Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,523 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 56% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Sand Storm
Lowest review score: 0 Saw VI
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8,698 out of 16523
  2. Mixed: 5,808 out of 16523
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16523
16523 movie reviews
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  1. After Tiller
    Filmmakers Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, whose profiles in courage are sympathetic but not adulatory, have crafted an absorbing, thoughtful report.
  2. Father Soldier Son
    Father Soldier Son is a demanding film, a sometimes brutal story told with immense empathy. There is sorrow and joy; success and failure; marriage, birth and death. The Eisches are a tough crew, absorbing the challenges and even tragedy with a fragile resilience.
  3. Lost in Paris
    Although rife with pratfalls, near-misses, crazy coincidences and mistaken identities, “Lost in Paris” is a whirligig contraption that never turns frenetic or throws too much at you. It’s like a Jean-Pierre Jeunet farce on Xanax, with a soothing dose of Wes Anderson whimsy for good measure.
  4. Flame and Citron
    A deeply involving look at people living permanently on the knife-edge of danger, Flame & Citron does more than radically rethink the World War II resistance drama. Its biggest accomplishment may be to make these historical conflicts and dilemmas seem surprisingly contemporary.
  5. The Russian Woodpecker
    The documentary The Russian Woodpecker is provocative, spooky and just a little nutty.
  6. After Auschwitz
    Kean's perceptive film does an effective job of keeping their moving, lucid observations vitally alive.
  7. Sully
    Efficient and effective in Eastwood's experienced hands, Sully has interwoven a crisp and electric retelling of the story of the landing we know with a story we do not.
  8. Go
    Offers breathtaking comic-action fantasy….Exhilarating and sharp, it never stops for a second. [9 April 1999, Calendar, p.F-6]
    • Los Angeles Times
  9. Into the Abyss
    What is missing is something new - clarity, insight, outrage. Instead, its understatement is ultimately its undoing.
  10. Interstellar
    Interstellar turns out to be the rarest beast in the Hollywood jungle. It's a mass audience picture that's intelligent as well as epic, with a sophisticated script that's as interested in emotional moments as immersive visuals. Which is saying a lot.
  11. Harry Benson: Shoot First
    As the intriguing documentary Harry Benson: Shoot First demonstrates, the fact that an art-for-art's sake modus operandi is alien to Benson makes his work and the personality and philosophy behind it more compelling than they would otherwise be.
  12. Genesis
    As extraordinary as all of this imagery is, it is the film's sound design that takes it to another level. A quirky, electric mix of ambient sound, effects and music by composer Bruno Coulais and sound designer Laurent Quaglio gives the film its heart and its sense of humor.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bridge to Terabithia
    A wonderfully heart-wrenching love story for tweens, teens, and even adults who fondly remember when a friendship could be ignited by a gesture as simple as offering a stick of Juicy Fruit.
  14. The Attack
    The Attack rewards your patience. Though it's never less than involving, it grows in stature as it unfolds and ends as a more subtle and disturbing film about love, loss and tragedy than we might initially expect.
  15. The Heart of the Game
    An exhilarating story of loyalty and perseverance, The Heart of the Game succeeds as both inspiration and social commentary.
  16. Circus of Books
    Rachel Mason performs a nice bit of misdirection with the film, starting with humorous juxtapositions of this nice, elderly Jewish couple running a gay porn shop and then moving toward a poignant story of acceptance.
  17. Hollywood Shuffle
    Hollywood Shuffle is boisterous, out-at-the elbows movie making, an uneven series of skits, really, rather than a consistent whole. But there are wonderful comic moments here, alongside ones that droop from having gone on too long. And pervading the film is an unquenchable air--of optimism, even of community, which uses comedy to address some grievous inequities.
  18. Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
    Herzog has become a master of the understatement — knowing just how long the images can sustain you without a word being said. Vasyukov and his team of cameramen gave him a stunning range to work with, so the filmmaker keeps his own narration to a minimum.
  19. The New Girlfriend
    Director Ozon... infuses the picture with a provocative array of themes, imagery and moods. But it's French film heartthrob Duris' fluid, finely measured, physically deft portrayal of the blossoming David that sets the movie apart.
  20. Enemies of the State
    Kennebeck’s handling of the labyrinthine narrative is commendable, particularly since the realigning she needs to do in the final act requires a deft touch, like changing the flavor of a dish already prepped, spiced and cooked.
  21. The Dish
    It unfolds in a hearty, good-natured Australian comedy that affectionately depicts how the citizens of a small town become connected to the Apollo moon flight.
