The Associated Press' Scores

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For 1,491 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1 point higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Tootsie
Lowest review score: 0 The King's Daughter
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,074 out of 1491
  2. Mixed: 240 out of 1491
  3. Negative: 177 out of 1491
1491 movie reviews
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  1. Pillion
    It’s based on Adam Mars-Jones’ “Box Hill,” but Lighton’s film largely avoids the darker, abusive turns of the novel. Lighton is more keen to enjoy the unfolding dynamics of a relationship in the extreme, one that ultimately, like any other, is guided by needs and wants.
  2. American Fiction
    The film is immensely watchable, staged without flash or pretention, that relies on its sharp script and talented and charismatic actors to carry the audience through. Wright is particularly delightful at the center of it all as he navigates a new relationship as well as the consequences of his lie and how far he’s willing to go with it.
  3. Cha Cha Real Smooth
    Raiff’s writing and direction keep the action moving crisply, and he knows his world — set not in Dallas but in Livingston, New Jersey — very well.
  4. Without a Trace
    As producer of Goodbye Columbus and Kramer vs. Kramer, Stanley Jaffe has proved his understanding of human relationships. As a first-time director, he seems overly attentive to everyday detail. But he handles his actors with skill, evoking a beautifully sustained performance from Kate Nelligan as the mother who would not abandon hope. [07 Feb 1983]
    • The Associated Press
  5. Priscilla
    As a movie, Priscilla is the diametric opposite of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” Where Luhrmann’s film was lurid and careening, Coppola’s is muted and textured. Her film is a kind of fairy tale that turns claustrophobic and cautionary.
  6. Spider-Man: Far from Home
    The thing keeping this together is Holland. He is utterly endearing as a goofy, insecure now-16-year-old hero with a cracked cellphone and who often makes things worse, apologizing along the way.
  7. Alita: Battle Angel
    The film crams in so many plot lines that it risks being overstuffed but somehow stays true to its mesmerizing vision and emerges as a sci-fi success, if not a triumph.
  8. Three Thousand Years of Longing
    Miller gets to play in a wide array of cultures as the djinn skips through time, all with their own shimmering palettes and fairy tale hyperrealism.
  9. Twinless
    In the end, we’re left to ponder not only grief but loneliness, and the lengths people will go to fight it. Shakespeare had a line about that, too, referring to “the mystery of your loneliness.” In Sweeney’s disturbing but also oddly satisfying tale, that essential human condition retains its mystery.
  10. The Pirates of Penzance
    The Pirates of Penzance is not for everyone. Gilbert and Sullivan purists, beware. Rock fans, watch out. But for those who like a rollicking good show, full of inspired silliness and performed in high style, by all means go. [07 Mar 1983]
    • The Associated Press
  11. This Is Elvis
    Unlike previous documentaries, this one focuses on the star's life more than his music and gives the best hints yet of why Presley's skyrocket ride to stardom led him to self-destruct. [11 May 1981]
    • The Associated Press
  12. East of Wall
    East of Wall is a promising start for a burgeoning filmmaker and a worthy portrait of an insular world that many of us will never know.
  13. The Velvet Underground
    Whatever your level of familiarity, Haynes’ doc — the first for this accomplished director — is so stylistically compelling, it doesn’t really matter what you knew coming in.
  14. Memoir of a Snail
    A film that’s as heart-tugging as it is technically impressive, a work of both emotional resonance and great physical detail using only clay, wire, paper and paint.
  15. The Last Full Measure
    Despite its flaws, this movie reminds us all of the sacrifices made by soldiers and to be mindful of how we treat them when they come home.
  16. A Secret Love
    A Secret Love is guaranteed to pull at your heartstrings. It might be the quarantine or it might just be effective storytelling, but a scene near the end of the family coming together — not even a sad scene — left this reviewer in tears and I’m willing to bet I won’t be the only one.
  17. Project Power
    Project Power nicely mixes elements of sci-fi and crime thriller to create a cool trip with a wink, set against a soundtrack that includes 2 Chainz, Nipsey Hussle and Curtis Mayfield.
  18. Honey Don't!
    As Ethan Coen finds his groove as a solo director, “Honey Don’t” might not be “The Big Lebowski” or “Raising Arizona,” but it is a swing in the right direction. At this rate, if we get the pleasure of seeing a third film, it might just be a classic.
  19. The Good Nurse
    To the filmmakers’ credit, they don’t manufacture a motivation where there wasn’t one. There’s no need. The unembellished horror of this real-life tale is way more than enough.
  20. Joy Ride
    The plot — outlandish and sometimes contrived as it is — offers plenty of room for comic possibility. And more. Screenwriters Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao explore themes of identity, assimilation and anti-Asian racism both overt and casual — and within the Asian community itself.
  21. The Rider
    Its examination of the cowboy masculinity that leads Brady and his peers to seek a life of thrills and danger only scratches the surface, but you’ll be surprised at how intoxicating and enveloping it is, right down to the on-the-nose metaphors.
  22. Dangerous Animals
    The setting of a boat in the middle of the Coral Sea unlocks a delicious new home for terror.
  23. The Lover
    Is it pornographic? Not by today's standards. It is certainly erotic, but no more so than "Basic Instinct" and other big-studio movies. The couplings of The Young Girl and The Chinese Man (their names are never disclosed) are natural and even lyrical, except for one punishing incident. [2 Nov 1992]
    • The Associated Press
  24. Lean on Pete
    It’s less Haigh’s mournful view of American society — one that, for sure, rarely finds American movie screens — that makes the heartfelt Lean on Pete stay with you. It’s Plummer’s wounded, achingly alone Charley, humbly striving across a darkening land, holding on desperately.
  25. The Menu
    Even as The Menu teeters unevenly in its third act and things get gruesomely less appetizing, its greasy last bites succeed in capturing one common aspect of molecular gastronomy: The Menu will leave you hungry.
  26. All of You
    All of You is a sort of second stab at this story, which Goldstein and Bridges (“Black Mirror”) first explored in the canceled-too-soon AMC anthology series “Soulmates.” Fittingly for a story about second chances, this time it sticks.
  27. The Old Man & the Gun
    Were it not for Redford, the film would be — well, why even ask, because Redford is the point. He chose the role, optioned the New Yorker article, chose the director. It’s a perfect role for his swan song. But hey, Mr. Redford? We won’t hold you to that.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Iron Will
    Say what you like about Iron Will - that it's corny and predictable - it's still an irresistibly sweet and upbeat adventure and if it doesn't make your heart pound a little faster, call a cardiologist. [10 Jan 1994]
    • The Associated Press
  29. Spaceship Earth
    Spaceship Earth, with a glowing score by Owen Pallett, doesn’t cast judgment on most of its subjects. It’s content to go along for the ride, marveling at all the surrealism. You’d say the story was out of this world if it wasn’t so much of it.
  30. The Mustang
    But Clermont-Tonnerre has established herself as a filmmaker to watch with The Mustang, and has also made the most compelling case yet that Schoenaerts can not only handle an American accent, but excel with it too.
  31. The Sisters Brothers
    The Sisters Brothers takes a bit of getting used to at the start, but the rewards are worth it.
  32. Shayda
    Shayda is set in 1995 and yet still feels quite relevant, and not just for Iranian women. In Niasari, we have a brave and distinctive new filmmaking voice and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
  33. The Insult
    It’s quite a riveting and though-provoking journey, with compelling and nuanced performances all around, and, although it is quite serious, not without moments of levity.
  34. Cow
    In Arnold’s careful, unhurried hands, it is a sobering lesson, though one without a clear agenda. Arnold simply seems interested in telling us Luma’s story. And that is enough.
  35. The Room Next Door
    What absolutely, undoubtedly does work is Moore and Swinton together. If some of the more melodramatic or crime-movie flourishes feel forced, the central relationship of “The Room Next Door” is consistently provocative.
  36. Dumb Money
    The populist message here is clear — the longer Wall Street overlooks the value of people, the financial system will remain broken.
  37. Brittany Runs A Marathon
    Brittany Runs a Marathon starts comically; its first moments, with Brittany working as an usher at an off-Broadway theater are its funniest. But it grows increasingly earnest. That’s part of the movie’s charm but also what leads it a little off track.
  38. Nyad
    Nyad is balanced between Diana’s admirably insane ambition and Bonnie’s loyal (up to a point) support for her friend. In any case, it’s a reminder, like a pail of cold water, of just how good Foster can be.
  39. Broker
    Broker is definitely a slow burn that can feel a bit repetitive at times, though the introduction of Hae-jin (Im Seung-soo) as an 8-year-old orphan with Premier League dreams helps get the film over a meandering hump.
  40. Ready or Not
    It’s a well-plotted film that excellently mixes gore and humor while also offering some social commentary by torching the clueless rich.
  41. Sound of Metal
    Marder, who wrote the screenplay with his brother, Abraham Marder, takes far too long to get to his points in a sluggish middle but has crafted a quite lyrical tale of a man trying to find his way when everything he knows is taken away.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Extreme Measures
    Even though Extreme Measures starts to get thin and predictable toward the end, it's a movie that does a great job giving the villains real depth their motives are far more complex and multidimensional than usual.
    • The Associated Press
  43. Splitsville
    Though there are elaborately choreographed long takes that smack of contemporary moviemaking, “Splitsville” belongs more to a screwball tradition stretching back to the 1930s.
  44. The Forever Purge
    Here DeMonaco finds richness in flipping the script on traditional right-wing notions of the border and immigration.
  45. Sirât
    Sirāt is the kind of film that will get under your skin and fester, the kind that will leave you with a pit in your stomach.
  46. Piece By Piece
    It is deep and surreal and often adorable. Is it high concept or low? Like Williams, it’s a bit of both.
  47. Atlantic City
    Frenchman Louis Malle is an accomplished interpreter of the dreams and dilusions of American smalltimers. He draws first-rate performances from the cast, especially Lancaster as the burned-out hood and Sarandon as the single-minded survivor. [13 Apr 1981]
    • The Associated Press
  48. Worth
    A story about the victims of Sept. 11 maybe ought not to focus on a lawyer dispensing the cash. But Keaton — a truly great actor in his responsiveness to those around him — makes a compelling, initially tone-deaf listener to the stories that filter through Worth.
  49. Hubie Halloween
    The jokes aren’t often Sandler’s best material but Hubie Halloween is as sweet and easily digestible as a Milky Way.
  50. Midwinter Break
    An adaptation of a Bernard MacLaverty novel of the same name, “Midwinter Break” is a delicate film that stays in a minor key, but whose impact is profound if you can get on its level.
  51. Plan B
    Pointed as the message of Plan B is, nothing supersedes just letting these two characters — traditionally bit players at best in high-school comedies — be themselves. They’re a pair of the most authentic 17-year-olds lately seen at the movies, something owed very definitely to two stars in the making in Verma and Moroles.
  52. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
    Much ink has been spent analyzing this enduring phenomenon called Tom Cruise, and what motivates him, onscreen and off. “I just want to entertain people,” he said recently. That’s one mission he can still nail.
  53. King Richard
    There are, hopefully, still many stories left to be told about the phenom of the Williams sisters. But King Richard is a very good start.
  54. The Kid Who Would Be King
    A surprisingly delightful film full of action, heart, a crazy-haired Patrick Stewart (as “old” Merlin) and a few genuinely good gags.
  55. Onward
    Onward makes the most of its strange assemblage to tell a sweet and moving story — enough so to leave you yet again shaking your head at Pixar’s magic act.
  56. Bodies Bodies Bodies
    Dripping in neon, platitudes, sweat and fear, “Bodies Bodies Bodies"...is playful, cutting and never dull.
  57. Beast
    It’s a movie well engineered as a late-summer diversion — a big cat movie for the dog days of August — that Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (“Adrift,” “Everest”) insures stays well within the paths of man-against-nature films before it.
  58. The Rental
    Franco has made a briskly entertaining debut feature, a nice way to spend an escapist summer evening. Not from your Airbnb, though.
  59. One Life
    The emotional payoff takes a while to arrive, but once it does in the last act of this film, you’ll have a hard time forgetting Hopkins’ face.
