Todd McCarthy

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The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
For 1,835 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 49% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Todd McCarthy's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Mulholland Dr.
Lowest review score: 0 Showgirls
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 947 out of 1835
  2. Mixed: 724 out of 1835
  3. Negative: 164 out of 1835
1835 movie reviews
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    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Nobody's Fool
    Nobody's Fool is a gentle, flavorsome story of a loose-knit, dysfunctional family whose members essentially include every glimpsed citizen of a small New York town. Fronted by a splendid performance from Paul Newman as a spirited man who has made nothing of his life, Robert Benton's character-driven film is sprinkled with small pleasures; the dramatic developments here don't take place in the noisy, calamitous manner that is customary these days.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Argo
    Argo is a crackerjack political thriller told with intelligence, great period detail and a surprising amount of nutty humor for a serious look at the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    Traffic
    Enormously ambitious and masterfully made, Traffic represents docudrama-style storytelling at a very high level.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    The Master
    Two things stand out: the extraordinary command of cinematic technique, which alone is nearly enough to keep a connoisseur on the edge of his seat the entire time, and the tremendous portrayals by Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman of two entirely antithetical men
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    City of Ghosts
    Heineman offers up a double portrait of devastation, of a truly destroyed city and of partially decimated survivors, leaving the viewer with an empathetic sense of deep sorrow.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    First Reformed
    The movie's concerns are obvious, not subtle, and while intellectual energy abounds, laying in subtext, building underlying tension physical and creating visual dynamism are not Schrader's strong suits.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    Beasts of the Southern Wild
    It's very much an art piece, to be sure, but it feels like a genuine one that, while meditated, speaks fluently and truly for the place, people and culture it so indelibly depicts.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Copycat
    Ending is on the conventional side, more so than anything else in the picture , but script by Ann Biderman and David Madsen keeps the tart surprises coming throughout most of the picture with only occasional lapses into red herrings and artificial manipulation.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Waking Life
    Audiences looking for something fresh and different, not to mention a head trip, will find it in Waking Life.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    The Bourne Ultimatum
    A pounding, pulsating thriller that provides an almost constant adrenaline surge for nearly two hours.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
    Fully justifying the decision, once thought purely mercenary, of splitting J.K. Rowling's final book into two parts, this is an exciting and, to put it mildly, massively eventful finale that will grip and greatly please anyone who has been at all a fan of the series up to now.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 50 Todd McCarthy
    The Pianist
    Surprisingly lacks a feeling of personal urgency and insight that would have made it a distinctive, even unique contribution to the considerable number of films that deal with the war in general and Holocaust in particular.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    The Savages
    Jenkins brings a rigor, intelligence and eye for the slightly absurd to the proceedings that is instantly disarming.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    An Education
    Carey Mulligan shines in a captivating performance.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    The Matrix
    An eye-popping but incoherent extravaganza of morphing and superhuman martial arts.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    The Rider
    The Rider is a rare gem, a small, acutely observed portrait of a few lives on what used to be the frontier but is now a desolate backwater, the windswept badlands around Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Sling Blade
    Marked by some powerful scenes, fine performances and colorful dialogue, this talented directorial debut by actor-writer Billy Bob Thornton has its effectiveness diluted by serious overlength and a rather monotonous, unmodulated tone.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Todd McCarthy
    Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
    Engagingly intriguing throughout most of its slightly overlong running time, and perhaps the strangely mesmerizing mood Lynch has orchestrated for the entire "Twin Peaks" undertaking should not be underestimated at this juncture. But the feeling persists that, to a considerable degree, Lynch is marking time with this project, creating new riffs and variations on themes he had already largely worked out.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    The Departed
    This reworking of a popular Hong Kong picture pulses with energy, tangy dialogue and crackling performances from a fine cast.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    The Insider
    A borderline pretentious, overly inflated picture.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    About Schmidt
    Films exist for different reasons, and the indisputable raison d'etre for About Schmidt is to showcase Jack Nicholson giving a master class in the art of screen acting.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    Unforgiven
    Clint Eastwood has crafted a tense, hard-edged, superbly dramatic yarn that is also an exceedingly intelligent meditation on the West, its myths and its heroes.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    The Tree of Life
    Brandishing an ambition it's likely no film, including this one, could entirely fulfill, The Tree of Life is nonetheless a singular work, an impressionistic metaphysical inquiry into mankind's place in the grand scheme of things that releases waves of insights amid its narrative imprecisions.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Beanpole
    It’s a demanding sit, a film both rigorous and indulgent, rewarding and aggravating.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Fruitvale Station
    As Oscar, Jordan at moments gives off vibes of a very young Denzel Washington in the way he combines gentleness and toughness; he effortlessly draws the viewer in toward him.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Slumdog Millionaire
    Driven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, Slumdog Millionaire is a blast.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Paranoid Park
    Through immaculate use of picture, sound and time, the director adds another panel to his series of pictures about disaffected, disconnected youth.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    In the Shadow of the Moon
