Chicago Sun-Times' Scores

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For 8,157 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 73% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 25% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Falling from Grace
Lowest review score: 0 Jupiter Ascending
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6,086 out of 8157
  2. Mixed: 1,243 out of 8157
  3. Negative: 828 out of 8157
8157 movie reviews
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  1. The Arrival
    The Arrival fulfills one of the classic functions of science fiction, which is to take a current trend and extend it to a possible (and preferably alarming) future. The Arrival gives its aliens credit for reasoning that we might almost be tempted to agree with. We're just finishing what you started, one of the aliens tells Zane, referring to the smokestacks, auto exhausts, rain forests and so on. What would have taken you 100 years will only take us 10. He, or it, has a point.
  2. The Maze Runner
    Beyond the visuals, what makes The Maze Runner so compelling is its attention-grabbing storyline.
  3. J. Edgar
    As a period biopic, J. Edgar is masterful. Few films span seven decades this comfortably.
  4. BS High
    BS High directors Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe do a splendid job of alternating between present-day interviews with Johnson as well as a number of former Bishop Sycamore players, who will break your heart as they talk about the realization the dream Johnson was selling to them was almost all illusion.
  5. Love and Death on Long Island
    These opening scenes of Love and Death on Long Island are funny and touching, and Hurt brings a dignity to Giles De'Ath that transcends any snickering amusement at his infatuation.
  6. Contact
    Sagan's novel Contact provides the inspiration for Robert Zemeckis' new film, which tells the smartest and most absorbing story about extraterrestrial intelligence since "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
  7. Lover, Stalker, Killer
    We’ll leave it at that, with kudos to director Hobkinson for taking a no-frills approach to material that is wild enough as is, and praise for the investigators who painstakingly pieced together a truly fractured puzzle and eventually delivered justice.
  8. Them That Follow
    Them That Follow is a harrowing and chilling deep dive into an isolated community in the Appalachian mountains.
  9. The Insider
    Power to absorb, entertain and anger.
  10. True Grit
    This is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It's a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder. Their casting is always inspired and exact. The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western.
  11. The Meddler
    Writer-director Lorene Scafaria takes a sitcom of a premise and imbues it with depth, intelligence and numerous sweet, melancholy moments that feel just … right.
  12. The Sleepy Time Gal
    Munch's screenplay is tenderly observant of his characters. He watches them as they float within the seas of their personalities. His scenes are short and often unexpected. The story unfolds in sidelong glances.
  13. The Bling Ring
    The Bling Ring is a sly, often hilarious and at times sobering look at the 21st century fascination with celebrities.
  14. The Whistleblower
    For 20 years the news has reported from time to time of crimes alleged by employees of paid defense contractors. These cases rarely seem to result in change, and the stories continue. We can only guess what may be going unreported. The Whistleblower offers chilling evidence of why that seems to be so.
  15. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
    Even though we’re trafficking in mostly melancholy territory about lost souls trying to regain their footing, it says something about the tender artistry of the filmmaking, and the beautiful work by the actors, that I’m actually keen to spend more time with these characters and see this story unfold from different perspectives.
  16. Arrival
    I’m not entirely convinced the ending is the perfect landing to everything that transpired before, but Arrival is not a linear adventure of the mind, and it is a film probably best seen twice.
  17. Coco
    Coco is full of life, especially when we’re hanging out the with the dead.
  18. Hoffa
    Here is a movie that finds the right look and tone for its material.
  19. Melancholia
    If I were choosing a director to make a film about the end of the world, von Trier the gloomy Dane might be my first choice. The only other name that comes to mind is Werner Herzog's. Both understand that at such a time silly little romantic subplots take on a vast irrelevance.
  20. The Wind Rises
    If The Wind Rises falls a bit short in regard to historical drama, however, it’s still a Miyazaki movie, meaning he casts the same magically beautiful spell.
  21. Civil War
    With horrific wars raging in other parts of the world, and with politically charged violence part of the fabric of this country, “Civil War” will hit home no matter where you live.
  22. Love and Death
    There are shadings of comic meaning that could have gotten lost if all we had were the words, and there are whole scenes that play off facial expressions. It's a good movie to watch just for that reason, because it's been done with such care, love and lunacy.
  23. Jason Bourne
    Jason Bourne is the best action thriller of the year so far, with a half-dozen terrific chase sequences and fight scenes.
  24. The Real Dirt on Farmer John
    This is a loving, moving, inspiring, quirky documentary that was made while the lives it records were being lived.
  25. Another Earth
    What's impressive is how well this film joins its parts into a whole.
  26. Flipped
    Maybe what makesFlipped" such a warm entertainment is how it re-creates a life we wish we'd had when we were 14.
  27. Emily the Criminal
    Rossi and Plaza make for a sizzling team; we believe every syllable of their dialogue, every development in their relationship. It’s almost criminal, how good these two are together.
  28. Little Man Tate
    Little Man Tate is the kind of movie you enjoy watching; it's about interesting people finding out about themselves.
  29. Selena
    Selena succeeds, through Lopez's performance, in evoking the magic of a sweet and talented young woman.
  30. Fame
    Fame is a genuine treasure, moving and entertaining, a movie that understands being a teen-ager as well as Breaking Away did, but studies its characters in a completely different milieu.
  31. Paper Towns
    The nice thing about Paper Towns is it’s as much about the friendship between Quentin, Radar and Ben as it is about Quentin’s love for Margo, and his quest to find her after she disappears yet again.
  32. The Guard
    The Guard is a pleasure. I can't tell if it's really (bleeping) dumb or really (bleeping) smart, but it's pretty (bleeping) good.
  33. Gloria Bell
    This is a quiet film, moving at its own pace, reflecting life with such realism it’s as if we’re invisible guests in Gloria Bell’s life. And yet there’s something thrilling about watching such a great actress hitting all the right notes every step of the way.
  34. The Voices
    The Voices is a deeply warped, darkly funny and thoroughly depraved horror comedy... and whether you find this sort of thing walk-out-of-the-theater distasteful or wickedly subversive, I’m fairly confident we won’t see another movie like it for quite some time.
  35. Girl on the Bridge
    What's best about the movie is its playfulness.
  36. The Future
    On the surface, this film is an enchanting meditation. At its core is the hard steel of individuality.
  37. Bowling for Columbine
    Both hilarious and sorrowful.
  38. Mesrine: Killer Instinct
    The acting is macho understatement. Mesrine is a character who might have been played years ago by Gerard Depardieu, who appears here as Guido, a bullet-headed impresario of larceny.
  39. Sweetie
    The acting style edges toward parody, the material is unforgiving of Australian middle-class life in the boondocks and then, pow! - Sweetie waltzes onto the screen.
  40. Hands of Stone
    Writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s Hands of Stone is a rousing, well-filmed and solid (if at times overly generous to Duran) biopic with a bounty of charismatic performances, two of the sexier scenes of the year, some welcome laughs and a few above average fight sequences.
  41. Hyde Park on Hudson
    This isn't a serious historical film. It plays different instruments than Spielberg's "Lincoln." Murray, who has a wider range than we sometimes realize, finds the human core of this FDR and presents it tenderly.
  42. Look at Me
    The thing about a movie like this is, the characters may be French, but they're more like people I know than they could ever be in the Hollywood remake.
  43. The Drop
    The Drop is filled with many such small, near-perfect moments where there’s so much more going on beyond the simple exchanges of dialogue.
  44. The Savages
    Both Linney and Hoffman are so specific in creating these characters that we see them as people, not elements in a plot. Hoffman in particular shows how many disguises he has within his seemingly immutable presence; would you know it is the same actor here and in two other films this season, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and "Charlie Wilson's War"?
  45. War Horse
    War Horse is bold, not afraid of sentiment and lets out all the stops in magnificently staged action sequences. Its characters are clearly defined and strongly played by charismatic actors. Its message is a universal one.
  46. Working Man
    Gerety delivers a performance that is simply great.
  47. X-Men: Days of Future Past
    Thanks to the first-class special effects, a star-packed cast, screenwriters who know just when to inject some self-aware comic relief without getting too jokey and director Bryan Singer’s skilled and sometimes electrifying visuals, X-Men: Days of Future Past is flat-out big-time, big summer movie fun.
  48. The Crow
    It is a stunning work of visual style - the best version of a comic book universe I've seen - and Brandon Lee clearly demonstrates in it that he might have become an action star, had he lived.
  49. Delirious
    This is the best DiCillo movie I've seen, and he's made some good ones ("Box of Moonlight," "The Real Blonde").
  50. Relative
    The gifted writer-director Michael Glover Smith (“Mercury in Retrograde,” “Rendezvous in Chicago”) continues to grow as a filmmaker, as he expertly moves around the pieces on the chessboard over the course of a story told over three days and filled with potentially life-changing confrontations, revelations and realizations.
  51. I Love You Phillip Morris
    Carrey makes the role seem effortless; he deceives as spontaneously as others breathe.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The We and the I
    Upon leaving the theater I had a feeling like I just got to know a bunch of kids: some great, some annoying, but all living lives that extend beyond what little I saw of them on the screen.
  53. Small Engine Repair
    In less skilled hands, this could have come across as cynical and manipulative material, but Pollono is such a skilled wordsmith and the cast is so universally excellent, Small Engine Repair becomes a viewing experience you won’t easily shake off, not today and not for a long time.
  54. War Dogs
    This is a solid example of the Sobering Comedy, where we laugh consistently at the madness onscreen, all the while lamenting how it’s rooted in real-world reality.
  55. Blade II
    You can sense the difference between a movie that's a technical exercise ("Resident Evil") and one steamed in the dread cauldrons of the filmmaker's imagination.
  56. The Tailor of Panama
    A real movie, rich and atmospheric, savoring its disreputable characters and their human weaknesses.
  57. Gilbert
    The astonishing thing about Gilbert is the behind-the-curtain record it provides of the real Gilbert Gottfried.
  58. Pierrepoint
    The key to the film is in the performances by Spall and Stevenson -- and by Marsan. The utter averageness of the characters, their lack of insight, their normality, contrasts with the subject matter in an unsettling way.
  59. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    Under the direction of David Fincher and with a screenplay by Steven Zaillian. I don't know if it's better or worse. It has a different air.
  60. Chappaquiddick
    Chappaquiddick does a remarkably economical job of encapsulating the madness of that week without overwhelming us with historical detail. The story moves from moment to moment, day to day, with clarity and great dramatic effect — and (rightfully) condemns Kennedy’s actions without turning him into a monster.
  61. Coco Before Chanel
    The naturalism of Anne Fontaine's film would be at home in a novel by Dreiser. Her star Audrey Tautou, who could make lovability into a career, avoids any effort to make Coco Chanel nice, or soft, or particularly sympathetic.
  62. Riding Giants
    Riding Giants is about altogether another reality. The overarching fact about these surfers is the degree of their obsession.
  63. All Eyez on Me
    All Eyez On Me is enthralling, exhilarating and at times maddening.
  64. Bite the Bullet
    Bite the Bullet finds the traditional power and integrity of the Western intact after all.
  65. Hostiles
    Hostiles is not for the faint of heart, but it winds up being about having a heart in a world that seems almost without hope.
  66. The Matrix Reloaded
    It is an immensely skillful sci-fi adventure, combining the usual elements: heroes and villains, special effects and stunts, chases and explosions, romance and oratory.
  67. Before Sunset
    The film has the materials for a lifetime project; like the "7-Up" series, this is a conversation that could be returned to every 10 years or so, as Celine and Jesse grow older.
  68. Pray Away
    Stolakis skillfully interweaves present-day interviews with archival footage of these prominent figures in the movement — all of whom have renounced their roles and are now living as out gays or bisexuals.
  69. Frequency
    Likely to appeal to the fans of "The Sixth Sense," "Ghost" and other movies where the characters find a loophole in reality. What it also has in common with those two movies is warmth and emotion.
  70. The Majestic
    It tells a full story with three acts, it introduces characters we get to know and care about, and it has something it passionately wants to say.
  71. Woodstock 99: Peace Love and Rage
    Director Garret Price was right. This is no period-piece dark comedy. On many levels, it’s a horror film.
  72. The Game
    The movie's thriller elements are given an additional gloss by the skill of the technical credits, and the wicked wit of the dialogue.
  73. Aliens
    I'm giving the movie a high rating for its skill and professionalism and because it does the job it says it will do. I am also advising you not to eat before you go to see it.
  74. Cat People
    Cat People moves back and forth between its mythic and realistic levels, held together primarily by the strength of Kinski's performance and John Heard's obsession. Kinski is something. She never overacts in this movie, never steps wrong, never seems ridiculous; she just steps onscreen and convincingly underplays a leopard. Heard also is good.
  75. Mozart's Sister
    The movie is an uncommonly knowledgeable portrait of the way musical gifts could lift people of ordinary backgrounds into high circles.
  76. Biggie and Tupac
    Compulsively watchable and endlessly inventive as it transforms Broomfield's limited materials into a compelling argument.
  77. The Duchess
    This is not one of those delightful movies based on a Jane Austen novel. It is about hard realists, constrained in a stifling system and using whatever weapons they can command.
  78. Sirens
    The movie does indeed feature much footage of MacPherson and her sister sirens in the nude, but it is smarter, more thoughtful and more good-tempered than you might expect.
  79. An Affair of Love
    It is about the desiring itself, not about what they desire. That makes it more intriguing than if we knew their secret--and sexier.
  80. Henry V
    What works best in the film is the over-all vision. Branagh is able to see himself as a king, and so we can see him as one.
  81. Me Without You
    Has a bracing truth that's refreshing after the phoniness of female-bonding pictures like "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."
  82. The Broken Circle Breakdown
    Director Felix Van Groeningen takes a story that might be too much to bear in a straightforward, linear narrative and explodes it, then artfully reassembles the pieces by jumping back and forth in time.
  83. Out of Sight
    The first film to build on the enormously influential "Pulp Fiction" instead of simply mimicking it. It has the games with time, the low-life dialogue, the absurd violent situations, but it also has its own texture.
  84. What's the Matter with Kansas?
    What's interesting is that every single person in this film is seen as themselves, is allowed to speak and seems to have a good heart. I've rarely seen a documentary quite like it. It has a point to make but no ax to grind.
  85. House of Pleasures
    No one, male or female, has any fun, but the men behave as if they do. They are all half-stupefied by the languor in which they drown.
  86. I.Q.
    I.Q. is a romantic comedy with its heart in the right place, and all of the other pieces distributed correctly, too.
  87. Women Talking
    Though the subject matter is intense and shocking, the intuitively sensitive and subtle Polley teams with a brilliant ensemble cast to tell the story with grace and empathy and even some much-needed doses of earned humor. It’s a film you won’t soon forget.
  88. The Overnight
    This is one terrifically twisted parental play date.
  89. Tallulah
    This is one of the most moving films of 2016. Every 20 minutes or so, it grabs you and puts a lump in your throat.
  90. The Hurricane
    This is one of Denzel Washington's great performances, on a par with his work in "Malcolm X."
  91. RED 2
    Red 2 not only delivers the action, laughs and thrills of the original — in many ways it surpasses it.
  92. Defending Your Life
    The movie is funny in a warm, fuzzy way, and it has a splendidly satisfactory ending, which is unusual for an Albert Brooks film 
  93. Kung Fu Panda 3
    I think the secret to the appeal of the entire “Kung Fu Panda” franchise is the enormous affection we feel for Po, that seemingly bumbling good guy who also can rise to the occasion and showcase true heroism and mystical power.
  94. Down in the Delta
    Angelou's first-time direction stays out of its own way; she doesn't call attention to herself with unnecessary visual touches, but focuses on the business at hand.
  95. Revanche
    Revanche involves a rare coming together of a male's criminal nature and a female's deep needs, entwined with a first-rate thriller. It is also perceptive in observing characters, including a proud old man. Rare is the thriller that is more about the reasons of people instead of the needs of the plot.
  96. The Lunchbox
    The Lunchbox,” Indian director Ritesh Batra’s debut, is a witty and perceptive film that reveals the hopes, sorrows and regrets of ordinary people.
  97. Boys State
    For every moment of inspiration and hope in the teen-political documentary Boys State, when you find yourself thinking, By gosh, the kids are all right, there are at least two jaw-dropping instances of 16- and 17-year-olds compromising their values with such cynicism you weep for our future.
  98. Fruitvale Station
    The intimacy of debut writer-director Ryan Coogler’s approach to the film and the no-frills, believably real quality of the main performances combine to drive the senselessness of Oscar’s killing home with visceral impact.
  99. The Hunt for Red October
    A skillful, efficient film that involves us in the clever and deceptive game being played by Ramius and in the best efforts of those on both sides to figure out what he plans to do with his submarine - and how he plans to do it.
  100. Moana
    While the overall tone of Moana is uplifting, the story makes room for some pretty deep insights.
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