  60. C'mon C'mon
    C’mon C’mon doesn’t really go anywhere in particular. It’s a meandering experience, but purposefully so. And it’s the kind of film that makes you want to leave the theater and ask the big, cheesy, sincere questions of strangers, family, anyone really.
  61. The Sea Beast
    The Sea Beast is notable for its refusal to dumb itself down for a young audience. It’s anchored by interesting and fairly complex characters who actually have arcs to play.
  62. Is God Is
    You may think you know Sterling K. Brown, but trust us, you have never seen this version of Brown — a man utterly dripping with villainy, if villainy were in liquid form, and all the more chilling for the calmness with which he intones the most horrific thoughts.
  63. Nouvelle Vague
    Nouvelle Vague, with a young Godard making things up off the cuff and on the fly, is a reminder how less can be so, so much more. And how it’s nice, as a young filmmaker with big ambitions, to have some company.
  64. Jennifer 8
    Written and directed by Bruce Robinson, Jennifer Eight (code name for the case) is a gripping though improbable thriller with an ample number of plot twists. [9 Nov 1992]
    • The Associated Press
  65. Blitz
    Blitz feels stuck between a conventional war drama and something more adventurous and probing. It doesn’t coalesce the way McQueen’s best work does, but the frictions that drive Blitz make it a singular and sporadically moving experience.
  66. The Equalizer 3
    Antoine Fuqua’s Equalizer 3, a taut and textured sequel to Washington’s vigilante series, isn’t one of the actor’s best films. It wouldn’t crack his top 10. But it vividly encapsulates Washington’s formidable on-screen potency.
  67. A Real Pain
    It’s quite a journey for one film. All credit to Eisenberg, and his superb co-star, for making the road trip so thought-provoking.
  68. Watcher
    Okuno’s taut feature artfully reconstructs a Hitchcockian thriller around, yes, a blonde heroine in Monroe, but one with her own gaze and distinct anxieties.
  69. Hustle
    The film, directed by Jeremiah Zagar, isn’t the farce you might expect. Rather, it’s one of the most textured and affectionate films about basketball that’s come along in a long time. Starring Sandler as a road-weary NBA scout and with several teams’ worth of all-stars in cameos, Hustle has a surprisingly good handle and feel for the game.
  70. All Light, Everywhere
    It’s an exploration that touches not just on policing and justice, but astronomy, politics, phrenology and race.
  71. Blockers
    The antic chemistry between Mann, Cena and Barinholtz is stellar. Together, they capture the panic, embarrassment and sentimentality of young-adult parenthood as they scramble after their kids, none of whom need saving.
  72. Slay the Dragon
    May not be the most heartening portrait of our political system. But it’s a vital one and it provides reasons for optimism, too.
  73. Barbarian
    Barbarian is firmly of it’s time — online house rental bookings, smart-phone flashlights and real estate square footage listings — and yet timeless, like an arm ripped off and used as a club. It was predictable and yet was impossible to predict.
  74. Inside Out 2
    In more ways than one, Mann’s movie feels like a much-needed feature-length refuge from today’s anxiety-producing devices. Unlike many of Pixar’s moving metaphors of parenthood, this one is, affectingly, for the kids.
  75. The Inspection
    An intensely personal and truthful, if not entirely fact-based, account of joining the Marines as a gay Black man in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era. It is the type of film — brave, raw and poetic — that will rightly put Bratton on the map as someone to watch, not to mention the standout performances of Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union.
  76. Daughters
    Time is the fundamental metric of prison life, which makes a documentary like “Daughters,” filmed over years, uniquely, maybe even monstrously capable of capturing its passing.
  77. We Live in Time
    It is charming and silly and sometimes cringey — other people’s relationships always are— and in the end it works exceedingly well because of them and their wonderful chemistry.
  78. Heretic
    So beautifully constructed and acted in the first half is “Heretic” that you won’t really notice when it turns into a horror movie.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Clara's Heart
    Clara's Heart is a warm movie with many lessons to tell, if one is willing to listen. Its force is aided by Goldberg's performance and a noteworthy movie debut of Neil Patrick Harris as David. [17 Oct 1988]
    • The Associated Press
  80. Bumblebee
    Hopefully it will attract an audience either tired or turned off by the franchise’s past rigidity and addiction to spectacle. This is what we needed: Smaller, quieter, more human and sweeter.
