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 1.2 points 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. The Great Muppet Caper
    THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER is Miss Piggy's finest hour. Anyone not yet entranced by the Muppet mystique will be snared by this movie... A delight -- a tribute to the imaginative genius of Jim Henson and his team of Muppet manipulators. [29 June 1981]
    • The Associated Press
  2. Little Women
    There is a wild urgency to Greta Gerwig’s Little Women that hardly seems possible for a film based on a 150-year-old book. But such is the magic of combining Louisa May Alcott’s enduring story of those four sisters with Gerwig’s deliciously feisty, evocative and clear-eyed storytelling that makes this Little Women a new classic.
  3. The Zone of Interest
    In his meticulous and harrowing film The Zone of Interest, writer-director Jonathan Glazer has found a way to convey evil without ever depicting the horror itself. But though it escapes our eyes, the horror assaults our senses in other, deeper ways.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Lion King
    A mystical, thrilling and breathtaking coming-of-age movie. [14 June 1994]
    • The Associated Press
  5. Anora
    It’s not trying to pretend that it’s not exploitative on some level; that might even be the point. And anyway, you might be surprised just how quickly you commit to this once-in-a-lifetime ride.
  6. Broadway Danny Rose
    Allen is expert at playing life's victims, but he never was more persuasive. Even when he is striving hopelessly to retain the one client with a chance for stardom, Danny Rose retains a certain dignity. Woody Allen remains the most original and daring comedy artist in films today. [16 Jan 1984]
    • The Associated Press
  7. Sentimental Value
    It’s a tall task to follow up a smash like “The Worst Person in the World,” but “Sentimental Value” rises to the occasion: Mature, sharp, bittersweet and maybe even a little hopeful.
  8. The Truffle Hunters
    Just as last year’s beekeeping beauty Honeyland, The Truffle Hunters is a richly allegorical documentary of a vanishing agricultural pastime.
  9. The Whale
    This is a film that stays with you and changes you. It is heavy, indeed.
  10. Children of a Lesser God
    In terms of human understanding, the film is worth dozens of documentaries on deafness. [10 Dec 1986]
    • The Associated Press
  11. A Room with a View
    Ivory glides his players through magnificent Italian and English landscapes and in drawing rooms that breathe authenticity. Two scenes are unforgettable: when the two lovers witness a violent stabbing scene in the Florence piazza; and when the heroine, her mother and fiance encounter three of the male characters in an innocent nude frolic in a wooded pond. [1 May 1986]
    • The Associated Press
  12. First Cow
    The joys of First Cow are many. The thoughtful, unshowy textures of its clothes and surroundings. The fabulous chemistry of its two leads. The softly stirring guitar of William Tyler’s score. All of these details add up to a wholly original western, one with its own rhythms, ideas and iconography.
  13. Foxtrot
    There is a precise sensation of out-of-body powerlessness and comic absurdity throughout that can only be described as dream-like. And the overall experience is a meditative and powerful one.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Giant
    The movie remains a classic for the themes it represents, both on screen and off. [25 June 2005]
    • The Associated Press
  15. David Byrne’s American Utopia
    This hypnotic film experience is a badly needed shot in the arm for all of us — music lovers, theater lovers, dance lovers, culture lovers, life lovers. It’s also one of the best concert films in recent memory.
  16. My Father's Shadow
    My Father’s Shadow is a gem, a deeply felt memory piece and vibrant portrait of Nigeria in 1993.
  17. The Ghost and the Darkness
    Hopkins has combined a tightly written script, two superior actors and stunning African vistas into a film that is breathtaking in its beauty and thrilling with suspense. [10 Oct 1996]
    • The Associated Press
  18. They Shall Not Grow Old
    While it might not be a conventional history lesson, it is a necessary and utterly urgent one.
  19. All We Imagine as Light
    The film is a reminder of the transcendent power of cinema, even, and perhaps especially, when not all that much is happening.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Black Is King
    King Beyoncé’s new film takes you on a journey of Black art, music, history and fashion as the superstar transports you to Africa to tell the story of a young man in search of his crown, matched to epic songs she created while inspired by “The Lion King.”
  21. Great Expectations
    A stunning blend of characters, story, place and time, rich in detail and haunting images. [11 Apr 1999]
    • The Associated Press
  22. No Other Choice
    The tone is so farcical that the gruesomeness of some of Man-su’s acts come slyly.
  23. The Killing Fields
    A powerful, gut-wrenching film that ranks in the top of the 1984 product. [19 Nov 1984]
    • The Associated Press
  24. Nickel Boys
    The threads do come together, but it requires a bit of patience and giving yourself over to the film, which is both formally and emotionally eye-opening. Adapting great literature can sometimes send filmmakers running towards the conventional; Thank goodness Ross charted his own path instead.
  25. Oppenheimer
    Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a kinetic thing of dark, imposing beauty that quakes with the disquieting tremors of a forever rupture in the course of human history.
  26. The Ballad of Wallis Island
    The Ballad of Wallis Island is the kind movie that makes it all look so easy — filmmaking, performance, mood, chemistry. It’s not going to dominate any cultural conversations, and probably won’t go the awards route, but it’ll touch your soul if you let it.
  27. Isle of Dogs
    That Anderson can still excitingly tell a new story within the structure of his unique visual language that we’ve gotten to know so well is just a testament to his incandescent genius. We don’t deserve Wes Anderson, but we should be eternally grateful he doesn’t seem to mind.
  28. Time
    The last few moments contain some of the most exhilarating and moving moments ever committed to film.
  29. Killers of the Flower Moon
    [Scorsese] has called his work an offering to the Osage, and to other Native peoples. It also feels like an offering to those who love cinema, allowing us to watch a master of the craft continue to force himself, unlikely as it seems, to stretch and learn. May he keep stretching — himself, and us.
  30. Maiden
    Maiden is simply magnificent storytelling and a must-see for all ages and genders.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Joy Luck Club
    Every once in a while a movie comes along that is so stirring and so moving that it stays with you long after it's over. Like a wonderful memory, it washes over your psyche for days and bathes it in some indescribable richness. The Joy Luck Club is just such a movie. This is filmmaking at its best: a wonderful story that transcends cultures. It is beautifully set and filmed, superbly acted and masterfully directed. [7 Sept 1993]
    • The Associated Press
  32. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
    It goes without saying that the performance is brilliant, and yes, electric, but it’s also heroic. If there had to be a final role, what a gift that it was this, an exclamation point to a career that seems ever more momentous.
  33. Encanto
    It’s only appropriate that Encanto — fueled by eight original songs by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda — turns into that most special thing of all: A triumph in every category: art, songs and heart.
  34. Victor Victoria
    A marvelous mixture of genders, a blatant attack on sexual attitudes that is both challenging and hilarious. [19 Feb 1982]
    • The Associated Press
  35. Minari
    Minari could not be more personal. Filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung based the film on his own childhood in the 1980s, when his Korean American parents moved to Arkansas to start a farm. And it’s the specificity of this delicate tale that makes it so universal and so great.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Peter Pan
    Another of the most cherished cartoon features ever. [05 Mar 2007]
    • The Associated Press
  37. One Battle After Another
    In Paul Thomas Anderson’s gloriously messy, madcap roller coaster ride through modern America, objects in the rear view may go out of sight, but they don’t disappear.
  38. Women Talking
    Women Talking is not melodramatic or desperate or exploitative. It is astute and urgent and may just help those previously unable to find words or even coherent feelings for their own traumatic experiences. And hopefully it might just inspire more works of wild female imagination.
  39. Licorice Pizza
    It’s the performances of Haim and Hoffman that most lend “Licorice Pizza” its authenticity. Neither has acted in a film before and their fresh-faced presences electrify the film.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    This Is Spinal Tap
    Reiner, with McKean, Guest and Harry Shearer (who plays bassist Derek Smalls), have done a great job in creating and portraying characters that are dimwitted, cliched and yet oddly endearing. [20 March 1984]
    • The Associated Press
  41. Aftersun
    Young fathers, especially the single sort, don’t get a lot of love from the movies and “Aftersun” is partly an ode to that very specific, very sweet bond between father and pre-teen daughter that both kind of understand will change into something else soon.
