The Globe and Mail (Toronto)'s Scores

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For 7,291 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 48% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 The Red Turtle
Lowest review score: 0 The Mod Squad
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,349 out of 7291
  2. Mixed: 1,826 out of 7291
  3. Negative: 1,116 out of 7291
7291 movie reviews
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  1. Ridicule
    Ridicule is, finally, a movie that shows it understands the mechanism of wit and hierarchy intimately, and rejects it unequivocally in favour of the more inclusive and gentle world of humour. [11 Dec 1996, p.C1]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  2. Wendy and Lucy
    This is where the movie excels. In the classic neo-realist tradition, it's scant in plot yet rich in mood and character, offering us a revealing hint here, a poignant glimpse there, with each revelation filtered through Michelle Williams's superbly muted performance, all the more moving for being so restrained.
  3. The Testament of Ann Lee
    Seyfried, who has already cemented her status as one of today’s most beguiling and unpredictable performers – any other actress would get whiplash going from playing tech-schemer Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout to a betrayed opera virtuoso in Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils to the sudsy theatrics of last week’s The Housemaid to this – is simply phenomenal.
  4. X
    West’s direction is exacting and rigorous. From the filmmaker’s more formal experimentations right down to the soundtrack, which is perfect, X feels like the exact movie its maker set out to create. Also on the money is Mia Goth’s performance as Maxine, a starry-eyed ingenue who is equal parts ordinary and glittering in her ambition and sexuality.
  5. The Sparks Brothers
    The film is too long for the non-enthusiast. And we don’t learn much about the brothers’ personal lives – it’s as if they exist for the band and nothing else. But even if the music isn’t your thing, it’s hard not to admire the duo’s commitment to their creative impulses.
  6. The Wrestler
    The excesses are easy to forgive, both for the humour and charisma of Rourke's outsized performance and Aronofsky's canny low-key direction, which make for a combination that is irresistible.
  7. The Hours
    This ranks among the highest concentrations of acting talent brought to any screen. But let's spare no praise for David Hare, whose superb script draws heavily on his playwrighting skills.
  8. Junebug
    A movie that gets wonderfully under your skin.
  9. Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles
    Toes will tap, a tear or two might be shed – a complex story about a deceivingly complex musical is adoringly told and ultimately simplified. “As long as humankind continues to have struggles,” asserts one talking head, “Fiddler on the Roof will be there.” File under: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
  10. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
    There is real emotion and purpose pumped into the tiny picture – it has a heart as big as its title character is small.
  11. The Secret in Their Eyes
    The wonder is that the film balances its many genres, from the thorns of murder to the bloom of romance to the thickets of politics, with such easy grace.
  12. Good Time
    Tense, immersive and excellently assaulting, Good Time is hella time.
  13. Food, Inc.
    In many areas, Food Inc. could be accused of being a fast-food version of a documentary – it's everywhere at once, skipping across the surface of a vast subject, and adding nuggets of sweetness to the scary filler.
  14. The Secret World of Arrietty
    The result is an intriguing hybrid, mixing a Japanese reverence for nature (a raindrop shimmering on a leaf is a visual haiku) with quaint Victorian architecture and a story featuring contemporary, Caucasian-looking Japanese characters speaking in American accents. Somehow, it all works.
  15. The Mastermind
    As is the case with much of Reichardt’s work, The Mastermind is a genre movie that zeroes in on a formula only to meticulously scrawl over it in jet-black ink.
  16. Prince of the City
    Divided into five parts, the film is the most ambitious, realistic, thorough and scrupulous feature yet released by a major studio on the subject of cops and corruption...As portrayed electrifyingly - sometimes a little too electrifyingly - by Williams, Ciello's reasons for becoming a stoolie are as complex as his reasons for becoming a cop. [29 Aug 1981]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  17. Four Daughters
    As unflinching as it is empathetic, Four Daughters is the best and slipperiest kind of film, whether you want to label it a documentary or not.
  18. Central Station
    Easily among the top 10 films made last year.
  19. The Queen of Versailles
    Everything about The Queen of Versailles, a documentary both sharply observant and deliciously funny, is jumbo-sized – the riches, the rags, his ego, her breasts, their steroidal pursuit of happiness.
  20. Incendies
    With Incendies, Villeneuve attempts to balance moment-by-moment authenticity and operatic emotional impact. Much of the time, he succeeds.
  21. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
    A cornball charmer of a film with some beautiful birds and homespun wisdom.
  22. A Fish Called Wanda
    May be less than the sum of its parts, but its parts are more impressive than most other wholes around.
