Los Angeles Times' Scores

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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
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  1. Echo Park
    Mastretta does beautifully realize the fluidity and messiness of coupling.
  2. The Adderall Diaries
    The Adderall Diaries is a complex, absorbing, at times profound look at how we choose to remember our past. Wh
  3. Green Room
    While thrashing chords score this gutbucket nightmare, Saulnier's way with overwhelmed characters, pressing evil and dangerous escape mechanics is practically symphonic.
  4. Criminal
    Half science-fiction tale, half espionage thriller, it's a pleasantly far-fetched endeavor that moves along so briskly that it leaves no time to consider its implausibilities, which are many.
  5. The Jungle Book
    By turns sweetly amusing and surprisingly unnerving, crammed with story, song and computer-generated visual splendors, it's such a model of modern crowd-pleasing entertainment that it brings to mind a celebrated quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald about filmmakers who were "able to keep the whole equation of pictures in their heads."
  6. Sweet Bean
    Its sentimentality is tempered by the elegant restraint of the fine lead performances.
  7. Fireworks Wednesday (2006)
    What pulls us into Fireworks Wednesday is the universality of the emotions its characters display and the familiarity of the situations they find themselves in. Farhadi is a master navigator of these waters, and even his earlier films reward our close attention.
  8. Casa Grande
    Barbosa skillfully skewers the presumptions of rich folks who presume they deserve all that they've gotten, even as they're squandering it.
  9. Sunday Ball
    Even viewers who know nothing about soccer can enjoy how Rocha captures the beauty of a communal event through editing and shot selection alone.
  10. Look at Us Now, Mother!
    "Mother" is definitely worth a look as an involving exercise in parental indiscretion, unexamined and over-examined lives, and a nostalgic look at East Coast Jewish culture.
  11. Daddy
    Daddy is the strained, at times cringe-worthy film adaptation of Dan Via's stage play, which ran off-Broadway in 2010 and the next year in Los Angeles. Based on the show's largely good reviews, something was clearly lost in translation.
  12. Sold
    It's unfortunate that Brown and company were unable to bring stronger narrative and filmmaking skills to this vital subject.
  13. A Space Program
    A Space Program may find cheeky humor in our quest for meaningful science. But it certainly hints that there's something worshipful in the details.
  14. The Invitation
    Kusama reveals and conceals the geography of the house, parceling out just enough information to understand its logic, while leaving certain dim recesses mysterious.
  15. Mad Tiger
    Directors Jonathan Yi and Michael Haertlein put the focus on the standard reality-TV repertoire like "Making the Band." Their repeated disregard for Hioki's pleas to go off the record smacks of opportunism and exploitation rather than revelation.
  16. Darling
    By the umpteenth disruptive shock-cut and patiently framed shot of Carter staring us down, Darling has worn out its welcome even as a mood piece.
  17. Hard Labor
    At its best, the film has the quality of a nightmare, one that keeps happening whether the characters are asleep or awake.
  18. Louder Than Bombs
    Beneath the well-worn dysfunctional-family setup are bracing observations of the human coping mechanism. Startling expressions of longing and denial go off like detonations within the quietest of exchanges.
  19. The Boss
    The movie isn't fantastical enough to sustain itself outside the bounds of reality, yet every time something real creeps in, the movie stumbles and cowers.
  20. High Strung
    In the end, you'll either succumb to the silliness of it all and cheer Johnny B. on to his green card or, more likely, be in desperate need of your own exit visa.
  21. Catching the Sun
    Shalini Kantayya's debut documentary feature never stays in any one place long enough to make a sufficient impact.
  22. Mr. Right
    It feels at once overwritten and thematically thin, coasting on a cutesy concept before descending into relentless, and therefore meaningless, violence.
  23. Temps
    Rosenmeyer and Shaw have an easy charm and chemistry together, but the been-there, done-that material doesn't match their talents.
  24. The Phoenix Incident
    Though the craft is exceptional, there are some storytelling missteps.
  25. One More Time
    Many fine small moments pepper the family dramedy One More Time, but they don't add up to a satisfying enough whole.
