Nick Allen

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RogerEbert.com, The Playlist
For 347 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Nick Allen's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Makala
Lowest review score: 0 DriverX
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 197 out of 347
  2. Mixed: 74 out of 347
  3. Negative: 76 out of 347
347 movie reviews
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Nick Allen
    Wild Life
    While it has a personal touch of a love letter, this documentary is nonetheless the work of compassionate filmmakers who know any adventure when they see one.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 88 Nick Allen
    Beau Is Afraid
    Beau Is Afraid, an enveloping fantasy laced with mommy issues, is about being doomed from birth. It's Aster’s funniest movie yet.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Paint
    Ross always preached that there were no mistakes, just happy accidents. A mess like Paint—all broad strokes and no point—proves that he wasn’t always right.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Nick Allen
    Chupa
    Chupa willfully becomes one of those family films that takes plenty from the toy box of cliches left before and hardly gives anything back.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Nick Allen
    In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis
    The documentary is pushed mostly by a maudlin reverence from director Gianfranco Rosi, whose collaging approach does not produce the meditative experience it desires.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Nick Allen
    Money Shot: The Pornhub Story
    Money Shot: The Pornhub Story is a porn-positive documentary, and its ambition to discuss all ugly shades of the issues boldly makes it fascinating and anti-provocative.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Nick Allen
    Boston Strangler
    Ruskin succeeds in paying tribute to Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole's hard work, but it's less successful in filling in the larger story.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey
    As a horror and a comedy, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey has no rhythm with either, and it's too dim to be worthy of a curious look.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 75 Nick Allen
    80 for Brady
    80 for Brady displays how Marvin’s sensibilities about friendship are primed for a mass audience. He knows the audience and, more importantly, that no one will mistake what he’s aiming for here.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Nick Allen
    Attachment
    Attachment very much wants to set its horror within Jewish mythology and Ultra-Orthodox life, and yet this specific choice always creates an exposition overload, which has a more distancing than inclusive effect.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Nick Allen
    Knock at the Cabin
    By trying to make a grand statement to a post-lockdown theatergoing audience about what they are willing to believe—but also about how far they are willing to go for others—Shyamalan trips over himself and neglects to give them much of a movie.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Nick Allen
    Plane
    Plane rushes through its emotional and explosive beats so that it can get to the next crisis without having to fill out the previous one, and it wildly skims on the good stuff in the process.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 25 Nick Allen
    The Mean One
    A parody only by legal definition, The Mean One has no teeth as a naughty comedy or gory horror.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Nick Allen
    Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter
    The editorial assembly and talking-head presentation of “Love, Charlie” is a bit too dry for my taste, struggling to build an intriguing pacing with and-then-this-happened storytelling. But the emotional power of the film benefits from its extensive archive, and how it displays it.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 58 Nick Allen
    Slumberland
    Lawrence’s latest is fine for its don’t-over-think-it standards, and while it’s glossier than it is deep, it’s at least charted through with a roller coaster’s engineering. There’s something comforting about a movie that has the true ease of a fantastical dream, and for “Slumberland” that fleeting excitement may be enough.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Nick Allen
    Stutz
    As a formal experimentation by an actor whose filmmaking talents are only the latest chapter in his Hollywood story, the documentary offers a touching reflection on Jonah Hill, The Star. Without specifically mentioning movie projects or other's names, he shares his sense of self during success, and how self-esteem remained elusive.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 83 Nick Allen
    Spirited
    Spirited is one of those movies with numerous creative choices that feel inspired, not just by the holiday spirit in the lyrics but the desire to pull off a good show. When Spirited has so many of its ornate pieces in sync, it can be a joyous cinematic treat like very few others of past or present.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 88 Nick Allen
    Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
    A pop music phantasmagoria that’s equally egoless and entertaining.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Nick Allen
    Slash/Back
    Slash/Back gains its greater power with its entertaining narrative of these Inuit heroes warding off invaders, trying to save their home while earning a deeper pride in that very place and its people. It’s sincerely sweet and entertaining, and its impact is felt even more as the black alien blood starts to fly.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 63 Nick Allen
    Piggy
    When it should be jostling us in one way or another, "Piggy" feels like it's just killing time.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Nick Allen
    Smile
    It doesn’t happen too often, especially from modern studio fare, but Parker Finn’s Smile is the kind of horror movie that earns the unique qualification of “genuinely scary.”
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Nick Allen
    Meet Cute
    The romantic fantasies and the time travel plotting of “Meet Cute” are a total mismatch.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 63 Nick Allen
    Pearl
    Pearl gets a little too close to letting you simply laugh at her. We know she wouldn’t like that.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 63 Nick Allen
    Clerks III
    With Clerks III, nostalgia is its own convenience for Smith. It’s cheap and fleeting, but it is comforting.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Nick Allen
    Barbarian
    Writer/director Zach Cregger proves himself to be a bonafide jack-in-the-box horror filmmaker with "Barbarian," beginning with a nightmare that could happen to any of us—a double-booked Airbnb.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 42 Nick Allen
    Pinocchio
    Another lifeless live-action adaptation from the factory that’s inside the Disney vault.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Nick Allen
    I Came By
    The anger within this movie becomes muted along with its thrills. Anvari has proven to be a roller coaster horror filmmaker who should flourish with such freedom, but he loses the momentum here by his own design.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Nick Allen
    Breaking
    Breaking is a tragedy that only opens like a thriller. From the beginning, Breaking is about justice.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 50 Nick Allen
    The Territory
    This is a frustrating documentary, in that it honors the work of its subject with wide-screen cinematography and leaves-crunching sound design, but as a viewing experience cannot shake the overall feeling of a dirge.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Nick Allen
    Day Shift
    The story might play out like a missed opportunity in some ways, as it’s staggering that a movie in which Jamie Foxx fights vampires can be so set on killing its fun with backstory. But while the worst parts of Day Shift want to be cute with all of this, Perry’s movie is saved by the inner bad-ass that comes out when it matters most.
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