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 1.3 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. Happy Feet
    A lot of director George Miller's film is gorgeous and exciting. Its craftsmanship and ambition put it a continent ahead of nearly every other animated feature of the last couple of years.
  2. Candy
    The way director and co-adapter Armfield shoots it, the film's awfully pretty in its grimness, in the way "Leaving Las Vegas" managed to make train-wreck alcoholism more fake-lyrical than grungy.
  3. Fast Food Nation
    Linklater's working-class mosaic is seriously interested in how most of this country gets by for a living. And that, sadly, makes it distinctive.
  4. For Your Consideration
    True to form, Guest's newest doesn't pull out the long knives. On the gentleness scale, this one's way over here, as opposed to the film of the moment, "Borat," which is way, way over there.
  5. The Aura
    Darin is an actor who's really consummate at suggesting two simultaneous levels of character.
  6. Flannel Pajamas
    Love can be a battleground, and, despite its homey-sounding title and gentle, almost nonchalant air, Jeff Lipsky's Flannel Pajamas gives us a series of messages from the front.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Good Year
    The film, for all its pretensions of revelatory, life-altering enlightenment, is actually about as deep as a wading pool, as substantive as cotton candy.
  8. Harsh Times
    Harsh Times, is almost a good, salty urban thriller.
  9. Stranger Than Fiction
    When Ferrell and Hoffman do their thing together, a charming bit of whimsy becomes something more. It becomes really, really funny.
  10. Iraq in Fragments
    One of the year's finest documentaries, a remarkable example of the conjunction of a burningly topical and newsworthy subject with a brilliant filmmaker.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
    The result is a revelatory, challenging and deeply affecting portrait, anchored by what may be Kidman's most profoundly moving performance to date.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Come Early Morning
    Artfully shot and excruciatingly honest, the movie has great intentions but can't quite overcome its outsized sense of self-importance.
  13. The Cave of the Yellow Dog
    Children and animals, if they're handled right, can be among the great natural movie actors, and in The Cave of the Yellow Dog, writer-director Byambasuren Davaa handles her cast of youngsters and creatures (and a few adults) heartwarmingly well.
  14. Copying Beethoven
    Copying Beethoven, at its best, is a sort of grand cinema opera of the composer's life and music.
  15. Fuck
    The film works best when widening its focus to include the Federal Communications Commission's often baffling and hypocritical stances regarding what's OK to say, or show, on TV and radio, and what isn't.
  16. Coffee Date
    Writer-director Stewart Wade expanded his festival-circuit short film into a blobby, watery feature-length enterprise, unredeemed by its cast (though Sally Kirkland shows up as Todd's mom).
  17. Linda Linda Linda
    These girls can cook, and Yamashita captures them with an austere, unhurried visual style that has been rightly compared to rock aficionado/filmmakers Aki Kaurismaki ("Ariel") and Jim Jarmusch ("Mystery Train"). [8 Dec 2006, p.2]
    • Chicago Tribune
  18. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
    Borat is a rarity: a comedy whose middle name is danger, or as the Kazakhs say, kauwip-kater.
  19. Flushed Away
    After the fourth electrocution gag, the 10th smack in the face and the 12th assault on a wee rodent crotch, we could all use something quiet.
  20. Volver
    You always get more than one genre with this filmmaker. Volver draws upon all sorts of influences -- a little Hitchcock, a little Douglas Sirk, a little telenovela -- but from those sources Almodovar and his collaborators, both on screen and behind the camera, make an improbably organic whole.
  21. Shottas
    Shottas exists purely in the realm of rasta-music-video fakery.
  22. Unknown
    While Brand manages a couple of effectively brutal bits of violence, Matthew Waynee's gassy screenplay is all premise and no propulsion.
  23. Romántico
    The value of Romantico is that it lets us experience vicariously what Carmelo and others like him go through.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Catch a Fire
    The horrors of apartheid deserve a better treatment than this.