  26. Hardcore Henry
    Hardcore Henry is a single-gear novelty that never achieves real liftoff.
  27. Demolition
    Demolition is a well-meaning misfire, terribly earnest but unconvincing for all of that.
  28. Havana Motor Club
    The shared love of the movie's featured racers for their long-rebellious sport makes for a unifying energy, but their individual experiences — and different attitudes toward the future — provide an underlying complexity.
  29. Chongqing Hot Pot
    The twisty plot mostly comes together via flashbacks, following an opening armed robbery. Too often though, Yang opts for brute force over brains, defaulting to violent fights that don't quite fit with the film's overall lightness.
  30. Cloro
    If we have to work a little harder to invest in Cloro's transporting story, so be it. For serious filmgoers, it will be worth it.
  31. Stealing Cars
    While we may have been locked up with these characters before...Cohen's unwavering commitment nevertheless commands attention.
  32. Standing Tall
    If director Emmanuelle Bercot's feature isn't always dramatically satisfying, it is fueled by the fine, flinty chemistry of Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel and newcomer Rod Paradot.
  33. Natural Born Pranksters
    It’s appropriate that the Natural Born Pranksters take their name from the film “Natural Born Killers,” because this group of YouTube stars just murdered prank-based humor. RIP pranks.
  34. Mexico's Bravest Man
    Minn's homegrown filmmaking style creates an absorbing intimacy and urgency. But placing Leyzaola's story within a broader national, even international context may have helped further illuminate Mexico's complex, at times contradictory system of crime and punishment.
  35. Transfixed
    A sensitively wrought profile in courage, hope and self-respect that's truly transfixing.
  36. Someone Else
    Those taking in Someone Else, an unconvincing, nonlinear drama about a pair of dramatically different Korean American cousins who are attracted to the same woman, will soon likely be wishing they had chosen to watch something else.
  37. Kill Me, Deadly
    There's lots of throwback fun to be had from Kill Me, Deadly, a lovingly mounted and performed film noir spoof that evokes "The Big Sleep" by way of "The Naked Gun" and "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid."
  38. They Will Have to Kill Us First
    They Will Have to Kill Us First doesn't offer much of a primer on Mali's political or cultural histories — which is the movie's biggest weakness. But Schwartz did capture some remarkable footage of musicians who've spent the last few years taking tentative steps to reclaim what makes their nation special.
  39. Baskin
    Baskin won't be for everybody, but it's well made and imaginatively upsetting.
  40. The Dark Horse
    If its wobbliness doesn't always serve its commanding central performance, the movie does mark a sensitive, low-key approach to outsiders of any kind, one that legitimizes their struggle without selling them as ready-made saints.
  41. The Girl in the Photographs
    There isn't enough mystery and ambiguity around the murders to create a sense of fear or dread, yet there's something rather effectively creepy and compelling, with its retro thrills and chills
  42. Notfilm
    For all its gifted collaborators, "Film" was not a match made in heaven. But for moviegoers who care about film not just as a title, Notfilm can be unreservedly recommended.
  43. Kill Your Friends
    The movie — glibly admiring of its hero's awfulness — is tone-deaf about genuine satire, assuming anything ugly (insults, nihilism, bloody violence) qualifies as sharp cultural commentary as long as the unceasingly venal, knowing narration explains it all for us.
  44. Rescue Dogs
    There just aren't enough rescue dogs in the world to save "Rescue Dogs," a shrill, yappy live-action comedy that proves considerably more annoying than adorable.
  45. Pandemic
    Pandemic proves serviceably frightening, if sporadically gory, maximizing tension derived from unknown dangers lurking in dark corridors and behind closed doors.
  46. April and the Extraordinary World
    This is one grand adventure, and, animated or not, those are always welcome.
  47. Miles Ahead
    The sophistication gap between the character Cheadle has created and the film that contains him is so great it begins to feel like you're watching two different stories that have been unaccountably spliced together.
  48. Everybody Wants Some!!
    The ostensible college comedy Everybody Wants Some!! is like a stream that looks shallow but once you're in the middle of it reveals an unforeseen depth.
