Los Angeles Times' Scores

Select another publication »
For 16,520 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: 8,697 out of 16520
  2. Mixed: 5,806 out of 16520
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16520
16520 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Creepy
    Creepy uses silence as a tool of terror, following its characters through long, tense scenes where everything’s a little too quiet, and where each creak sounds like a scream. The director has always excelled at making the ordinary seem unsettling.
  2. Moonlight
    Moonlight is magic. So intimate you feel like you're trespassing on its characters souls, so transcendent it's made visual and emotional poetry out of intensely painful experience, it's a film that manages to be both achingly familiar and unlike anything we've seen before.
  3. Michael Moore in TrumpLand
    A rambling, mildly entertaining performance film.
  4. Priceless
    Though its obvious message may not translate well outside its intended audience, the converted will likely be entertained by the well-produced package the moving themes are delivered in.
  5. Max Steel
    At its best, “Max Steel” shares elements with “Smallville” and “Teen Wolf,” using the supernatural as a metaphor for awkward adolescence. At its worst, it’s more like “Transformers” — an extended toy commercial, noisy and forgettable.
  6. Newtown
    It's heartbreaking stuff, and Newtown handles it all with a gentle grace.
  7. Hate Rising
    It’s a capably made documentary that argues its case with intelligence and compassion.
  8. The Red Pill
    Jaye never gets to her original question about rape culture, and ultimately twists herself in knots to justify the movement’s misogynist rhetoric.
  9. Best Fake Friends
    Unfortunately, the climactic table-turning here feels more mechanical than cathartic and does little to elevate the film’s undistinguished narrative.
  10. NY84
    When Morin ventures into more mundane territory, including several parent-child scenes, the film — and the performances — can feel forced and inauthentic. But as a zeitgeist-heavy memory piece, NY84 knows its stuff.
  11. Is That You?
    There’s an appealingly sentimental destination in store for Ronnie and Myla’s parallel quests that keeps the movie from floating away entirely on its all-too-airy premise.
  12. The River Thief
    Chockful of hoary archetypes making hokey observations...leading to a truly laughable big-ending reveal, the film, with its wildly uneven performances, underscores the pitfalls inherent in shifting from the written page to the big screen.
  13. Ordinary World
    Unfortunately, the cast and a few sweet tunes by Armstrong are the only things going for this delayed coming-of-age dramedy.
  14. Search Engines
    This overcooked Thanksgiving turkey succeeds only in managing to take all the fun out of dysfunctional.
  15. Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang
    A documentary that begs to be seen in a theater, Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang offers an inviting glimpse into the life of a truly international artist, one whose colorful fireworks displays literally paint the air.
  16. Desierto
    Desierto is a generic thriller that happens to be wrapped in political packaging. That packaging is sometimes more interesting than the thrills themselves, but the film is bare enough to project what you want onto it.
  17. Do Not Resist
    The parameters of homeland security are chillingly assessed in Do Not Resist, a troubling documentary examining the escalating militarization of the nation’s police forces.
  18. Being 17
    If the film has a governing principle, it’s that love doesn’t take root in a vacuum, and its path is never perfectly straight.
  19. Jack Goes Home
    While the movie’s artfully made and daringly disturbing, Dekker ultimately overestimates how many sick twists one motion picture needs.
  20. Blue Jay
    The largely improvisational approach as well as the limited settings and story arc also undercut the picture’s deeper dramatic potential — despite a powerful, beautifully performed finale.
  21. Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
    If this adulatory “American Masters” production elides certain chapters of Angelou’s biography, it nonetheless offers ample evidence of her commanding intensity and of her importance as an unwavering voice of the black experience.
  22. The Accountant
    The Accountant is a nifty piece of genre entertainment, its wacky edge and genial tone despite that body count coming as something of a pleasant surprise in a year rife with lumbering, over-amped blockbusters.
  23. Miss Hokusai
    Miss Hokusai surprises us with its different emotional tones, ranging from the sinister and supernatural to the unapologetically sexual and the sweetly sentimental.
