Austin Chronicle's Scores

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For 8,784 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: 4,778 out of 8784
  2. Mixed: 2,559 out of 8784
  3. Negative: 1,447 out of 8784
8784 movie reviews
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  1. Life During Wartime
    Call it the aesthetic of un-Happiness.
  2. Small Time Crooks
    A pleasant frolic, but fairly inconsequential in terms of the overall Allen output.
  3. Ride with the Devil
    Unostentatious originality, psychological insight, and stark beauty make it well worth any film lover's time.
  4. Monster's Ball
    The kind of quiet, effective film that burrows under the viewer's skin and takes root before you've had a chance to realize that it's permeated your constitutional makeup.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    The Pawnbroker
    Visually, Lumet's use of gritty black-and-white realism to locate the story is also powerful.
  6. Take Me to the River: New Orleans
    The film’s greatest strength is its unabashed sentimentality. The look on these artists’ faces – their obvious pleasure in being in the room with their heroes, making great music? It’s not just good on the ears; it’s good for the heart.
  7. Penguins
    This time out however, the Disneynature folks have complemented their flawless footage with a script (narrated by Ed Helms) that is more anthropomorphized than usual.
  8. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel
    She knew what "it" was going to be before anyone else. Or maybe she invented "it," and the magazine-buying public simply did as they were told.
  9. Julia
    Julia is a thorough documentary, concise in a way that’s ideal for the casual couch surfer. Like Child, the film’s a delight, but slightly unlike her, Julia doesn’t bring any new techniques to the table of biographical documentaries.
  10. Bill W.
    Despite the filmmakers' efforts to humanize Wilson, however, Bill W. still dabbles in hagiography, valorizing the man while also painting him as a reluctant hero.
  11. Blockers
    If there's one error, it's that there are almost too many laughs. Cannon keeps the pace up, and some of the smart one-liners from the script by Brian and Jim Kehoe get stamped on in the race for the next gag.
  12. Green Book
    Two terrific performances and the interplay between the two actors – Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen – are the reasons to see Green Book. Their pas de deux is a master class in acting, and the twosome’s give and take provides good company for the road trip that comprises the heart of this narrative.
  13. Of an Age
    Missed opportunity and bad timing inform the romantic interlude in Of an Age in a way many of us have experienced at least once.
  14. Boy Erased
    Yes, Boy Erased is a horror movie, but it bears pointing out that the emotion is by definition intertwined with both empathy and a certain sense of compassion. Terror elicits a shriek. Horror hits you in the heart, and the next thing you know you’re sobbing. Bring some tissues.
  15. The Avengers
    Fans of all that has come before (excluding Roger Corman's premature-ejaculation version of "The Fantastic Four," natch) will weep tears of giddy joy at how crowd-pleasingly cohesive – and ridiculously fun – this film is.
  16. Venus in Fur
    Casting Seigner in the coveted role of Vanda in this adaptation of David Ives’ Tony-winning play may strike some as nepotistic (she’s married to director Polanski), but her performance stands on its own. It’s deliciously self-conscious.
  17. Barton Fink
    For once, the Coen brothers' neurotic filmmaking style works to their advantage; it's giddily appropriate for a movie about a man who's losing his mind.
  18. Beirut
    What papers over any remaining cracks is the perfect casting of Hamm as the fixer turned business consultant dragged back into the morass. His raw charisma, and near-peerless ability to sweat martinis through a disheveled linen suit and still look stylish, sends the film's moral compass spinning – exactly as it should.
  19. Nurse Betty
    Its uneven comedy may leave moviegoers yearning for the confidently choreographed banter and moral sludge that marked LaBute's previous outings.
  20. American Hardcore
    American Hardcore encapsulates a largely forgotten (by the mainstream, that is) moment in maximum rock & roll history.
  21. Oh Lucy!
    Not every aspect is as exquisitely structured as Terajima's bittersweet performance. An underlying subtext about reinvention never truly develops, and the idea of Lucy as Setsuko's alter ego stutters. But her performance, especially when matched by Minami's hard-sighing world-weariness, is nothing less than transfixing.
  22. There's Something About Mary
    A surprisingly large number of the laughs work, although, understandably, a good number of them also fall flat. You can bet that whenever the story slows down to advance the plot concerning its paper-thin characters, the film takes a noticeable dip.
  23. Bodies Bodies Bodies
    A fun, inverted single-location thrill ride, director Halina Reijn creates one rainbow swirl of a good time.
  24. Joshua
    It should be mandatory viewing for right-to-lifers and prospective parents as well as fans of creepy, crawly filmmaking.
  25. Gook
    The provocatively titled indie film Gook is both incendiary and lyrical.
  26. Luxor
    There's an extraordinary immediacy to Luxor, born of director Durra's unromantic but loving view of the environment.
  27. The Last September
    Not even the rich and nuanced performances of stage veterans Smith, Gambon, and Birkin can save this British period drama from languishing amid the story's unfocused longings and unrealistic musings.
  28. Horns and Halos
    A documentary whose content might possibly have further reach than the book.
  29. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
    In many ways, this is the thinking-person's teen movie.
  30. The Trip to Greece
    I’m coming down harder than I meant to. If you’re a fan of the series – and I am – you’re still going to fan. (There’s no entry point for newcomers; it’s too in medias res.) The scenery is lush. There’s ever the pleasure in Steve and Rob’s company. I just wanted to feel by film’s end like I’d arrived somewhere new. Like the journey had been pulling me somewhere inevitable but still enlightening.
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