Katie Rife

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IGN, IndieWire, Polygon, RogerEbert.com, The A.V. Club, TheWrap
For 545 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 60% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Katie Rife's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Little Women
Lowest review score: 0 The Haunting of Sharon Tate
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 363 out of 545
  2. Mixed: 160 out of 545
  3. Negative: 22 out of 545
545 movie reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Obsession
    Obsession’s biggest blind spot is its inability to reckon with the sexual and psychological violence being inflicted on Nikki during her possession: By telling the story from the perspective of someone who sees her more as a prize to be won than a full human being, the film itself risks sidelining her ordeal. Navarrette’s powerhouse performance helps mitigate this by puncturing Nikki’s bipolar outbursts with moments of heartbreaking clarity, reminding us of the human being trapped inside of this misogynistic caricature.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Affection
    As a metaphor for the soft coercion of traditional gender roles, it works, although the theme is secondary to the twists in writer-director BT Meza’s sci-fi/horror hybrid.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 85 Katie Rife
    The Friend's House Is Here
    Although this is a story about innocence lost, the overwhelming impression left by “The Friend’s House is Here” is one of sweetness and hope.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Dead Lover
    Dead Lover is daring you to take it seriously, or perhaps distracting you with a goofy dance while it quietly queers the “Frankenstein” myth.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
    Grabinski’s writing style is goofy and (obviously) reference-heavy, and the jokes spray indiscriminately like so many bullets from an automatic weapon. The constant wisecracks get tiresome after a while, but not before introducing some clever gags and quotable quips.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Katie Rife
    Hokum
    McCarthy loses focus after this symphony of tightly controlled terror midway through the second act, adding a little too much backstory and a few too many scenes to the film’s denouement. Still, when Hokum works, it really works.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    undertone
    As a theatrical experience, it’s lots of fun, making clever use of proven techniques that build tension before releasing it with exploding light bulbs and ghostly figures appearing in the corner of the frame.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Katie Rife
    Pillion
    Pillion is a film about self-knowledge, and about asserting one’s needs and boundaries without shame.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
    Kikuchi’s strong, singular presence immerses the viewer in her character’s whimsical imagination and confusing emotions. She makes Haru a character worth rooting for — even, or perhaps especially, when she’s making all the wrong decisions.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Union County
    Union County doesn’t completely bypass addiction-drama clichés. But its detailed, humanistic approach successfully creates a realistic world that supports its muted storytelling
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Mother of Flies
    The result is occult horror as potent as the snake venom in one of Selveig’s dreadful “cures.”
    • 61 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    We Bury the Dead
    For a movie about stinking, bloated corpses, on the whole, this one is surprisingly fresh.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Katie Rife
    Mistress Dispeller
    Mistress Dispeller” isn’t really about Wang, or her methods...It’s about the mysteries of the human heart. Its exploration of these subtle depths is sensitive, as are its conclusions.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Dracula
    The overall effect is as if you fed a book of bawdy medieval verse to ChatGPT, which is perfectly in line with the film’s most provocative aspect.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Black Phone 2
    A complaint that’s also common to contemporary horror films nags at The Black Phone 2, in that all of the best things about this movie come from other movies, whether they be the creative team’s previous efforts or iconic titles from decades past.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Mile End Kicks
    Ferreira is a believable and sympathetic protagonist, bringing a vulnerability to Grace that makes the viewer root for her even as she blows up her life for reasons even she doesn’t seem to understand.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Frankenstein
    Del Toro’s love for the grotesque and the abject is sincere and passionate, and there are scenes in Frankenstein that play like thesis statements for the director’s entire career.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
    Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie is so affable, so good-natured, so modest—just so gosh-darned charming—that it’s difficult not to crack at least a little bit of a smile while watching it.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Normal
    Like a firecracker with a long fuse, Normal builds up, burns fast, makes a big noise, and then it’s gone.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Katie Rife
    Erupcja
    Pete Ohs’ best film yet.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Dead Man's Wire