    The excitement, majesty and extraordinary human accomplishment of the American lunar program of the '60s and early '70s is rousingly captured in In the Shadow of the Moon.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Husbands and Wives
    This is definitely his edgiest, rawest work in a good while. Acting is of a very high caliber across the board, but Judy Davis, in a very meaty part compared to her previous walk-on for Allen in “Alice,” is incandescent, revealing a whole new side to her personality that has never surfaced onscreen before.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Moonrise Kingdom
    This is a Wes Anderson film -- more lightweight than some, possessing a stronger emotional undertow than others -- that will strike the uninitiated as conspicuously arch.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    The Joy Luck Club
    Wang has made a dramatically confident move into the mainstream on his own terms with highly congenial material.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Todd McCarthy
    Men in Black
    A witty and sometimes surreal sci-fi comedy, Men in Black is a wild knuckleball of a movie that keeps dancing in and out of the strike zone.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    American Beauty
    A script as fresh and distinctive as any produced in the States in recent memory.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Todd McCarthy
    Heart of a Dog
    From a sensory point of view, the film is a pleasure, the images having been manipulated in various ways to evocative effect, Anderson’s voiceovers proving more amusing than not, and the music taking mostly lively turns.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Toy Story 4
    Ultimately, what gives Toy Story 4 genuine heft is that it's a tale of second chances and characters who take advantage of them. Like its predecessors, the film is rambunctious, noisy, genial, unpretentious, action-packed and old-fashioned in a very good way.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    The White Ribbon
    Immaculately crafted in beautiful black-and-white and entirely absorbing through its longish running time, Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon nonetheless proves a difficult film to entirely embrace.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    The Witch
    Writer-director Robert Eggers' debut feature impresses on several fronts, notably in the performances, historical feel and visual precision, but the overall effect is relatively subdued and muted, probably too much so for mainstream scare fans.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Looper
    Their physical disparity notwithstanding, Gordon-Levitt and Willis both come across strongly, while Blunt effectively reveals Sara's tough and vulnerable sides.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    In the Name of the Father
    But the filmmakers have invigorated and enriched the story through the use of a thousand details, a strong sense of time and place, outstanding characterizations and a display of energy and cinematic flair that marks an advance on "My Left Foot."
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Widows
    Widows is a solid piece of genre fiction made more resonant by how its creators have bored down into its characters and sociological implications in ways specifically designed to examine some of the rotten underpinnings of business as usual.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    King Arthur
    Impressively made and well acted by an exceedingly attractive cast, this dark tale of ceaseless conflict is adult entertainment and will likely disappoint viewers expecting a "Camelot"-like love triangle.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Sense and Sensibility
    Crucially for such an elaborately dressed production, the characters all come thoroughly alive with their ready wits and pulsing emotions, overcoming the two-century gap with seeming effortlessness.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    The Descendants
    After a five-year wait since "Sideways," Alexander Payne has made his best film yet with The Descendants. Ostensibly a study of loss and coping with a tragic situation, this wonderfully nuanced look at a father and two daughters dealing with the imminent death of his wife and their mother turns the miraculous trick of possibly being even funnier than it is moving.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Shrek
    This spirited and often very funny lark accomplishes something that most films in the bygone Hollywood studio era used to do but is remarkably rare in today's world of niche markets: It offers entertainment equally to viewers from 4 to 104.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    The Quiet American
    One of Caine's meatiest roles, and he handles it with power, humanity and remarkable emotional fluidity; from the opening moments, an enormous amount comes through his eyes alone.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Mystic River
    This full-bodied adaptation of Dennis Lehane's involved and involving 2001 bestselling crime novel about old friends in Boston's working-class Irish neighborhood finds Clint Eastwood near the top of his directorial game with a cast of first-rate actors.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Glengarry Glen Ross
    But it doesn't quite all come together here as it did onstage, and relentless scabrousness, heavy claustrophobia and a vaguely dated feel are among the elements that will keep mainstream audiences away.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Todd McCarthy
    How Do You Know
    A low-impact romantic comedy-drama from James L. Brooks in which the central characters are strangely disconnected from one another as well as from the audience.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Todd McCarthy
    Crazy in Alabama
    The opposition of the two dramas winds up in gratifyingly moral and philosophical territory.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Crazy Heart
    Ever-youthful in his looks and energy, Bridges now stands as one of Hollywood's great old pros, incapable of making a false move.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Phone Booth
    Gussied up with a host of filmmaking tricks in an attempt to keep things lively, this intensely acted little exercise just doesn't have enough going for it, with the exception of gradually growing interest in lead Colin Farrell.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Todd McCarthy
    Romeo + Juliet
    Although arresting in spots, it falls far short of bringing out the full values of the play, and doesn't approach the emotional resonance of Franco Zeffirelli's immensely popular 1968 screen version.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Local Hero
    While modest in intent and gentle in feel, Local Hero is loaded with wry, offbeat humor and is the sort of satisfying, personal picture that is becoming an increasingly rare commodity these days.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    A Little Princess
    An astonishing work of studio artifice, A Little Princess is that rarest of creations, a children's film that plays equally well to kids and adults.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Adaptation.
