Nicolas Rapold

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The New York Times, Time Out, Village Voice
For 540 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 31% higher than the average critic
  • 7% same as the average critic
  • 62% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 7.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Nicolas Rapold's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 58
Highest review score: 100 Mustang
Lowest review score: 0 Neander-Jin: The Return of the Neanderthal Man
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 204 out of 540
  2. Mixed: 285 out of 540
  3. Negative: 51 out of 540
540 movie reviews
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    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    The Forecaster
    The Forecaster has the distinct hermetic feel of a documentary that employs an echo chamber of people too close to the material.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Streit's: Matzo and the American Dream
    Despite much talk of diversity and tradition, Mr. Levine has little fresh to say about gentrification issues or documentary storytelling.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Alive Inside
    Neither the value of music nor the deficiencies of certain nursing homes are tough to debate. But a documentary that never leaves any doubt about what comes next, while single-mindedly stumping for a cause presented as unique, is also not terribly interesting as a film.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Spinning Plates
    This dully structured film makes its points early and often, treading water before a purposely delayed big finish.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    My Name Is Bulger
    The “nothing to see here” focus gives the homey-feeling film the whiff of a sanctioned production.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Into the Storm
    This film is actually less menacing than marveling, though a disturbing opening scene in a storm-tossed van could fit right into Mr. Quale’s earlier work.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    K Missing Kings
    Despite a generous attempt at a series recap, it’s chaotic for the uninitiated. These characters require several episodes of exposure for us to feel that much is at stake in the ebb and flow of honor, hysteria and eternal friendship. In any case, the animation is often a pure sensual delight.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Last Stop Larrimah
    The bloat saps the fun and intrigue from the film, which can’t navigate between playing up eccentricity and committing to the notion that hell can be other people (even in a one-time refuge).
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Gran Turismo
    The movie doesn’t need to achieve the same levels of sensation as a wildly popular racing simulator, but it should convey excitement and dynamism in its own cinematic way. When the novelty of watching a gamer become a driver wears off, we’re left with an adequate racing drama in a medium built for so much more.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    American Milkshake
    The burlesque take on high school has some fine, ridiculous moments and lets the movie get away with more than a serious drama might.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    The Last of Robin Hood
    The story comes to feel mild (and incomplete) in its tempered nostalgia.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Harmontown
    Mr. Harmon is delightfully talented at improvisation, freestyling nonsense lyrics. Mr. Berkeley, on the other hand, proves himself a dismayingly predictable chronicler, making sure that we know exactly what we’re supposed to think and efficiently packaging jokes and revelations.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    We Need to Do Something
    Despite some nifty freak-outs, the movie’s buildup can lack a certain snap.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Pioneer
    Mr. Skjoldbjaerg, who also tapped Norwegian history with his bank robbery re-enactment “Nokas,” doesn’t convey a creeping atmosphere of moral rot so much as an irksome glumness.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Lost and Love
    Lost and Love (“Lost Orphan” in the original Chinese title) confronts serious problems but is too busy reaching for epic sweep and soaring moments to nail the fine detail of main characters’ fraught give-and-take.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
    As written by the TV veteran Robert Carlock, Kim’s rise-and-fade arc is sympathetically rendered, with humor and the urgency of an underhand pitch.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Better Mus' Come
    Despite its cultural detail and fetching leads this Jamaican director’s colorful debut feature is undone by ragged scene construction, weak acting and a scattered script.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Sharper
    The film’s biggest trick might be casting Moore, Stan and the positively glowing Middleton and still never quite catching fire.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Seoul Vibe
    The caper, directed by Moon Hyun-sung, isn’t as fun as it insists it is, playing up the crew and its exploits à la “The Fast and the Furious” and “Baby Driver” but never hitting its stride.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Magical Universe
    While Mr. Workman evidently respects Mr. Carbee’s talent, he also frames his movie as a trite narrative about a kind of lovably odd acquaintance who comes out of his shell, without many incisive ideas about shaping or broadening the material.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Hank: 5 Years from the Brink
    It’s informative but not enlightening, and Mr. Berlinger packs in chattering news clips and a score that’s audible under the interview.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Certifiably Jonathan
    The big-kid-bulky Dayton-born comedian gets some welcome playtime in Jim Pasternak's patchwork tribute, but not nearly enough.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    To Be Takei
    [Ms. Kroot's] banalizing documentary is self-defeating as it tags along with Mr. Takei and his wonky husband, Brad, on their busy daily schedule.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    The Signal
    William Eubank’s The Signal demonstrates the fine line between paranoid science-fiction fantasy and demo reel.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Documented
    His strategy is political — in a meaningful way — but not cinematic.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Die Narbe (The Scar)
    Comes across as more of an extravagant gesture than a fully realized artistic conceit.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Railway Children
    Decency prevails in a somewhat ludicrous finale involving an army of children and a train containing a high-ranking officer. It’s an ending so tidy as to undercut the effort to broach a shameful side to the American war effort.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Miss Lovely
    Though not pretentious, his film feels a tad overthought, held back somehow by a stubborn, dour obscurity clouding its freshly realized, lurid milieu.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Terraferma
    As Terraferma tightens its focus on a courageous resolution of tough issues, too much nuance is jettisoned along the way.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Nicolas Rapold
    Glass Chin
    Despite an appealing fondness for New York locations and habits, Mr. Buschel and his cinematographer, Ryan Samul, have embalmed their film in style. J. J.’s ostentatious speeches feel like a projection of self-conscious cleverness, and the film’s virtuoso lighting doesn’t always match up to the needs of a scene.
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