    One does not hire Bill Skarsgård unless one is looking for a lanky, off-putting weirdo. But Skarsgård does a good job of making his character’s frustration and rising panic grounded and relatable. This helps immensely when we get to the finale, which complicates the us-vs-them narrative.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Harvest
    Saying that it makes these concepts “fun” or “accessible” is an overstatement, as “Harvest” can feel interminable even when a viewer is engaged with its ideas. But it does bring them to vivid, even bawdy, life.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Dead Mail
    Dead Mail’s quirkiness never grows tiresome, which is impressive.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Ash
    Trying to fight this film’s sensations, as unpleasant as they may be at times, will bring nothing but misery. So just give in, vibe out, and take solace in the fact that “Ash” is way more accessible than Flying Lotus’ first film.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Drop
    Drop is a tightly plotted and unpretentious thrill ride.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Friendship
    Tim Robinson’s first movie-star role is like an extended I Think You Should Leave sketch with fancier camera work and a guest appearance by Paul Rudd.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Another Simple Favor
    Another Simple Favor takes its tongue-in-cheek momcore satire to new visual heights by moving the action to coastal Italy. All the best parts of the original are also present here, including Lively and Kendrick’s sparkling chemistry and killer costume design. Not every attempt to expand on the concept is successful, but as a piece of escapist entertainment it’s more clever than most.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Katie Rife
    On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
    Nyoni’s direction is brilliant, contrasting the chaos of Uncle Fred’s multi-day funeral with the stillness and solace Shula finds in her cousins’ company.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    The Rule of Jenny Pen
    It could hit harder, however, were its impact not diluted by the overly long runtime and uneven tone. For a movie that undercuts itself for its own amusement, however, intermittently successful is pretty good.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    The Monkey
    The Monkey is at its weakest when it tries too hard to explain what’s happening, either on a plot or on a thematic level. (The narration can be especially detrimental in this way.) And it’s strongest when it abandons its search for meaning and does a silly dance in the face of Death itself. A dry, mocking one though it might be, The Monkey is ultimately just a laugh.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Bunnylovr
    While the understated approach Zhu brings to her debut feature is authentic, it also underplays even big, dramatic developments in Rebecca’s life. The result is a tiny thing you can hold in the palm of your hand, soft and delicate and mild.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    By Design
    It has a wacky premise involving a woman swapping places with a chair, but the uncompromising consumerist satire By Design is more performance art than camp classic.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    The Ugly Stepsister
    The Ugly Stepsister’s torture-porn take on a classic fairy tale is told from a teenager’s point of view, but the grotesque elements are appropriate for gorehounds of all ages.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Grafted
    It’s the kind of movie where text will appear on the screen as a character reads an article explaining what’s going on in the plot, the kind of solid programmer that takes its audience for a slick and satisfying ride without challenging them too much.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Nosferatu
    There are moments of genuine horror and genuine artfulness in Nosferatu, neither of which would have been possible if the writer-director had approached the project with tongue in cheek. But at two hours and 12 minutes, it’s a solemn death march towards an inevitable conclusion—which fits the theme, but strains the limits of audience engagement.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    The Shadow Strays
    The carnage, it should be re-stated, does not disappoint.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 83 Katie Rife
    Dead Talents Society
    At its heart, Dead Talents Society is an affectionate ode to East Asian horror cinema, and its earnestness — and silliness — are key to its appeal.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Apartment 7A
    Although Apartment 7A's chills are mild, this decades-late Rosemary’s Baby prequel gets by on atmosphere and strong performances.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    The Life of Chuck
    As a filmmaker, Flanagan deals in raw, go-for-broke emotion; it’s just that this time around, he’s using that passion to affirm the audience, not disturb them.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Katie Rife
    The Substance
    It’s animated by a white-hot rage that escalates throughout its epic 140-minute run time, building to a jaw-droppingly audacious climax that sprays a firehose of blood at the audience. It’s demented and absurd in the best way possible.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Katie Rife
    Look Into My Eyes
    Subtle and intuitive, this documentary about NYC psychics asks all the right questions.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Nightbitch
