Chicago Tribune's Scores

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For 7,601 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 62% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Autumn Tale
Lowest review score: 0 Car 54, Where Are You?
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5,106 out of 7601
  2. Mixed: 1,473 out of 7601
  3. Negative: 1,022 out of 7601
7601 movie reviews
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  1. The Social Network
    Is director David Fincher's film the stuff of greatness? Not quite. But the picture is very, very good.
  2. The Road to El Dorado
    It has a jokey irreverence that keeps it from teetering over the edge to absurdity.
  3. Memento
    A puzzle movie in which the puzzle is actually worth the time and effort to solve.
  4. Synecdoche, New York
    As a director, Kaufman isn't yet his own best salesman. He's not enough of a visual stylist to sell his script's most challenging conceits. But the cast rises to a very strange and rich occasion.
  5. The Witches of Eastwick
    The Witches of Eastwick is filmmaking of a very high order; it's also a great time at the movies.
  6. Startup.com
    Combining the immediacy of the Internet and the wise perspective of history, Startup.com proves that investing in real-life drama can reap rich dividends.
  7. Zappa
    In Zappa, this legendary artist’s uncompromising nature is bracing, bold and utterly refreshing.
  8. Song Sung Blue
    There’s an important lesson at the center of Song Sung Blue, about abandoning self-consciousness in a relentless pursuit of a dream. Despite the obstacles, their age, the setbacks, there is a pot of gold, not at the end of the rainbow but within it, in their shared dream.
  9. Moonrise Kingdom
    First-time Anderson performers such as Willis, McDormand and especially Norton fold effortlessly into the melancholy end-of-summer vibe.
  10. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
    Somehow, An Inconvenient Sequel is empowering, not depressing.
  11. One Fine Morning
    Death, dying, hearts in winter, the thrill of a sexual reawakening: Sandra’s life, as “One Fine Morning” delineates, makes room for it all because it must. Hers is an ordinary life, in the end, full of small, extraordinary grace notes. Thanks to both filmmaker and star, it’s a consistently screenworthy one.
  12. A Cry in the Dark
    Director Fred Schepisi manages his outdoor and courtroom scenes with equal skill. But at the center is Streep, far less mannered than in some of her recent work. [11 Nov 1988, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  13. Every Little Step
    It's a big ice cream sundae, this one -- not great documentary filmmaking but tasty all the way.
  14. Cast Away
    An adventure movie of extraordinary simplicity and power.
    • Chicago Tribune
  15. Searching for Bobby Fischer
    An uncommonly good sports film about an uncommon sport as far as film is concerned - chess. [13 Aug 1993, p.C2]
    • Chicago Tribune
  16. JFK
    Does JFK capture the truth? Possibly, in a poetic sense. Is it a compelling film? Most assuredly. [20 Dec 1991]
    • Chicago Tribune
  17. Fair Play
    I’m not sure the story’s resolution entirely serves what comes before it; it’s not predictable, exactly, and it avoids turning into a different sort of genre just for thrills, yet Domont’s writing and direction are both skillful enough to make me want a few extra minutes in the final round.
  18. In the Loop
    While director Armando Iannucci's brand of satire -- just plausible enough to be painful -- isn't for all tastes, it's a little bit of heaven to hear screen characters spew such eloquently vicious bile.
  19. The Lost City of Z
    This is a really good film. It just isn't the traditionally rousing one many will expect, and the trailers promise.
  20. Pete's Dragon
    [Lowery] has made a larger, very different movie without losing his instincts, his directorial stealth or his ability to finesse his actors' performances, in this case in the vicinity of an achingly expressive and unexpectedly furry dragon with a little bit of bulldog in him.
  21. West Side Story
    Whatever this new adaptation’s popular reception, it’s five times the movie the ‘61 movie was. Spielberg has never made a musical before, but this one looks and feels like the work of an Old Hollywood master of the form — someone who knows when, where and why to move a camera capturing bodies in rhythmic motion.
  22. The Sessions
    John Hawkes is wonderful as O'Brien, as is Helen Hunt as the surrogate whose sessions with O'Brien form the crux of the film. The results are extremely moving and, in general, low on egregiously yanked heartstrings or the usual biopic filler.
  23. A Beautiful Mind
    Though the role might seem a real stretch for an actor who just won an Oscar for his Charlton Heston turn as Maximus in "Gladiator," he and the movie ace the test.
  24. Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
    A vital and wily seriocomic odyssey. And Gere has never been better, more alive, on screen.
