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. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
    Instead of getting smirky and campy and blowing out the joke in the first few scenes, Grahame-Smith and director Timur Bekmambetov straight-face it. They ask themselves, well, what would it be like if the main struggle of Lincoln's life were with vampires intent on taking over the new world? And they answer the question as realistically and soberly as they can within this loony framework.
  2. Life Itself
    It's fascinating stuff, but secondary to Ebert's genuine passion for the movies, which, if anything, grew toward the end of his life. He saw film as a great civilizing force, "a machine that generates empathy," as he says in the film. If that idea appeals to you, see Life Itself.
  3. Fatman
    In the humor department, Fatman’s is a scattershot but often clever affair thanks to the film’s director brothers, Ian and Eshom Nelms. Their last feature, the eccentric desert noir “Small Town Crime,” worked positive human connections into a dark, violent framework, so that seems to be a theme dear to the Tulare County-raised siblings.
  4. The Motel
    Pleasant and surprisingly hard-edged coming-of-age indie film.
  5. Wild Mountain Thyme
    The gentle spirit of Wild Mountain Thyme envelops us early, to the extent that, midway through, even though there is very little left to resolve, we are in its spell.
  6. This Christmas
    It's warm, witty and alive, with a fantastic cast and a belief in its characters that transcends its formulaic tendencies.
  7. Get Out
    Get Out reveals an underlying unease. It diffuses tension, even as it points to its source. It may be somewhat rough and unrefined and even ill-considered in some of its particulars. Yet it may stand as a kind of pop culture document of this historical moment, a moment that’s not nearly as funny as this movie.
  8. Black Swan
    It's excessive and psychologically imprecise, coarse where it should be refined and too much like a David Cronenberg horror movie in places where restraint and intellectual rigor are called for.
  9. Julie & Julia
    Few movies are as delightful as Julie & Julia.
  10. Clown in a Cornfield
    Clown in a Cornfield will never be ranked among the classics of our time, but there are aspects of it that are worthy of admiration.
  11. 7 Boxes
    The movie has lots of ironic humor, especially in the earlier segments, and laughter doesn't disappear entirely when the thriller element kicks in.
  12. RBG
    Ginsburg herself is determined to last. Several scenes show her working out with a trainer. Her goal is to live long enough for a Democratic president to appoint her successor.
  13. Western
    Director Manuel Poirier (Antonio's Girlfriend) is easygoing in the way he uses Paco and Nino to poke through veneers of machismo.
  14. Slacker
    If they weren't so funny and real, and if Linklater hadn't done such a good job in writing their dialogue and casting them, their lack of ambition might seem depressing, and the movie might come off as some smug hymn to negativity. [9 Aug. 1991, p.F3]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  15. Infinity Pool
    Infinity Pool is a twisted, visually intriguing and at times unhinged movie designed — elegantly so — to make you squirm (for maximum impact, skip seeing the spoiler-filled trailer).
  16. The End of the Tour
    Wallace’s 2008 suicide informs the film and Jason Segel’s performance. What Wallace wants to say, tries to say but can’t quite say is that, having reached the summit of success, he sees an even bigger mountain in front of him. His anxiety about holding it together in the face of newfound celebrity is no affectation. He’s frightened of it and probably has good reason to be.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Yves Saint Laurent
    Ultimately, the story of Yves Saint Laurent makes a compelling argument for fashion as art, and begs to answer the question if there is such a thing as innate taste. And although the cadence might not be entirely original, the high-style results most certainly are.
  18. Philadelphia
    Forgiving its moments of melodrama, Philadelphia makes emotional power punches out of every smile, embrace and tear in its story of a regular guy contracting AIDS and getting booted out of the law firm that once lifted him to glory. [14 Jan 1994, p.C1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  19. Goya's Ghosts
    An oddly structured tale about Francisco Goya and the Spain that he lived and worked in.
  20. The Same River Twice
    Intimate, quietly illuminating documentary.
  21. Wendy and Lucy
    A film that might have seemed faintly academic six months ago becomes an anxious expression of its historical moment.
  22. Welcome to the Rileys
    There are many things to admire about this movie, but the main one is that it doesn't compromise.
  23. The Way Back
    As Russell Boyd's remarkable cinematography emphasizes the dwarfing grandeur of the surrounding topography, Weir shows how the corresponding smallness of individuals is compensated for by the grandeur of their aspiration.
  24. Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary
    Dying to Know: Ram Dass and Timothy Leary is a love story, but not in a physical sense; instead, the love here thrives in the spiritual realm, an intimacy that makes this biographical documentary quite appealing.
  25. Jetsons: The Movie
    Cute and clever, but hardly an inspiration in animated film making. [6 July 1990, p.E1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  26. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
    Sweet and serious as it is, the second chunk of Seeking a Friend is the lesser of the two - and hard to reconcile with the more acidic comic outlook in the film's first half. The obvious movie referent is Lars von Trier's "Melancholia," a much nastier film in a much lovelier wrapping: This one lacks an eight-minute Wagner montage.
  27. Listen to Me Marlon
    The actor suffered deeply, and however much he’s responsible for that, it’s hard not to feel some compassion for a bright and sensitive artist who, at least early on, seemed full of life.
  28. Merry Christmas
    It takes an extraordinary film on the order of Joyeux Noel to make it all suddenly vital, immediate and human.
  29. Letters from Iwo Jima
    Far superior to its companion piece, "Flags of Our Fathers," released earlier this year, "Letters" is a grim and humane film that has to be counted among the director's better efforts.
  30. Indian Summer
    A lovely though stubbornly shallow romp in nostalgia mixed with contemporary adult angst. [23 Apr 1993, p.C7]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
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