    Marielle Heller’s version of the story — Yoder is listed as a co-writer — could have taken the magical realist element out entirely, and the film would have played exactly the same. The body horror is downplayed to the point of being functionally nonexistent.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Red Rooms
    Gariépy reveals very little about her character’s state of mind in these moments, and this ambiguity is what makes “Red Rooms” so intriguing.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Katie Rife
    Good One
    Good One is beautifully observed, making its point without being too obvious, and perfectly judged in that it doesn’t waste a single shot. The beats of the film are simple and straightforward, but if you hone in on the details, every second is full of information.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Frankie Freako
    It’s a self-consciously juvenile pizza party of a movie that's lots of fun if you don’t take it too seriously.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Oddity
    Oddity is an elegantly constructed tale of supernatural revenge that’s full of spine-tingling atmosphere.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Kalki 2898 AD
    By channeling the gravitas of Western sci-fi movies, Kalki 2898 AD loses some of the range that makes Indian movies special. Its ambition is to be applauded. Its self-seriousness, not so much.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Katie Rife
    The Devil's Bath
    This is a relentlessly grim film with an unsettling view of human nature; its audience will be small and self-selecting, but those who like having their guts ripped out by a movie will leave the theater satisfied.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Longlegs
    There are moments when Longlegs feels like a movie you’ve seen before, but with an evil filter laid over it: This is both a weakness and a strength, as Perkins’ horror surrealism renders the familiar strange, and the strange familiar.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Vulcanizadora
    There are things in life that you can’t avoid, and things that you can’t take back. Vulcanizadora doesn’t know how to cope with these truths, and will alienate much, if not most, of its audience as a result. But the honesty with which it expresses these dark thoughts is commendable — and more reflective than a dozen articles on the “male loneliness epidemic.”
    • 73 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    This Closeness
    At first, Zauhar’s project for the film isn’t obvious, but once it clicks into place, the movie becomes a richer experience.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Stopmotion
    The setup is forgettable, but Stopmotion builds to a grotesque and darkly beautiful finale that’s a great showcase for stop-motion animator Robert Morgan.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Handling the Undead
    Thanks to all this brittle emotion, Hvistendahl’s film is absorbing, even captivating at times. But it moves at a pace that can be charitably described as “measured.”
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    The Young Wife
    What stands out the most about Poe’s second feature is the director’s exquisite taste. Every single design element, from the bisexual lighting to the camera a delivery person uses to take a photo of Celestina, is carefully selected as part of a harmonious overall aesthetic.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Infested
    French creature feature Infested delivers the creepy-crawly kicks promised by its title, although its human elements don’t really go anywhere.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 88 Katie Rife
    The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
    Joanna Arnow’s second feature is a symphony of ambient embarrassment, whose movements are structured around the various men with whom the protagonist, Ann (Arnow), has relationships of varying length and ambivalence. Within these movements, Arnow hits uncomfortable notes that range from cutting corporate indignities to the ritualized abjection of erotic humiliation.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
    Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person isn’t a wholly new take on the subgenre. But it is a charming one — a rom-com for teenagers (and teenagers at heart) who swoon when cute boys talk about death.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 88 Katie Rife
    Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
    Where Jude’s previous feature, “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” could be didactic at times, “Do Not Expect…” slips its knife between the audience’s ribs with such skill that the severity of the injury isn’t obvious at first.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Omni Loop
    While the film’s time-loop premise does engage with the usual themes of appreciating every moment and the preciousness of life, it also ties the concept to the scientific method in a way that feels fresh and interesting.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Magpie
    There’s nothing especially revelatory about the scenes where Anette sits in the country home that now feels more like a prison, wondering how her life got to the point . . . But her response to said feminine mystique is demented enough to make this a wild and satisfying ride.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 80 Katie Rife
    Azrael
    Weaving’s expressive face and boundless energy make her a compelling heroine, and her will to survive is unstoppable.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Civil War
    It’s a return to form for its director after the misstep of “Men,” a film that’s grim and harrowing by design. The question is, is the emptiness that sets in once the shock has worn off intentional as well?