  24. Tower
    Maitland’s experimental approach to a tricky subject leaves viewers with a deeper understanding of a terrible moment in American history.
  25. Certain Women
    Reichardt has never been one to reduce her characters to an easy emotional or dramatic equation, and here the everyday challenge of being female in a male-dominated profession is just one element on an extraordinarily fine-grained human canvas.
  26. Aquarius
    Some might well accuse this stubbornly singular woman of living in the past, but to watch Aquarius is to see her surrendering again and again to the bliss of the present moment — never more so than in a final scene of thrilling, annihilating ferocity.
  27. Mascots
    Unfortunately, this improvised film (Guest’s actors work off a detailed outline) contains the occasional titter but few guffaws.
  28. Asura: The City of Madness
    Though the plot’s too convoluted, the relentless pace and pungent atmosphere elevate the film above the typical grim crime stories soaked in blood and despair.
  29. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life
    It's a fun, rebellious romp that celebrates creativity and outside-the-box thinking, though parents might hope that their children won't be too inspired to copy the elaborate pranks that these characters pull off.
  30. Thank You for Your Service
    With the same clarity and fluency he brought to far sunnier material in “Casting By,” Donahue pinpoints the devastating intersection of personal trauma and institutional neglect in an age of perpetual war.
  31. Dependent's Day
    The best part of Dependent’s Day is the rapid-fire, easy-breezy banter between Burke and Robledo — their connection is palpable, and feels comfortable and lived in.
  32. The Lennon Report
    Despite the admittedly unique angle, this ambitious drama gets crushed under the considerable weight of its artistic, as well as budgetary, limitations.
  33. Green Is Gold
    Often exhibiting the best of DIY cinema sensibilities — a mixture of focus, mood, and lived-in characterizations — Green is Gold augurs good things for the multi-hyphenate Baxter.
  34. The Hollow
    Writer-director-actor Miles Doleac’s sprawling Southern-fried mystery The Hollow has the rich characters and milieu of a good literary novel, but never quite works as a movie.
  35. The Late Bloomer
    Even a talented cast can’t overcome the script from five screenwriters, whose uneven final product is surprisingly bland for all its raunchiness.
  36. Phantasm: Ravager
    More than any of the sequels, “Ravager” upholds the mind-bending originality and emotional depth of the first “Phantasm.” From the surprise cameos by old characters to the constant twisting of dreams and reality, it’s suffused with the feeling of people trying to regain control of their lives, to get back what they’ve lost.
  37. The Great Gilly Hopkins
    Characters and situations are painted in such simple, broad strokes, we’re asked to take much at face value.
  38. The Greasy Strangler
    While The Greasy Strangler eventually becomes tiresome in its relentless repellence, it’s just so odd it deserves to be lauded for simply existing.
  39. Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
    Terrence Malick’s Voyage of Time: The Imax Experience is a glorious cosmic reverie, a feast for the eyes and a balm for the soul in these angry, contentious times.
  40. Sand Storm
    Sand Storm's great gift is that it is human, not didactic, showing not only how difficult this iron web of culture and tradition is to escape from but also how much it poisons the lives of the men who enforce it as much as the women who are victimized by it.
  41. Astraea
    There are a few story threads left hanging, but ultimately, the film is a thoughtful rumination on the far-reaching tentacles of grief, and the crucial importance of asserting humanity that persists in the face of devastation.
  42. Better Off Single
    With its muddy timeline, kaleidoscope of fantasies, flashbacks and hallucinations, broad characterizations and sitcom slickness, the film never settles down long enough to congeal, much less feel remotely connected to reality.
  43. Bilal: A New Breed of Hero
    Much of the dialogue is too literal and undercut by its stolid earnestness, and many of the characters are left underdeveloped.
  44. Blinky Bill: The Movie
    Even the most sophisticated software can’t give characters a sense of weight or a way of moving that suggests their personality. Nor can it create an engaging story. Sadly, director Deane Taylor and his crew fail to provide those elements.
  45. Under the Shadow
    The movie is first fascinating, then terrifying.
  46. Passage to Mars
    [A] misguided hybrid that makes tediously clear from the outset that the conceit just isn’t working.