  23. Nine Queens
    Often more ingenious in appearance than fact. The hunter-gets-captured-by-the-game scenario is predictable and the sequence of shell games does not, when reconsidered, actually add up.
  24. Incredibles 2
    Big, annoying, and mostly pointless.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Totally Under Control
    You might be ready to throw a rock through your screen. Now it would be cool if Gibney could turn his attention to how the Canadian provinces messed up, too.
  26. Gleason
    It’s a tough watch, but inspiring.
  27. Casino Royale
    The payoff is the revitalization of Bond by making him closer to what Fleming envisaged: a sociopath who, fortunately, is on our side.
  28. Much Ado About Nothing
    Much Ado About Nothing is side-show Shakespeare, neither vulgar nor memorable - it's a date movie for couples who read. [7 May 1993]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  29. Kokuho
    The pace moves from the hustle-bustle of daily business carried out over five decades to moments of stillness from the artform – the flick of a fan and a hand moving in gentle waves, for example. The actors bring the drama to life, without being overly dramatic.
  30. Cinema Paradiso
    Cinema Paradiso converts you to the credo that art can indeed be holy.
  31. Ad Astra
    The new film is easily’s Gray’s most ambitious, bare-your-soul work, and one of the finest films of the year, too.
  32. In the Company of Men
    In the end, like any satire worth the name, In the Company of Men spins around to fire its biggest salvo at its ultimate target -- the audience.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    A Bronx Tale
    Yet this surprisingly lyrical movie more than satisfies overall. De Niro, who has a rare eye for detail and nuance, shows himself at ease with action, comedy and romance. He also has a fine touch with actors. [1 Oct 1993, p. C5]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  34. Bugsy
    It's a shame that Levinson's pace is so stately and that his staid directorial choices fall short of the risky work undertaken by his actors and scriptwriter. Bugsy's life cheated his own genius; this movie cheats the genius who would embody that life. [13 Dec 1991]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  35. American Honey
    It’s bold, captivating cinema, with a soundtrack that threatens to never leave your head.
  36. You Hurt My Feelings
    Nearly every performance here is excellent, a beautiful balance of nerves and neuroses.
  37. True Grit
    As usual, the Coens' visual elements are pristine. The contrasting colours in the fire-lit interiors are gorgeous, while cinematographer Roger Deakins keeps the camera close, resisting traditional panoramic views.
  38. A Hidden Life
    When Malick reaches the end of Jaggerstatter’s story, A Hidden Life does reach something profound. Relief, maybe, that the film was over. But also a distinct pang that some filmmakers never change.
  39. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
    The comedy is clever; the study of family dynamics is sharper still. Sandler's performance is superb, his character limping through the movie psychically as well as physically.
  40. The Blair Witch Project
    An ultra-cheap movie, ingeniously promoted through the Internet -- is notable primarily as a model of guerrilla-style niche-marketing.
  41. Housekeeping for Beginners
    In lesser hands, this chaos might tumble into melodrama or farce. But Stolevski’s actors deliver such naturalistic performances, and he writes such specific dialogue . . . that you care deeply about what happens to these people.
  42. Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
    It tells a well-crafted story; the new characters are invigorating; the old characters are reintroduced tidily. But it is also far too enamoured with the power of its own history.
  43. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
    McNaughton's film, which has been described as "too arty for the blood crowd and too bloody for the art crowd," is an exercise in revulsion by an often skilled filmmaker. [8 Oct 1990]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  44. Spellbound
    Loses its momentum just when you'd expect the suspense to mount -- at the competition itself.
  45. Rabbit-Proof Fence
    Not until the final shot does Noyce rise up to the potential of the history: There's a sudden shiver of recognition, that, my God, these people really lived this.
  46. White God
    Hackle-raising in its intensity.
  47. Whale Rider
    The Canadian film "Atanarjuat" travelled back to the past to meet an ancient legend on its own ground and treated the tale realistically. Whale Rider whisks its legend up into the present, and then adds a touch of lyricism.
  48. The Mill and the Cross
    The Mill and the Cross may thrill you. But be prepared for a fight. Twenty minutes in, your companion may throw up his or her arms and complain, "This is like watching a painting dry." They wouldn't be wrong.
  49. Lean on Pete
    The effortless richness of character that so thoroughly grounded Haigh’s Oscar-nominated "45 Years" and his critical darling "Weekend" is half-heartedly formed in Pete. There is a disquieting sense that the director has fallen prey to the poetics of space at the expense of the lives within it.
