Keith Phipps

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The A.V. Club, The Dissolve, The Verge, UPROXX
For 1,277 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Keith Phipps' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Lowest review score: 0 A Life Less Ordinary
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 625 out of 1277
  2. Mixed: 463 out of 1277
  3. Negative: 189 out of 1277
1277 movie reviews
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    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    We Bury the Dead
    As a horror movie, We Bury the Dead is light on scares (and has a little trouble sustaining momentum in its back half), despite some truly upsetting zombies. But Hilditch’s film works extremely well as a mournful mood piece anchored by Ridley’s thoughtful, melancholy performance as a woman trying to understand the fullness of her loss and the impossibility of recovering the past.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Something's Gotta Give
    Mostly, it's just a pleasure to watch Keaton and Nicholson learning new steps in an old dance, stumbling to grab at happiness before it's too late.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
    Like Ang Lee's "Hulk," it's a fusion of arthouse and multiplex instincts, and though it seems unlikely to satisfy anyone, it's just as unlikely that anyone who sees it will forget it soon.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Muscle Shoals
    Muscle Shoals’ story has needed telling, and Camalier packs that telling with memorable stories and music—though the film sometimes substitutes admiration for investigation, paving over conflicts and moving on to the next amazing piece of music to get recorded in town.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
    The film retains much of what worked about the first film, and it brings a similarly smart, patient, visually striking approach to the gags.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Madame Bovary
    The characters occupy homes where nothing is ever out of order, but Barthes creates a sense of unease that never lets up, and a suggestion of chaos underlying all the neatly arranged possessions in the Bovary home.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Schizopolis
    Fast-paced and ambitious, it never bores, and Soderbergh proves himself interesting to watch in addition to being gifted behind the camera.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Interstellar
    Interstellar often seems afraid to let any development go unpacked and uncommented upon, except for a handful of points that dive into the action and expect viewers to catch up. The film is at its best in these moments, when it’s unafraid of challenging storytelling, particularly since Interstellar never has trouble finding visuals to match its heady concepts.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Good Thief
    Jordan invests attention in even the most throwaway moments and marginal characters, and his care makes the film a sustained, low-key pleasure.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    xXx
    Diesel clearly has fun playing a character so bullish that his skin seems to be made of leather, and he's self-conscious enough to pull it off even after the film surrenders to formula.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Lilya 4-Ever
    What it became is essentially one long free-fall from destitution to despair.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    All the Real Girls
    Deschanel and Schneider--who both give rich, funny performances--and everyone around them have inner lives that don't always translate into words. When they speak, it's usually in dialogue halfway between poetry and inarticulate fumbling.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Paddington
    Paddington is a charmer, portrayed as a little guy whose unflagging goodness makes it easy to forgive his clumsiness. That’s the one detail from Bond’s book any adaptation has to get right, and this one nails it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    My Mother's Smile
    As absurd as the situation gets--and the film occasionally launches into surreal asides that only heighten the absurdity--director and star both keep it grounded in the situation's emotions.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Road to Perdition
    Mendes' second effort plays like a familiar song transposed to a minor key, a gangland fable soaked in portent and fatalism until its familiarity ceases to be an issue.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Ocean's Twelve
    What it retains is a playful sense of style, that combines with an anything-goes spirit.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Space Station 76
    Plotnick’s mix of straight-faced absurdity and unexpected poignance doesn’t always gel, but it also makes the film more resonant than a straightforward spoof could ever be, and adds another layer to the film’s central joke: You can take to the stars, but the past will always travel with you.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    A Most Violent Year
    Chandor’s film suggests more than it can explore, and a contrived climax makes the film seem like less than the sum of what’s preceded it.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    Not every moment works, particularly in the draggy middle section, but the spirit of the thing still carries it along.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Dear Frankie
    On its own terms, Dear Frankie works much better than it really has any right to. Auerbach tells a small, contrived story, but gives it the weight of life.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Ronin
    Here's a strangely flawed and strangely satisfying movie.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Merrily We Roll Along
    As the record of a landmark staging of a great play, however, this Merrily feels like a gift to all those who wish they could have been there, or want to return.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Thor: The Dark World
    It looks like no other movie, Marvel or otherwise, and it’s populated by characters compelling enough to support a more complex, richer story than this one.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Truth About Charlie
    Though indisputably a thriller, Charlie abandons itself to little cinematic rhapsodies, self-reflexive asides, and montages of Paris locations cued to a soundtrack of cool French pop, all of which often seems more vital than the main order of business.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Jiu Jitsu
    Though any Cage-free attempts at comedy fall flat, the action remains exciting, thanks in large part to Logothetis’ steady-handed, no-frills approach. Who knew putting together a bunch of gifted martial artists and letting them exercise those skills could take an action film so far?
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Ignorant Fairies
    His Secret Life's languid pace and general aimlessness keep getting in the way.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Count of Monte Cristo
    While fleeting moments from Pearce and Luis Guzmán (as Caviezel's loyal servant) suggest the film might have been even more fun had they been allowed to loosen up a bit, the finished product still offers little cause for complaint.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    One Swallow Brought Spring
    Carion and his gifted leads never take the easy way out. Instead, they let the characters get acquainted against the slow change of the seasons, taking their relationship along unexpected turns.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Night of the Comet
    Night Of The Comet borrows freely from everything from The Omega Man to Romero’s zombie films to Repo Man, but it never borrows so heavily as to feel like a rip-off of anything.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Monsieur Ibrahim
    Adapting a novel by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, François Dupeyron uses handheld cameras and some jarring edits, but, prostitutes and all, this is storybook material: heartfelt, pleasant, cuddly, and a little too insubstantial to stick in the mind for long.
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