  22. Looking for Cheyenne
    The film, adeptly directed by Valerie Minetto (from a script she wrote with Cecile Vargaftig), suffers from some awkward subtitling and a few ineffective fantasy bits but is otherwise provocative and well-acted. This one's worth looking for.
  23. The Hurricane
    With power, intensity, remarkable range and an ability to disturb that is both unnerving and electric, it is more than Washington's most impressive part.
  24. Billy Elliot
    In its determination to overdo sure-fire material, Billy Elliot becomes as impossible to wholeheartedly embrace as it is to completely reject.
  25. Violet Perfume: No One Is Listening
    Very strong stuff, and Sistach has inspired such young actors as Ayala and Gutiérrez to give sustained and harrowing portrayals.
  26. The Keys to the House
    Though it is a work of fiction, we have the sense every minute that we are watching something real, something with the unmistakable taste of life.
  27. Ahead of Time
    Although Gruber's personal life and latter accomplishments are mostly addressed via a few closing sentences, "Ahead" remains a fleet and fitting tribute.
  28. Far From Men
    In the penetrating character study that is Far From Men, existentialism has never felt so intimate.
  29. Something Better to Come
    Beyond her tenacious and intimate reporting, director and cinematographer Polak has made a work of powerful images — heart-rending, elegiac, charged with hope.
  30. Famous Nathan
    Filmmaker Lloyd Handwerker treats the project as genealogy rather than corporate image-making. And with home movies and private interviews at his disposal, no one is better equipped to tell this story.
  31. Harry & Snowman
    Equine fans: Gallop, don’t trot to Ron Davis’ winning documentary Harry & Snowman, which recounts the inspiring story of an underdog show horse, his tenacious trainer and their rise to fame in the late 1950s.
  32. Blood on the Mountain
    The movie is practically a textbook about how ravenous corporations and feckless government can strip-mine the souls of workers, and replace them with a political narrative about their problems that keeps reality forever hidden behind a fine, dusty fog.
  33. Raising Bertie
    The film alternates between triumph and tragedy, but there’s never a moment that doesn’t feel intimate and authentic in its 96-minute running time.
  34. Egg
    With “Good Dick,” “Bitch” and now Egg, Palka has established herself as a fearless voice exploring all kinds of feminine instincts, basic or not.
  35. A Sexplanation
    On the whole, this is an entertaining movie with admirable intentions, pushing the audience to rethink their presumptions about pleasure.
  36. The Ghost of Richard Harris
    What really grounds the documentary is Sibley’s footage of Harris’ sons, Jared, Jamie and Damien, sorting through their father’s effects and sharing their impressions of who he was.
  37. Joy Ride
    Joy Ride, an amusingly rude and high-spirited romp from the debuting director Adele Lim (a co-writer on “Crazy Rich Asians”), has a way of turning predictable story beats into spiky, revealing cultural distinctions
  38. Kung Fu Panda
    The action, heavily influenced by Hong Kong martial arts films, is beautifully choreographed.
  39. Cryptozoo
    Page by page, frame by frame, it seeks to cultivate your wonder and awaken your outrage, to spin a work of unbridled fantasy into a depressingly relevant critique of human callousness and greed in any era.
  40. 40 Acres
    Thorne has made a resolute portrait of a woman who can’t break free of generational trauma.
  41. Crazy Rich Asians
    In a crisp, authoritative, sometimes startlingly vulnerable performance that never lapses into dragon-lady stereotype, Yeoh brilliantly articulates the unique relationship between Asian parents and their children, the intricate chain of love, guilt, devotion and sacrifice that binds them for eternity.
  42. In Order of Disappearance
    An absorbing and atmospheric entry in what we might as well term the “red snow” genre.
  43. My Father's Dragon
    The result is something visually dazzling and emotionally resonant, though likely to appeal primarily to youngsters and genre buffs.
  44. The Duke
    Michell, working off a jaunty script by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman, keeps the action bubbling along with little room to ponder the stranger-than-fiction improbability of the steal, one that, with the plethora of security measures and protocols in place nowadays, feels quaint — though in a fun, nostalgic way.
  45. Touch
    The result, anchored by enchanting performances and Kormákur’s reliably visceral storytelling, is an appealing pivot for a filmmaker who tends to gravitate toward adrenalized tales of survival.
  46. Omaha
    As the memory of it washes back over you, Omaha lingers, like a devastating short story — devastating because it’s about a pained father for whom the road ahead only seems to get narrower.
  47. The Secret Garden
    Rather than a fresh breeze, it's the stale air of gilded calculation, the uncomfortable feeling that things are excessively just so, that overhangs much that is genuinely appealing about this film.
