Austin Chronicle's Scores

Select another publication »
For 8,793 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 57% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 58
Highest review score: 100 The Searchers
Lowest review score: 0 Gummo
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,786 out of 8793
  2. Mixed: 2,560 out of 8793
  3. Negative: 1,447 out of 8793
8793 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. No Impact Man: The Documentary
    What makes this documentary work is that the Beavan family is so relatable.
  2. Fully Realized Humans
    What makes Fully Realized Humans all the funnier is the couple's conviction that they're always doing the right thing: and, again, if it wasn't for the wide-eyed smart-naïve performances from Wexler and Leonard the whole thing would be insufferable.
  3. A Bigger Splash
    As a mood piece, A Bigger Splash leaves a lasting impression.
  4. Selma
    Although Selma is dramatically uneven overall, the film is a commendable historical drama that sidesteps the pitfalls of adulatory biopics and great-man approaches to encapsulating bygone events.
  5. Winged Migration
    As moving wallpaper, Winged Migration is the cat’s meow: One almost wishes the wondrous images had been filmed in the even bigger IMAX format. But as an informative documentary, Winged Migration’s birdbrain comes to the fore.
  6. The Infiltrators
    Fascinating as the The Infiltrators is, it remains a beginner’s primer to the for-profit immigration system with an oddly jaunty narrative over the top. Like the NIYA activists, its heart may be bigger than its head sometimes, but that’s not the world’s biggest sin.
  7. Bob Trevino Likes It
    If overly conventional, the film is so bursting with compassion, I felt like a heel any time I sniffed when the tone tipped toward corniness. Best to meet Bob Trevino on its own terms – with open arms and an unjudgey heart.
  8. Last Days in the Desert
    Last Days in the Desert is a Jesus story that plays well for the nonfaithful who nevertheless appreciate the example of Jesus and his teachings.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Isn't She Great
    An ideal diversion for one of those evenings when low expectations feel more like a state of grace than a surrender to vice.
  10. The Spy Behind Home Plate
    The Spy Behind Home Plate is a documentary that should appeal to anyone with an interest in stories about the Golden Age of baseball, World War II spy missions, and unusual corners of American Jewish history.
  11. Terminator: Dark Fate
    Terminator: Dark Fate is personified in the Rev-9. The new terminator is a nanite skin over a combat endoskeleton. It should be two for the price of one: Instead, it's the chassis of the original draped with the flesh of Robert Patrick's "Judgment Day" liquid metal shapeshifter. It's everything you loved before, just awkwardly kludged together.
  12. The Mask of Zorro
    A pleasantly vicarious slice of summertime falderol, innocuous in its presentation and often genuinely fun.
  13. The Man Without a Past
    I suspect that, like the Coen brothers, David Lynch, and Wes Anderson -– our American masters of idiosyncrasy -– Kaurismäki has a limited appeal. Those who get him, really get him.
  14. Trespassers
    Fortunately Trespassers has Balk, who adds just the right dose of slow-acting venom into proceedings.
  15. Blood Fest
    Directed and written by Austin author and horror enthusiast Owen Egerton (who also stars as the mad filmmaker behind the fest and the blood), the film doesn’t come without its setbacks. It’s a formulaic meta-horror movie that for most of its run time tries too hard, but there’s a sincerity about the movie that keeps it zipping along.
  16. Midnight Traveler
    What makes Midnight Traveler distinct from its counterparts is that it follows filmmaker Hassan Fazili’s own family, and the intimacy he’s able to capture over the life spans of three iPhones makes his documentary more tender and honest and immediate.
  17. Art School Confidential
    When it's on, it's really, really on. But when it's not, it feels like it's struggling to find its style, just as Jerome is.
  18. Greenland
    Greenland might be a B-movie at heart, but in keeping at least one toe on the ground at all times, the filmmakers craft something that punches well above its weight class. Here’s to one of the more consistently surprising director/actor relationships of our era.
  19. Don't Tell a Soul
    McAulay has crafted a terse, bleak drama. It's reminiscent of the portrait of a corrupt male friendship in Super Dark Times, but with the added pressures of kinship and family. To describe Don't Tell a Soul as a story of toxic masculinity is both accurate but, in a time when every film with a flawed or unpleasant male an/protagonist gets that tag, almost glib. There's something rancid between the boys.
  20. Black Christmas
    For all its political positioning and explorations of institutional violence, the thing that makes Black Christmas most endearing is the strength of its sisterhood.
  21. Antwone Fisher
    If treats like this are evidence of Washington's special gifts as a filmmaker, Antwone Fisher promises great things for the future.
  22. Flora and Son
    While Hewson’s splashier performance energizes the film, it’s Gordon-Levitt who gives Flora and Son its sweetness and light.
  23. Never Let Me Go
    The subdued characters I can abide, intellectually speaking, but subdued filmmaking with material this fundamentally gut-punching is a lot less easy to swallow.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things
    Just One of Those Things checks off all the stream-age doc boxes: unheard audio, unseen home movies, color from family, collaborator-peers, and celebs.
  25. Imaginary Heroes
    Weaver and Hirsch's flawless performances elevate the film above and beyond the ranks of "Ordinary People" pastiches, and in the end it stands on its own merits.
  26. Beefcake
    There's an undeniable energy, originality and -- most hearteningly -- optimism here that makes Beefcake well worth your time, shortcomings and all.
  27. Where's My Roy Cohn?
    Well-researched and candid, this documentary will not change anyone’s perception of Cohn or rehabilitate his character in any way. Although his self-loathing insecurities may slightly humanize him, he will always be one-dimensionally evil.
  28. We're the Millers
    With the exception of Roberts, who blends into the background in every scene in which she appears, the cast comprising the Millers keeps this sweetly crude comedy afloat.
  29. Saw X
    After the gimmicky Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, the clunky semi-reboot of Jigsaw, and the misguided Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Saw X feels like a welcome return to form.
  30. Driveways
    What Dennehy grasped was people - what made them tick. His performances were never one-note, but understood that joy, grief, and and oft-ignored emotions like resignation could all be contained with in a character. He was a big man, but he could keep his performances small, and so it's fitting that one of his final performances, Driveways, is so tiny and fragile that you'll feel like it can fit into your hands.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »