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. Two Can Play That Game
    Writer-director Mark Brown ruptures and restores the realism in this romantic comedy with ease, dispensing earnest wisdom with a little tongue in cheek instead of undermining it with a lot of irony.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Our Lady of the Assassins
    Has its faults, but it's Barbet Schroeder's most relevant and interesting film in over a decade.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Iron Ladies
    Two interesting asides: the director and most of the cast aren't gay, and the film is based on a true story from 1996 -- the real Iron Ladies are shown, too briefly, during the closing credits.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Rock Star
    The music could have been better in this spineless drama, which has several angles but no perspective.
  5. Vengo
    Elegant flamenco tragedy.
  6. L.I.E.
    Realist fairy tale.
  7. Djomeh
    Hassan Yektapanah's first film attests to the deceptive simplicity of Iranian cinema, transforming the most minimal of props, scenes, and stories into a complex journey of discovery.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The American Astronaut
    Mott Hupfel II's noirish photography, Pete Beaudreau's smooth editing, and McAbee's wry script are all wonderful, and Dawn Weisberg's costumes are especially killing.
  9. Jeepers Creepers
    The story (what there is of it) doesn't make much sense, but this is a very scary horror thriller that should keep you either on the edge of your seat or halfway under it.
  10. Fighter
    The film does offer a good deal of engaging dark humor.
  11. Tortilla Soup
    The script, which infantilizes one of the older siblings as much as the father does, undermines its own admonitions against parents and adult children meddling in one another's lives.
  12. Together
    A wonderfully complex examination of sexual and material politics that's full of bravely provocative, gently funny, and warmly human encounters.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Happy Accidents
    Best of all, and unusual for a screenwriter, Anderson handles the science consistently (maybe even scientifically).
  14. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
    This kind of wheel spinning comes from having the desire to speak but nothing much to say, and Smith, who's made a slight movie about his being a slight filmmaker, seems to know this.
  15. Summer Catch
    Awful light drama.
  16. Bubble Boy
    This Farrelly brothers "hommage" replicates the mechanics of their work without echoing its spirit or complex tone, and many of the deliberate offenses fail to transcend mere exploitation.
  17. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
    One thing I especially like about it, apart from the flavorsome 40s decor in color, is that it's silly in much the same way that many small 40s comedies were.
  18. Lisa Picard Is Famous
    Tedious mockumentary.
  19. Innocence
    It's all so overdetermined -- each encounter of the present-day lovers mirrors some moment from the long-ago day when they parted -- that it reduces their whole affair to a matter of last-minute revisionism.
  20. Aberdeen
    Sumptuously hued in its emotional and visual tones, this drama is also a fairy tale, its plot contrivances beautifully justified by its minimalism.
    • Chicago Reader
  21. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    Strives for comprehensive coverage of its theme of forbidden love.
  22. American Outlaws
    Jas lots of action, drama, comedy, and corn -- and few pauses, which is striking.
  23. Rat Race
    Inspired, elaborately plotted, and unusually satisfying variable-speed chase comedy.
  24. All Over the Guy
    Surprisingly, this didactic and self-consciously clever romantic comedy isn't annoying -- it's refreshing, moving, and at times quite funny.
  25. American Pie 2
    The simple premise of one scene of table-turning voyeurism is brilliant.
  26. Osmosis Jones
    Cathartically disgusting adventure movie.
  27. An American Rhapsody
    Gardos -- treats it competently, though without much freshness or imagination.
  28. The Others
    The payoff matters at least as much as the setup, and this story's secret is way too easy to guess.
  29. The Deep End
    Watchable enough on its own terms.
  30. Audition
    Though I hate to ruin the complex experience of following a rather calm story about a lonely widower as it becomes something else, I feel obliged to point out that the hard-core gore and soft-core surrealism of this baroque morality play may not support any theme.
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