    All but stealing the film is Cooper, who seizes a rare opportunity as an extroverted, rather than buttoned-up, character to bust loose like an uncaged alligator.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    The Forbidden Room
    With no through-story or strong continuity to hold it together, the film does go on a bit and becomes repetitive; it's hard to remain stimulated by the same techniques, however imaginative, at such length without some connective dramatic tissue.... Still, for cinephiles and aficionados of the singular, The Forbidden Room represents a very particular kind of feast.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
    Emerges as the best in the overall series since "The Empire Strikes Back."
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Hitchcock
    This narrative directing debut by Sacha Gervasi remains absorbing and aptly droll despite a few dramatic ups and downs and, led by large performances by Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Fantastic Mr. Fox
    The film's style, paradoxically both precious and rough-hewn, positions this as the season's defiantly anti-CGI toon, and its retro charms will likely appeal more strongly to grown-ups than to moppets; it's a picture for people who would rather drive a 1953 Jaguar XK 120 than a new one.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Todd McCarthy
    Fay Grim
    A strange international odyssey that becomes more complicated and loony by the moment. Some viewers will undoubtedly tune out early, others will follow as far as they can -- and a privileged few might make it all the way.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Todd McCarthy
    Clockers
    A study of the urban dope-dealing culture and its toll on everyone who comes in contact with it, the picture has an insider's feel that is constantly undercut by the filmmaker's impulse to editorialize.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Chop Shop
    Ultimately, the pic will be noted and remembered not for any inherent drama or analysis but for its simply having so thoroughly documented a strange place most people have never seen and never knew existed.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Mike Wallace Is Here
    Wallace was clearly a very ambitious, capable and confident man, but the film, as absorbing as it is, is two-dimensional.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    Spider-Man 2
    The pleasure is doubled in Spider-Man 2. Crackerjack entertainment from start to finish, this rousing yarn about a reluctant superhero and his equally conflicted friends and enemies improves in every way on its predecessor and is arguably about as good a live-action picture as anyone's ever made using comicbook characters.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    When We Were Kings
    Tightly made and populated by a uniformly larger-than-life cast of characters , pic is a total delight for every second of its running time.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Avatar
    Avatar is all-enveloping and transporting, with Cameron & Co.'s years of R&D paying off with a film that, as his work has done before, raises the technical bar and throws down a challenge for the many other filmmakers toiling in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    Hugo
    A fabulous and passionate love letter to the cinema and its preservation framed by the strenuous adventures of two orphans in 1930s Paris.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Quills
    Lacks an edge of danger or excitement that might have brought the subject alive in more than a cerebral way.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Up in the Air
    The timing in the Clooney-Farmiga scenes is like splendid tennis, with each player surprising the other with shots but keeping the rally going to breathtaking duration.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Milk
    Brolin's work is superlatively expressive of the inchoate impulses roiling inside his sorry character. But good as most of the cast is, the show belongs squarely to Penn.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    Kill Bill: Vol. 2
    Originally conceived as one film, the two-parter that has finally emerged can now be seen as a truly epic work.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    BlacKkKlansman
    Lee and his writers have thrown as many logs on the fire as they’ve been able to find to signal the persistence of racial injustice; they have also endeavored, and mostly succeeded, to entertain.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Todd McCarthy
    Under the Skin
    More pictorially arresting than intellectually coherent.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    The Post
    It's a dramatic tale loaded with all manner of dynamics, political and personal, and Spielberg charges out of the gate at a brisk clip, extends his hand and all but enjoins the viewer to grab hold and be swept along for the ride.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Tyson
    By getting Tyson to open up as he has, Toback has succeeded in illuminating one of the most polarizing, complex and -- the film almost forces one to admit -- misunderstood figures of our time.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Eastern Promises
    A superbly wrought yarn set in the milieu of first-generation Russian mobsters in London that is simultaneously tough-minded and compassionate about the human condition, Eastern Promises instantly takes its place among David Cronenberg's very best films.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Todd McCarthy
    Footnote
    Jewish and academically inclined audiences worldwide will respond to numerous aspects of this unusual drama, although it is paradoxically both too broad and too esoteric for the general art house public.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
    Both sharp and fleet, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street proves a satisfying screen version of Stephen Sondheim’s landmark 1979 theatrical musical.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Fly Away Home
    An animal, kid and family picture of the first order, "Fly Away Home" marks an impressive return to form for Carroll Ballard, his best work since "The Black Stallion" 17 years ago.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Election