  81. Now and Then
    Now and Then will be deeply felt by women, and there's no earthly reason why men shouldn't enjoy it, too. [19 Oct 1995]
    • The Associated Press
  82. Flora and Son
    Flora and Son, like a B-side to Carney’s earlier hits, may sound a little like a tune you’ve heard before. But it’s sung with enough heart to have even the coldest cynic humming.
  83. Annihilation
    Rarely has a film conjured such a thick atmosphere of dread and wonder as “Annihilation,” a movie that unfolds, grippingly, as an existential mystery.
  84. Kajillionaire
    The whimsical, unpredictable artistry of “Kajillionaire” turns out to be no con, at all.
  85. The Lost King
    It’s the kind of comic, eminently British underdog story that Frears excels at. And with Sally Hawkins playing Langley as a woman undeterred by pompous academics and condescending naysayers, The Lost King makes for a charmingly droll tale of long-ago and not-so-long-ago reappraisal.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Love Potion #9
    A bit of a charmer, an Ugly Duckling story with a sly wit that keeps it from sliding off into vulgarity. [19 Apr 1993]
    • The Associated Press
  87. The Mule
    As The Mule ambles toward its conclusion, it draws closer to Stone, and maybe to Eastwood’s legacy, too.
  88. The Fourth War
    John Frankenheimer is an old hand at directing this kind of macho confrontation, and he masterfully builds the tension. The bone-chilling terrain (actually Canada) adds immeasurably to the film's effectiveness. [20 Mar 1990]
    • The Associated Press
  89. Jojo Rabbit
    Waititi injects enough heart and wit into this enterprise to make a case that artists like him should at least be trying to find creative ways to educate new generations about the horrors of the past.
  90. Joan Baez I Am A Noise
    The celebrated folk singer and activist was singing about civil rights, of course. But what we learn in the thoughtful, thorough and sometimes harrowingly intimate Joan Baez: I Am a Noise is that Baez was also seeking to overcome much on a personal scale: anxiety, depression, loneliness and, late in life, troubling repressed memories about her own father.
  91. The Lighthouse
    This is a movie that demands to be consumed distraction-free. But by the end, you might find yourself feeling as crazy and untethered as the wickies.
  92. Cassandro
    The story is so sensational that you almost wish Cassandro was instead a feature-length documentary.
  93. Summerland
    The charms of Summerland aren’t in its plot. They’re in the sentiment, which is too good-hearted to be cynical about, and the characters.
  94. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
    One cannot fault Roadrunner for not coming up with clear answers. There rarely are clear answers, anyway, and this film seems to want to be about a life, not a death. A fascinating life, parts of which will forever remain unknown.
  95. The Package
    The Package manages a degree of believability, thanks in large part to Hackman's customary professionalism. Probably no other star could convey such credibility. [24 Aug 1989]
    • The Associated Press
  96. Toy Story 4
    Toy Story 4 is a blast and it’s great to be back with the gang.
  97. The Last Duel
    The movie, written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, is not the tale of manly valor that it first appears. The Last Duel is more like a medieval tale deconstructed, piece by piece, until its heavily armored male characters and the genre’s mythologized nobility are unmasked.
  98. The Best of Times
    With the help of Williams' quirky charm and a rock-solid performance by Kurt Russell, the feat is made believable. Well, most of the time. [3 Feb 1986]
    • The Associated Press
  99. A Million Miles Away
    A Million Miles is wisely more about one man’s obsession and nicely touches on topics like racism, assimilation, deferred dreams, family guilt and dedication.
  100. A Love Song
    As a viewer, you may leave the theater with more answers than when you arrived — and that’s refreshing. Walker-Silverman has no interest in putting pretty bows on things, loads of past histories or sentimentality. This is what love looks like with wrinkles and sorrow but also sunshine and joy — it pushes through the harshness of life and blooms with possibility.
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