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. Cake
    The film is a study of grief that drowns in a cold bath of grim self-pity.
  2. The Instigators
    Like a well-executed heist, the film knows how to get in and get out with minimal fuss.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Exorcist III
    Few people love William Friedkin, John Boorman, and Paul Schrader as much as I do, but in my book, of the six or so films that have tried to turn that tortured title into a continuing franchise, Blatty’s The Exorcist III is the best, hands down.
  4. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
    Of course, when the action gets underway, Bay unleashes that flashy id of his, and all of his flaws as a titan of blockbuster filmmaking come to the fore.
  5. The Judge
    One long trial of moral duty, and one that excuses repugnant behavior and psychological warfare in lieu of a repetitive, condescending sermon on honoring thy father.
  6. Ardor
    It broods along as if it's expressing something monumentally important with each slow-as-molasses camera move.
  7. Goon: Last of the Enforcers
    Jay Baruchel's Goon: Last of the Enforcers faces an uphill climb that's inherent to retreads, as it's almost impossible for the film to honor its predecessor without lapsing into contrived and preordained formula.
  8. The Predator
    Even an act of noble sacrifice late in the film has a faintly goofy tone to it, reflective of Shane Black's streak of puckish nihilism. That attitude makes him a perfect fit for this franchise, which lost its thematic viciousness after the anti-imperialist original.
  9. Ride
    Throughout, Helen Hunt obsequiously tends to her character's evolution as a parent through a flagrant indulgence of sitcom-ish scenarios.
  10. We the Party
    While We the Party can be insensitive, or blind, to the misogyny and homophobia of the general culture (the token gay teen is a finger-snapping, head-bobbing fashionista), it takes the issues of race and class quite seriously.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Decoding Deepak
    Unlike his father, Gotham Chopra is more interested in his own latent daddy issues than with questions of cosmic import.
  12. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
    Wither the rollicking verve and whip-crack humor in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows?
  13. Made in America
    What could have been a spirited dissection of Jay-Z's optimistic enterprise is instead merely an advertisement for it.
  14. Eaten Alive
    With an enviable, well-stocked cast of character thespians and a carefully dilapidated motel set, Eaten Alive is all ingredients, no recipe.
  15. Six Minutes to Midnight
    Andy Goddard’s film clumsily superimposes a frenzied, completely fictional spy adventure onto a fascinating fragment of pre-war history.
  16. Autoerotic
    Autoerotic's take on the me-me-me generation's inability for actual contact seems appropriate, but it lacks the nuance that makes "Denise Calls Up" so delicious to watch.
  17. October Gale
    The film begins as a moodily introspective drama about grief before implausibly morphing into a stale thriller.
  18. Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes)
    What the film embodies, unfortunately, the listlessness of its slacker characters.
  19. TRON: Ares
    For a story that seeks to champion the unpredictability and finite quality of life, Ares ultimately feels trapped by the inertia of working within the parameters set by its no less flimsy predecessors.
  20. Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
    The film is as emotionally manipulative as the show, but it's never appeared more truthful in its aspiration to inspire - and profit in the process.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    The Muslims Are Coming!
    Despite their supposedly good intentions, the comedian-filmmakers broach the doc's central subject with crass and offensive standup routines that wouldn't be out of place on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour.
  22. Ted 2
    The film is a redundant showcase for Seth MacFarlane's racy, dick-centric sense of humor.
  23. All We Had
    Katie Holmes's feature-length directorical debut is more earnest than remarkable, but with its heart in the right place.
  24. Divergent
    The film transcends the déjà vu of its borrowed trappings but ironically sacrifices all momentum in favor of a long series of physical tests.
  25. The Greatest Showman
    The Greatest Showman‘s spectacle is overshadowed by its archaic and misguided notions of American exceptionalism.
  26. And While We Were Here
    Suggests a version of Roberto Rossellini's Voyage to Italy reworked as a photo diary posted on Facebook.
  27. Mothers' Instinct
    Benoît Delhomme’s 1960s-set directorial debut can’t decide whether it wants to be considered camp or not, awkwardly pitching itself between a somber drama and antic melodrama.
  28. The Banishing
    Christopher Smith’s film applies the haunted house trope in unfamiliar ways.
  29. Last Vegas
    The film is depressing, sub-sitcom fodder that will dull whatever affection you may still harbor for these legendary actors.
  30. Dashcam
    Dashcam is nothing if not consistent, as it’s every bit the empty provocation as the troll at its center.
  31. My Amityville Horror
    The film is a tender character portrait rooted in deep curiosity and sympathy for its subject.
  32. Every Day
    Throughout, the film raises metaphysical issues of physical and psychological autonomy only to gloss over them.
  33. Jungle
    Greg McLean and screenwriter Justin Monjo faithfully hit the key plot points of Yossi Ghinsberg's 1993 book Back from Tuichi but fail to sell the severity of the threats Yossi confronts.
  34. The Counselor
    The film doesn't temper enough of Cormac McCarthy's excesses, but Ridley Scott and his ensemble find enough meat in his scenario to make for diverting, bloody pleasure.
  35. Song One
    This snapshot of catharsis follows a familiar trajectory, but Kate Barker-Froyland refreshingly resists elevating her characters' relationship to the level of grandiose.
  36. Red Hook Summer
    The seamless juxtaposition of faith and pain, innocence and guilt, allows the film to transcend Spike Lee's occasional bombastic moments and become a strong examination of internal suffering.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Solomon Kane
    The fight choreography has a gracefulness bordering on elegance, and so it's a shame that these standalone thrills aren't better integrated into the film as a fully formed narrative whole.
  38. Paris Can Wait
    The film leaves the lasting impression of a story that takes place in its own elitist and hermetically sealed world.
  39. Jeanne du Barry
    Like the real Countess du Barry, it’s eventually caught up in the very pomp and splendor that it initially lampoons.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Underwater
    William Eubank’s Underwater is neither a too-big-to-fail event film nor a relatively low-budget genre sleeper. In other words, it doesn’t put in the effort to reach for the heights of Alien or plant its tongue firmly in cheek a la Deep Blue Sea.
  41. The Take
    For a film so interested in the public's malleability, The Take isn't particularly good at controlling its own audience.
  42. Backstabbing for Beginners
    It fills the screen with a series of explicative conversations set in offices, hotels, and cars throughout which people don’t so much talk to each other as indirectly to the audience.
  43. MFKZ
    The bulk of MFKZ is composed of chases and shoot-outs that, despite their chaotic energy, drive the plot forward at a plodding pace.
  44. Manodrome
    While John Trengrove’s skill is apparent in the slow build of tension, it also stands out in the arguably more impressive way that he holds Ralphie’s view of the world separate from that of the film’s.
  45. Planes: Fire & Rescue
    It's not even made clear whether the machines can feel pain. But after sitting through Fire & Rescue, interminable even at a lean 83 minutes, I sincerely hope they do.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Emperor
    Peter Webber's historical drama is blunt about its stylistic ambitions while at the same time failing to meet them, and the effect is one of sad ineffectuality.
  47. Tomb Raider
    This isn’t an adaptation of a video game so much as an adaptation of a video game’s tutorial level.
  48. Child's Play
    By the end, it becomes what it initially parodies: a dime-a-dozen slasher film with a silly-looking doll as the villain.
  49. We Need to Do Something
    We Need to Do Something mainly succeeds at suggesting a more compelling film beyond its bathroom walls.
  50. Gran Turismo
    What the film lacks in connective tissue, it makes up for in sheer vibes.
  51. Some Girl(s)
    Like most of Neil LaBute's work in the field of "emotional terrorism," the film protests that bad behavior isn't only good, but also essential to art.