  47. Among the Believers
    There’s little that’s not dispiriting about Among the Believers and its measured, direct entrée into a closed world of hopeless boys and girls memorizing the Koran, but forbidden from learning its meanings.
  48. The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America
    And although the film might stint on full renditions of their songs, one of the few played in its entirety is a gorgeous, relaxed acoustic version of “Honky Tonk Women” delivered by Mick and Keith in a vacant dressing room.
  49. All in Time
    The “time travel” bit kicks in for real — or rather surreal. But this half-baked device proves too little, too late and fails to jump start the film’s prosaic narrative.
  50. 13th
    What “black lives matter” means in essence, one of this film’s voices says, “is that all lives matter,” a point “13th” makes with undeniable eloquence as well as persuasive force.
  51. The Girl on the Train
    The empathy that Taylor summoned so effortlessly in his previous films feels strained and unpersuasive here, and moments that should be lacerating...are overplayed to ghastly effect.
  52. The Siege of Jadotville
    A scrappy war flick with a fair amount of combat suspense but a whole lot of clichéd dialogue.
  53. 37
    A drama that plays out as an overdetermined thesis, with Genovese herself (Christina Brucato) a footnote to the darkly stylized plunge into lives of quiet desperation.
  54. The Birth of a Nation
    The Birth of a Nation certainly has the power of conviction, but the grace of art escapes it.
  55. 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.
  56. London Town
    The fantasy of a punk icon for a friend is one thing, but the filmmakers undercut the modest liveliness of their enterprise with a save-the-day storyline that seems far removed from the roiling, anti-authoritative ethos of punk.
  57. Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story
    Despite the film’s brief running time, it packs in vital social context, gay history and nostalgic imagery along with some sad truths.
  58. The Last Film Festival
    A thoroughly amateurish un-comedy about show business.
  59. Loserville
    Loserville is somehow two different movies — a traditional teen comedy mixed with a message-driven drama about the dangers of bullying — without enough connective tissue linking characters or scenes to lend it cohesion.
  60. Mommy's Box
    Though it’s mildly enjoyable throughout, the movie is ultimately just a loose collection of nice little scenes, held together by a few palliative clichés.
  61. People You May Know
    Although there are contrivances, and Joe’s blurry “catfishing” tale meanders, these folks’ emotional growth feels authentic and touchingly earned.
  62. Never Surrender: The Ed Ramsey Story
    In its present form, Ramsey’s story leaves you wanting more — and less.
  63. Operation Mekong
    Though more sensationalistic than serious, this film has a scale and an energy that rivals any Hollywood blockbuster.
  64. 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.
  65. Milton's Secret
    Even for something preaching spiritual tranquility, Milton’s Secret exhibits the barest trace of a pulse.
  66. Maximum Ride
    The obvious exposition, tortured dialogue and shoddy special effects just make you wish you were watching something else.
  67. Generation Startup
    It’s a warm, uplifting portrait of the potentials to be found in startup culture, but feels blinkered by its specific focus.
  68. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
    Many viewers will find it challenging to see the substance hidden in the documentary’s over-the-top style that makes Michael Moore’s directorial stamp look subtle.
  69. Seed: The Untold Story
    This is a gorgeously made film, put together with as much care as its subjects devote to saving the remaining varieties of seeds.
  70. Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four
    Though its chronological organization and issue management is rough around the edges, Esquenazi’s passionately argued film...easily convinces that the charges are impossible to believe.
  71. Danny Says
    What emerges is a rich portrait of one of 20th century pop culture’s great facilitators, whose keen observations, quirky personality and natural affinity for the outré helped greatness happen.
  72. ClownTown
    It tests the theory that a creepy clown lurking in the dark is always terrifying. It turns out that with repetition, some nightmares become boring.
  73. Flock of Dudes
    The cast is stocked with some of comedy’s best actors, which elevates the rather pedestrian material.
  74. The Free World
    An initially compelling but uneven drama elevated by two centered performances.
  75. Come What May
    With its old-fashioned gloss, the incident-packed story proves only mildly engaging and finally has little to say.
