Kate Erbland

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Film.com, IndieWire, The Dissolve
For 698 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 0.4 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: 403 out of 698
  2. Mixed: 253 out of 698
  3. Negative: 42 out of 698
698 movie reviews
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Kate Erbland
    Mulan
    Mulan is perhaps the best example of how to marry the original with something fresh. The Ballad of Mulan has always been an epic-scale story about the power of being yourself in a world not ready to accept that, a tale that will likely always have resonance. In Niki Caro’s “Mulan,” that story elegantly and energetically moves forward, a timeless message made for right now.
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Kate Erbland
    All Together Now
    Haley’s tender approach may not sting, but it does leave a mark. Yes, it has a happy ending, but the film also makes it clear that such conclusions are only the start.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 67 Kate Erbland
    Words on Bathroom Walls
    Eager to split the difference between age-appropriate entertainment and raw honesty, Words on Bathroom Walls hedges a bit in its final act, delivering the kind of happy ending only seen in movies . . . while slyly resisting tying things up in a neat bow.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    The Sleepover
    Softer and safer than a close cousin like “Adventures in Babysitting,” The Sleepover zips between its adult storyline and the wacky hi-jinks of the kids, scarcely noticing it’s the younger set who are far more amusing to watch.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Kate Erbland
    The One and Only Ivan
    It builds to a conclusion that, like the best parts of this film, combines movie-magic whimsy with hard-won realism, slipping some very grown-up ideas (and ideals) into a classic talking-animal charmer.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Kate Erbland
    Magic Camp
    It’s about nice kids embracing their nerdiest passions, but Magic Camp can’t conjure up enough zing to put on the kind of show they deserve, something weird, something different, something even a little bit magical.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Project Power
    It’s a lot for one film, and Project Power never revs up enough gusto to power through its biggest, best ideas and deliver on their promise. Perhaps the (inevitable) sequel can pack more juice.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Spinster
    The film’s inherent messiness and unpredictability eventually settles into more expected charms, but Spinster is at its most appealing when leaning into the very ideas it seemed hellbent on rejecting early on.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 33 Kate Erbland
    Endless
    Even at a slim 95 minutes, Endless grinds on endlessly.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Work It
    The expectations of the genre provide a framework for Work It that both delights (so many dancing montages! all of them fun!) and confounds (a chemistry-less romance). When it dares to break those boxes, however, things get miles more interesting.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 67 Kate Erbland
    The Secret Garden
    This film is not the best representation of Burnett’s works, which toed the line between the magical and the painful — but in the moments when it succeeds, The Secret Garden blossoms into something beautiful.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Kate Erbland
    Summerland
    While much of what Swale has crafted here is familiar, the film’s loving tone and Arterton’s compelling performance recommend it, and the result is a warm drama never afraid of a little magic.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Kate Erbland
    I Used to Go Here
    Armed with her funniest material to date and a winning performance from Gillian Jacobs, the filmmaker finds new dimensions for both her work and the millennial ennui that has always inspired it.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    The Kissing Booth 2
    While it offers some necessary growth for all of its characters, The Kissing Booth 2 can never resist looking and acting like dozens of other offerings of its genre ilk, unable to grow beyond basic complications and done-to-death dramas. And yet there are hints that its evolution has a few more tricks left to employ, its winking conclusion only one of them.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 67 Kate Erbland
    Amulet
    It’s an impressive first feature, and while fans of zippy midnight movies might balk at its slow-burn opening act, the film eventually builds to some nutso body horror and a strong sense of mythology that announces Garai’s arrival as a filmmaker to watch, no matter the genre.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Kate Erbland
    Yes, God, Yes
    While Maine’s witty script is filled with more than enough sequences primed to get laughs out of any audience (with Dyer turning in a charming performance that never goes too broad), the real winners will likely be fellow Catholic school survivors, who will recognize many of the great truths in Yes, God, Yes.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    A Nice Girl Like You
    While Carrillo-Gailey’s book was flinty and fresh, A Nice Girl Like You is more predictable than wild, more staid than sexy, but at least Hale injects some refreshing fun into the outing.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 42 Kate Erbland
    Fatal Affair
    Too chaste to be a “Fatal Attraction” ripoff and far too dull to approach the hammy charms of “Obsessed,” the greatest assets of Peter Sullivan’s Fatal Affair are stars Nia Long and Omar Epps. They keep this from looking and feeling like a limp Lifetime movie knockoff.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Kate Erbland
    The Old Guard
    Despite the familiarity, The Old Guard manages to be both very grounded and very entertaining, a marriage of expectations and twists unlike little else the genre has inspired even during its most fruitful times.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 42 Kate Erbland
    Desperados
    Comedy has to be more than just cheap, gross gags that illicit a response steeped in revulsion. It’s got to have a heart.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Kate Erbland
    The Things We Say, the Things We Do
    While Mouret can’t resist the desire to tie it up into a neat little bundle, just like some of its less inventive genre peers, Love Affairs still manages to end in an unexpected way that feels just right — unwilling to settle on a tidy outcome, and open to the possibilities of what could happen next.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 83 Kate Erbland
    (In)Visible Portraits
    If the intimate storytelling doesn’t hit viewers where it hurts, the film’s timely exploration of topics seemingly ripped from the headlines are destined to sting on their own.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Kate Erbland
    9to5: The Story of A Movement
    Each portion of the story — the formation of the 9to5 group, its ambitious jump into union organizing, and its current aims today — could easily engender its own feature, but it’s the early acts of the film that are most successful on their own.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 42 Kate Erbland
    My Spy
    Even Bautista and a genuinely cute kid co-star can’t enliven this predictable and humorless entry into a micro-genre long due for a refresher.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Kate Erbland
    Athlete A
    Through even-handed reporting and a series of emotional first-person accounts, Athlete A excavates one of modern sports’ most horrific abusers and systems. It doesn’t do that by being preachy or shrill, instead working from one key belief: It must have started somewhere. Hopefully, Athlete A can contribute to ending it for good.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Kate Erbland
    Miss Juneteenth
    Despite the strong performances and meticulously crafted world they exist inside, the film’s narrative isn’t nearly revelatory enough to match its most winning elements.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 67 Kate Erbland
    You Should Have Left
    Bacon holds it steady, setting up residence in an uneasy, unwell character, unconcerned with making him likable or worth rooting for — the kind of person who gets left behind, and with good reason.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    The Short History of the Long Road
    It’s not that darkness isn’t a part of the film, but that The Short History of the Long Road approaches even the most tense interaction with a bent toward positivity in all people. It’s, in short, nice.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 58 Kate Erbland
    Infamous
    Caldwell’s Infamous, at turns nihilistic and uncomfortably believable, may be built on a thin premise — what if its star-crossed pair of criminal lovers was, as the kids say, doing it for the ‘gram? — but an appropriately nutso performance from its star and some sharp writing keep it from feeling as disposable as its worldview.
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