  42. Roma
    Cuaron is content to take his time with Roma, allowing the camera to linger on his subjects and the frustrating banalities of ordinary, everyday life that sneak up on you with poetic significance as the film goes on
  43. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
    Never Rarely Sometimes Always isn’t a flashy movie, but that’s part of its unnerving power. With her empathetic camera and transcendent storytelling, Hittman elevates their story — so ordinary-seeming on the page — to a great lyrical odyssey.
  44. Hamilton
    Kail’s camera captures actors’ intimate faces during key moments in a way impossible for theater-goers and incorporates audience reaction to create an electric filmed version.
  45. La Chimera
    When we talk about “movie magic,” the first thing that comes to mind is often something like the bikes achieving liftoff in “E.T.” But it applies no less to Alice Rohrwacher’s wondrous “La Chimera,” a grubbily transcendent folk tale of a film that finds its enchantment buried in the ground.
  46. Mank
    It’s simply telling a story about a man behind so many of our movie memories and making a new one in the process. And it is, without a doubt one, of the year’s very best.
  47. Good One
    All of the acting is terrific and so naturalistic that it’s easy to forget that these are actors performing lines that they’ve memorized in front of a camera.
  48. Tótem
    For a film about death, Lila Avilés’ “Tótem” is extraordinarily lived in.
  49. The Banshees of Inisherin
    The Banshees of Inisherin is a rich, soulful journey, full of agony, dry Irish wit and big, haunting questions. If it’s answers you’re looking for, however, you’re not going to find them on Inisherin.
  50. The Worst Person in the World
    There is a refreshing honesty in this script, penned by Trier and his longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt, that engages with nuance and the impossible complexities of life in a way that most “rom-coms” avoid like the plague.
  51. Fallen Leaves
    Fallen Leaves is the best big-screen romance of the year even though its prospective lovers exchange only a handful of words and, for most of the film, don’t know each other’s names.
  52. Prizzi's Honor
    Huston is the unquestioned master of the greed-fueled plot, crammed with treacherous types aiming to destroy each other. He is in top form once more, presenting a gallery of low-lifes that could even baffle Sam Spade. [17 June 1985]
    • The Associated Press
  53. Perfect Days
    The Wenders’ movie that “Perfect Days” most recalls is “Wings of Desire,” where melancholy angels watched over Cold War-era Berlin and spoke of testifying “day by day for eternity.” “Perfect Days” has no such supernatural element, but its gaze is likewise attuned to what’s beautiful and meaningful in everyday living.
  54. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
    And though the performances are riveting — standouts include Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples belting out Take My Hand, Precious Lord and the Edwin Hawkins Singers’ O Happy Day — it’s the shots of the all-ages crowd that makes this film come alive, with the vibrant fashions, the incredible faces, the excitement, the boredom and the humanity of it all packed into every frame.
  55. It Was Just an Accident
    Watch it and it will linger in your mind. It’s a movie for Iranians, of course, but it’s valuable for any society hoping to one day mend a divided country.
  56. The Climb
    Utterly original and utterly excellent, the modern bromance The Climb is a thrilling ride, an unconventional and idiosyncratic American film that acts like a old-school arty European one.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé
    The film — written, directed and produced by Beyoncé — perfectly captures her dazzling performances for the big screen and somewhat unveils intimate behind-the-scenes footage from a normally private singer, who has rarely done interviews in the past decade.
  58. Dick Johnson Is Dead
    I’m sure for Johnson, Dick Johnson Is Dead will one day be a heaven-sent reservoir for remembering her father. But its larger gift is in spurring us all to meet mortality with humor and honesty, and appreciate loved ones while they’re here.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Little Mermaid
    The Little Mermaid is magic and joy for everyone, and teaches us all to never lose sight of dreams and hope. [06 Nov 1989]
    • The Associated Press
  60. Nomadland
    This film is a small miracle and a uniquely meditative experience.
