Chicago Reader's Scores

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For 6,312 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 56% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 I Stand Alone
Lowest review score: 0 Old Dogs
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,983 out of 6312
  2. Mixed: 2,456 out of 6312
  3. Negative: 873 out of 6312
6312 movie reviews
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  1. Another Year
    A brief but piercing cameo by Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), as a desolate old woman who fiercely rejects professional counseling for depression, drives home Leigh's greatest insight, that true happiness is not found but realized.
  2. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
    Proves again that the best documentaries currently outshine Hollywood features as the most watchable, energizing, and relevant movies around.
  3. Short Cuts
    Inevitably it's a mixed bag, though the film's assurance in keeping it all coherent is at times exhilarating.
  4. A Mighty Wind
    Half-funny mockumentary.
  5. The Damned United
    Michael Sheen, who adds to his gallery of public figures (Tony Blair, David Frost) with a sharp performance here as the legendary UK soccer coach Brian Clough.
  6. Georgia
    Quirky and nuanced, this movie has a lot to say about sibling rivalry and the current music scene.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Duel
    The existential allegories are pretty blunt—star Dennis Weaver’s character, a symbol for all mankind, is literally named Mann—but the filmmaking is electric, an early testament to Spielberg’s prowess.
  8. Fresh
    Poised somewhere between a movie-familiar (i.e., semiscurrilous) look at inner-city life as trench warfare and a farfetched Hollywood revenge fantasy, this is kept alive largely through its first-rate performances, beginning with Sean Nelson's as the boy; Giancarlo Esposito is also a standout.
  9. Los Muertos
    A singular and essential figure of the Argentinean new wave; [Alonso] is not quite the minimalist some claim, but he can make the simple act of filming feel so monumental that storytelling seems secondary.
  10. Juno
    Jason Reitman follows his pitch-perfect satire "Thank You for Smoking" with another adventurous comedy, though here the cleverness can be grating; the movie is distinctive for its complicated emotions.
  11. Get Shorty
    An entertaining comedy-thriller directed with bounce (if not much nuance) by Barry Sonnenfeld.
  12. The Fly
    It's an interesting experiment Cronenberg's attempted, if ultimately in the wrong direction.
  13. Blue Valentine
    The performances are so gripping that the movie works despite its diagrammatic structure, which focuses on ironic rhymes between past and present and leaves out the entirety of the couple's marriage.
  14. Chocolat
    The episodic flow tends to set up an occasional self-consciousness and air of portent about the film’s apparent lack of pretension.
  15. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
    Persuasively re-creates the experience of sailing aboard a British man-o'-war during the Napoleonic era, but its story never attains comparable grandeur.
  16. The Trip to Bountiful
    First-timer Peter Masterson directed; his notion of film is to point the camera in the general direction of the actors.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
    This engaging documentary traces the life of folk icon Pete Seeger, emphasizing his lifelong belief in the power of music as both a social and a political force.
  18. A Simple Plan
    The script dawdles, and in spite of a good cast--Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton (who's especially resourceful), Bridget Fonda, and Brent Briscoe--the movie tends to amble around its points rather than drive straight toward the heart of the matter.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Katyn
    Andrzej Wajda has spent much of his long career dramatizing major events in Polish history, and this poignant feature depicts the circumstances surrounding the Soviet Union's massacre of thousands of Polish officers in the spring of 1940.
  20. Klute
    Donald Sutherland works small and subtly, balancing Jane Fonda's flashy virtuoso technique.
  21. Driving Miss Daisy
    The three actors manage to get a lot of mileage out of the material: although one never quite believes that Tandy's character is Jewish, she is remarkable in every other respect, and Freeman and Aykroyd are wonderful throughout.
  22. Bombshell
    One of Jean Harlow's best pictures, this 1933 feature is a merciless satire of Hollywood, with Harlow as a movie star and Lee Tracy as her publicity agent.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Theater of Blood
    Gory, imaginative, wildly melodramatic—good fun.
  24. White Material
    This haunting drama by Claire Denis burns with a mute fear and rage at the ongoing atrocities in central Africa.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Station Agent
    The rural setting and the loners-banding-together theme are affecting and the supporting players--especially Michelle Williams and Raven Goodwin as two more outcasts--are all superb.
  26. Autumn Tale
    The last and best of his "Tales of the Four Seasons."
  27. Bamako
    One reason Bamako feels like a blast of sanity is that the theoretical debates about the state of the world, particularly Africa and more particularly Mali, are only half of its agenda. The other half, broadly speaking, is the life of everyday Africans.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Beginners
    Mills pulls off the nonchronological structure with uncommon sensitivity; unfortunately, he also confuses sensitivity with preciousness (recurring scenes show the hero confiding in a Jack Russell terrier).
  29. Paris, Texas
    Like Wenders's other road movies, this is largely about the spaces between people and the words they speak—Antonioni updated and infused with German romanticism; the various means of indirection through which the hero communicates with his son (Hunter Carson) and wife (Nastassja Kinski) constitute a striking motif.
  30. Bright Star
    Its great distinction lies in re-creating an age when thoughts and feelings were to be carefully considered and precisely enunciated. The best costumers, set designers, and property masters can’t conjure up the mental and emotional spaces of a simpler era; that requires a filmmaker who knows the virtue of quiet, patience, and attentiveness.
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