  25. Babel
    It's a powerhouse, demanding film that sometimes stretches the limits of credibility. But it's done with such consistent technical brilliance--and with such a first-rate cast and company.
  26. Climates
    The beauty of the Turkish film Climates, a small but indelible masterpiece, is more than skin-deep. No 2006 film meant more to me. It's as sharp and lovely as the best Chekhov short stories.
  27. Conversations with God
    Despite valiant efforts from Czerny and from the fine stage actress Vilma Silva, who plays one of Walsch's many saviors, the result would qualify as a blandly inspirational amateur hour if the running time weren't closer to two.
  28. Shut Up & Sing
    A seriously entertaining highlight of the fall season.
  29. Death of a President
    The flaw in Death of a President isn't one of morality. It's one of dramatic interest.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Cocaine Cowboys
    Cocaine Cowboys would be a great one-hour television piece. Unfortunately, it's a two-hour long documentary that recalls, in scrupulous, unnecessary detail, the rise and fall of Miami's role as the cocaine capital of America.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Absolute Wilson
    Not only does this film offer a comprehensive portrait of a fascinating and underexplored leader of the American avant-garde in the late 20th Century, it ends up making some compelling connections between his works and the rich, occasionally self-destructive trajectory of the life that forged them.
  32. The Bridge
    Despite the proficient technique, after a while you may feel you're watching a particularly scenic snuff film.
  33. The Wild Blue Yonder
    At times playful and inventive, at others simplistic and silly. Ultimately, Werner Herzog's free-form, idiosyncratic devolution of the documentary is beautiful but dull.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Marie Antoinette
    It's true that this sugarcoated romp doesn't take itself, or its source material, particularly seriously, but if you're confident your grasp of European history can withstand the assault of two hours of bubbly entertainment, Marie Antoinette guarantees you a good time.
  35. Running with Scissors
    Laughing at the freaks and then feeling bad about it is the sole reason for the existence of this pale little film.
  36. Flags of Our Fathers
    There's a tremendous amount of material here, and the script covers too much of it, often confusingly.
  37. Flicka
    A modernized version of that great sentimental horse movie, 1943's "My Friend Flicka," and it comes with the shiny trappings, high professionalism and glamorous accessories you might expect...Something is missing though.
  38. The Prestige
    Many, I suspect, will fall for The Prestige and its blend of one-upsmanship and science fiction. I prefer "The Illusionist," the movie that got here first.
  39. Requiem
    An exorcism movie for the rest of us, the gripping German drama Requiem contains not a single special effect. It doesn't need one. It has terrific actors fully invested in a casual-seeming, docudramatic brand of storytelling, notably Sandra Hueller.
  40. Masai: The Rain Warriors
    The French filmmakers lend it their special aesthetic/dramatic sense, and the Masai actors ground the story in everyday realism and humanity. Together, they create a film and a legend to remember.
  41. Sweet Land
    The film's most memorable performance is in another supporting role, by Alan Cumming as hapless Frandsen, Olaf's sympathetic neighbor and a hopelessly inept farmer.
  42. 51 Birch Street
    The film has a compelling way about it. All five of the immediate Block family members emerge in full and affecting portraits.
  43. Man of the Year
    Levinson has written and directed in many genres. But rarely has he made a film as indecisive and diffident as Man of the Year.
  44. Deliver Us from Evil
    Deliver Us From Evil has a few things wrong with it, including an egregious musical score, but without resorting to sucker punches, it takes your breath away while making your skin crawl.
  45. Infamous
    Though stylistically all over the place, it's not without interest.
  46. Tideland
    It's crazy, dangerous and sometimes gorgeous: a feast of nuttiness that takes you, for a while, over the edge.
  47. Zerophilia
    A half-silly, half-earnest indie with the soul of a John Hughes-era sex comedy.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker
    It's better than some James Bond movies--no matter what your age.
  49. Little Children
    Unnervingly good, Little Children is one of the rare American films about adultery that feels right--dangerous, hushed, immediate.
