Slant Magazine's Scores

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For 7,772 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 33% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 64% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 59
Highest review score: 100 Mulholland Dr.
Lowest review score: 0 Jojo Rabbit
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,346 out of 7772
  2. Mixed: 1,493 out of 7772
  3. Negative: 1,933 out of 7772
7772 movie reviews
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  1. The Watermelon Woman
    It's a film of such multitudinous interests and storytelling pursuits that its unfolding replicates the ecstasy of newfound romance.
  2. Augustine
    Alice Winocour's take on this true story carries the superficial trappings of a period drama, but its perspective is entirely contemporary.
  3. Janis: Little Girl Blue
    It grounds us so effectively in Joplin's emotional realm as to partially rekindle the social transcendence that her voice must have represented for its owner.
  4. Frankenweenie
    Tim Burton's sense of playfulness feels forced throughout, and as the film progresses, any humor or inventiveness takes a backseat to tumultuous set pieces that reference Frankenstein.
  5. The Wise Kids
    Hovering over the narrative is the fear of the domino effect that change can enact, the dread that one person's "queerness" may perhaps expose everyone else's.
  6. Strawberry Mansion
    Strawberry Mansion playfully and delightfully draws parallels between the creative agency of dreams and the waking creativity of filmmaking.
  7. Woman of the Year
    Woman of the Year certainly has its other auxiliary charms: beautifully textured lighting by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg; a luminous, if limited, performance by Fay Bainter as Tess’s motherly aunt; and some enchanting simulations of soft winter snowfall. But it’s hard not to feel berated, in a time that’s seeing the resurgence of a pernicious nationalism, by both the film’s anti-feminist slant and its insistent compulsion to put a box around Americanism.
  8. Black God, White Devil
    By depicting revolutionary fiascos in a critical yet sympathetic light, Glauber Rocha calls on us to imagine what we’d want a revolution to look like, rather than having it spoon-fed to us by those claiming to represent a power beyond ourselves.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
    Right from its stylish and violently kinetic opening, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed establishes itself as one of the finest of the seven entries in Hammer’s Frankenstein cycle.
  10. Romería
    Carla Simón’s instinct for sketching in crucial narrative and character detail within a naturalistic context remains as unerring as ever.
  11. Southside with You
    The film may not announce itself as hagiography, but it’s hero-worshipful to its core.
  12. Bottoms
    The film’s unique blend of deadpan and absurdist humor, and its tendency to occasionally push the boundaries of good taste, shows that Emma Seligman is comfortable working on both ends of the comic spectrum.
  13. Wild
    Director Jean-Marc Vallée has created a film out of Cheryl Strayed's beloved 2012 memoir that never quite matches the blunt audacity of its simple title.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Beastie Boys Story
    Often feels like a cross between a TED talk and a memorial service, but one gets the sense that Diamond and Horovitz are finally getting years’ worth of grief off their chests. The cumulative effect is, at the very least, touching.
  15. Daaaaaalí!
    Quentin Dupieux melts the frames that separate dream, film, and reality until they become one plate of tangled spaghetti.
  16. On the Count of Three
    Jerrod Carmichael is a volatile director and an electric actor, but Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch’s screenplay routinely force the characters into formulaic, trivializing scenarios.
  17. Bombay Beach
    Rather than bringing out the symbolic inner lives of the characters, these sequences seem like the intrusion of an aggressive authorial personality on a film whose subject-as well as the fact of Har'el's outsider status-demands that the filmmaker simply sit back and observe.
  18. Gagarine
    The film is at its most effective and engaging when simply capturing the vibrancy of a world onto its own.
  19. Raya and the Last Dragon
    On its own gorgeously depicted terms, this film sticks the landing as a celebration of hope, a manifestation of what unfettered trust in our shared humanity could look like.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga
    The film becomes akin to variations on a theme, executed with visual finesse, and enhanced by its many rich textures.
  21. Scarlet
    The film drifts so far into weightless fantasy that it practically dissipates before one’s eyes.