  49. Valley of Love
    It's illuminating to see Huppert and Depardieu in a different mode, and Huppert brings a delicate physical and emotional fragility to her role. These two are fantastic, and they're fantastic together.
  50. Born to be Blue
    By reducing Baker's story to just a couple of pivotal years, Budreau makes every moment matter, including a tense final scene that treats the preparation for a performance like a duel at high noon. Like Baker himself, Born to Be Blue finds drama in minimalism.
  51. Take Me to the River
    Take Me to the River reaches its end sadder and wiser if not satisfactorily complete as a psychodrama. But Sobel thrives on the unevenness, and it gives his admirably off-putting wade into fractured-family waters its own specialized charge.
  52. No Letting Go
    No Letting Go has all the subtlety of an after-school special, and the performances feel like they're from a public service announcement about mental illness.
  53. Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
    In the new documentary Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato do an ultra-fine job tracing a born provocateur's commitment to his calling.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mountains May Depart
    Sequences in which Tao helps an ill friend and deals with the death of a parent are as finely staged and acted, as sorrowful and transcendent, as anything ever to grace the screen.
  55. Lolo
    This strained, often crass comedy traffics in broadness and inconsistency far more than anything smart, clever or dimensional. That might be more forgivable if the film was at least funny. It's not.
  56. They're Watching
    The movie doesn't do justice to a promising premise. A scarcity of laughs and scares limits this property's curb appeal.
  57. I Saw the Light
    I Saw the Light is solid but not spectacular, a retelling of a sad story that never catches fire.
  58. Jane Wants a Boyfriend
    "Jane's" affecting emotional core and cathartic conclusion carry the day.
  59. Get a Job
    The payoff is sporadically rewarding at best.
  60. Fastball
    You don't have to be a baseball fanatic or for that matter a historian or a physicist to appreciate Fastball.
  61. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
    The sequel is a little like a bear hug from a beloved old relative — the embrace is too tight, the perfume is too strong, but ultimately it still leaves you feeling good inside.
  62. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
    The director, a strong technician whose slam-bang emphatic, occasionally operatic style seems made for comic book adaptations, has been well-served by an adept script co-written by Chris Terrio (an Oscar winner for Ben Affleck's "Argo") and David S. Goyer, which raises a number of interesting issues.
  63. Thank You for Playing
    Make no mistake: This film is a tear-jerker, taking an intimate look at one family's heartbreak and how their art moves people.
  64. Too Late
    Hauck, with a strong assist from Bill Fernandez's clever, well-modulated Techniscope lensing, impressively choreographs the movie's continuous takes with a nice balance of intimacy and breadth. Hauck's a talent to watch.
  65. All the Time In The World
    Although their extreme staycation is obviously not everybody's idea of a swell time, the bracingly gorgeous images and meditative serenity still offer a vicarious respite from all those urgent headlines and deadlines — no bear spray required.
  66. The Dog Wedding
    The Dog Wedding is rather a minor effort, and the amateurish acting of the supporting cast and stilted energy are hard to forgive.
  67. Burning Bodhi
    The cinematography, by David J. Myrick, is lovely and luminous, but the story itself lacks insight or deep emotion.
  68. Remember
    While its flaws are considerable, the Holocaust-themed thriller Remember benefits mightily from a quietly commanding Christopher Plummer performance that almost makes you forget the wonky plot logic.
  69. The Preppie Connection
    While the film is well-acted and appealingly slick, the end result lacks novelty.
  70. Ktown Cowboys
    The film persistently misses the mark as a raunchy comedy amid all the side commentaries and Park's earnest tone. Yet it's equally clumsy at making sense of its portrayals of the indignities that Asian Americans routinely endure.
  71. Krisha
    The fertility of Shults' image-making and storytelling skills is almost breathtaking, and much of Krisha draws on the subconscious power of his direction in tandem with Krisha Fairchild's mesmerizing turn.
  72. The Confirmation
    Feature films these days rarely come as gentle and equitable as The Confirmation. It's a sweet, decidedly low-key little picture starring a deftly understated Clive Owen.