  50. The Departed
    The Departed exists in a movie-place about as far from personal statements as a storied director can get. Maybe those days for Scorsese are long gone. But Scorsese's sense of craft remains sure.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Employee of the Month
    The only two onscreen items with any star quality belong to Simpson, and they're barely contained in shirts that seem to be holding on for dear life. Comedy fans, beware; breast fans, rejoice!
  52. 49 Up
    If you haven't gotten hooked already on Michael Apted's series--collectively, one of the great documentaries in the history of the cinema--you should prepare yourself for the latest installment, 49 Up.
  53. Black Gold
    Guaranteed to make you think twice about what you're paying for what you're drinking.
  54. Shortbus
    It's refreshing to see a non-mainstream movie that wears its heart and lust on its sleeve, and has anything but violence on its mind.
  55. ...So Goes the Nation
    The film's triple thesis is that elections are run badly, Democrats are often clueless and Republicans are clever. Maybe--but that still leaves too many unanswered questions.
  56. The Queen
    The film goes pretty easy on the royals in the end, and it's a flattering portrait of Blair. But it's not credulous. Frears may swim in the political mainstream with The Queen but he does so like a champion channel crosser.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    The Guardian
    Sometimes you want to buy an extra-large popcorn and settle in for a big budget Hollywood blockbuster replete with entertaining explosions, undemanding dialogue and completely unrealistic action sequences. If all that sounds like gloriously uncomplicated fun, The Guardian is your movie.
  58. Open Season
    Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher may seem like an odd-sounding comedy team, but in some weird way, they click as voice-actors and cartoon buddies in Open Season.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    School for Scoundrels
    This ultimately disappointing comedy starts reasonably strong, delivers a few good laughs, then rolls over and plays dead.
  60. Be with Me
    A delicately crafted, gently inflected, lovely little movie about the need for love, directed and co-written by Singapore's Eric Khoo ("Mee Pok Man").
    • 67 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
    The movie is awash in great performances by actors known and otherwise.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies
    As Nirvana's Kurt Cobain acknowledges in the opening quote, without the Pixies there would be no "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
  63. The Last King of Scotland
    The director is Kevin Macdonald, a documentary filmmaker making his fiction film feature debut. (He won an Oscar for his Munich Olympics hostage chronicle, "One Day in September.")
  64. All the King's Men
    Kathy Baker, as Burden's elegantly sodden mother, shows the only sign of interpretive life in this stiff-jointed enterprise. She has about five minutes on screen; she's lucky that way.
  65. Flyboys
    Just about everything in the video-gamey World War I picture Flyboys rings false, although the planes certainly are terrific.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 12 Critic Score
    Jackass Number Two
    There's no plot here; like the MTV show that spawned it, this movie is just a progression of increasingly disgusting and/or dangerous stunts.
  67. Fearless
    One of those corny, lusciously mounted, almost predictably thrill-packed action movies you can't help but like.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Feast
    Follows a common horror flick recipe (people under siege from hungry monsters--so much for Greenlight's search for originality), adding a dash of humor to keep things from becoming too much of a checklist.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Jesus Camp
    What Ewing and Grady have accomplished here is remarkable--capturing the visceral humanity, desire and unflagging political will of a religious movement.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    American Hardcore
    Exhaustive and at turns exhausting.
  71. Zen Noir
    Rosenbush strives for a difficult blend of spoof and sincerity with Zen Noir. In the spirit of rebirth, let's assume that the next time he makes it, it'll turn out fine.
  72. The Science of Sleep
    It only works about half the time, but it's an interesting half.
  73. Old Joy
    The movie has a large theme, even if it's unspoken. Old Joy is about a particular friendship, but it's also about how American society changed in the '90s and the new century.
  74. The Black Dahlia
    Doesn't provoke bittersweet inquiries regarding one poor actress' grisly fate. Nor does it stir up much provocation on the matter of why, as a popular audience, we're still taken with this lurid symbol of sex and dread and desire. Rather, the movie raises a much simpler question: Huh?
