Richard Whittaker

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Austin Chronicle
For 624 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: 443 out of 624
  2. Mixed: 144 out of 624
  3. Negative: 37 out of 624
624 movie reviews
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    • 95 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
    With Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, [Tarantino] finally gets to complete his own work of cinematic archeology, and what he exhumes springs to life like the first time it was projected. Viva Kill Bill!
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    The Power of the Dog
    Campion and her cast do an extraordinary job of bringing all these characters in midway through their own private traumas, and Dunst brings silent grace and sadness to a woman inherently doubting her own motivation.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Akira
    Adapted by Katsuhiro Otomo from his sprawling, post-apocalyptic cyberpunk tale of government conspiracies, street gangs, and psychic powers that can save or destroy the world, it's still an all-time classic, and has never looked better.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Oppenheimer
    In a way, Oppenheimer is like atomic physics: Each tiny spark interlocks to create a massive, breathtaking, terrifying, conflagration.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Babylon
    Frenetic as Babylon is, Chazelle himself remains clear-eyed. His view of Hollywood is romantic but not romanticized, a flaws-and-all look back at a party that was bound to end and be completely incapable of handling the crash. But oh, what a swell party it is.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Minari
    That's the nuanced naturalism that makes Minari so captivating, so intimate: It doesn't tell a complicated story, instead letting the roots and branches of its family drama grow and become entwined with the audience's own stories.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Pig
    At a time when so many people are struggling to find something of value in their lives, when people are fleeing jobs, cities, futures they thought they wanted, Cage has crafted a quiet soliloquy about grasping on to something that has meaning. In some ways, this is one of his most emotionally brutal films.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Blindspotting
    Funny, vibrant, insightful, tragic, achingly timely, and yet with an underlying message about empathy that is timeless, Blindspotting may be the summer's most essential movie.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
    Across the Spider-Verse isn't just mind-bending spectacle – although it definitely dazzles in every frame. It's mind-bending spectacle in service of a thrilling story about a teenager facing the horrifying possibility that he can't fix everything.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Mank
    "Write hard. Aim low," Mank is told. Instead, Fincher filmed low, aimed for the brain, and hit a deadly shot.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    The Northman
    The Northman lives and breathes like the old epics; not Old Hollywood's cartoonish depictions of warriors with horned helmets, but the ancient tales to which he pays deep respect.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    Civil War
    Garland’s script is not just a warning about the ease in which an armed society slips into violence, but a love letter to journalism.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Oasis Knebworth 1996
    Scott subtly weaves those stories together by having every talking head be simply a voice, unified in their belief that this weekend was vital, an affirmation that it was OK to be young and broke.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Uncut Gems
    The only term is relentless, and for a lot of viewers Uncut Gems’ third act has been stressful, even traumatic. My response was more one of sheer awe – of the Safdies’ brilliant balancing act, of Sandler’s swirling dance of a performance, and of Howard’s sprint through a minefield.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Werewolves Within
    A new comedy classic whodunnit in the honored tradition of Clue, Werewolves Within finds the laughs in the jump scare, and brings back the uproarious joy of the "it's behind you!" creeping fright.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Avengers: Endgame
    What's best about Markus and McFeely's script is that they understand the characters.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Hunter Hunter
    It's the final act that takes that final twist of the knife, as the thriller becomes a grand guignol horror, yet still based within the world and the rules established in that grounded opening.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Resurrection
    What truly enthralls the viewer is Bi Gan’s journey through the history of cinema.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    The Plague
    Like the weeping sores that spread on Eli’s body, the bloody gouges that Ben carves into his thumb with nervous scratching, and the haunted look in Daddy Wags’ eyes, Polinger delivers a troubling and heart-stopping lesson that such childhood horrors will always leave a mark.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    The Voice of Hind Rajab
    The Voice of Hind Rajab is not just a reminder of the crimes against humanity being committed in Gaza. It’s a reminder that the constant smears against human rights organizations and aid agencies are vile slanders by people who want this to happen again and again and again.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Living
    While though the influence of 19th-century Russian literature has always been evident and admitted in Ishiguro's work, Living is even further removed from the The Death of Ivan Ilyich than Kurosawa's film. It is even smaller and more intimate, and much of its suppressed wonder comes from a career-best performance from Nighy.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    How to Make a Killing
    Like its bloodline kin, it’s a perfectly scathing glance at power, money, and how the love of both can curdle the soul.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Caught Stealing
    Pulsing up and down the arterial route of the B train from Brooklyn to the Bronx, Caught Stealing is a portrait of NYC at its most grimily charming.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Landscape with Invisible Hand
    It's an incisive, intriguing, and ultimately moving look at America's ongoing socioeconomic collapse: The whole "kids streaming their first slow dance" thing is just one aspect of this rich and nuanced drama.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    The Smashing Machine
    Like Johnson’s Kerr, The Smashing Machine is a surprisingly gentle giant.
    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    The Long Walk
    Attempted but abandoned by filmmakers from George A. Romero to King regular Frank Darabont, six decades after completion and 40 years after publication, now it crosses the finish line as one of the best King adaptations.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Preparation for the Next Life
    Liu’s adaptation of Atticus Lish’s PEN/Faulkner Award-winning 2014 novel wends its way through the contradictions and tragedies of love between two people who need more than just a bed warmed by another body. Preparation delicately brings them together and devastatingly gives every reason for them to fall apart.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Weathering with You
    The joy and grace of Weathering With You is in how Hina and Hodaka don't reject a world that rejects them.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    The Black Phone
    It's the period details that really make The Black Phone ring. It's not the set dressing, or the costumes, or the hairstyles (although Jeremy Davies does sport a fantastic muttonchops-mullet merger as Gwen and Finney's alcoholic, abusive father). It's that grimy sense of the era, that way that kids felt left to their own devices. This is an Amblin adventure drenched in R-rated fear.
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