The Film Stage's Scores

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For 3,437 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 Amazing Grace
Lowest review score: 0 The Hustle
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,432 out of 3437
  2. Mixed: 888 out of 3437
  3. Negative: 117 out of 3437
3437 movie reviews
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  1. The Shrouds
    Having returned to form with Crimes of the Future, it’s surprising that so much of The Shrouds falls flat: the awkward sex scenes, the general incoherence, the uncharacteristically unimaginative tech (though I did like the gothic vibe of the blanket of cameras used to cloak the corpses). That said, for a meditation on death, grief, cancer, and libido, The Shrouds is funnier than expected.
  2. Caught by the Tides
    There were times in Tides when I began wondering just how often one can go back to the well.
  3. Emilia Pérez
    At its strongest, Emilia Perez is a blend of inspired cinematic technique and stereotypically cool music-video aesthetics. And even at that, it’s a flashy slog at two hours and ten minutes.
  4. Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
    Costner hasn’t forgotten where to point a camera, and outside all the table-setting, Horizon has moments designed to astonish.
  5. Kinds of Kindness
    Lanthimos has put together another dark, well-crafted delight, if not a slightly more forgettable one.
  6. Oh, Canada
    Even by the director’s meditative standards, this one cuts close to the bone.
  7. The Girl with the Needle
    It is surprising, stylish, and unabashedly brave.
  8. Wild Diamond
    Khebizi, an acting newcomer, delivers a performance that’s this close to perfection, using her sparse dialogue and highly stylized gestures to make Liane appear almost untouchable. If only the script could live up to the level of complexity her first role achieves.
  9. Bird
    The director has gestured toward magical realism in her work before (think of the white horse in Fish Tank or the elemental yearning of her Wuthering Heights) but this first foray into anthropomorphism feels strangely surface-level and does more to break the film’s spell than enhance it.
  10. Megalopolis
    At the end of the day, for better and for worse, in awe and in tired confusion, Megalopolis is a garish wonder to behold.
  11. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
    The concerns that met the trailer––suggesting Miller had traded in his predecessor’s practical effects for CGI––are, I’m sorry to say, not entirely unfounded. But Furiosa can still boast moments to take the breath away. Did we need it? Probably not. Are the chase scenes still phenomenal? Absolutely.
  12. Babes
    It might not break new ground, but Babes is nevertheless something quite rare these days: both emotionally complex and hysterical. Adlon has perfected this form of comedic earnestness in her TV work; it’s a welcome move into feature filmmaking.
  13. The Second Act
    It can feel a touch contrived, even on-the-nose, but there is more than enough quiet confidence and seasoned quality in performances and filmmaking to stick the landing.
  14. Force of Nature: The Dry 2
    Connolly continues to grow as a filmmaker, as evidenced in his last three pictures (The Dry, Blueback, and Force of Nature: The Dry 2), all starring Bana. While The Dry may hold greater dramatic weight, Force of Nature is a more complicated affair. More red herrings, more technical proficiency.
  15. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
    It’s the ideal third act for a Planet of the Apes movie––whether you want to sit through an extensive, near-90 minute journey that represents everything wrong with dystopian world-building in contemporary blockbusters to get there, however, is up to you.
  16. Slow
    In shying away from more specific anxieties of modern love, one can’t help but think of all the things it’s avoiding in general by pushing the onscreen relationship to more interesting places. If anything, this film should feel like a call to filmmakers to make their work less boring.
  17. Butterfly in the Sky
    If you watched Reading Rainbow as a kid, the doc will leave you in puddles. If you didn’t, it will still likely leave you with tears in your eyes—happy tears.
  18. The Contestant
    The Contestant provides a breezy chronology of one of television’s mostly baffling shows, as well as an entertaining, and sometimes painfully affecting, portrait of a man who, after years of using comedy as a means of self-defense, didn’t seem to know himself whether he was waving or drowning.
  19. The Dead Don't Hurt
    This is certainly patient storytelling, but there’s a difference when that doesn’t really lead anywhere in terms of stirring character development or eye-opening observation.
  20. In a Violent Nature
    This isn’t quite a nuanced study in violence, despite its title. Shot in northern rural Ontario, Canada in a generic backwoods called White Pines, the film ultimately feels hollow despite the deliberate cinematography by Pierce Derks.
  21. Power
    This film is blunt and direct to degrees that may disengage some viewers.
  22. Nowhere Special
    Norton is wonderful in the role, lending it a vulnerability that shines through the stoic nature of a man doing his best to show no fear.
  23. Humane
    The biggest surprise with her directorial debut Humane might be just how comfortably this could sit alongside Blumhouse and Screen Gems shlock at your local multiplex: a well-engineered, single-location thriller that prioritizes bloody, gut-punch twists and turns over the more thoughtful introspection that typically accompanies this in a Cronenberg effort.
  24. Back to Black
    Although the filmmakers say that Winehouse’s family didn’t interfere with the creative process, this watered-down interpretation of her troubles feels written with the intention of ruffling as few feathers as possible, pulling its punches when dramatizing the more harrowing moments in her life.
  25. LaRoy, Texas
    LaRoy is the work of a director with unmistakable joy for this genre, approaching the material with a welcome earnestness.
  26. Omen
    One could say this is the true definition of a promising debut and a subject that the film doesn’t necessarily close the book on once it ends. Baloji Tshiani could explore these ideas even more in further films.
  27. Challengers
    It’s cleverly constructed, features the film’s best use of that patented O’Connor smile, and is exhilarating to watch unfold. That its ultimate conclusion feels perfectly attuned to the preceding narrative and its characters’ arcs, while also being impossible to predict, is no small feat.
  28. North of Normal
    North of Normal is an affecting drama about the life-altering impact of a youth in the wild. Happily, it embraces subtlety rather than over-the-top histrionics, resulting in a study of teenage wildlife that resonates strongly.
  29. Mothers' Instinct
    While the third act delivers the inevitable campy melodrama that’s the chief selling point, it’s the film leading up to it that proves most remarkable: a sincere throwback to a deeply uncool cinema seemingly unconcerned with the ridicule it’ll likely receive.
  30. MoviePass, MovieCrash
    In trying to capture the current state of the exhibition industry, there’s simply too much left unsaid, either for legal reasons or editorial choices.
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