Wind River
    Sheridan can’t quite shake a hint of Silence of the Lambs–esque familiarity, but that’s a wonderful standard to be reaching for. More to his credit, he fills his thriller with sharp observations among his Native American characters (not merely paid lip service), as well as the sudden crack of gunfire. You learn to look for tracks and clues; it’s a film that makes you a better viewer.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    The Imposter
    Blessed with an improbable-but-true story that functions on many ironic levels, this clever documentary ultimately conveys more about the complex American character - shifting between intimacy and criminality - than a whole shelf of fiction films.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    The Green Fog
    They get at the essence of Vertigo, haunting us via ghostly transmissions.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Dirty Wars
    Dirty Wars leaves some deeper questions unexplored, mainly the philosophical struggle between security and secrecy, but makes up grandly with raw data and one correspondent’s passion.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    A Fragile Trust
    Director Samantha Grant scores an interview with Blair himself, whose too-little-too-late admissions (along with his reemergence as a postguilt life coach) might drive your crowd to hisses.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Icarus
    Fogel is a little out of his depth, but he has a killer tale to tell.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    A Star Is Born
    Calling the new A Star Is Born a “valentine” from its star, Lady Gaga, to her fans sounds a bit coy and delicate, so let’s call it what it really is: a hot French kiss (with full-on tongue), filled with passion, tears and a staggering amount of chutzpah.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Lebanon
    Very little gets in the way of Lebanon's apocalyptic mood; if it turns its audience even slightly away from barbarism, it might have done its job.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Where to Invade Next
    One of [Moore's] more hopeful and celebratory efforts.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Ghostbusters
    It turns out it’s okay to cross streams: Here’s a summer movie starring a girl squad proud of its big brains and tacky jumpsuits. You could call that a supernatural event in itself.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Life During Wartime
    Life During Wartime slices deeply into its characters' weaknesses.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Queens of the Dead
    A film this well-made and cut (the pacy editing by Aden Hakimi calls back to the elder Romero’s own cutting of his major titles) shouldn’t be relegated to just one kind of audience. Anyone who appreciates horror should find something to smile at here.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Memory: The Origins of Alien
    Philippe earns his keep, not only by mounting a crisp, elegant production well above the standard of your typical video-lensed making-of, but by skewing toward anecdotes that most corporate clients would frown upon.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Blade Runner 2049
    Arrival director Denis Villeneuve pulls off the dare of the decade, hatching a thoughtful, expansive sequel to a sci-fi classic.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    The Theory of Everything
    At its best (which is often), director James Marsh’s affecting biopic of the cosmos-rattling astrophysicist Stephen Hawking plays deftly against schmaltz.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Salad Days
    Crawford has produced an inspiring primer, sure to remind viewers that the power has always been in their hands.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Last Days in Vietnam
    Provocatively, the film suggests that winning small battles was victory enough; Saigon natives, also interviewed, were left behind to endure death camps.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Life Itself
    Unusually moving (not only to stray film critics in your crowd), director Steve James's keen profile of the late, great Roger Ebert works both as a compact appreciation of the reviewer's vast public impact, as well as an unflinching peak into a cancer patient's final months, fraught with pain, hope and constant treatment.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    The Man Who Invented Christmas
    Dan Stevens turns in a vibrant comic performance as Charles Dickens in this drama about writerly inspiration that plays like a smarter Shakespeare in Love.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Avengers: Endgame
    Endgame often pays tribute to itself, which makes it as fascinating as it is self-serious. It taps into a live wire of doomy tragedy and phoenix-like rebirth that comics do so well.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
    His own worst enemy, Finkelstein has both trouble and tragic writ large on his brow.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Almost Christmas
    Mainly, it’s a fun and boisterous countdown to the big meal.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    The Devil, Probably (1977)
    If you know nothing of the concentrated work of France's Robert Bresson, it's almost a crime to start here - like launching yourself, on the "expert" level, into the most boring, baguette-laden video game ever.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Baby Driver
    The result is a supercharged piece of fun unlike any motorized choreography since John Landis destroyed a fleet of cop cars in "The Blues Brothers."
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger
    This is still one of his (Berlinger) most ambitious films, vibrating with the same municipal unease as "Chinatown."
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Animal Kingdom
    The strength of Animal Kingdom is its slow-building fatalism; the criminals' luck runs out, but then finds depressing extension via an out-of-left-field collaborator. It's a movie that has very little faith in authority, not even in Guy Pearce's righteous detective. The only law here is Darwin's.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Sing Street
    Like an updated The Commitments in rouge (liberally applied), Sing Street nails the details.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Booksmart
    Actor-turned-director Olivia Wilde (shockingly, this is her behind-the-camera feature debut) shows off something rarer than technique or comic timing. She’s got loads of compassion and has somehow managed to make a high-school movie without villains.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    The Irishman
    After a while, you adjust, or rather, you get tired of probing the slightly-off evidence of your eyes and the headache it produces. There’s a lot of fun to distract you.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rothkopf
    Beautiful Boy
    Parents will feel heard by this movie in a way that few other films have tried. Everyone else should go for the kid, who's a rocket taking off. You want to be able to say you were there when it happened.
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