  48. The History Boys
    A lively and entertaining disquisition on the purpose and uses of knowledge in a world that cares less about scholarship than quantifiable results.
  49. A Mighty Heart
    Moving and frighteningly real.
  50. Breakdown
    Mostow, with his first feature, has made such a convincing, fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat thriller that you'd swear you'd never seen anything quite like it.
  51. You Are Not My Mother
    This at once deeply creepy and strangely moving movie is ultimately about a girl in distress, unsure of what to do when the change she’s been desperate for turns out to be worse than the misery she’s already learned to handle.
  52. Becoming Traviata
    Zeroing in on the art of rehearsal, Becoming Traviata is an exquisitely observed look at performance and the creative process.
  53. Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins
    “Raise Hell” does more than allow us to bask in Ivins’ trademark attitude and humor; it shows us how she got that way and explores the toll that being the public Molly Ivins took on her personal life.
  54. Fastball
    You don't have to be a baseball fanatic or for that matter a historian or a physicist to appreciate Fastball.
  55. Sir! No Sir!
    A powerful documentary that uncovers half-forgotten history, history that is still relevant but not in ways you might be expecting.
  56. Dream Scenario
    It’s amusing, up to a point.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Them!
    It's an ingeious thriller, all right, in the science-fiction tradition of "War of the Worlds" and "It Came From Outer Space" -- with a bit of "The Naked Jungle" thrown in. [19 Jun 1954, p.12]
    • Los Angeles Times
  58. The Ghost of Peter Sellers
    The story of that one miserable shoot is still a useful way to consider both the brilliance of Sellers and the damage he wrought, as well as demonstrating the ludicrous leeway granted to celebrities and the ways that obvious warning signs of possible mental illness often went unheeded.
  59. Wild Nights with Emily
    Despite the juicy details and fascinating topic, it’s disappointing that the stilted tone makes it so difficult to connect emotionally with this important story.
  60. Place Vendôme
    This complex, sophisticated and increasingly suspenseful tale of love and betrayal, intrigue and redemption, is as elegant as its star and its settings.
  61. Invictus
    Instead of a thriller, war movie or western, the director has turned out a stirring drama about South African leader Nelson Mandela, blending entertainment, social message and history lesson.
  62. Herb & Dorothy
    The Vogels' story is a very specific one, at once more unexpected and more moving than it might seem at first.
  63. Big Hero 6
    Amid all the nerd-inspired firepower that gives the movie much of its flash, the big boy's droning tone proves to be the film's stealth weapon, perfect for pulling off highly targeted comic strikes.
  64. Bad Hair
    The film is anchored by two riveting performances from Castillo and Lange.
  65. Edward Scissorhands
    Perhaps the most original movie fantasy creation of the year: an icon of tenderness and artistic alienation that clings, stickum-like, to your mind's eye and the softest, most woundable parts of your mass-culture heart. [7 Dec 1990, Calendar, p.F-1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  66. The Italian
    A remarkably compelling presence, Spiridonov commands attention without pandering or appealing to pity. In fact, for a 6-year-old, he is possessed of an uncanny poise.
  67. Mommy
    In its garishness, Mommy is a weirdly compelling overreach for this young filmmaker. It's the work of someone clearly passionate, if not disciplined yet, about his cinematic interests.
  68. The Opera House
    A plethora of pleasures are hidden under the deceptively mundane title of The Opera House. Nominally a documentary about the creation of New York's half-century-old Metropolitan Opera House, it turns out to be a charming and convivial celebration of not just the building but also opera in general and creativity across the board.
  69. Highest 2 Lowest
    Highest 2 Lowest has its highs and lows, and when the highs are high, it soars. Those pesky lows are certainly hard to shake though.
  70. Filmmakers for the Prosecution
    The movie is, like so many Nuremberg accounts, an alternately thrilling and chastening portrait of accountability in action. But it is also, as its title suggests, a thoughtful appraisal of the moral properties of the moving image.
  71. The Duchess of Langeais
    Jacques Rivette has brought the Balzac short story to screen as a superb chamber drama. His is a graceful work of austerity and formality that perfectly captures the chaos of repressed emotions that see beneath the rigid conventions of aristocratic society.
  72. The Golden Dream
    The movie exists in a space beyond arguments about immigration policy and border security, and while sometimes a little too willfully pokey, it speaks to something indelibly human about dreams and their costs.
  73. Starlet
    It's a character study about faith in connectedness, with an unforced love for cross-generational companionship that's special indeed.
  74. Eastern Boys
    Bold and unsettling, Eastern Boys is a long, strange trip of a film that touches on myriad social, economic and sexual themes.