  22. The Burial
    This flashy legal melodrama is fitfully stirring but too flabby to deliver the walloping blow that it needs.
  23. Porfirio
    Alejandro Landes's Porfirio is an ugly movie to watch, but it's not without purpose.
  24. Jawline
    The film is refreshing for its lack of pearl-clutching, its ambivalence in assessing what it’s like to be a commodity with a will and a nervous system.
  25. Polisse
    Polisse has been compared to "The Wire," but beyond a shared interest in the Sisyphean nature of police work, the two are mostly comparable as inverses of each other.
  26. Miracle Mile
    Miracle Mile is one of the most fascinating curios of the ’80s, a disaster movie that turns the decade’s optimism back onto itself.
  27. Smoking Causes Coughing
    Smoking Causes Coughing isn’t just an anti-superhero superhero film, but, thanks to Tristram Shandy-like levels of discursivity, something akin to an anti-film.
  28. Fake It So Real
    Fake It So Real has been made with considerable more polish than other do-it-yourself documentaries such as "Total Badass," but the sensibility is similar.
  29. Catherine Called Birdy
    In simplistic and self-congratulatory fashion, the film renders its main character as a sort of feminist crusader who undermines the sexist traditions of her time.
  30. Mary and The Witch's Flower
    This is a film about the adolescent pangs to belong that also mines its tale of magic and malevolence for an imaginative allegory about the excesses of scientific inquiry.
  31. The Measure of a Man
    It exhibits the spry subtlety of Jean and Luc Dardenne's films, and, consequently, it's possible that it will be similarly mistaken for a work of “naturalism.”
  32. Liv & Ingmar
    The documentary not only humanizes Ingmar Bergman as the absent lover-cum-father of everyday life, but works as a priceless oral history of cinema.
  33. Like Crazy
    Restless, at times even chaotic, the film often seems to be replicating the experience of having a manic episode.
  34. My Old Ass
    The world of My Old Ass retains a lived-in quality, in large part due to the shrewd, sensitive way in which it treats the emotional struggles of its teenage characters.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Where Are You Taking Me?
    The documentary revels in the simple joys of finding something that captures the eye and paying attention to it.
  36. The Cakemaker
    The film binds its narrative to fascinating explorations of national identity, sexuality, and, of course, food.
  37. Jackass Forever
    To see the old-timers pass the torch to their acolytes cements the improbable importance of Jackass in American pop culture.
  38. Computer Chess
    A movie which sits at the nexus between spoken and written language, the latter mostly of the programming variety.
  39. Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo
    Very few films accept the contradicting velocities of gay desire, and present them in such blunt yet graceful fashion, the way Paris 05:59 does.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Nostalghia
    Perhaps Tarkovsky’s most opaque film, Nostalghia is nonetheless one of his most personal.
  41. Gun Crazy
    Lewis, through sheer force of will, turns the script’s easy ways out into the essence of blunt, adolescent sexual flowering.
  42. Tomboy
    Tomboy is one of those little big films whose simplicity and concision suggest the excess of meaning that language (cinematic or otherwise) could never account for.
  43. Bones and All
    Both Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet are sadly at a disadvantage given how many of the older actors gnaw at the scenery like it’s a still-warm cadaver.
  44. Dune: Part One
    Dune ends up feeling like an extended prologue for what one can only hope will be a sequel that will clarify its parables and paradoxes.
  45. Welcome to Pine Hill
    Keith Miller doesn't always trust the fluency of his visual language, occasionally forcing a point that's already being captured.
  46. Cheatin'
    The plot is pure pulp, inspired in equal parts by the tropes and imagery of film noir, grand opera, and silent melodrama.
  47. The Invitation
    A charged, unnerving turn of the screw, The Invitation is consumed by the fear of forgetting.
  48. A Woman's Life
    The choice of low-grade, handheld digital images further reduces the film to the clichés of revisionist literary filmmaking.
