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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    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Steve Persall
    Personal Shopper
    Personal Shopper is wildly imperfect, wandering like Maureen through surroundings matching her dark, curious mood. Dead ends abound with scenes running long then abruptly dropping their subjects. Thrills aren't part of the bargain unless Stewart's intense vulnerability counts. Now more than ever, it should.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 42 Steve Persall
    Sugar Hill
    Sugar Hill is a movie that manages to be as self-destructive as its two central characters, Harlem drug-runners Roemello and Raynathan Skuggs. Like those two desperate (and disparate) brothers, Leon Ichaso's film ultimately wastes its potential and our time. [26 Feb 1994, p.7B]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Ghost Writer
    If he made The Ghost Writer under a pseudonym, it might be roundly hailed as the classy white-knuckler it is. But it's Polanski's name above the title, with his own ghosts haunting each frame.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Jungle Book
    The Jungle Book could use better lighting and less of John Debney's musical score insisting each moment be melodically underlined twice. Still, it's a movie to thrill and perhaps inspire kids to play Mowgli games again. Not outside, of course. Now there's an app for that.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Steve Persall
    The Hunting Ground
    This is a story to make blood boil and change demanded, so future waves of incoming freshmen — even that term is male-centric — won't have their dreams ruined.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Steve Persall
    While We're Young
    What is off limits to steal when everything is available, not only in a digital age but clacking through a projector? Isn't fame always at someone else's expense? Even Baumbach borrows, notably from Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors. Fair, and funny enough.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Dallas Buyers Club
    Director Jean-Marc Vallee dutifully progresses from one obvious scene to the next. Solid work but unspectacular, perhaps figuring the boldness of his characters' words and actions can be artistic enough. And it is, in the hands of a temporarily reformed sex symbol and his unexpected leading lady.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Equity
    What lifts Equity above ordinary corporate melodrama is its staunchly feminine perspective, and not only in its lead character.
    • 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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Steve Persall
    Ruby in Paradise
    Nunez handles Ruby's fragile personal growth with a loving concern that might escape most male filmmakers.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Hercules
    Hercules isn't likely to be revered 30 years from now like other Disney classics, but it's smart, safe family entertainment. [27 June 1997, p.3]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Steve Persall
    Calvary
    Calvary becomes a lurid Agatha Christie yarn with something important to say about the church and Ireland that McDonagh can't fully articulate. Pulp keeps getting in the way.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Philomena
    Philomena is simply one of those small, true stories that astonish in print and inspire good movies.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Get Low
    Get Low is a pleasant yarn, well-acted and dutifully mounted with period designs. There isn't a false note among the actors.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Detroit
    We are "there" although Detroit squanders that sensation on revulsion, a gut punch needing to take more shots at our heads.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Steve Persall
    Logan
    James Mangold's Logan is an uncommonly mature comic book movie, practically from another universe unto itself. It's a movie demanding and deserving to be taken seriously, an elegy for a mutant.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 67 Steve Persall
    Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike
    The relevant question now isn't who John Galt is, but how much demand there will be for what the producers supply.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 42 Steve Persall
    Pain & Gain
    The movie's best performance — and worst defamation — belongs to Tony Shalhoub, playing the first victim as a conniving, egotistical jerk who deserves to be kidnapped, maimed and ruined financially.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    How to Train Your Dragon 2
    How to Train Your Dragon 2 is how to make a sequel, when it gets its head out of the clouds.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Career Girls
    Whatever Career Girls lacks in polish or ambition, it compensates with three memorable performances and an unwavering filmmaker working on nobody's terms except his own. [5 Sep. 1997, p.3]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    Guardians of the Galaxy
    Guardians of the Galaxy is fun but forgettable, or perhaps Gunn crams so much onto the screen that memory is crowded out. Definitely worth a second look, just to figure out what in the name of Buckaroo Banzai is going on.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Lore
    The images captured by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw are more dreamy than nightmarish as if his camera — like the children — doesn't fully understand the dangers.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Steve Persall
    A Perfect World
    Eastwood keeps the tension humming from his director's chair and contributes a little too much comic relief, but gives Costner an eye-opening, image-shattering showcase that adds a sheen to his often-criticized acting career. [24 Nov 1993, p.6B]
    • 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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    Buck
    Buck is a movie to be revisited again and again, like passages from a satisfying self-help book. Riding experience isn't necessary to realize how extraordinary this man and his calling are.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    99 Homes
    99 Homes combines the insight of documentary filmmaking with a thriller's urgency, opening our eyes to a complex, real-life tragedy while keeping it entertaining.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Steve Persall
    The Lunchbox
    Kaur and Khan, who was robbed of a IIFA nod, scarcely share a frame of The Lunchbox, yet the emotional connection of their characters is palpable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Steve Persall
    Dave
    A comedy that moves as slow and uncertain as a bill through Congress. [07 May 1993, p.8]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Midnight Special
    Jeff Nichols fashions three-quarters of a terrific movie with Midnight Special, a slow burn science fiction thriller. The rest is merely gripping, which isn't a bad problem to have.
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