  75. The Silent Partner
    An undervalued 1978 thriller with an ingenious script by Curtis Hanson. [23 Feb 2001, p.18]
    • Los Angeles Times
  76. My Kid Could Paint That
    The longer it goes, the more frustrating it becomes, as Bar Lev declines to come down on one side or the other.
  77. Two Lovers
    Themes of loneliness, alienation and unrequited love are not new, but there is always that sense of the unexpected in Phoenix that keeps you curious.
  78. As I Open My Eyes
    Baya Medhaffar inhabits the role of Farah with a blazing exuberance that’s matched by a dynamic sense of place. Director Leyla Bouzid may struggle to shape her narrative in the final reels, but through most of its running time her first feature pulses with in-the-moment vitality.
  79. Wag the Dog
    A gloriously cynical black comedy that functions as a wicked smart satire on the interlocking worlds of politics and show business, Wag the Dog confirms every awful thought you've ever had about media manipulation and the gullibility of the American public. And it has a great deal of fun doing it.
  80. Sin City
    For a relentlessly violent and exploitive noir knockoff, Sin City is mystifyingly flat and static - cartoonish, even, if you want to get tautological about it.
  81. Neil Young Journeys
    Young's almost mystical musicianship is what saves it.
  82. For the Love of Spock
    [A] richly rewarding tribute.
  83. tick, tick...Boom!
    Miranda and screenwriter Steven Levenson (“Dear Evan Hansen”) have made an inspired jumble, a surprisingly graceful Franken-Steinway of a movie.
  84. My Country, My Country
    What My Country, My Country does best is show us that while both the Americans and the Iraqis care about the country's future, their cultural backgrounds and world views inevitably make them seem alien to each other.
  85. Starfish
    It’s a little like a post-apocalyptic survivalist thriller, crossed with Lynn Ramsay’s impressionistic masterpiece “Morvern Callar,” crossed with a Radiohead video. Not all of those pieces fit together. But they combine into something strikingly original.
  86. She Said
    With care, thoughtfulness and rigor, Schrader and the filmmakers of She Said craft a film that shows the process of building this paradigm-shifting piece of journalism in a manner that is simultaneously thrilling and grindingly methodical, aided greatly by Nicholas Britell’s score.
  87. A Matter of Taste
    An elegant study of devious mind games and emotional perversion, it makes the strangest of psychological dynamics plausible and involving.
  88. 7 Days in September
    If ever there was a prime example of art bringing order out of chaos, it is Steven Rosenbaum's 7 Days in September. -- The result is a narrative at once personal, admirably coherent and, above all, heartening.
  89. Such a Long Journey
    A thoughtful but uneven film.
  90. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
    By turns exasperating, appalling and surprisingly empathetic -- sometimes all in the same moment -- the three members of Metallica quickly emerge as the main attractions in Some Kind of Monster, but not for the reasons you might expect.
  91. Shower
    Beguiling and poignant.
  92. Source Code
    With a twisty, mind-bending plot that frequently changes direction and occasionally overreaches, Source Code wouldn't work at all without a cast with the determination and ability to really sell its story.
  93. Beast
    Pearce, in his feature directing debut, proves himself a solid craftsman, with a gift for giving even derivative story elements a nerve-jangling tweak. He also has a shivery way with ambiguity, a knack for toying with our expectations and turning the power of suggestion to his advantage.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Oklahoma!
    Zinnemann doesn't seem to know he is directing a Great Broadway Musical. The result is a well-staged drama that just happens to have great songs in it. [16 Dec 1994, p.F26]
    • Los Angeles Times
  95. Little Woods
    With a confident eye and economy of storytelling, DaCosta crafts a fiercely feminist and sensitive family portrait that fearlessly takes on the capitalist rot at the core of the American healthcare system.
  96. Joe
    Though Joe occasionally slips and falters, the filmmakers and actors get all the hard-luck details right.
  97. Jay Myself
    In Wilkes’ heartfelt thank you note of a film, time, art and space collide, though in the end, all things must pass.
  98. After Parkland
    Taguchi and Lefferman approach it all less like journalists or vérité documentarians than friendly guests who want to be respectful yet connect to something deeper about pain, mourning and forward movement.
  99. Older Than Ireland
    The film could have used more social, cultural and geographical context. Still, this is such a moving, evocative and rare assemblage of souls, we’re grateful for its existence.
  100. Lapsis
    A refreshing instance of world building where the emphasis is on satirical wit, activist smarts and character, it feels like one of those movies we’ll be looking at decades from now and, however tech has transformed our lives, saying “Yeah, ‘Lapsis’ had that.”
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