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    The Fall Guy
    The film is so self-aware, in fact, that it raises questions about which of its flaws are intentional and which are, well, flaws. The filmmaking here is as polished as one might expect from a Hollywood crowd-pleaser, well lit and only occasionally showy in terms of its camerawork. And the combat and car-crash stunts are great — they better be, given the subject matter.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Monkey Man
    The cuts are quick and the sound effects are bone-crunching, and were it not for an extended lull in the middle of the movie, it would be an exhilarating ride.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Io Capitano
    The nagging, inconvenient fly in the ointment is this: Who was this really made for — African immigrants in need of advocacy, or bureaucrats in search of Oscar glory? The answer seems to be a little of both.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Drive-Away Dolls
    Ethan Coen goes solo – sort of – with Drive-Away Dolls, a raunchy, dizzy road-trip comedy that’s a little too slick for its own good.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Molli and Max in the Future
    It’s all either whimsically charming or annoyingly cute, depending on your temperament. The thing that keeps the film from spinning out into the atmosphere (literally or figuratively, your choice) is the chemistry between Mamet and Athari.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    She Is Conann
    There’s something about the savagery of “Conann” that’s freed the director to really go there, birthing a ferocious, fabulous Athena out of his splitting forehead.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Katie Rife
    Love Lies Bleeding
    Love Lies Bleeding combines intense lesbian sexuality with shocking, graphic violence for a film that really gets the blood pumping. Kristen Stewart embodies her dirtbag character with the jumpy physicality she does so well, and her chemistry with co-star Katy O’Brian is powerful. The film loses focus as it escalates to hysterical heights in its second half, but its pulpy, fetishistic pleasures are potent.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Katie Rife
    I Saw the TV Glow
    Astonishingly beautiful and vulnerable, I Saw the TV Glow's surreal art-horror speaks to lonely teenagers, past and present.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Presence
    The problem is that, while the film is conceptually solid, its story gets shakier as it goes along.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Concrete Utopia
    Concrete Utopia is a polished disaster drama with a bleak and brutal view of human nature.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Frybread Face and Me
    Pickles in a bag, runaway sheep, dusty roads, the same movie over and over until the tape wears out—these are the sense memories that remind the filmmaker who he is and where he comes from. To share it with the world in this way is an act of profound generosity and love.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Katie Rife
    Godzilla Minus One
    A rousing, spectacle-filled blockbuster, Godzilla: Minus One takes the king of the monsters back to his roots in post-WWII Japan. The story is character-driven, but the monster scenes are exciting and effective.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Katie Rife
    Dream Scenario
    Nicolas Cage plays a mediocre stand-in for all 'canceled' men in this provocative cringe comedy, driven by a sharp screenplay and subtly surreal filmmaking.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    The Toxic Avenger
    In Blair’s The Toxic Avenger, the side gags are the film. The rest of it is the filler.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Dumb Money
    A quick, funny victory lap for anti-establishment Redditors and stonk enthusiasts.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Woman of the Hour
    Kendrick’s image as an actor isn’t necessarily tied to dark, edgy material, but as a director she shows a talent for staging scenes of Hitchcockian suspense alongside her signature wit.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Katie Rife
    Sympathy for the Devil
    Nicolas Cage’s live-wire performance fuels a compelling, if predictable, crime thriller.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Sanctuary
    This is a film fueled by writing and performance. Writer Micah Bloomberg’s script ingeniously incorporates the movie’s themes into its structure, and Qualley and Abbott—but especially Qualley—playfully keep the audience guessing throughout.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    The Mother
    Like most Netflix movies, no matter what The Mother would be a perfectly serviceable thing to have on in the background while you tidied the living room or answered emails on your phone. The spy-movie setup is generic enough to follow while doing something else, and the villains’ motivations are only as specific as the plot needs them to be, which is to say not very specific at all.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Plan 75