  50. Bergman Island
    While the film first regales us in sightseeing tours of the scenic Faro Island, the film ends in an unexpected wallop of heartbreak as Chris begins to describe the film-within-a-film she’s writing in her notebook to her unattentive partner.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Aida's Secrets
    The debut doc is an ambitious attempt to get to the root of a tangled family tree, but the directors' close relationship to Izak (he's their uncle) means they sometimes pay so much attention to the genealogical minutiae that a viewer checks in and out to clear her head.
  52. Barbie
    This Barbie is a modern movie masterpiece that must be seen to be believed.
  53. Minority Report
    More humdrum than horrible. It isn't futuristic film noir; it's just everyday film beige.
  54. We the Animals
    Working mostly with non-professional actors, Zagar also wrings some heartbreaking performances out of his young cast, especially Rosado, whose Jonah seems teetering at the edge of something he may never understand.
  55. Wild Rose
    We’re watching Buckley electrify the screen today. May her voice rattle in your head for the rest of the year.
  56. The Simpsons Movie
    On the positive side, it's still four back-to-back Simpsons episodes, which is still better than most of what either television or the movies have to offer.
  57. Off the Rails
    His story here is well-woven, with the kind-hearted voices of psychiatrists, playwrights, family members, lawyers and the gregarious McCollum himself failing to come up with a solution on how to handle an autistic, obsessive and irresponsible rail rider.
  58. Strange Darling
    Fitzgerald gives a strong performance, especially considering the lack of depth her character is afforded, but her impact is drowned out by the film’s truly rancid attempt at upending the gendered inferences that Mollner has staged her character within.
  59. Riding Giants
    Too long by about 20 minutes, and arguably too obsessed with the lineage of names only of interest to other surfers, this is a vicarious kick.
  60. Boy and the World
    A magical and often bleak parable about societal clashes.
  61. Room 237
    Are these enlightened critics or dark nutcases themselves?
  62. The Beast
    Classical and ultramodern – Bonello closes things off with a QR code, of all things – The Beast is an experience both bold and rich.
  63. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
    Hanks is, not surprisingly, excellently cast, but it’s Heller’s direction and inventive aesthetic instinct – everything is washed out browns, with the exception of a moving blue-lit finale – that sell the work so well.
  64. The Forty-Year-Old Version
    Blank is hilarious and candid in this must-watch film. Every moment she breaks the fourth wall with an eye roll is worthy of a freeze frame.
  65. Compartment No. 6
    Russia’s stark landscape makes for breathtaking and sometimes comical scenes. This is a trip well worth taking.
  66. Lucky
    Making his directorial debut is actor John Carroll Lynch (no relation to David Lynch). This first-timer quirks things up occasionally with surreal scenes of a nightmare and an on-the-nose allegory (Lucky walking toward an exit sign and standing at an abyss).
  67. 7 Prisoners
    This could have been a thriller, but thrills are cheap and Moratto aims for something more documentative, sombre and meditative. It’s about paying debts and the illusionary concept of freedom.
  68. Anne at 13,000 ft
    Anne is such a startling and overwhelming work that the act of discussing it can feel unapproachable and crippling.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Call Me Kuchu
    Even in death, Kato has been harassed. In one of this movie’s many unsettling scenes, a pastor interrupts his funeral to condemn the dead man to eternal damnation.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Berberian Sound Studio
    Director Peter Strickland brilliantly ratchets up the tension without showing a single frame of the grisly film.
  71. Measures for a Funeral
    Audrey is the best kind of inscrutable hero, as precise in her obsession as she is enigmatic in every other aspect of her life. For moviegoers starving for something new who, like Audrey, have nearly given up the ghost, Measures for a Funeral is a symphony, full and rich.
  72. North Dallas Forty
    Despite these advantages, North Dallas Forty's descents into farce and into the lone man versus the corrupt system mentality deprive it of real resonance. It's still not the honest portrait of professional athletics that sport buffs have been waiting for. It is, though, a stylish cut above most films of this type. [4 Aug 1979]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  73. Tokyo Sonata
    Turns out to be one of the most compelling, finely orchestrated and oddly enchanting films of the year so far.
  74. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
    Can a little-read 18th-century literary masterpiece be food-spittingly funny? Can it also include contemporary English actors riffing about their bad teeth, getting drunk and kissing their personal assistants? The answer is yes, as long as you agree that the best way to adapt an original book is with a correspondingly original film.
  75. Good Night, and Good Luck.
    Good Night, and Good Luck may be simplified history, but it's almost consistently well-crafted.
