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. Top Five
    If there’s a surprise to Top Five, it’s the emotional undercurrent that Rock writes and Dawson brings out. What lingers hours later aren’t just the laughs but the people.
  2. 4th Man Out
    Fourth Man Out is a coming-out tale with well-worn themes, but its blue-collar spin and appealing cast give it a charm that’s hard to resist.
  3. Bhutto
    Baughman and O'Hara's documentary spews out so much information in just 111 minutes that the movie would have benefited from a longer run time and tighter focus.
  4. Plane
    We’ve gotten too used to action as mere spectacle, explosions on a video screen. Plane takes time — not a lot of time, but just enough — to make this a story about people.
  5. A Better Life
    A Better Life isn't an instant classic, but it tells its story with a simplicity and compassion that other urban dramas would be wise to emulate.
  6. Why We Fight
    A somber polemic that presents a convincing case against using war as an economic booster -- although, Jarecki argues, that is precisely what the United States has been doing under every president since Truman.
  7. Denial
    Weisz’s conviction, passion and galvanizing outrage drive Denial. For a Jewish academic, this was no intellectual exercise, and Weisz lets us see it. Between the frames, Weisz likewise assures us that Denial is no routine movie for a Jewish actress.
  8. I'm Going Home
    A famous French actor using his art to work through the loss of his wife and daughter in a car accident. The strategy works, at least for a while.
  9. Sweet Sixteen
    Martin Compston, the young man-child of Sweet Sixteen, had never acted before, but his combination of sweetness and rage -- part puppy, part pit bull -- gives Sweet Sixteen a shot of reality and a big, aching heart.
  10. The Book of Life
    There are no great surprises, no shocking reveals (except to the characters themselves). But there’s so much to appreciate along the way that it’s a real page-turner.
  11. Janis: Little Girl Blue
    The documentary “Amy” left viewers feeling a little shame, as if the audience and society was an accessory in Winehouse’s death. Janis: Little Girl Blue is a more clinical treatment, with more complicated messages.
  12. Transformers
    Even more ridiculous than it sounds.
  13. Downton Abbey: A New Era
    The acting is splendid. Fellowes’ dialogue may not be subtle, but the actors are so familiar and at home in these roles that they make up for whatever is lacking.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Meeting Resistance
    Worth the effort.
  15. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?
    Not so much a documentary as a rambling interview, almost all done in animation.
  16. Resurrection
    With Margaret threatening to lose it at any moment, “Resurrection” is #MeToo horror at its cringiest.
  17. The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John
    Surprisingly robust.
  18. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
    In this new Conjuring, every scene of demonic possession, every demonic hallucination, and every underworld visit and visitation land with unsettling impact. These are, in a sense, action scenes, and they’re creepy, chilling and very well done.
  19. Chasing Liberty
    What's immediately apparent -- and refreshing -- about Chasing Liberty is that it doesn't play cute with its premise.
  20. The Territory
    The filmmaker’s default setting is to tell each person’s story with dignity, a significant achievement that goes a long way.
  21. The Day After Tomorrow
    The spectacle, which is colossal and at times staggering to behold, begins within two minutes of the fade-in and keeps coming until the finish. I thought I'd seen it all. I hadn't.
  22. Green Room
    The cinematography and direction are particularly compelling; the complicated sequences on the tight sets must have forced camera operators to play cinematic Twister in impossibly small corners.
  23. The Strange Case of Angelica
    A captivating mix of formality, ambiguity and offbeat humor. On the surface a simple fable, it's actually much more.
  24. Travelers and Magicians
    Visually accomplished and loads of fun.
  25. Sex and Zen
    An unabashed soft- core sex marathon, much of it played for laughs, Sex and Zen could catch on as a voyeur's delight -- an Asian spin on the jiggle- and-hump comedies of sex-satirist Russ Meyer (''Beyond the Valley of the Dolls'').
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  26. The 13th Warrior
    It falls short where it counts: In the final confrontation.
  27. Straight Outta Compton
    Now in middle age, members of N.W.A. no longer believe all of the hype. They’re in an introspective space, to the great benefit of this film.
  28. The Woman Chaser
    A teasy, cogent and funny noir spoof of dime novels and 1960s Hollywood.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Money Shot: The Pornhub Story
    “Money Shot” is not for the squeamish. You can’t be the type to blush from late-stage capitalism or the daily life of an angelic webcam star who hangs her sex toys on a shoe rack and buys lube by the gallon.
  30. The Florida Project
    The results in an experience that is smooth sailing for the first 45 minutes, but then hits a slog that goes on for another 40, before the movie revives again in its last half hour. Obviously, a film can’t be great if you spend 40 minutes wishing the thing would end already. A 95 minutes, The Florida Project could have been a masterpiece.
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