    These character arcs play out in subtle, naturalistic ways, with restrained performances that underline the tension between the film’s polite surface and unsettling subtext.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Money Shot: The Pornhub Story
    It’s titillation with a side of radicalization. And if any teenagers whose folks have installed parental controls on their computers do watch this documentary late at night with the volume turned down, they’ll learn more about workers seizing the means of production than they learn about sex — which is far more dangerous to the powers that be than any bare breasts or asses.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 88 Katie Rife
    The Worst Ones
    This is one of those movies that shows rather than tells—always preferable, even in the moments when the big picture is still coming into focus.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Evil Dead Rise
    Once it gets out of its own way and gives the audience what they came to see, Evil Dead Rise is an absolute blast.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Unicorn Wars
    As Vázquez keeps adding elements in its last half hour, Unicorn Wars starts to feel like the beginning of a trilogy, or maybe a TV series that got canceled unexpectedly and had to wrap up its storyline in a handful of episodes.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Katie Rife
    I Like Movies
    Making her feature debut, writer-director Chandler Levack has pulled off a rare trick here by making a movie that feels warm and safe without coddling its protagonist.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Palm Trees and Power Lines
    These events unfold with a sense of sickening inevitability, and when the scenes we all know are coming finally come, they’re as icky and hard to watch as they should be. But beyond simple documentation, the movie’s intentions are fuzzy.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Cocaine Bear
    Although the film’s halfhearted attempt at a message lands with a splat, Cocaine Bear does all it really needs to do, by providing an hour and a half’s worth of winking, druggy, bloody amusement.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Katie Rife
    Huesera: The Bone Woman
    Huesera doesn’t necessarily re-invent either of those subgenres. But it does present them in a vessel that’s so artfully crafted, and filled with details that bring the characters and their relationships to such vivid life, that it accomplishes a lofty goal for genre cinema: Taking a familiar formula and turning it into a personal statement.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 69 Katie Rife
    Magic Mike's Last Dance
    Allowing both love and money to complicate the primal enjoyment of watching muscular men in sweatpants gyrate ends up diluting the film’s once-simple pleasures. Maybe you can’t have it all.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 86 Katie Rife
    Infinity Pool
    The squibs are juicy, the nudity is full-frontal, and the psychedelic orgy sequence is extended. But there’s a trenchant point to all the blood, sex, and urine.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Kids vs. Aliens
    In keeping with our current “poptimistic” age, “Kids Vs. Aliens” keeps the aggressive neon splatter, but loses the cynicism—a choice that, for all the F-bombs and fake blood, makes it a surprisingly pure film.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Jethica
    This is a strange film all around, distractible and full of Olympic-level tonal gambits. Viewers’ mileage will vary. Wildly.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    M3GAN
    The plot does have a few weak points and dangling threads, and the PG-13 rating ensures that the violence is tamped down before it can reach its full bloody potential...But the tongue-in-cheek tone is so consistent that M3gan is a hoot anyway.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 63 Katie Rife
    Wildcat
    While the points where Wildcat goes beyond simply being a feel-good nature documentary and delves into Harry’s mental health struggles are honest, they raise more questions than they answer.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    Spoiler Alert
    This is a nice film. A sweet film. A film you can watch with your mother-in-law.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Katie Rife
    Leonor Will Never Die
    A sense of play and joyful collaboration permeates Leonor Will Never Die, even as it engages with serious issues of life, death, and legacy. It reminds us that love, like creativity, is a living thing, and that both are meant to be shared.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 67 Katie Rife
    Violent Night
    The film has fun lobbing snarky one-liners and outrageous bloodshed at the audience, but on the whole, Violent Night’s big red bag of self-aware tricks is overstuffed.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Katie Rife
    A Wounded Fawn
    The third film from writer/director Travis Stevens (“Jakob’s Wife,” “Girl on the Third Floor”) is forged in fire and blood, taking his eye for striking visuals and elevating it to psychedelic new heights.
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