  76. Firecrackers
    Firecrackers is not as casually joyful as its title suggests – but it is absolutely as incendiary.
  77. David Crosby: Remember My Name
    Crosby, as we learn in the fascinating documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name, is no easy rider. He’s no easy anything. What he is is stunningly self-aware, relentlessly candid and highly interested in the subject at hand, which is himself.
  78. Aquarela
    Aquarela’s soundtrack shifts from ambient post-rock to gnarly speed-metal to widescreen strings. The effect is a serenely apocalyptic warning: Climate change is a killer, with water as its indiscriminately lethal weapon.
  79. The Pearl Button
    This haunting Chilean documentary is more poetry than journalism as filmmaker Patricio Guzman compares the fate of the indigenous people of Patagonia with that of the disappeared of the Pinochet regime.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Deep Water
    Even though the subject of this British documentary is a traveller who got lost in a more terrestrial sort of void, the spirit of the stranded astronaut haunts Deep Water.
  81. Lorna's Silence
    Upbeat it ain't, but when the light fades from the final frame, there remains something unusual in the Dardennes canon – the possibility of an escape from futility's clutches, and a reason for hope that might, just might, be more than an illusion.
  82. California Typewriter
    There's a certain nostalgia at work here, but where the film really clicks is on the subject of the creative process and as a meditation on the human-machine dynamic.
  83. Coraline
    Presented the usual way, the film would be enchanting. In 3-D, however, Coraline is completely engrossing. Selick uses the technique brilliantly to enhance the comedy and horror that mingle in his more "family-friendly" version of Gaiman's dark story.
  84. Too Late to Die Young
    The director simply trusts that his performers and sun-dappled visuals will carry the film forward. And he’s right – there’s little narrative propulsion to Too Late to Die Young, yet it hums along with a vibrant humanity all the same.
  85. Little Miss Sunshine
    Though Little Miss Sunshine is consistently contrived in its characters' too-cute misery, the conclusion, which is genuinely outrageous and uplifting, is almost worth the hype.
  86. Sweetgrass
    An anthropological marvel and an animal-drive movie that belongs beside the classics of the genre - Red River and Lonesome Dove.
  87. The Old Man & the Gun
    The pace is leisurely; this is no amped-up police procedural. I love what savvy director David Lowery does with the camera, panning here and there, picking up stray sights and happenings. Top-rate stuff.
  88. Tarzan
    Too busy to be boring or deeply engaging, Tarzan is an efficient Disney treatment of a time-tested story. The results aren't bad, just not quite worth a chest-pounding victory yell.
  89. West of Memphis
    In a well-paced two and a half hours, Berg's film is an ambitious mixture of summary and fresh investigation.
  90. Frost/Nixon
    Shakespeare would have delighted in the chapter, especially in the antagonist, but not at the expense of the longer and darker and still-unfinished book.
  91. Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One
    Arabian Nights is a remarkable achievement, but also an erratic one.
  92. Get Carter
    You can practically taste the grit and grime of the mean streets of this North of England setting. [17 Aug 1996, p.11]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  93. Eat Drink Man Woman
    Yep, just like a good meal - you feel satisfied without feeling stuffed. There's also a pleasant, lingering aftertaste - deceptively clever, even wise moments that sneak back up on you, demanding re-examination. [16 Sep 1994]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  94. Senna
    The crash, lethal in an eye-blink, was hard to watch when I saw it live on television, and it's not any easier here. The day was clear – no rain in sight.
  95. The Lost Leonardo
    Whatever the experts say, any viewer can observe the large gap between the damaged original and the perfect restoration. Perhaps the only definitive thing one can say about the most expensive painting in the world is that, regardless of who painted it in the 16th century, it is a creature of the 21st.
  96. Time Bandits
    Time Bandits is the best children's picture since The Black Stallion, but it is a satiric, inventive, fantastical vacation for the filmgoer of any age: imagine an intelligent Raiders of the Lost Ark with a deeply bitchy sense of humor. [06 Nov 1981]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  97. Beyond the Hills
    If you long for the bleak intelligence of an Ingmar Bergman film, where humankind is deeply flawed and God is indifferently silent and the landscape is cloaked in perpetual winter, then Beyond the Hills promises to be your cup of despair.
  98. Wife of a Spy
    The story is captivating, the characters are magnificently fleshed out, and the emotional stakes are entirely, utterly believable.
  99. Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
    Life is the collection of memories, and Campbell is losing them. But there is solace in the reality that you will not miss what you cannot recall.
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