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. Fast Company
    What gives it the Cronenberg feel, in spite of the complete absence of his standard themes, is his manner of filming the dragsters: they become, like the horrible growths that usually dominate his movies, the physical projection of the characters' hostile energies, weapons they use to act out the psychological conflicts that torture them off the track.
  2. The Girl from Monaco
    The murder trial and the possibility of a real attack on the attorney nicely offset the sexual gamesmanship, though the movie is badly compromised by a final left turn into serious drama and plot machination. Up until that point, it's an uncommonly shrewd and funny farce.
  3. The Incredible Shrinking Man
    It's a lot more interesting than its source, thanks to the special effects and Jack Arnold's taut, no-nonsense direction.
  4. Turn Me On, Dammit!
    Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, a documentary maker directing her first fiction film, demonstrates a sure sense of tone, and Bergsholm is memorable as the misfit teen.
  5. Our Brand Is Crisis
    An evil twin to "The War Room" (1993).
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
    The intimate performance footage ranges from more traditional sounds to Turkish iterations of global styles like rock, hip-hop, and electronica, delivering commentary on the nation's conflicted status as a bridge between Europe and Asia that's even more poignant than the passionate and informative interviews.
  7. Tears of the Black Tiger
    Its giddy stylistics include extravagant use of color and rapid montage, which are said to be a direct homage to legendary Thai independent Ratana Pestonji.
  8. Blind Shaft
    Set in the blue gray gloom of industrial China, this cunning noir focuses on two ruthless coal miners.
  9. Welcome to the Rileys
    The hero's psychological transference is so blatant that even the characters begin commenting on it after a while, yet this modest three-hander is capably acted and genuinely touching.
  10. Today's Special
    Appealing restaurant comedy.
  11. Little Black Book
    This deviously funny comedy doubles as workplace satire and anthem to the American career woman.
  12. The Nomi Song
    Andrew Horn, writer of “East Side Story,” directs, stylishly.
  13. The Ninth Day
    Like Costa-Gavras's "Amen." (2002), this German drama uses a true story to examine the Catholic church's response to the Holocaust, but it focuses less on institutional politics than on personal conscience and responsibility.
  14. Bad News Bears
    Fortunately almost everyone acquits himself coolly and admirably; only costars Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden ham it up.
  15. The Mummy
    A pretty good job of zipping things along and occasionally scaring us, and the digital effects are fun.
  16. Don Juan DeMarco
    This first feature by novelist and psychologist Jeremy Leven has a fairly rudimentary mise en scene, but the actors take over the proceedings with aplomb, and Brando and Dunaway have the grace to turn much of the show over to Depp, who carries the burden with ease.
  17. American History X
    The movie can't explain as much as it wants to about what makes (and unmakes) a skinhead, but it carries us a fair distance.
  18. I'm Not There.
    What emerges is a speculative, critical essay about the 60s, weighted down in spots by political correctness and a conflicted desire to mock Dylan's denseness while catering to his hardcore fans, but otherwise lively, fluid, and watchable.
  19. Heartbreaker
    It's fun to watch the habitually intense Duris relax somewhat in a light comedy role, and director Pascal Chaumeil gets good mileage out of the team's ridiculously elaborate con games.
  20. Chris & Don. A Love Story
    Becomes more engrossing as its focus shifts from Isherwood to Bachardy, who began as the bashful boy toy of a famous author but gradually emerged in his own right as a portrait artist of striking (and merciless) insight.
  21. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
    Director Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas) and cinematographer Tom Richmond transform nocturnal New York into a soft-focus wonderland for their sweet but screwball courtship.
  22. Imelda
    Engrossing documentary.
  23. Last Tango in Paris
    The surface plausibility is probably the contribution of Marlon Brando, whose performance has strength and detail enough to counterbalance Bertolucci's taste for pure psychological essence.
  24. Butterfly Kiss
    If you're sick of kinky killers and English rip-offs of American genre movies, this terminally bleak and violent 1995 road movie may irritate the hell out of you--unless you're as impressed as I was by Amanda Plummer's performance.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    December Boys
    Though familiar as an old shoe, this is straightforward and well told.
  26. Moving Midway
    What begins as a leave-taking turns into a homecoming that reflects the mixed-race society of the modern south.
  27. Fahrenheit 9/11
    There are plenty of laughs whenever Moore wants to twist the knife, but the bottom line is that he respects and trusts his fellow Americans a lot more than Bush does.
  28. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
    Three short films drawn from the Milne tales by the Disney studio, yoked together to make a feature in 1977. Their charm is undeniable, though it mainly resides in the source material: the late 60s, when these were made, were Disney's darkest days for craft and commitment.
  29. I Am Legend
    The popcorn elements are well handled, but what lingers is the sense of urban despair: watching old videotapes of the Today show, carrying on friendships with mannequins, Smith turns out to be no legend at all, just another New Yorker slowly dying of loneliness.
  30. Daughters of the Sun
    At times Shahriar succumbs to self-conscious poeticism, and her male characters are invariably thieves and oppressors, but the film draws a good deal of power from the passive anguish of the girl.
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