  52. There's Always Vanilla
    Unfortunately, the haphazard, showy cross-cutting between Laine’s to-the-camera narration and the flashbacks (sometimes to scenes he couldn’t possibly recollect) do little to hide the fact that Romero, like his aimless protagonist, seemingly couldn’t care less.
  53. 300: Rise of an Empire
    Noam Murro gives the film nothing so much as a hit-refresh on the same glistening, impossibly golden and gray flecks of pixel-barf that have invaded the frames of every tent-pole studio release since the Bush administration.
  54. Triggered
    Once you get past the faux-provocation of the film’s title, it’s difficult to tell what ideologies the filmmakers are trying to skewer.
  55. Lockout
    Luc Besson's producing career has been so geared toward lean, tough genre films that it's somewhat apt that he'd ape--or, if we're being kind, pay homage to--John Carpenter's preeminent sci-fi actioner Escape from New York with his latest, Lockout.
  56. Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
    Part of the issue here may be the nature of the talking heads themselves, most of whom are culled from Trungpa's inner circle and lack the objectivity needed to properly judge his philosophy or make it accessible.
  57. Carnage Park
    The film covers "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" by way of Rob Zombie, Quentin Tarantino, and Ti West.
  58. Bullet to the Head
    Walter Hill thoughtfully regards the pummeling power of weaponry at work.
  59. The Den
    The film is dizzyingly creepy in its refracting of horrors through the cascading windows of computer programs we've come to understand more intimately than our own selves.
  60. God's Fiddler: Jascha Heifetz
    If the film were in fact a pastry, it might look like the first effort of a blind baker, wildly uneven and inconsistent in ingredient distribution.
  61. Kiss of the Damned
    Xan Cassavetes cops to nothing more significant than being more keen on Vampyros Lesbos than anyone else from her clan of famous cinephiles.
  62. Cat Person
    Cat Person only succeeds when it stays in a space of mystery and unknowing.
  63. The Girl on the Train
    It forgoes its promise of twisty adult thrills in favor of a grimly deadpan lecture about messy truths and false perceptions.
  64. Gold
    Throughout, Efron seems almost determined to wipe away the last vestiges of his youthful looks.
  65. One Day
    One Day conveys a real sense of the poignancy of individual lives unfolding over time, but the film's ultimate embrace of conventionality ultimately undercuts the not inconsiderable accomplishments the project had worked so hard to achieve.
  66. Gerontophilia
    It chooses the delicateness of a fable instead of the narrative recklessness we've come to expect from Bruce La Bruce.
  67. Hungry Hearts
    Throughout, Saverio Costanzo hypocritically drapes his scenes in a cloak of faux-empathy.
  68. The Secrets We Keep
    The film is ultimately too tidy to embrace anything truly startling or unexpected, either stylistically or narratively.
  69. Tolkien
    The film preaches of the love of creative freedom, yet finds no original form of expression of its own.
  70. Small, Beautifully Moving Parts
    Gentler and less aesthetically assaultive than offerings like 0s & 1s and Catfish, but it's not necessarily any subtler or more enlightening.
  71. The Perfect Host
    Although it fancies itself as rigidly complex as a well-played chess match, Nick Tomnay's The Perfect Host is really a game without any rules, one where characters and situations exist in total thrall of the next shocking twist.
  72. Porto
    It grapples with emotional enigma of infatuation, and the question of how such a mighty force can also be so fleeting.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Admission
    The estrogenic elements prove widely ineffectual, but they're just pieces of this overlong, overloaded misfire whose double-entendre title ultimately just goads the jaded viewer to admit defeat.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Womb
    Too abstract to suggest a coherent moral lesson, but too remote to foster a satisfying emotional connection, Womb feels barren, an attempt to do too much that ultimately does very little.
  75. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
    Quantumania feels less the start of a new phase of Marvel films than a tired retread of adventures we’ve already been on.
  76. Seducing Charlie Barker
    Charlie is a stereotype who doesn't know it--basically your typical broke dude in a near midlife crisis who thinks he's the first to have his dull problems.
  77. Kampai! For the Love of Sake
    Mirai Konishi's documentary inevitably reveals itself to be an elaborate infomercial for Westerners.
  78. The Scary of Sixty-First
    In a way, the film feels like a true heir to the petulant, low-budget horror cinema of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Call of the Wild
    The film’s avoidance of cruel Gold Rush realities is more than made up for by its spirited kineticism and by its deepening of the man-dog bond that forms the heart of London’s story.
  80. The FP
    The FP has a one-note joke of a conceit, and when that runs out, it has few actual jokes to fill the humorless void.
  81. Don't Worry Darling
    Don’t Worry Darling has the swing-for-the-fences ambition that should have at least made it a noble and compelling folly, but its repetitiveness frustratingly undercuts its grandiosity.
  82. Leap!
    The film’s careful attention to detail in the animation is continuously undermined by a formulaic plot and anxious pandering to contemporary sensibilities.
  83. First Comes Love
    Nina Davenport doesn't seem interested in taming her unwieldy vanity, and thus her documentary reads as a Match.com profile recontextualized as cinema narcissismo.
  84. I Feel Pretty
    Rather than pointing the finger at society for inducing insecurity in women, I Feel Pretty suggests the onus is on women to change their attitudes.
  85. Yelling to the Sky
    The film avoids most of its genre's pratfalls, though it also shows little interest in transcending them.
  86. The Sweeney
    Clichés abound, even in the look of the film, which toggles between post-Ritchie crime-violence burlesque and sleek, Nolanesque faux-grandeur.
  87. The Mountain Between Us
    Hany Abu-Assad’s film is notable for the way it fixates on its characters’ rush toward survival, homing in on the intimacy that they achieve without ever suggesting that there’s any actual romance in their future.
  88. Rememory
    The film successfully argues that it’s through sensory details that we access the deeper aspects of our lives.
  89. Black Nativity
    For anyone who prefers their assertive homilies to crust over like a syrupy sweet, this loose adaptation of Langston Hughes's beloved holiday tradition will come on like a dream fulfilled.
  90. Critters 2
    Critters 2: The Main Course offers a heaping helping of everything that’s missing from the first film: a reasonably intelligent and witty script, a supple and unchained playfulness, and an anarchic mélange of diverse genre riffs.
  91. Pet
    The screenplay quickly loses this moral clarity as the plot twists pile up and the power balances shift.
  92. Jayne Mansfield's Car
    Billy Bob Thornton's ensemble Southern family dramedy fails to subvert its cutesy formula often enough.
  93. Lords of Chaos
    Jonas Åkerlund’s breezy approach to this material not only cheapens the music, but also has the effect of downplaying the severity of the scene’s truly unsavory politics.
  94. The Strangers: Prey at Night
    Opening with the pulsing synth lines of Kim Wilde's “Kids in America,” Johannes Roberts's film announces itself as a looser, bouncier, more self-consciously frivolous effort than its now decade-old predecessor.
  95. Blue Like Jazz
    Blue Like Jazz charts a typical existential coming-of-age tale, yet remains atypical by being hip while also treating religion fairly.
  96. King Cobra
    It’s difficult to find a reason for the film's existence beyond a spoiled platform for James Franco's ersatz boldness.
  97. Mary Magdalene
    As the plot mechanically moves through Jesus’s greatest hits, the narrative focuses less and less on Mary Magdalene until her life feels completely beside the point.
  98. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
    The film is frustrating in the end for reaffirming the traditional blockbuster’s allegiance to human perseverance.
  99. To the Arctic
    Though the film is light on anthropomorphization, its aesthetic is nothing if not infantile.
  100. Yogawoman
    It's less a film than an unimaginatively assembled series of talking heads.
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