Tim Grierson

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Los Angeles Times, Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone, Screen Daily, The A.V. Club, The Daily Beast, The Wrap, TheWrap
For 1,182 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Tim Grierson's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Christine
Lowest review score: 10 The Emoji Movie
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 575 out of 1182
  2. Mixed: 555 out of 1182
  3. Negative: 52 out of 1182
1182 movie reviews
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    • 63 Metascore
    • 90 Tim Grierson
    Hold the Dark
    It may take a while to acclimate to the film’s off-kilter rhythms and strange happenings — not unlike the film’s protagonist, an outsider entering the forbidding Alaskan wilderness — but Saulnier has crafted his most mature effort to date, mixing his love for pulp fiction with a sombre examination of the inexplicable evil all around us.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Tim Grierson
    Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
    Lit from within by the sunny disposition of its main character, Mrs Harris Goes To Paris is a lovely, modest ode to kindness, anchored by Lesley Manville’s considered performance as a housekeeper who is tired of feeling invisible.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Tim Grierson
    The Weight
    Padraic McKinley’s feature directorial debut is a hugely confident survivalist tale that’s as bluntly effective as the primitive weapons employed in this bare-knuckle saga.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Nightmare Alley
    The period details are impeccable, the look and feel are seductive, but the muddled script lacks the killer instinct of its central figures.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Tim Grierson
    Loveless
    When the film concludes, you may find yourself wanting to watch it again to fully absorb the journey Zvyagintsev took you on. And because Loveless is so accomplished, the repeat viewing promises to be deeply rewarding.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Ted K
    As arresting as this speculative portrait can be at times, the film is ultimately both galvanised and limited by how unknowable its protagonist turns out to be.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
    Unlike Yankovic’s best songs, Weird’s inspired goofiness eventually runs out of gas, growing more and more outrageous without coming up with comparably choice gags.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Tim Grierson
    Knife + Heart
    A film drunk on its own trashy, lurid aesthetic, Knife + Heart (Un Couteau Dans Le Coeur) has style to burn but not as much sense.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    The Ugly Stepsister
    This twisted fable suggests a filmmaker who gleefully goes to extremes, but the story’s shocks and stomach-churning gags prove more memorable than the underlying observations about the way in which women are pitted against one another in a patriarchal society.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Tim Grierson
    Summertime
    The result is a deeply touching tapestry that celebrates the diversity and cultural richness of LA, while at the same time exploring the hopes and fears of a generation heading into an uncertain adulthood.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Tim Grierson
    Materialists
    On its surface, Materialists tackles familiar romantic-comedy debates — contentment versus passion, money versus happiness — but Song approaches these themes with a frankness that makes them feel fresh.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    The Phoenician Scheme
    Although The Phoenician Scheme is transporting — an effect amplified by Alexandre Desplat’s lilting orchestral score, supplemented by selections from Stravinsky and Beethoven — the narrative proves to be fussy rather than delightful.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Tim Grierson
    Radical
    Boosted by some lovely performances from its young actors, writer-director Christopher Zalla’s sometimes-creaky feel-good film is most affecting when it explores how some children can have their future taken away only too soon.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Tim Grierson
    Old Henry
    Writer-director Potsy Ponciroli has crafted a taut Western that borrows heavily from familiar themes and storylines, but it has been constructed with such confidence and precision that one can’t help but be seduced by the picture’s stripped-down spell.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Tim Grierson
    The Miseducation of Cameron Post
    Miseducation has a funny, breezy surface — even though tragedy predictably intervenes at one point — but Cameron’s wry sense of humour doesn’t diminish how warping these conversion centres are, slowly instilling in people the sense that they’re faulty.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Rocketman
    Rocketman is so energetic that it’s possible to be swept away by its enthusiasm for putting Reg on a pedestal. Too often, though, the film just flattens you, demanding fealty to Sir Elton.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 76 Tim Grierson
    A Star Is Born
    For every nice small observation and delicately detailed bit of emotional truth, A Star Is Born is, in a larger sense, trapped by its own construction. Yes, it can be quite moving—but it’s moving precisely how you might imagine it would be.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Honey Don't!
    With modest ambitions and a slender runtime, the film proves to be a sexy, amusing time – despite being fairly forgettable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Tim Grierson
    Wasteman
    Thanks to the latest impressive turn from rising star David Jonsson, “Wasteman” even finds a few new notes to play within a familiar stark melody.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 90 Tim Grierson
    It
    Consistently, persuasively unnerving, It turns the coming-of-age drama into a nightmare.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 90 Tim Grierson
    Digging for Fire
    This is a moody comedy about unconscious marital discord, but it’s also about that ineffable discontent that envelops most of us. Digging For Fire is funny because it rings true — and because it stings a little.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Tim Grierson
    The Sun Rises on Us All
    With its restrained tone and measured performances, The Sun Rises creates a fragile world populated by characters who don’t know how to move forward — either separately or, perhaps, together.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Tim Grierson
    Penguins
    Considering it’s geared towards children — although not afraid to show some of the harsher realities of the animal kingdom — Penguins is more instructional tool than scintillating nonfiction investigation. But resistance to these sweet, wobbly critters is futile.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Tim Grierson
    La Grazia
    La Grazia salutes simple, humble decency, and writer-director Paolo Sorrentino follows the example of his protagonist, largely avoiding the usual array of visual flourishes that have marked his previous collaborations with Servillo. The result is a decidedly reflective film that’s among the director’s most affecting.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Green Book
    Green Book is a thoroughly predictable and conventional true-life drama, but at least Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali make for decent company along the road.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Tim Grierson
    Boy Erased
    Several emotionally attuned performances help paper over Boy Erased’s storytelling weaknesses.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Tim Grierson
    Chronic
    Tim Roth gives a meticulously withdrawn performance that speaks volumes, and although filmmaker Michel Franco can be too fussy in his starkly somber design, Chronic is nonetheless a captivating work.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Blue Jay
    Although Blue Jay is a warm, likable film, it doesn’t offer anything new to say about nostalgia, the passage of time or living with regret.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Dear Jassi
    The results are more dutiful than absorbing.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Tim Grierson
    Wendell & Wild
    Although the film’s different realms are all imaginatively designed — as are the looks of the characters themselves — Wendell & Wild gets a little bogged down explaining the logistics of how these worlds work.
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