San Francisco Chronicle's Scores

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For 9,317 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Mansfield Park
Lowest review score: 0 Speed 2: Cruise Control
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5,172 out of 9317
  2. Mixed: 2,659 out of 9317
  3. Negative: 1,486 out of 9317
9317 movie reviews
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  1. Fast X
    If you love the “Fast & Furious” franchise, you will like Fast X. If you merely like the series, the new movie will leave you indifferent. And if you’ve never seen a “Fast & Furious” movie, Fast X is not the place to start. It’s a middling installment, a big step down from the stupid-wonderful “F9: The Fast Saga,” but with just enough of the crazy stunts and chases that you can’t find anywhere else.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Air Guitar Nation
    In this pitch-perfect documentary about the very real rise of air guitar competition in the United States, and two of its top performers, stony thoughts will arise as to whether one is suddenly trapped inside a satire that got wrapped in a reality. Or vice versa, man.
  3. Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
    Yet as ridiculous as Hefner's life sometimes seems, he has been an exemplary citizen, as this documentary by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Brigitte Berman spells out.
  4. Under the Same Moon (La misma luna)
    Although based on a fictional story, it has the feel of truth and is a vivid reminder of the hell Mexicans put themselves through to live in the United States, even illegally.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The First Saturday in May
    A look at lives and hopes that are part of our American culture.
  6. Duplex
    Stays funny despite rickety gags because Ben Stiller and 81-year-old Eileen Essel are old pros at playing it straight.
  7. The Express
    Deserves plenty of credit for exploring racial issues story in more realistic terms.
  8. The Trigger Effect
    A sleek, intelligent thriller.
  9. Life Stinks
    Life Stinks will never stand with the classics -- it's basically a diversion -- but its plea for economic equality is well taken. And Brooks, after years of lousy movies, finally seems back on sure footing. [27 July 1991, p.C3]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  10. The Baxter
    The Baxter is just an OK movie, but Showalter's performance is the gem to take from it.
  11. What to Do in Case of Fire
    Enthralling, entertaining feature.
  12. Charlotte Gray
    Cate Blanchett has the title role, and she does wonders with it, bringing a degree of passion but also suggesting something essentially unevolved in Charlotte's character.
  13. Cloud Atlas
    Despite some weaknesses, a sense gradually emerges in this film- not just an idea, but a strong feeling mixed with an idea - about the dance of good and evil over time.
  14. Lebanon
    As good as the film is in conveying the feeling of the walls closing in, it has to be said that the script won't win any prizes for subtlety - the director seems to relish ham-fisted ironies.
  15. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
    The emphasis here is less on cuteness and romance and more on the "Raiders of the Lost Ark"-style adventure.
  16. Going in Style
    Like its lead characters, Going in Style just grooves along nicely, until the credits roll and you realize it was time well spent.
  17. Single White Female
    Even at its silliest, it's a better picture than most, with surprises and inventive turns and performances that remain strong throughout. [14 Aug 1992, p.C1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  18. Toy Story 4
    Toy Story 4 is genuinely gripping for most of the way, with just a couple of minor dips. But it arrives at a lovely place, with an embrace of life in all its danger and uncertainty.
  19. Arlington Road
    Although it takes something of a slog to get there, this thriller finally comes through where it counts.
  20. The Squid and the Whale
    An entertaining and perceptive film with one big problem.
  21. First Descent
    Succeeds as both education and amusement.
  22. American Ultra
    The screenplay is deceptively tight, even as the main characters seem to be buzzing aimlessly through the proceedings. Like the most successful films of the drug-hazed genre, this movie only appears to be going off the rails.
  23. The Scent of Green Papaya
    Delicately flavored as much by the inherent appeal of its classic Cinderella-like story as by its pictorial beauty, The Scent of Green Papaya is a lovely experience in the dreamily exotic.
  24. Blackthorn
    Blackthorn imagines a scenario for Butch's later years and gives us a different kind of Western - somber, reflective and set in the elevated plains and salt flats of Bolivia.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lilting
    Lilting works because of the superb performances from its two leads, especially Whishaw, whose tortured gloom offers a striking contrast to the cool, unflappable “Q” role he presented in “Skyfall.”
  26. Nanking
    The stories are harrowing, and because they are delivered by living, breathing witnesses, they move us in deep ways that the archival footage, for all its horror, cannot.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bigger Stronger Faster*
    A smart, funny and edifying documentary.
  28. Addiction Incorporated
    The film's subject, a whistle-blowing research scientist who played a key role in the fight to regulate tobacco, deserves to be celebrated.
  29. Trapped
    Porter’s film is undeniably skewed to the pro-choice position, although she does interview antiabortion advocates as they protest.
  30. Next Stop Wonderland
    Both actors are so appealing, you root for the inevitable meeting to happen somewhere in the vicinity of Wonderland.
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