  61. Petite Maman
    Sciamma is able to bring to life essential truths of what it is like to be that strange age and the sometimes frightening, sometimes wonderful vastness of a limitless imagination. And she even does it without a background score to manipulate our tear ducts.
  62. Tootsie
    In pants or skirts, Hoffman remains true to character, and his perplexity is real, especially when one girlfriend (Teri Garr) suspects he is a gay male, while the other (Jessica Lange) believes he is a lesbian female. Both actresses are excellent, and Miss Lange continues her promise to become a superstar of the 1980s. [27 Dec 1982]
    • The Associated Press
  63. The Farewell
    The film is a heady, gentle and emotional journey, but Wang also packs the frame with layered conversation and funny background action. She makes the family dynamics feel universally familiar while also presenting an authentic portrait of China and Chinese families.
  64. The Wild Robot
    Is this the best animated movie of the year? Totally, so far. It might even be the best movie of the year.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Roxanne
    Brilliant and hilarious. [29 July 1987]
    • The Associated Press
  66. Marriage Story
    Marriage Story is such a perfect blend of writing, unflashy direction, spot on performances and score (by Randy Newman) that you hardly even notice all the individual ingredients making up the whole. Its triumph is that it just feels like life.
  67. Parasite
    This dark, socially conscious film about the intertwining of two families is an intricately plotted, adult thriller. We can go up, for sure, but Bong can also take us deeper down. There’s always an extra floor somewhere in this masterpiece.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Muppet Christmas Carol
    I thought that The Muppet Christmas Carol was a wonderful movie. The Muppets' re-enactment of the story was funny and touching and full of Christmas spirit. Michael Caine was a perfect Scrooge, in looks, manner and expression. [9 Sept 1992]
    • The Associated Press
  69. Wildlife
    Wildlife isn’t just a great first film, it’s a great film.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Noises Off...
    Noises Off is a raucous, riotous romp that will leave you delightfully giddy from the wonderful on-screen frenzy and non-stop laughs. It's the kind of comedy we haven't seen in a while, one that doesn't rely on righteous dudes or far-out babes to make us laugh. It's all silly farce, played out by an effective ensemble of screen and TV actors. [19 March 1992]
    • The Associated Press
  71. Anatomy of a Fall
    Anatomy of a Fall may not be a film with many concrete answers, ultimately, but the truths it uncovers are irrefutable.
  72. Descendant
    There is a searching, ruminative dialogue running throughout the film. Brown and editors Michael Bloch and Geoffrey Richman beautifully weave together disparate voices into a meditative chorus.
  73. The Tragedy of Macbeth
    No matter how cursed or unlucky the so-called “Scottish play” is in theater lore, the stars seem to be aligned here.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Quiz Show
    Robert Redford's intricately woven and brilliant movie Quiz Show paints a witty but poignant portrait of that tainted time on television, when Eisenhower's America lost its innocence. [15 Sept 1994]
    • The Associated Press
  75. Marty Supreme
    [A] nerve-busting adrenaline jolt of a movie starring a never-better Timothée Chalamet.
  76. 1917
    Yes, it’s a dazzling technical feat. One could also consider it a gimmick, or at least a method that threatens to distract the viewer’s attention. But that ignores the fact that this very filmmaking style is also hugely effective at delivering this particular story, in the most visceral way possible.
  77. Damage
    In spite of its wild sex scenes, it's one of the year's more cerebral films - a contradiction which makes it all the more interesting. [22 Dec 1992]
    • The Associated Press
  78. City Hall
    A dynamic political drama with superior acting and wide significance. The competing forces of city governance have rarely been portrayed with such immediacy and incisiveness. [17 Feb 1996]
    • The Associated Press
  79. Caught by the Tides
    Jia Zhangke’s “Caught by the Tides” is less than two hours long and yet contains nearly a quarter-century of time’s relentless march forward. Few films course with history the way it does in the Chinese master’s latest, an epic collage that spans 21 years.
  80. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
    There’s plenty of good music in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, including Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place” and one of the most gloriously unhinged uses of Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” ever conceived. If the previous film had a Fellini-esque vibe, this one has punky, anarchic feel.
