Austin Chronicle's Scores
- Movies
- Music
For 8,778 reviews, this publication has graded:
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41% higher than the average critic
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2% same as the average critic
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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: | The Searchers | |
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| Lowest review score: | Gummo |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 4,774 out of 8778
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Mixed: 2,557 out of 8778
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Negative: 1,447 out of 8778
8778
movie
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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Reviewed by
Kimberley Jones
These dragons are rendered so expressively, and they have become so dear. We may not deserve them, but that doesn’t stop the heart from wanting.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 20, 2019
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Marjorie Baumgarten
Never Look Away seems as self-satisfied with itself as its fictional artists are with the works they produce. Pardon my disgruntlement, but after three hours, my tendency is to desire a more resounding ending and something less solipsistic.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 20, 2019
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Reviewed by
Marjorie Baumgarten
Everybody Knows is not Farhadi’s best work, but he does deliver an affair to remember.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 20, 2019
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Reviewed by
Richard Whittaker
As a depiction of the lowest ebbs of what is written off as flyover country, Donnybrook doesn't lack for empathy for the truly unsympathetic. What is in short supply is any sense of direction.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 16, 2019
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Reviewed by
Marjorie Baumgarten
The screenplay by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, and Katie Silberman nails the mechanics of a rom-com, even if it takes Wilson’s delivery to drive the lessons home. Scenes are succinct and the movie comes in at 88 minutes even with a tacked-on song-and-dance video at the end (as a nod to the film’s wildly successful karaoke-bar sequence earlier in the film).- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 14, 2019
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- Critic Score
There’s a distinct Eighties vibe that appeals to the intended demographic, especially in the bumbling school administrator Dean Bronson (Zissis, more stooge than villain), the sexual politics between the characters (they are in college after all), and the delicious bitchiness of mean girl Danielle (Matthews). Yet for all its ambition with loopy timelines and dubious scientific explanations, convenient logic only justified in pushing the plot along, the actual world-building falls flat.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 14, 2019
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Reviewed by
Richard Whittaker
It does not reinvent the wheel (or, more aptly, sled runner) but it's a tale that survives the retelling.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 13, 2019
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Reviewed by
Matthew Monagle
We never see Salazar’s performance, only the SFX team’s re-creation of her performance, and that generates a disconnect between the audience and the lead character that the film can never overcome.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 13, 2019
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Steve Davis
Henson aside, the most memorable performance comes from musician Erykah Badu in the smallish role of a trippy, weed-dealing psychic seemingly from another planet.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 12, 2019
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Reviewed by
Steve Davis
The movie’s constant meta-comedy recognition of the endearing yet aggravating earworm quality of the first film’s “Everything Is Awesome” theme song may be its most effectual in-joke.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 12, 2019
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Marc Savlov
Cold Pursuit very nearly brings Neeson full circle, imbued as it is with a lower-rent version of the patented Raimi gallows humor.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 12, 2019
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Richard Whittaker
Åkerlund's style, and his quietly sensitive handling of the bloody details, will still bang the head that does not bang.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 6, 2019
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- Critic Score
The story, though structurally flawed, is an artful portrait of modern life: the 24-hour news cycle, class warfare, and rampant overconsumption leading to crippling anxiety and burnout, even in the young. It’s sadly all too familiar: Too late to be a cautionary tale, it reads more like society’s distorted self-portrait.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 6, 2019
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Reviewed by
Matthew Monagle
One personal pet peeve is the music. A movie about evil reincarnation could pave the way for any of a hundred different song choices, but The Prodigy’s score is focused on a dissatisfying blend of danger chords and a single shapeless Hungarian folk song.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 6, 2019
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- Critic Score
There are times when it’s funny. There are also times when it beats you over the head with context clues. When the action ramps up, the over-the-top music score seems to stomp its foot and say, “Something is hap-pen-ing!” Certain plot points are overemphasized. It veers toward parody. But it’s also satisfying to see the outcome.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 31, 2019
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Reviewed by
Marc Savlov
The end result goes far beyond the simple colorization of moldering battlefield documentation. It restores the humanity of the combatants, both the British and, surprisingly, the German. Ultimately, it’s a you-are-there time capsule of enormous emotional and historical importance.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 30, 2019
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Richard Whittaker
Pushing the concepts of consensual BDSM to their very furthest extremes, Pesce's curious, stylized, and perversely erotic romance will inevitably make the audience flinch.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 30, 2019
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Richard Whittaker
Capernaum is as close to unfiltered truth as the screen or the audience can handle. Set in the slums of Beirut, it is an eye-opening insight into life at the frayed fringes of a society that seems seconds from unraveling.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 30, 2019
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Josh Kupecki
The best ingredient is the way Ray relates to his son. Those moments – sometimes quiet, but often volatile – lift the film up from being a turgid episode of "Fargo" or "Justified."- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 30, 2019
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Reviewed by
Kimberley Jones
A spectacular misfire – is a 180 from Locke’s lean brilliance, overstuffed with plot complications, overheated with bad acting and maudlin sentiment.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 24, 2019
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- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 23, 2019
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Reviewed by
Marjorie Baumgarten
Fans of wartime romances like Casablanca and Doctor Zhivago are sure to swoon over the fate of Cold War’s divided lovers.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 23, 2019
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Reviewed by
Matthew Monagle
A bit of action, a bit of humor, and a whole bunch of teachable moments.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 23, 2019
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Reviewed by
Marc Savlov
Cobbled together on what appears to be a very low budget, Glass shatters under the weight of too many comic book allegories-cum-history lessons, weirdly abrupt plot machinations, epically puny bouts of brawny fisticuffs, and a third-act bit of outright what-the-f**k-ery that gives even the lamest deus ex machinas a bad name.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 16, 2019
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Richard Whittaker
The underlying narrative theme of sons who become greater – and better – men than their fathers is underdeveloped. Meanwhile, the animation feels oddly dated, as the decision to give visual continuity to three and a half decades of storytelling re-enforces this as fan service.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 15, 2019
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Steve Davis
Some kids may find the whole affair traumatic, particularly when the poor pooch finds herself dehydrated and chained to a corpse in the wilderness. Then again, that’s nothing compared to those same kids’ parents’ recollection of a Disney flick in which a tearful boy must shoot his rabies-inflicted yeller dog in the end. Bless the beasts and the children.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 15, 2019
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Richard Whittaker
St. John's script is the underlying bug in the code. Science fiction is at its best when it's a morality tale – especially when dealing with tech, such as brain mapping, that is seemingly within our grasp. Yet there's no moral or emotional weight to anything William does.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 14, 2019
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Reviewed by
Marjorie Baumgarten
Nicole Kidman, as good as she is, is given little to do in a one-note role, but fares better than Julianna Margulies who appears merely in a one-scene role. Kevin Hart’s huge number of fans may push this film to early box-office success but eventually they are likely to toss it into the untouchable pile.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 14, 2019
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- Critic Score
The film is an action-packed thriller-Western hybrid, but it takes a dreamy pace in setting up the story (the first 20 minutes or so are rather languid).- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 10, 2019
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Reviewed by
Steve Davis
Speaking in a barely audible rasp bordering on monotone, Kidman bravely submerges herself in a performance with some genuinely harrowing emotional moments, and yet the unswerving conviction she brings to the role is conspicuous.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 9, 2019
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