Portland Oregonian's Scores

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For 3,654 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Caesar Must Die
Lowest review score: 0 Summer Catch
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,408 out of 3654
  2. Mixed: 966 out of 3654
  3. Negative: 280 out of 3654
3654 movie reviews
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  1. After Life
    After Life is a thoroughly original, wholly realized work that leaves a profound and nagging bug in your brain for days after you've seen it: What in your life is worth holding on to? What one thing would you wish never to forget? It's a question as relevant to the lives we live each day as it is to our final moments. [24 Sept 1999, p.26]
    • Portland Oregonian
  2. Her
    As the relationship between Theodore and Samantha evolves, it hews too closely to the expected arc of a romantic drama. In a desire to show how such a pairing could produce the same joys, sorrows, jealousies and insecurities as a human-to-human one, the movie edges close to parody, which it doesn't want to be.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    I Am Cuba
    A thrilling juxtaposition of bravura filmmaking and knee-jerk propaganda, this 1964 Soviet-Cuban coproduction is a rare successful combination of the aesthetic and the political. [19 Jan 1996, p.22]
    • Portland Oregonian
  4. The Triplets of Belleville
    It is a pure, streamlined delight, the advent of a talent with no exact equal in modern film.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    Sheer bliss for Monty Python freaks who either have never seen the anarchistic, absurdist and hilarious trials and tribulations of King Arthur and his knights depicted on the big screen or haven't for more than 20 years. From the Knights who say "Ni!" to the killer bunny, the picture stands the test of time. [17 Aug 2001]
    • Portland Oregonian
  6. Stories We Tell
    When a film like Stories We Tell comes along, you're reminded how powerful and universal even the most intimate and individual lives can be when captured with intelligence and perspective.
  7. Jafar Panahi's Taxi
    What's most endearing about "Taxi," as well as Panahi's earlier films made under repression, is the lack of righteous anger.
  8. Ida
    Just as austere and demanding as you'd expect a black-and-white film about a Polish nun to be. Don't let that scare you, though.
  9. Beau Travail
    It easily is the most beautiful picture released in America so far this year, perhaps one of the most beautiful films ever made.
    • Portland Oregonian
  10. Waltz with Bashir
    The film ends on an absolutely sick-making note, with live-action footage of the massacre and its aftermath.
  11. The Gatekeepers
    For a film that consists largely of a series of talking-head interviews, The Gatekeepers is a riveting a documentary.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Before Sunset
    Hawke is not a brilliant actor, but here he rises to the occasion: Every inch of him registers the weight of this moment.
  13. Saving Private Ryan
    One of the best films ever made in this country, filled with our proudest national virtues, cognizant of our deeply rooted human weaknesses and frighteningly able to evoke emotions.
  14. Mad Max: Fury Road
    Mad Max: Fury Road sets new standards in old-school stunt work and car chases and does it in service of an idea-driven story with a beating heart and an action star for our troubled times in Charlize Theron.
  15. Winter's Bone
    With a level-gazed approach to its milieu, empathetic but clear-eyed, Winter's Bone practically makes up for 40 years of "Deliverance"-style hillbilly cartoons.
  16. The Queen
    The Queen is all-together remarkable not only for what it is but for what it isn't.
  17. Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
    An unrelenting and important exposé of a system that, as depicted here, has no place in the modern world.
  18. Bloody Sunday
    It's raw, visceral stuff that precious few movies are capable of equaling.
  19. Blue Is the Warmest Color
    Exarchopoulos and Seydoux give their characters dimension and spark. Kechiche touches on issues of not only gender, age and sexuality, but also socioeconomic class. And if the movie doesn't quite seem to know when to end, it's because the director can't bear to say goodbye to these fascinating, fully-formed characters.
  20. American Splendor
    Thoroughly unique work of art.
  21. Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
    A masterful treasure trove of hilarious gags and inventive moments. It's so good that a single viewing it might awaken you to the charm of snails, frogs legs and -- heaven help us -- Jerry Lewis. [14 Jul 1995, p.E01]
    • Portland Oregonian
  22. To Have and Have Not
    Here is another legendary case of actors following their characters' lead. [14 Feb 1997, p.36]
    • Portland Oregonian
  23. Topsy-Turvy
    It's as full a movie as you can imagine -- exhausting and exhilarating and continually fascinating.
  24. The Incredibles
    It's hilarious, thrilling and filled with "life-truth" -- but it also conceals its effort under a layer of great writing and subtle craftsmanship.
  25. A Prophet
    Long and sometimes grueling, but it never feels indulgent or excessive. In order to be subtle about the horrifying transformation he records, Audiard needs to let it unfold slowly, so that only when we reach the end can we see Malik as a new man who has come unimaginably -- and terribly -- far.
  26. Almost Famous
    One lucky guy, on a roll with rock.
    • Portland Oregonian
  27. High and Low
    High and Low is more than a crime melodrama; it's a philosophical drama as well. [23 Nov 1988, p.D06]
    • Portland Oregonian
  28. Once
    Music aside, what finally puts Once over and makes it a film you can watch more than once is its slight but thoroughly credible realism.
  29. Eyes Without a Face [re-release]
    Franju conjures images -- sometimes gory, sometimes poetic, sometimes fantastical -- that genuinely haunt: the essence of the cinema distilled.
  30. United 93
    I am here to tell you that Greengrass has fashioned one of the most powerful films I have ever seen, and that watching it makes you value your loved ones and your privileges more, perhaps, than you ever have. He has made a film that makes you feel, makes you think and makes you want to connect. And that, finally, might be the greatest thing that art can do.
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