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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    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Dunkirk
    Dunkirk is a staggering feat of filmmaking, as Nolan's fans are accustomed. Van Hoytema's cinematography conveys death trap closeness even with IMAX cameras on a vast beach. Hans Zimmer again proves himself a masterfully dramatic composer, turning violins into the sound of spiraling aircraft. The performances are solid as such Nolan's vision requires, including pop star Harry Styles briefly.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Map of the Human Heart
    It may overwhelm and confuse, until you start tracing the mesmerizing route Ward lays out for his audience. [14 May 1993, p.6]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Baby Driver
    Style is the substance of Edgar Wright's inventive heist flick, a fresh, masterful synching of music and getaway mayhem, as if La La Land's traffic jam was moving, armed and dangerous.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Secret in Their Eyes
    The movie grabbed me and wouldn't let go during a bravura set piece at a soccer game when Campanella's camera glides into the stadium, finds Benjamin's face in the crowd and doesn't stop moving (with only a couple of edits) for six breathtaking minutes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Super 8
    A movie of here-and-now thrills, goosed by judicious CGI effects that never overpower the humanity of the situation.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Jodorowsky's Dune
    Herbert's tale is twisted into a barely recognizable rush of pretentions made entertaining by Jodorowsky's glee in describing them. At age 85 he remains a madman with immense personality, a pinhole visionary insisting his Dune would be a prophecy shaping generations. Jodorowsky's Dune makes a viewer wish he'd gotten the chance.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Whiplash
    Teller plays notes all over the emotional chart, dovetailing into a divine riff on ambition. And he does nearly all of Andrew's drumming, aggressively and impressively so.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Midnight in Paris
    Allen eventually gets to the heart of this matter: the allure and danger of nostalgia.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Rabbit Hole
    Sounds depressing, although Rabbit Hole isn't, with David Lindsay-Abaire presenting a perceptive, subtly dark-humored adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Incendies
    Incendies is a gallery of nightly news atrocities - a bus massacre, rape, children with guns - yet it's made intensely personal under the director's steady hand.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Arrival
    It's one of a handful of movies that have legitimately fooled me; not with an abrupt twist but a dawning awareness of where it's going thematically, how deeply and how distanced from sci-fi as usual.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
    Yet for all of the technological genius at work here, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes maintains a remarkably human core, even under digital makeup.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Hell or High Water
    Hell or High Water is a terrific piece of entertainment.... It isn't a highbrow indie but a gritty work of art. Mackenzie's movie thrills for all the right reasons and will be fondly remembered at year's end.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    La La Land
    La La Land is a trove of references to musical milestones, not derivative but truly inspired. A more joyful movie for grown-ups can't be found this season.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Argo
    Argo works superbly on two levels, first as a white-knuckle re-enactment of events in Iran and scrambling strategies in Washington.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The King's Speech
    Like Bertie's struggle, there's so much wonderment to articulate about this film that being mistaken for a stammering idiot is a risk. See it, then say it for yourself: The King's Speech is the best movie of 2010.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Amour
    With Amour, it's the rare feeling of watching a masterpiece unfold.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Sleepwalk with Me
    I've watched Sleepwalk With Me twice now, each time impressed with Birbiglia's confidence in revealing so much about his craft and himself, and the freely associated style with which he does it.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    I Love You Phillip Morris
    Think "Catch Me If You Can" mashed up with "Brokeback Mountain" if Mel Brooks directed and you'll get the idea.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Take Shelter
    Shannon is perfectly cast, a creepily magnetic actor with an otherworldly calm, tight jaw and piercing, set-apart eyes. The performance and movie stick with you, with masterful construction and muted psychological horror.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Winter's Bone
    Lawrence is in every scene of Winter's Bone, leaving her plenty of opportunity to make false moves. I dare you to find one, in a performance to be remembered during awards season.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    T2 Trainspotting
    Like its predecessor T2 Trainspotting aggressively shocks and charms, a singular example of cinematic bravura now improbably duplicated.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Cabin in the Woods
    The Cabin in the Woods isn't merely another "Scream" exercise in self-awareness, or a "Scary Movie" spoof of the same. It's a wickedly smart hybrid mutation, biting the severed hand feeding the genre.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Bonnie and Clyde
    The cinema grew up when Penn crafted this movie. Beatty was never better playing boyish insecurity while Faye Dunaway was a smoldering newcomer. Essential viewing for film lovers. [27 Sept 2001, p.14W]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    A Monster Calls
    J.A. Bayona's exquisite A Monster Calls blends pathos and sophistication, fairy tales and harsh realities into a small masterpiece.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Big Lebowski
    Anything goes in The Big Lebowski, and you roll right along with it. [6 March 1998, p.3]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Master
    This is a rapturous cinematic experience, a spellbinding expression of shrouded ideas and exposed talent, top to bottom.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Restrepo
    Restrepo is about soldiers, not politics. The question of whether U.S. troops belong there isn't posed. Their devotion to duty and each other is unquestioned.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Tillman Story
    One of the year's best documentaries.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
    Considering Parts 1 and 2 of Deathly Hallows as a single enterprise, as they should be, this is a rare franchise that just kept getting better.
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