    Brandishes the sort of intelligent wit and bracing nastiness that will make it more appealing to discerning adults than to teens who just want to have fun.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Creed
    Sylvester Stallone doesn't get back in the ring in Creed, but he still comes away as a big winner in this far-fetched but likeable offshoot of the geriatric Rocky series.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Venus
    Genuinely funny, randy and moving by turns, breezily enjoyable throughout.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    The Deep Blue Sea
    As intensely personal and deeply felt as it is, however, Davies' attempt to breathe new life into Rattigan's 1952 play is a rather bloodless, suffocating thing, lent tragic passion more by its use of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto than by anything achieved by his star Rachel Weisz and her leading man.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    War for the Planet of the Apes
    The fact that a genre entry of this nature, with no intrinsic need of being philosophically nuanced, goes out of its way to endow even its ostensible villains with comprehensible motives rates as a notable achievement.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    The Constant Gardener
    Succeeds in capturing the book's essential themes and concerns, albeit in a hectic style that could not be more antithetical to that of the literary master of international intrigue.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    A History of Violence
    Lack of depth, complexity or strangeness make this a relatively routine entry for the director.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Sugar
    Sympathetic, genial and exceedingly wholesome, it's a film that, once seen, will permanently and favorably influence the way viewers regard the characters' real-life counterparts.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Forrest Gump
    Manages the difficult feat of being an intimate, even delicate tale played with an appealingly light touch against an epic backdrop.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    The Nightmare Before Christmas
    If it were a normal holiday animated film, The Nightmare Before Christmas would be an entertaining, amusing, darker-than-usual offering indicating that Disney was willing to deviate slightly from its tried-and-true family-fare formula. But the dazzling techniques employed here create a striking look that’s never been seen in such sustained form, making this a unique curio that will appeal to kids and film enthusiasts alike.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Todd McCarthy
    Star Trek
    Blasting onto the screen at warp speed and remaining there for two hours, the new and improved Star Trek will transport fans to sci-fi nirvana.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Todd McCarthy
    Devil in a Blue Dress
    On its own terms, the plotting of "Devil" is absorbing, and the pieces actually fit together pretty decently. On the other hand, when scenes directly call to mind similar ones in "Chinatown," this effort's stepchild relationship to the classic is forcibly demonstrated.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Frances Ha
    The director mixes moods with a playfulness that is both brazen and carefree and yet precisely modulated, yielding results that amplify the specific content of the screenplay. This makes for a film that, however cheap it was to make, is incredibly rich to watch.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    The Spectacular Now
    Ordinary in some ways and extraordinary in others, The Spectacular Now benefits from an exceptional feel for its main characters on the parts of the director and lead actors.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Todd McCarthy
    Face/Off
    A provocative premise, virtuoso direction and two dazzling lead performances go a long way toward offsetting a lack of dramatic structure and a sense of when to quit in Face/Off.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    Rams
    Hakonarson observes all this with the practiced eye of a good documentarian but, in the compositions, the rigorous timing of the editing and the performances of the two leads, he lifts the material beyond the observational to a modestly accomplished work that not only neatly observes an obscure lifestyle but brings to life a most peculiar sibling relationship.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 20 Todd McCarthy
    The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
    Reheating the ingredients can't disguise how stale they are, as setpiece after setpiece strains to whip up excitement, only to fall flat while reminding of previous sequences that did such things ever so much better.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Steve Jobs
    Racing in high gear from start to finish, Danny Boyle’s electric direction tempermentally complements Sorkin’s highly theatrical three-act study.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Touching the Void
    Uses first-person on-camera accounts of the adventure by Simpson and fellow climber Simon Yates to backdrop newly shot you-are-there footage that brings home the awesome and harrowing aspects of their feat.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Todd McCarthy
    The Last Black Man in San Francisco
    All the dramatic components have not only been well thought out by Talbot and co-writer Rob Richert, but they’re adorned, for the most part, by a sense of reality that keeps pretentiousness at bay. To be sure, this is a highly calculated and worked-out story, but the humor and lively playing of the entire cast keeps the film aloft across its two hours.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Todd McCarthy
    Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary
    A classic piece of Americana, a down-home documentary that not only produces gales of laughter but also manages, by the end, to come together as a highly unlikely metaphor for the rigors of human existence.
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