Richard Whittaker

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Austin Chronicle
For 629 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 47% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 48% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Richard Whittaker's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Blindspotting
Lowest review score: 0 Old
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 447 out of 629
  2. Mixed: 145 out of 629
  3. Negative: 37 out of 629
629 movie reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
    The script, and Byrne’s suitably breathless, solipsistic reading of it, give the audience every reason to not simply dislike Linda but despise her.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    The Human Factor
    For experts in the field, who this is most undoubtedly aimed at, this is a rare and incisive look at one party's stance on one of the most important diplomatic initiatives of our time.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    The Substance
    Revenge proved that Fargeat can combine astonishing, lurid, hyperpsychosexualized visuals with incisive social commentary. Yet there’s a vibrant audaciousness to The Substance that’s matched and complemented by her cool examination of the cost of youth and beauty. She can swing between cerebral drama and body horror, but this is definitely not a Cronenberg knockoff.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Nosferatu
    There’s nothing erotic about this wheezing, rotting, carnivorous corpse, and Eggers rebuts the “sexy vampire” nonsense by depicting a supernatural abusive relationship. If you think that there’s anything sexy about how he rips the throats from babes, that’s on you.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Nope
    Nope is spectacular and intriguing, but also frustratingly incomplete.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Longlegs
    Perkins’ greatest and most stomach-churning achievement is in a slow shift of perspective, leading the audience from the bleak and eerie serial killer thriller of Harker’s world to the fiendish reality of Longlegs, and an enigmatic denouement that will be puzzled over and studied. Hell truly awaits.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Richard Whittaker
    The Retreat
    Underlit, shot in the same murky beiges that plague so many low budget horrors, and not as profound as it thinks it is, it isn't quite exploitation schlock or a cerebral shocker, instead relying on both conventions for a hybrid that ends up with the satisfaction of neither.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Alice, Darling
    In its often distressing, sometimes nauseating depiction of a woman caught in weaponized co-dependence, Alice, Darling is rarely an easy watch. Yet it is always captivating, and that all comes back to Kendrick in what may well be her most powerful performance to date.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    The Royal Hotel
    Unfortunately, The Royal Hotel ultimately lacks the subtle ambiguity about complicity and power that made The Assistant so fascinating. Instead, it's a feel-good ending that borders on trite, and even oddly carries a whiff of cultural imperialism.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    God's Country
    In adapting James Lee Burke's short story, "Winter Light," Higgins and cowriter Shaye Ogbonna (The Chi, Lowlife) have taken the barest of its bones and grown fresh meat.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Inu-oh
    [Yuasa's] latest, magical and bloody historical musical drama Inu-Oh, is a rock & roll, stadium show, pyrotechnic extravaganza.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Jockey
    Any workplace drama (and that’s what it is, more than a sports film) must fit you for the shoes of the laborer, and that’s exactly what Jockey does. It makes you understand why riders would subject themselves to so much pain and poverty in search of what one calls “that one minute where you feel like the most important thing in the world.”
    • 77 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Better Man
    Yet for all the bleakness, Better Man is one of the most visually inventive and uplifting films in recent years.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    The Promised Land
    In those complexities, and its more mordant analyses of the arbitrary mechanisms of power, The Promised Land bears impressively bitter fruit.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Presence
    Both Koepp and Soderbergh are to blame for the underdelivery of a pivotal, plot-defining, single line of dialogue that should have been a strand woven throughout the film.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Obsession
    Like any great funfair ride designer, it’s Barker’s grasp of pacing, of when to lull and when to launch, that makes Obsession such a terrifying blast.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Pom Poko
    At its best, there's an undoubted thrill and wonder to Pom Poko, like the massive parade of phantoms the tanuki conjure up as one of their harebrained schemes. Takahata's misfire at least provides some wonderful sparkles.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Project Hail Mary
    For two filmmakers best known for their comedic scripts like the Jump Street films and The Lego Movie, they know when to pull back on the humor and instead embrace the spectacle, and find their perfect proxy in Gosling.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Thelma
    Squibb’s charm, her gutsiness, and her sharp, subtle humor fill the movie with warmth and veracity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Suzume
    Where Shinkai remains peerless is in taking those big, magical, melodramatic swings and landing them with a gentle, compassionate touch.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Richard Whittaker
    Memory
    Memory is better than some Neeson action flicks, worse than others, but, predictable as it is to say, you'll have trouble remembering it much longer than its run time.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    The Amusement Park
    Finally recovered from the archive by the George A. Romero Foundation, and restored by New York's IndieCollect from two faded 16mm prints, its mere existence as a lost Romero is enough to make it worth watching. But it's not simply a dated curio: it's a fascinating if dated curio.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Kneecap
    Dipping between English and Irish, and borrowing wholeheartedly from the fictional music doc/concert format of A Hard Day’s Night (hey, steal from the best), stylish musical comedy-drama Kneecap the movie is an accurate-ish biopic of the real Kneecap, with Dochartaigh, Annaidh, and Cairealláin playing themselves.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Shayda
    It’s an understated performance in many ways, but in those quiet moments, whether it be a new haircut or a tapping foot, Ebrahimi provides an astonishing education of what it means to be a woman fleeing an abusive relationship.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    The Colors Within
    There’s an element of synesthesia and a touch of religiosity to The Colors Within, but more importantly there’s Yamada’s welling compassion for the inner lives of young people.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    The Trial of the Chicago 7
    It all comes back to Sorkin's core idea, implicitly and expertly expressed: that the tactic of violence and provocation, then making the victims seem like thugs, is still performed in Portland and St. Louis and New York, just as it was in Chicago. It's also a reminder that there was no Chicago 7 until the establishment brought them together.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Cloud
    While Pulse was a warning, Cloud seems more like a funeral bell, a despairing look at life on the online economic periphery.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Occupied City
    It's a lot more than simply a string of names and dates and anecdotes, but after this many hours that's what it starts to become.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Something in the Dirt
    Something in the Dirt doesn't hide its answers, because there may not be any answers. It's the danger of obsessing over the mutability of facts that is its true and fascinating subject. In an era of post-reality politics, Something in the Dirt may be a quiet wake-up call.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Richard Whittaker
    Boys Go to Jupiter
    It feels like Glander was hoping to create something that all the former kids that grew up on Cartoon Network’s wild, weird era will gravitate towards. But the reality is that it’s not as bizarre, creative, transgressive, or even just plain entertaining as the average episode of The Amazing World of Gumball, and that was about a 12-year-old cat boy and his fish friend.
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