  49. Roxanne Roxanne
    One presumes that Michael Lerner's sense of emphasis is meant to humanize Shanté, defining her apart from the fame she achieved, but this stratagem backfires as Roxanne Roxanne mires itself in scenes of speechifying domestic strife.
  50. They Shot the Piano Player
    Unlike, say, Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, which takes advantage of rotoscoping to lend a unique style to the animation depending on who’s talking and about what, They Shot the Piano Player aims for more stylistic continuity than one would expect, given the free-wheeling soundtrack.
  51. Every Little Thing
    Terry Masear’s experience as a victim of childhood abuse is succinctly and broadly addressed, underscoring a largely unspoken meta-narrative about the necessity of compassion and forgiveness.
  52. In the Shadow of Women
    Philippe Garrel's film uses its characters' stodgy, formal language to betray their self-consciousness.
  53. The Strangler (1970)
    This 1970 psychological thriller was Paul Vecchiali’s self-conscious attempt during the waning years of the Nouvelle Vague to take the movement’s genre-defying sensibilities in a new direction.
  54. The Oldest Person in the World
    Sam Green’s documentary has a knack for finding moments where we can feel the broad sweep of a supercentenarian lifespan, condensed down into a single, everyday occurrence.
  55. Rush
    Ron Howard's by-the-seat-of-your-pants aesthetic makes the slower, darker sequences feel hurried and bland, especially when stacked up next to the racing sequences.
  56. Smooth Talk
    Throughout, Joyce Chopra patiently and shrewdly observes the contradictions of human behavior that Laura Dern brilliantly conveys.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bully
    Leaves us moved by poignant scenes of victims' shattered lives, but, for reasons unclear, keeps the bullies themselves largely out of our reach.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Magnificent Seven
    The Magnificent Seven fights an uphill battle in matching the scope and thrills of its source material.
  59. Winnie the Pooh
    Pooh's moral triumph isn't all that weighty, but it's almost existentially profound to see the silly old bear forgo honey a little while longer because of someone else's needs.
  60. Armageddon Time
    The film is an illustration of the transition from the ethical pliancy of youth to the moral discernment of adulthood.
  61. Lovesong
    So Yong Kim's film ultimately manages a convincing articulation of friendship between women.
  62. 2nd Chance
    2nd Chance a terrific American tall tale as well as a cautionary tale and a ripping good yarn.
  63. Thelma
    Thelma's transition into a paranormal thriller doesn’t complicate its initially potent character study.
  64. Colette
    It's the film's concerted emphasis on Colette's ambivalent nature and desires that reveals her to be an artist just ahead of her time, fighting against, yet seduced by, her present.
  65. Little Sister
    The film's attempt at political insight and portrayal of social malaise are meant to give it the illusion of depth.
  66. The Workshop
    Matthieu Lucci deftly carries the weight of all the symptoms that The Workshop loads upon Antoine, a resonant character whose inscrutability is at once dangerous, sympathetic, and eerily apt.
  67. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a film that feels ripped right out of a high school art-class notebook, and sounds like a Twitch stream.
  68. Disobedience
    In the end, Disobedience is less about the subjugation of the self to the group than the courage to embrace uncertainty if one were to break out of the prison of a world one has been born into.
  69. My Big Night
    Álex de la Iglesia's film is an explosion of kitsch, an intensely formalized mixture of farce and tragedy.
  70. Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words
    It presents a captivating portrait of one of the era's greatest defenders of artistic freedom and a true American original.
  71. Love, Gilda
    Its success is due to the way it relies on Radner's often elegant words to relay her experience of female stardom.
  72. Hidden Figures
    The central characters' dogged refusal to cede their places on a team that keeps trying to reject them is a moving display of heroism.
  73. Sylvie's Love
    The film never finds the spark that would imbue the love affair at its center with a sense of passion or urgency.
  74. The Infiltrators
    The film is never more compelling than when relying on footage of the real radical DREAMer group the National Immigrant Youth Alliance.
  75. A Gray State
    Erik Nelson's film straddles a fine and admirable line between lurid sensationalism and sober humanism.
  76. Sand Storm
    Elite Zexer weaves an impressively terse narrative of distinctly motivated characters, but the film’s core remains somewhat shapeless due to the routine dramatization.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Panic in Needle Park
    Remembered mainly as the neophyte Pacino’s launching pad into Godfather stardom, the modestly scaled, harrowing Panic in Needle Park has over the decades proven to be nearly as influential as Coppola’s blockbuster, setting a cinematic template later used by Drugstore Cowboy, Requiem for a Dream, and a good deal of Sundance Channel fodder.
  78. The Line
    The film is most interesting when observing the subtler power dynamics at play within frats.
  79. A Couple
    A Couple ultimately constitutes not so much a footnote to Frederick Wiseman’s storied career as a beguiling little doodle in its margins.
  80. Higher Ground
    Lacking both spiritual and narrative spark, Vera Farmiga's directorial debut suffers from her flat performance and a moribund, weirdly sex-joke-spiked narrative.
  81. Eternal You
    The film approaches a new tech frontier with an objective, responsibly apprehensive, eye.
  82. I Used to Be Funny
    The nimble way that Rachel Sennott hops between the two versions of her character easily makes up for the odd narrative misstep that I Used to Be Funny makes along the way.
  83. Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself
    Its looseness adequately portrays Plimpton as an inwardly conflicted figure, but it fails to make much of a case for his legacy outside of The Paris Review's still-noticeable brand.
  84. Ain't Them Bodies Saints
    The film's highly calculated beauty suffocates rather than elevates the story's emotional underpinnings.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    The Trials of Muhammad Ali
    Bill Siegel has made more of a Ken Burns-esque history book--that is, a medium more dry and factual--than a film.
  86. Miss Hokusai
    It condenses everyday interactions, memories, and dreams into a potent mix of all the major ingredients of a well-lived life.
  87. In Darkness
    It's the rare film that should not introduce new story elements or characters past its first act. In Darkness, a garbage movie applying for unlimited credit on the most meager collateral, is that film.
  88. The Witches of the Orient
    The film’s fanciful archival montages shrewdly demonstrate the ways in which memory and art seamlessly combine to document reality.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Suburban Fury
    Robinson Devor is less interested in reconciling Sara Jane Moore’s contradictory allegiances than in exposing how they were formed.
  90. Daughter of Mine
    Unlike My Life in Pink, Daughter of Mine sidesteps all ambiguity, as the film reveals everything about its characters straight away, leaving little room for unexpected complexities about their predicaments to develop.
  91. Ballet 422
    Jody Lee Lipes shapes the footage into an intimate symphony of poetically shaped bodies that contrast poignantly with uncertain faces.
  92. After Tiller
    It gives a true sense of how the forces of a hypocritically religious country has burdened countless young women with a lifetime of misplaced guilt.
  93. Lost in Paris
    Lost in Paris abounds in whimsy that, for the most part, isn't irritatingly precious—a feat that's harder to pull off than it appears.
  94. Sully
    It presses the case that the complexity of the human condition distracts us from the pure dignity of a noble act.
  95. Dressed to Kill
    The pleasures of Dressed to Kill flat out do not translate to print, but for what it’s worth it is the most perfectly-directed film ever, provided you, like me, bust into orgasmic laughter when De Palma’s double-shuffling editing makes it seem like the only threat Nancy Allen and a wooden cop can see boarding the subway is a 250-pound bag lady.
  96. Into the Abyss
    Underlying the occasionally harrowing, consistently mournful tone is a philosophy that, more than being explicitly anti-capital punishment, puts both family ties and the social contract at the center of people's self-worth.
  97. Interstellar
    Much like his hero, Christopher Nolan's goal seems to be to take the humor and wildness out of imagination, to see invention in rigidly practical and scientific terms.
  98. Harry Benson: Shoot First
    While it offers ample opportunity to admire Benson's body of work, it provides few aesthetic delights of its own.
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