Steve Persall

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Tampa Bay Times
For 1,125 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 65% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 33% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Steve Persall's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Vertigo
Lowest review score: 0 The Last Airbender
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 708 out of 1125
  2. Mixed: 310 out of 1125
  3. Negative: 107 out of 1125
1125 movie reviews
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    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Beirut
    Hamm makes for a compelling guide, Bogart-weary and mind racing, assessing each situation with a readable face for the camera. Beirut won’t make him a bigger movie star, but more interesting actors are tough to find.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Steve Persall
    The Death of Stalin
    The Death of Stalin is explicit content music to the ears of comedy buffs, a torrent of gutter wordsmithery unleashed by a bawdy ensemble.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    A Quiet Place
    This movie is smart terror that’s a lot of fun if you let it be. Stay quiet or stay at home.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    A Fantastic Woman
    Director and co-writer Sebastian Lelio keeps the melodrama muted, allowing Vega’s expressive passivity to move viewers. She’s a tragically striking character, a face of abruptly lost love seldom seen in movies.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Wait for Your Laugh
    Gloriously, uproariously, there’s Rose Marie herself, sharp and tart as ever with total recall of every juicy moment, every conversation. A portrait of an indefatigable entertainer emerges, restless when she wasn’t working and fearless when she was.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Isle of Dogs
    Free to create practically any whim, Anderson requires a bit too much narratively of himself and brainstorming buddies Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola. Their plot scrambles keeping pace with inspiration, eventually surrendering to commotion and holding on for dear clarity.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Red Sparrow
    I’m stunned by where this movie dares to go with a star like Lawrence (and female co-stars) at a time like this, nearly as much as I’m impressed by Red Sparrow’s total investment in such trashy, grindhouse affairs while maintaining a veneer of high-toned quality. Blood lust and carnality at its classiest. Guilty pleasures as charged.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Steve Persall
    Annihilation
    Alex Garland’s Annihilation is a bracing blend of cerebral sci-fi and grindhouse terror, a genre movie that’s more, maybe too much for some viewers.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 67 Steve Persall
    Game Night
    Game Night is one of those comedy tweeners in which the jokes that click are milked too long and jokes that don’t will take too long to confirm that. Appropriately for the premise, it’ll likely be more enjoyable at home with friends.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Early Man
    Early Man proudly retains Park’s simple/not simple Plasticine pleasures.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Black Panther
    Marvel’s Black Panther is a milestone not only for its casting and director/co-writer Ryan Coogler’s cine-griot myth building but because it’s alive with fresh sights and sounds in a genre easily leaning on sameness.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Call Me by Your Name
    Call it what you want but this movie is an instantly fond memory.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    I, Tonya
    Craig Gillespie’s hysterically accurate biopic I, Tonya sets up the punchline she became. Harding’s spiteful rise and spectacular fall would make fine comedy even if they weren’t true. I, Tonya scores on higher degrees of difficulty, making these tabloid antics relatable and strangely sympathetic.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Shape of Water
    The Shape of Water is a fairy tale of eros, horror and whimsy, a creature feature doubling as a swooning romance, its bloodiness pumped straight from the heart of master fantasist Guillermo del Toro.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 67 Steve Persall
    Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
    The Jumanji sequel nobody demanded is fun. Kind of. Sort of. It’s a close call.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Greatest Showman
    The Greatest Showman is the feel-good (and feel good about it) movie every holiday season needs. P.T. Barnum is famous for saying there’s a sucker born every minute and he’s still right. For 105 minutes I’m a sucker for his movie, that may not be the greatest show on Earth but close enough.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
    Star Wars: The Last Jedi launches the franchise to another level of action and humor thanks to incoming writer-director Rian Johnson, whose imagination seems boundless as George Lucas’ 40 years ago.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    The Disaster Artist
    Franco doesn’t ask viewers to reconsider bad art but to respect the artist behind it. Sage advice from someone who, after a few career disasters, can still shape a movie this good.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    The Man Who Invented Christmas
    The Man Who Invented Christmas is good at its feel-iest, a beloved but stale tale retold with novelty while revealing an interesting rest of the story. Let’s hope it becomes a perennial like so many versions before, with Plummer’s Scrooge as a yearly gift.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
    Three Billboards lands somewhere near Coen brothers country, eloquently finding comedy in horror and vice versa. Yet it remains its own mangy animal; a study in grief that’s funny, finding justice in terror and forgiveness after the unforgivable.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Steve Persall
    Last Flag Flying
    Linklater tinkers with Ponicsan’s memorable characters while asking practically the same performances of his actors that Ashby did. Of course, if a viewer isn’t familiar with The Last Detail then Last Flag Flying gets by as an okay grumpy old soldiers tragicomedy. The rest of us know better because we’ve seen far better.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 67 Steve Persall
    Justice League
    Justice League does remain fun as it unravels, an upgrade from every other DC flick. Yet a movie intended as the culmination of DC lore instead feels like just another sequel set-up.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Steve Persall
    Wonderstruck
    Always lovely to observe, Wonderstruck never entirely grasps the magic of the coincidences it requires. Themes are emotional yet Haynes’ obsession with visual detailing can drain their meaning.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Thor: Ragnarok
    They’re called comic books for a reason too many superhero movies neglect. Not Thor: Ragnarok, one keenly aware of how silly all this universe saving stuff is. Guardians of the Galaxy is fun; this movie’s funny. There’s a difference.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Florida Project
    The Florida Project is a very funny, incredibly warm movie about what amounts to child endangerment. It earns its laughs, gasps and tears honestly, almost always keeping the kids distanced from unsavory situations. When that gap is bridged by a violent or protective act, the effect is devastating.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Never Here
    Never Here is a moody inversion of the stalker genre, less of a thriller than a Lynchian thinker. Thoman has a bright future and we'll say we knew her when.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Steve Persall
    Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
    Robinson's screenplay covers all of its bases by the midway point, and then a framing device of Marston being interrogated by a cultural watchdog (Connie Britton) hammers his theories flat.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Blade Runner 2049
    Villeneuve crafts a movie both cerebral and sensuous, as puzzling and visually striking as its predecessor. The experience should be likewise revered by next generations.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Victoria and Abdul
    Victoria & Abdul is a small tale well told, a modest historical biopic allowing Dench a remarkable encore.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Battle of the Sexes
    Stone is terrific, easy to cheer. She's feisty but a bit softer around the edges than King deserves. Another Oscar nomination is certain. Throw in Steve Carell's uncanny impersonation of Riggs and a stellar supporting cast and Battle of the Sexes has the makings of fine time capsule comedy, an extraordinary sports happening even by today's wired standards.
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