  81. Hold Your Fire
    Hold Your Fire... burrows into the real roots of an oft-replayed movie scenario with insight and care.
  82. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
    A film in which everything feels stunningly fresh, raw and new.
  83. Knives Out
    The whodunit turns out not only to still have a few moves left but to be downright acrobatic.
  84. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
    Hanks is such an obvious choice to play someone as beloved as Fred Rogers that his performance is something that could be in danger of being taken for granted or overlooked. He just makes it all look so easy — the almost uncomfortably slow way that he speaks. But it’s a testament to Hanks that you can’t “see” the work. But much like Fred Rogers, you don’t have to understand it to be moved.
  85. Sinners
    How Coogler pulls everything off at once — and makes it cohere, mostly — is a sight to see.
  86. The Housemaid
    Based on Freida McFadden’s novel, “The Housemaid” rides waves of manipulation and then turns the tables on what we think we’ve just seen, looking at male-female power structures and how privilege can trap people without it.
  87. Moffie
    By burrowing within the brutal propaganda of apartheid, Hermanus, in his intensely expressive, achingly sorrowful fourth film, has captured a mean machinery at work — one that still abides, long after the end of apartheid.
  88. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
    By exponentially multiplying worlds and Spider-Men, Across the Spider-Verse risks making itself dizzy. Yet it surprisingly, even movingly, stays true to the teenage emotions at its core and the parent-kid relationships driving all these multiverse convulsions.
  89. Project Hail Mary
    As in Lord and Miller’s animated movies, their tone and pace remain singular. Project Hail Mary might blow past a two-hour runtime and yet there’s rarely a dull moment with all the problem-solving, earnest irreverence and unabashed commitment to imbuing life and wit into every molecule of the story. Daniel Pemberton’s unusual, buoyant score and Joel Negron’s sharp editing are key.
  90. Amadeus
    After the junk-food movies of spring and summer, it is a delight to encounter a full-course gourmet meal. [18 Sep 1984]
    • The Associated Press
  91. The Eight Mountains
    Just as the film’s near-sole setting — a remote mountain cabin beneath the peaks of northwestern Italy — beckons Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) throughout their lives, the intoxicating atmosphere of The Eight Mountains is a cherished retreat I’m already eager to revisit.
  92. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
    Starting with the potentially crippling proposition of a key death, this franchise has somehow found new vibrancy.
  93. First Reformed
    Harrowing, but with a wry humor, and utterly transporting, Paul Schrader has synthesized his complex religious upbringing with modern anxieties into a trenchant portrait of tormented souls in First Reformed.
  94. In the Fade
    To say that the many parts of In the Fade are held together by Kruger would be an understatement. As a cocktail of grief, fury and regret, she’s a remarkably original protagonist — a chain-smoking, tattooed mother who, in her trauma, is always a breath away from drowning.
  95. Triangle of Sadness
    Triangle of Sadness, which clocks in at almost two and a half hours, is at its sharpest before the symphony of bodily fluids and survival plots arrive.
  96. Catherine Called Birdy
    Catherine Called Birdy is an unabashed delight for everyone. It just might run a little deeper for a certain age group.
  97. Ford v Ferrari
    This infectious and engrossing story of the 1966 showdown on a French racetrack between car giants Ford and Ferrari is a high-octane ride that will make you instinctively stomp on a ghostly gas pedal from your movie seat.
  98. Close
    Close is a crushing story of grief told with grace by Belgian director Lukas Dhont.
  99. The Front Runner
    The Front Runner is appropriately paced like a thriller, as everyone involved gets pulled down into the drain, helplessly.
  100. One Fine Day
    One Fine Day erases any doubt that George Clooney could make the leap from the operating rooms of "ER" to stardom in films. He has it all: a slick, sardonic manner, calm assurance, commanding presence, great looks and, most importantly, a distinctive voice...Not much can be said about Michelle Pfeiffer except that she is perfection - knockout looks, without bragging about it, and a strong sense of comedy, including the roughhouse kind. [17 Dec 1996]
    • The Associated Press
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