  73. The Clan
    Francella and Lanzani are excellent, not only in their charged moments together, but throughout this nervy and provocative picture.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Program
    The Program pedals fast, but the end result is little more than a psychologically shallow recap reel.
  75. My Golden Days
    Film has always been especially effective it portraying what it can feel like, what it can mean to be in love, and My Golden Days is right up there with the best of them.
  76. The Bronze
    The protagonist's unlikable routine is too high a degree of difficulty to execute flawlessly.
  77. Midnight Special
    Midnight Special announces the arrival of a filmmaker in total control of his technique as well as our emotions. A bravura science-fiction thriller that explores emotional areas like parenthood and the nature of belief, it's a riveting genre exercise as well as something more.
  78. Pee-wee's Big Holiday
    Despite a few delights — chiefly an adorably self-aware Joe Manganiello as the object of Pee-wee's man-crush — the new movie has an unsure tone and the barest thread of a story.
  79. The Divergent Series: Allegiant
    Because the series' plot reveal turns out to be more confusing than compelling, and because turning a novel into two films invariably leads to inflated productions, only the most devoted fans of the book will pledge allegiance to what's on the screen.
  80. Bleak Street
    The grubby melodrama should appeal to adventurous moviegoers — and to the director’s small-but-fervent cult — but even that crowd should brace themselves for something slow-paced and opaque.
  81. The Perfect Match
    The facade the film offers is a lovely, and mildly diverting one, but there’s little insight to be found below the surface.
  82. About Scout
    About Scout is a fantasy of escape rooted in the harshly lit realities of life.
  83. The Young Messiah
    In the end, as with too many Gospel-derived dramas, The Young Messiah could’ve used less literalism, and more mystery.
  84. Road Games
    Though built to divert, Road Games mostly feels untethered to any memorably crafty storytelling.
  85. Creative Control
    Creative Control is funny and imaginative, where many films of this type are dispiritingly plain.
  86. Barney Thomson
    Despite the fertile concept, it's hard to care about, much less root for, the irritable, charisma-challenged Barney. The character never emerges as an effective hero or antihero, and performer Carlyle does little to mitigate that.
  87. The Automatic Hate
    A compelling bit of family drama that packs a corrosive punch.
  88. Everything Is Copy
    It's a fitting tribute to the influential journalist-essayist-filmmaker: insightful about the life of a successful writer, engaging about how a smart modern woman navigated the world, but also quizzical about how Ephron was as a daughter, sister, wife and mother.
  89. Cemetery of Splendor
    Each scene, beneath its surface calm, throbs with longing, dislocation and intricately woven layers of time.
  90. Rise of the Legend
    Those looking to learn more about Wong are in the wrong place. Those looking for a slick slugfest with memorable characters will be well satisfied.
  91. Marguerite
    As written and directed by Xavier Giannoli, Marguerite is a thoughtful examination of an unusual, deeply eccentric woman.
  92. Hyena Road
    While the attempt at a certain, documentary-style naturalism is honorable, it's at the expense of focused plotting and sufficient character development.
  93. Hello, My Name Is Doris
    Field amazes with her gameness, range and commitment.
  94. Backgammon
    The film's musings on artists and muses tries to be deep but gets bogged down in tiresome booze-soaked mind games.
  95. Admiral
    With loving shots of booming, towering ships so dominant, and decades squeezed into what feels like a week of action, there's barely enough time to develop De Ruyter as a character in his own movie, or even successfully explain his war strategies.
  96. The Brothers Grimsby
    It's not unfunny in spots, but it huffs and puffs (among other bodily functions) more often than it splits the sides.
  97. 10 Cloverfield Lane
    It is designed to be fun, efficient and accessible and delivers precisely and exactly on that and nothing more.
  98. Rabin, the Last Day
    An unusual work that mixes genres to at times awkward but always powerful effect.
  99. The Wave
    The Wave adds credible writing and effective acting to gangbusters special effects, resulting in a white-knuckle experience a bit higher on the plausibility scale than what we're used to from Hollywood versions of the genre.
  100. Marguerite & Julien
    The operatic tragedy of Marguerite and Julien's plight proves an effectively creepy dramatic engine.
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