  75. Everyone's Hero
    Probably the last movie to carry a credit for the late Christopher Reeve--as well as the last credit for Reeve's late wife, Dana.
  76. Gridiron Gang
    As sports movies go, Gridiron Gang isn't bad, just not top-line material.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Last Kiss
    A smart, witty, sexy take on the perils of becoming an adult.
  78. Confetti
    Outlandish weddings aren't much of a satiric target, but Confetti isn't really going for satire; mild-mannered japes are more its style.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Ground Truth
    Compelling and intensely provocative.
  80. Haven
    The film is a fancy-pants muddle in terms of technique. And if Bloom doesn't do something about his smirky tendency to troll for audience approval, his career may be severely limited.
  81. The U.S. vs. John Lennon
    People who love Lennon will almost certainly like the film; his detractors will almost certainly howl "bias!" Even so, it's a movie that, at its best, makes you ache with the memory of an anguished era and its fallen pop culture hero.
  82. Keeping Mum
    Only the architecturally refined bone structure of Kristin Scott Thomas' face rescues Keeping Mum from full-on tedium.
  83. Al Franken: God Spoke
    Most of this doc is content to wander through Franken's recent show-biz resume, to no particular end.
  84. Hollywoodland
    With an uncredited assist from playwright/screenwriter Howard Korder, Hollywoodland features some tart, lively banter and welcome comedic touches.
  85. SherryBaby
    Danny Trejo plays Sherry's sometime lover and friend, and he's a big asset to a small, sharp film that won't be for everyone. That's a compliment.
  86. Le petit lieutenant
    A fine, taut, tough example of the realistic police drama.
  87. Man Push Cart
    A realistic drama about life's uncertainties.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Rolling Family
    The wedding site at the end of the road offers beautiful vistas overlooking Brazil, but it's hardly worth the trip.
  89. Vajra Sky Over Tibet
    Too often the film itself simply shuffles the postcards of Tibetan scenery, Buddhist rituals and the Tibetan people (many amazing faces on view, to be sure).
  90. Broken Bridges
    Keith -- a consistent hit-maker who wrote the controversial 9/11 song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" -- has a future in movies if he wants it. Hopefully, they'll be better ones than this.
  91. The Protector
    Anytime Jaa isn't on screen, The Protector sputters.
  92. Crossover
    The reason basketball is such a great spectator sport isn't because of its opportunities for razzle-dazzle editing and direction. It's because the game is kinetic enough without all that swoosh/zap/wham business.
  93. Lassie
    The new Lassie is faithful to Knight's story, capturing its sweep, Dickensian social contrasts and high emotion. All that is enhanced by a splendid cast.
  94. Mutual Appreciation
    The film's mood and style are pitched somewhere between '60s American indie and French New Wave and, as you watch these people, they seem painfully, amusingly on-target. They may irritate you a little, but that's the right response.
  95. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
    This is a movie for all cultures and all people, for families and especially for those who have lost them.
  96. This Film Is Not Yet Rated
    100 percent right about our corrupt and hypocritical industry-controlled movie ratings system. Being right, however, doesn't automatically make for a strong documentary. I enjoyed a lot of it. Yet fully half of what's on screen is beside its own point.
  97. Beerfest
    Beerfest is one sloppy comedy, but the lads of the comedy troupe Broken Lizard don't know when to say when in their pursuit of the idiotic laugh, and persistence certainly counts for something.
  98. Idlewild
    Aiding Barber is the terrific work of choreographer Hinton Battle, delivering a ferocious, contemporary update of swing and bridging the gap between quick-take MTV flash and the longer needs of cinematic dancing--a hybrid that works better here than in the frenetic, overrated "Chicago."
  99. How to Eat Fried Worms
    This is a picture in which the barf scenes standard in the usual crude youth comedies aren't gratuitous. They're logical climaxes.
  100. Invincible
    The actors make it work. Greg Kinnear's Coach Vermeil exudes Southern California good vibrations without a lot of fuss or attitude.
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