  76. Chronic
    For a drama that’s as quiet and circumspect as Chronic, it’s a decidedly bold film, one that pulls few punches as it slowly peels away the emotional layers of its complex protagonist. t also features an ending that’s as devastating as it is shocking.
  77. Amanda Knox
    Without doubt this strong documentary sheds a powerful light on this particular case while emphasizing the ultimate unknowability of absolute truth.
  78. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
    The sense of film craft here is so delicate and assured that, even at its most razzle dazzle-prone moments, the movie never seems to be straining for effect.
  79. American Honey
    It’s been a while since a film so powerfully evoked the thrilling possibilities and wasted pleasures of the open road.
  80. Command and Control
    Lots of documentaries these days will tell you to be afraid, to be very afraid, but few will scare you as coolly and as convincingly as Command and Control.
  81. Long Way North
    Long Way North is a complete pleasure, a gorgeous piece of wide-screen animation that is as delightful as it is unexpected.
  82. Denial
    Denial periodically plays like a standard-issue drama. But because Hare's script grapples with serious themes and singular events whose ramifications are still being felt, it is effective when it counts.
  83. Deepwater Horizon
    Swift, no-nonsense and pummelingly intense, this is the big-budget Hollywood disaster flick on a CrossFit regimen and a Paleo diet — a hellish cataclysm that never risks overstaying its welcome.
  84. The Apostate
    It’s a movie that ultimately may mean more to those raised in heavily Catholic cultures, but it has an engaging prickliness as a satiric peek into the life of a brooding idealist.
  85. A Man Called Ove
    Incorporating fluid flashbacks and snippets of narration that refreshingly serve to enhance rather than distract, director-writer Hannes Holm maintains a gentle, lyrical flow while coaxing fine performances from a diverse cast.
  86. Closet Monster
    Dunn juggles the story’s vital, at times fantastical narrative, eclectic imagery, and wellspring of human fears, flaws and desires with vision and confidence. But Jessup’s powerfully empathetic performance really seals the deal.
  87. The Gemini
    This melodrama struggles with serious post-production issues and an unnecessarily complex story, losing any of its intended impact in the process.
  88. Dirty 30
    There are a few times when a viewer less familiar with this world can feel a bit out of place, though it is possible for anyone to find amusement in this winsome if slight film.
  89. Total Frat Movie
    It’s a rare film that can dredge up nostalgic fondness for 2002’s awful “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder,” but Total Frat Movie manages to rise to the dubious occasion.
  90. New World Order
    What is semi-interesting — in a “huh?” kind of way — is how the Ferraras take various paranoid speculation from the darkest reaches of the Internet and weave it all into a barely coherent super-theory.
  91. 100 Years
    It’s a maddening but ultimately uplifting tale about a fearless woman who fought tirelessly for her people.
  92. Chicken People
    The beguiling documentary Chicken People proves that truth is not only stranger than fiction, but often more poignant and illuminating as well.
  93. The Age of Shadows
    Nothing in this gratifyingly focused movie feels excessive or gratuitous, and a situation that repeatedly threatens to spiral out of control is dramatized with the utmost assurance.
  94. Landfill Harmonic
    Whether founder and conductor Favio Chávez has found deep-pocketed donors or is involved in constant fundraising efforts, the film offers no clue. But it leaves no doubt that Chávez’s visionary cause is one to celebrate.
  95. Tanna
    Most surprising are the involving performances of all concerned, but especially the pair playing the young lovers, actors with finely expressive eyes and faces.
  96. The Lovers and the Despot
    A beyond belief documentary.
  97. Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?
    The movie tries to wrap an important social message in comedy, but it’s unpalatable all the way through.
  98. Goat
    It might have set out to convey the disturbingly sadistic nature of institutional brotherhood, but it’s the familial variety with which “Goat” explores something ultimately more compelling.
  99. My Blind Brother
    Humor here, whether situational or emotionally-based, proves a smart balance of grounded and loopy.
  100. I.T.
    Ultimately, there’s just nothing here that’s snappy or relevant. In tech-speak, this film is bricked.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »