Kate Erbland

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Film.com, IndieWire, The Dissolve
For 701 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 61% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 35% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Kate Erbland's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 65
Highest review score: 91 Little Women
Lowest review score: 16 The Vanishing Of Sidney Hall
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 405 out of 701
  2. Mixed: 254 out of 701
  3. Negative: 42 out of 701
701 movie reviews
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    • 59 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    A Banquet
    The film rockets toward an ending that’s somehow both sewed right up and blown wide open. Since neither interpretation really satisfies, it dilutes much of the creepy power that has come before. Instead, Bull’s script offers answers no one asked for.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
    Kids are always in need of gracious tales about the power of being yourself in a world not necessarily built to embrace differences (of all sizes, of all kinds) and stories like Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken can do that, with fun to spare. But why not get more splashy, why not take more risks, why not get bigger and weirder, when that’s also the aim of the very story you’re telling?
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    21 Bridges
    Little of 21 Bridges ends up being that shocking — it’s tough going when the face a character makes after accepting a phone call can so easily tip off that something’s amiss — but Boseman and Miller make a solid team and creative plotting keep things moving right along.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Come True
    In just his second feature, Burns exhibits a real knack for world-building, mythology-making, and crafting real tension, but a series of stumbles in the film’s final act — the worst of which is run through with icky implications Burns seems terribly unaware of — end the film on a wearisome final point.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Becoming
    While the film’s star and subject is never less than dazzling, even her most inspiring moments can’t obscure a paper-thin exploration of a remarkable life in transition.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    A Simple Favor
    Feig goes for the spaghetti method of storytelling: Throw a whole bunch of stuff at the wall and something has got to stick. Only some does, but the good stuff — the really campy, trashy, nutty stuff — is the kind of thing popcorn cinema hasn’t so happily embraced in years.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Enola Holmes 2
    The film reunites most of the principal cast and crew of director Harry Bradbeer’s 2020 Netflix feature, “Enola Holmes,” and while that franchise-starter was frisky and fun, its followup rehashes the original’s charms (with wishy-washy results), while expanding elements that required no additional attention.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    The Housemaid
    Alas, it’s not veracity that rules in stories like The Housemaid, but the often mealy delights of Feig’s latest film are routinely thrown into sharp relief by Seyfried’s crisp performance. Motivations, emotions, and machinations might be the building blocks of this sort of housebound thriller, but a genuinely good performance? That’s what can really wipe the floor.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    The Way I See It
    While Souza and his life and work are more than interesting enough topics for a documentary, what The Way I See It is really about — what it really wants to be about — is not the man who took the photographs, but the man who was the subject of those photographs.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Overboard
    Hammy jokes fall flat and that bloated run time sags in the middle, weighing down would-be snappy humor. It should all pop, but Overboard settles for a low crackle.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
    The creativity may be lacking in other areas, but “Goosebumps 2” steps up the creature feature quotient with style and smarts.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    A Christmas Story Christmas
    It’s not a sequel; it’s a replica. And while that might bring some comfort and joy during the holiday season, wouldn’t you rather savor the real thing?
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Pearl
    It’s an impressive feat of filmmaking, but one that reveals nothing new, a major misstep for a film seemingly dedicated to doing just that.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Spirit Untamed
    Fans of the original film will still find something beautiful underneath, and “Riding Free” acolytes will likely delight in seeing a splashier take on a story they already love. Everyone else, however, might wonder when they can hope to be set free from this story, just like Spirit.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Dirt Music
    A gritty romance that only translates some of the source material’s poetic bent to the big screen.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Father of the Bride
    While many of the film’s beats are familiar, director Gary Alazraki’s version of this classic family comedy often misses one essential ingredient: real humor.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Till
    While Deadwyler turns in a remarkable performance as Mamie, beautifully calibrating her love and anger in one riveting package, the rest of “Till” is prone to trope-ridden, predictable sequences that do little to advance her story or Emmett’s legacy.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    On Chesil Beach
    On Chesil Beach offers up so many tricky tonal changes, enough that Cooke eventually gives them over to a single note: limp.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Umma
    Despite its flaws, Umma is an impressive debut for Shim, the kind of outing that hints at plenty more under the hood or tucked inside a massive suitcase, just bursting with secrets.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Venom: Let There Be Carnage
    Venom: Let There Be Carnage is at its best — and its most unique, amusing, and fresh — when it’s tossing out those expectations and letting its freak flag fly. There doesn’t need to be carnage (or, hell, even Carnage), there just needs to be Venom, and more of it.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Sorry/Not Sorry
    Chopped up into chapters with dead-on titles like “Open Secret” and “Comeback,” Sorry/Not Sorry seems to suffer from biting off way more than a single, wide-spanning documentary could ever ably chew.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Home Again
    It’s an amenable enough ramble of a romantic comedy, and Witherspoon is as charming as ever in the genre in which she excels.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    American Ultra
    The bone-crunching action and relentlessly blood-letting feels out of place, and as those sequences start appearing with more frequency, the film loses much of its rangy charm.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Mi Iubita Mon Amour
    Who are these people? Why should we care about them? Not only does this inauspicious debut struggles to answer those basic questions, it never finds a believable way to ask them.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Ashby
    McNamara attempts to keep the movie ticking right along, and for all its half-cocked plotlines, Ashby is able to maintain a consistently humorous and light tone.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    The Retreat
    There’s something much bigger afoot, something truly subversive and new, but The Retreat resists digging into that, instead leaning on its (admittedly, badass) leading ladies and their inspiring ability to kick butt. We love to see it, but we’d really love to see more.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Centigrade
    The situation is dire, and while Centigrade eventually spins off into some well-worn tropes and predictable twists, the strength of its clever introduction keeps it pushing forward into a satisfying end.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Janis: Little Girl Blue
    Long-time fans of Joplin's music will likely not find much new material to relish in "Janis: Little Girl Blue," and if the film earns any new acolytes for the songstress, it will be the result of Joplin's own charisma, not of the presentation of the film built so shakily around her.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Love Wedding Repeat
    There’s much to enjoy in the film’s first hour, which plays out a bit like an updated “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” It’s a chatty comedy populated by amiable leads and a constellation of wacky supporting stars, with an ill-fated would-be couple at its heart.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Tetris
    It’s simultaneously too much and too little..., but it is a wacky bit of history that is entertaining in fits and starts. No, not all the pieces fit together, and it certainly doesn’t speed up as the game winds on (something it might have done well to emulate from the game itself), but it’s got players worth rooting for and a story that keeps leveling up. It won’t stick in your brain like the game (who doesn’t still see those little blocks floating ever-downward?), but what else possibly could?
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