  25. Fallen Leaves
    Fallen Leaves, by contrast, strikes an adroit balance between dark and light, stoicism and optimism. There’s a stealth buoyancy at work.
  26. Ju Dou
    A beautifully directed melodrama similar to Hollywood pictures of the golden era. [22 Dec 1991, p.5C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  27. The Full Monty
    Takes a premise that seems ripe for broad, vulgar joking and turns it into a sly, even subtle, comedy.
    • Chicago Tribune
  28. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
    A counterintuitive, riveting documentary so honest that it will either become a rock movie classic or a severe embarrassment for the heavy metal band.
  29. Sunshine State
    Visually, even compared to Sayles' own best work, it's somewhat prosaic - and dramatically, it suffers from the fact that its two main characters are kept so far apart. But the screenwriting and the cast redeem this film.
  30. Last Resort
    A film that celebrates simple human kindness. If the ending feels somewhat unsatisfying, it is perhaps because one hates to see this too-brief film end at all.
  31. There's Something About Mary
    The day after seeing it, you're less likely to fixate on the flaws than to find yourself experiencing chuckle aftershocks as you recall the most outrageous gags. In these days of mostly forgettable comedies, that sensation has become all too rare. [15 July 1998]
    • Chicago Tribune
  32. Songs from the Second Floor
    A brilliant, absurd collection of vignettes that, in their own idiosyncratic way, sum up the strange horror of life in the new millennium.
  33. Sid and Nancy
    A shockingly effective portrait of the destructive power of drugs told through the true-life story of English punk rocker Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, the American groupie who became his lover.
  34. Graduation
    A beautifully spun and morally searching tale of interlocking compromises.
  35. The Grand Budapest Hotel
    One of Anderson's cleverest and most gorgeous movies, dipping just enough of a toe in the real world — and in the melancholy works of its acknowledged inspiration, the late Austrian writer Stefan Zweig — to prevent the whole thing from floating off into the ether of minor whimsy.
  36. East Is East
    He (Puri) is one of the most consistently excellent film actors that his country - or the world - has produced. And East is East, a grand cultural hybrid, is a real movie, too - raw, funny and wonderfully mixed up.
    • Chicago Tribune
  37. Glory Road
    The movie's great end-title sequence redeems everything. Under the credits, we see and hear the real-life game veterans as they are now--including, movingly, ex-Lakers coach Riley.
  38. Monster House
    Set around Halloween, Monster House manages to cull bits and pieces from Hammer, Hitchcock and the old-dark-house genre of 19th Century literature and early 20th Century stage and film.
  39. The Grass Is Greener
    This movie offers four of the best -- and best-looking -- Hollywood stars cavorting together in material so slight and inconsequential it often seems ready to float away like a toy balloon. [16 Oct 1997, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  40. The Simpsons Movie
    It's hard not to like it. And in both senses of the phrase, America keeps asking for it.
  41. Control
    The cast is excellent, particularly Riley and Morton and, as Joy Division’s brash manager, Toby Kebbell. He’s a great character, bitter and hostile and a scoundrel: a born manager of talent destined to tear itself apart.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Starting Out in the Evening
    Because the characters are richly realized and their dialogue rings true, we stick around, rooting for something like a happy ending.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cadillac Records
    Mos Def makes a terrific Berry, all flash and confidence, and Wright offers a memorably soulful take on Waters, whether he's strutting, singing, suffering or all three. Walker's Howlin' Wolf is a deep-throated, pride-filled bear of a man who dominates the screen.
  44. Toy Story 3
    Though uneven and less witty than the first two, Toy Story 3 delivers quite enough in two dimensions.
  45. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
    Nimoy directs the comedy in a loose, relaxed, almost sketch-like manner, but when the film moves into its multiple-cliffhanger climax, he's still able to generate some genuine dash and tension. The only drawback is that the Enterprise gang is starting to look a little long in the tooth for such strenuous action.
  46. Marshall
    A workmanlike but vividly acted courtroom drama.
  47. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
    The storytelling rhythm gets a bit pokey for the amount of story being told.... But director Yates knows his way around this stuff. The visual evocation of '20s Manhattan with a twist offers considerable satisfaction, as does Redmayne's embodiment of a boy-man more comfortable in the company of animals than with humans.
  48. Training Day
    This is a movie that rocks and socks you, and has a performance by Washington that's ruthless and scary. But in the end, it leaves you unmarked.
  49. Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII
    The overriding sense one gets from this short but powerful film is awe.
  50. Before I Fall
    As Sam, Deutch is supported by the likes of Halston Sage as uber mean girl Lindsay, using her armor as a weapon, Logan Miller as longtime pal Kent, and Medalion Rahimi and Cynthy Wu as the rest of her clique. But this is Deutch's film.
  51. Executive Decision
    I think what I like most about Executive Decision is that director Baird constantly tries to top himself. A more experienced director would have ended the film a few crises earlier. But Baird goes for broke in his directing debut, and the result is a most entertaining movie.
  52. Trespass
    One of the few remaining Hollywood filmmakers who can function at this level of pure cinema, Hill delivers here with a renewed force and assurance. After a string of tired films (including the exhausted "Another 48 HRS."), Hill seems revitalized. [25 Dec 1992, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  53. i'm thinking of ending things
    It’s frustrating, although I’m grateful Kaufman didn’t simply film the book as written. The actors couldn’t be better attuned to the nervous system of this universe.
  54. The First Omen
    The First Omen hardly qualifies for landmark or pantheon status. But it’s a movie that maximizes all its elements with some panache.
  55. Little Black Book
    Though trailers for Little Black Book try to sell it as a zany romantic comedy, don't judge this book by its cover. Those who stick with it will be surprised and maybe even laugh in between a tear or two.
  56. The Flying Scotsman
    A sports bio movie that I really enjoyed about a sport and sports hero I barely knew existed: the World Hour Record competition for bicyclists and its gutsy, tormented and most unusual champion, Graeme Obree.
  57. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
    For a while it’s engaging but pretty thin. Then it gets more interesting, especially for the actors.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Ten Commandments
    For those who recall those old Classics Illustrated comics of the 1940s and ’50s--and even for those who don’t--there’s an endearing, earnest quality to The Ten Commandments that transcends its star-studded cast and computer-generated animation.
  59. Chaos Theory
    The performances and Marcos Siega’s direction put a pleasing sheen on the material.
  60. She's All That
    Rachael Leigh Cook, as Laney, the plain Jane object of the makeover, is forced to demonstrate the biggest emotional range as a character, and she is equal to the assignment. I look forward to seeing her in her next picture. [29 Jan 1999, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  61. Sinners
    Sinners is all over the place yet somehow all of a piece. Its themes aren’t new, but the variations feel fresh.
  62. Tim's Vermeer
    It's an odd film, ultimately rewarding, because it's about an odd venture.
  63. Absolute Beginners
    It remains an engaging, energetic film. [22 Jan 1987, p.9B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  64. mother!
    The inevitable disappointing CinemaScore exit polls aside, it’s worth seeing — if you don’t mind a little insanity in escapism that offers no escape, only the promise of a new fairy tale on another page.
  65. Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
    It’s a lively and absorbing picture — intelligently sexy, tastefully salacious but serious enough to stick.
  66. Boomerang
    Boomerang, a sleek, confident and very funny urban comedy that may not entirely overcome Murphy's more discomfiting tendencies, but at least manages to put them to good use. [01 Jul 1992]
    • Chicago Tribune
  67. The Naked Kiss
    Fuller amusingly mixes up his usual hard-knuckled muck-raking melodrama with a sort of soap opera, all done in raw, awesome black-and-white images. In its day, this was the locus classicus B-Movie American auteur thriller. [12 Feb 1999, p.R]
    • Chicago Tribune
  68. The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
    Ends strong, in an ultimately smoother, smarter sequel.
  69. Don't Come Knocking
    There's something a little absurd about this story, but for me, it's endearingly goofy.
  70. Bellflower
    A rewardingly twisted hybrid of low-fi mumblecore and stylized thriller.
  71. Batman
    Burton's direction rises to a Wagnerian hysteria (an impression backed by Danny Elfman`s roaring orchestral score) as the two mortal enemies fight it out on the brink of a zillion-foot drop. Burton achieves a genuine majesty at that moment-though he would need one or two more like it to make Batman a genuinely memorable film.
  72. Renegades
    Renegades steams along very nicely, with more than enough momentum to compensate for the callowness of its stars. [05 Jun 1989, p.3C]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Praying with Lior
    Trachtman says she made the film to illustrate the plight of disabled Americans who must contend with houses of worship that lack handicapped access, but her documentary itself isn’t always so sensitive.
  74. Avatar
    The first 90 minutes of Avatar are pretty terrific - a full-immersion technological wonder with wonders to spare. The other 72 minutes, less and less terrific.
  75. The Meddler
    The smooth, cozy charm of writer-director Lorene Scafaria's "The Meddler" offers considerable seriocomic satisfaction.
  76. Cedar Rapids
    Modest in every way, the screenplay by Phil Johnston is enjoyable in the telling even when the details smack of contrivance.
  77. Highest 2 Lowest
    A model of conventional thriller suspense, the movie isn’t. A stimulating cry for “Black culture and artistic integrity,” in King’s words, and for the true value of a well-made commodity, whether it’s shoes or songs — that, the movie surely is.
  78. Mean Creek
    If Estes' future efforts can offer us such potent, character-centered Molotov cocktails, Mean Creek may well signal the rise of America's next auteur director.
  79. 5x2
    When you piece it all together, it becomes mildly fascinating.
  80. Shaft
    The new movie, like its predecessor, is a crime thriller with a moral viewpoint, an eye and ear for street color and a taste for macho movie fantasy.
  81. Let Him Go
    A 1960s-set Western laden with big skies, steady gazes and slow-roasted narrative corn, Let Him Go gets by on the strength of its female leads, Diane Lane and Lesley Manville. Kevin Costner’s effective, too, and he’s right in his taciturn sweet spot, muttering about this and that.
  82. The Science of Sleep
    It only works about half the time, but it's an interesting half.
  83. Like Crazy
    It's entirely possible, maybe even inevitable, that Like Crazy will win over a good many moviegoers despite its bouts of semipreciousness. In the end, I was one of them.
  84. King Lear
    If Godard's use of sound is as inventive as it was in his Dolby "Detective" of 1985, that's reason alone to check it out. [08 Apr 1988, p.B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  85. The Edge of Heaven
    It's a vivid ensemble experience, and the acting is wonderful.
  86. Anything's Possible
    Porter and his ingratiating actors do all they can to humanize the material. The movie works because a lot of that material is engaging and genuinely humane to begin with.
  87. Glengarry Glen Ross
    It's a well written, well staged and well acted piece, though there is something musty in its aesthetic - that of the huge, bellowing method performance, plastered over a flimsy, one-set world. [02 Oct 1992, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  88. Fast Color
    Hart and Horowitz's script connects the dots on the meaning and messages of the film, which is thrilling in its radicalism. But the execution is heavy-handed, sapping the joy of discovery from the film packed with so much originality, brilliance and beauty to be discovered.
  89. The Night Listener
    The pacing and staging of the later scenes could use a little more electricity and momentum, and a little less restraint. Yet The Night Listener keeps you watching. And listening.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Quinceañera
    Quinceanera took both the dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and it's easy to see why.
  91. House of Sand
    Soarez isn't really saying much with House of Sand, beyond marveling at the quirks of fate brought on by time. But the acting keeps it from floating into the ether.
  92. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody
    The actors and director Lemmons accomplish what the screenplay does only partially: make us believe the circumstances and the behavior.
  93. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
    With a mix of old characters and new, worldly upheaval and small-town dramas, Fellowes illustrates what "Downton" has always done best, which is a social examination of how much things have changed and how they haven’t changed at all.
  94. Anniversary
    Anniversary is a deeply nihilistic film that can’t be described as a cautionary tale — that horse has left the barn. Rather, it’s a hypothetical question as character study, an examination of how this happens, and an assertion that a system like this shows no mercy, not even to its most loyal subjects, despite what we want to believe.
  95. Everything's Gone Green
    A romantic comedy/social satire that, on a modest budget, manages to be hip, charming, funny and dressed to kill.
  96. Hot Fuzz
    The best of it is a riot--a "Bad Boys II" fireball hurled with exquisite accuracy at a quaint English town peopled by Agatha Christie archetypes.
  97. 3 Men and a Baby
    Leonard Nimoy, in unTrekked territory as director of his first comedy, displays a sure sense of pace. His free-wheeling prologue and epilogue set a spontaneous, stylish tone that carries over into the body of this helium-filled entertainment.
  98. Penguins
    In the spirit of previous Disneynature film voiceover artists John C. Reilly and Tina Fey, Helms contributes a winning inner-monologue voice for Steve, while also delivering the alternately threatening and comforting narration.
  99. National Treasure
    Overall the film is alluringly over-the-top without being overcooked.
  100. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    Barron concentrates on keeping the action moving at a brisk clip, drawing on his music video experience to serve up an entertaining series of odd camera angles, gratuitous camera movements and complicated lighting schemes. The results are lively and funny enough to keep adults enthralled as well as kids.
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