The Guardian's Scores

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For 6,577 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 London Road
Lowest review score: 0 Melania
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,494 out of 6577
  2. Mixed: 3,764 out of 6577
  3. Negative: 319 out of 6577
6577 movie reviews
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  1. Polite Society
    The first half is so energetically surefooted as to establish trust in Manzoor’s instincts and hopes for a second feature. But like The Fury’s would-be signature kick that Ria struggles to nail, Polite Society banks on one big swing it just isn’t able to pull off.
  2. The Bob's Burgers Movie
    It functions elegantly as both a victory lap for longtime fans and a belated introduction to the Belchers, a family of lovable misfits and cranks that’s as genuinely close as any on television.
  3. Bring Her Back
    The whole thing is underscored by barnstorming performances from Wong and Hawkins.
  4. The LEGO Batman Movie
    It doesn’t have the heart, the depth or the novelty of the first Lego movie, but it is relentlessly, consistently funny – which excuses everything.
  5. Kate Plays Christine
    Greene makes it clear early on that his interests lie less with a news report than with what Werner Herzog dubbed “ecstatic truth”. The dial swerves between “catching something” to “clearly rehearsed” and back again, and all to the betterment of the final project.
  6. Funny or Die Presents: Donald Trump's the Art of the Deal: The Movie
    All good stuff from Depp, although by sending up Trump’s 1980s period, it feels a little off the money, and this is a figure who has already somehow absorbed derision into his skin and made himself immune to it.
  7. Monica
    This is a tremendously crafted, impeccably intelligent film.
  8. Microbe and Gasoline
    If this film were a person, you’d want to give it a big hug, as you would a gawky teenager, and reassure it that it will be tough out there, that not everyone is going to get its idiosyncratic charms, but that’s OK because it’s awesome just the way it is.
  9. Trainwreck
    While there are things to quibble with, there is also so much to like, and Trainwreck is still an important film. The romantic comedy, which it ultimately becomes, has been a dying genre of late, and Schumer’s effort, while flawed, is a reminder of what can make the genre so likable
  10. Sister Midnight
    It’s a great comic turn from Apte who deserves to be better known.
  11. Emily
    This is a sensually imaginative dive into the life of the Wuthering Heights author: it is a real passion project for O’Connor, with some wonderfully arresting insights.
  12. Orlando
    I’ve never been sure exactly how profound this movie is, and it sometimes teeters on the edge of complacency, but it has a trance-inducing strangeness and Swinton is insouciantly magnetic at all times.
  13. When Lambs Become Lions
    I’m not sure that I was completely on board with this film, which appears to have smoothly carpentered its narrative in the edit. Is it almost too good to be true?
  14. Origin
    The result is a film with urgency and heartfelt sympathy, but one which I couldn’t help thinking may have been better served as a documentary to focus more directly on the issues involved.
  15. Rebuilding
    It is another highly sympathetic performance from O’Connor, who converts the British reticence of his earlier roles into Dusty’s strength and quiet vulnerability.
  16. Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
    It’s a celebration of her musicality and extraterrestrial scariness, and a reminder that films about female singing stars need not be gallant tributes to tragically doomed fragility.
  17. Plot for Peace
    It's a fascinating story.
  18. A House of Dynamite
    I watched this film with translucently white knuckles but also that strange climbing nausea that only this topic can create.
  19. Okja
    The pure energy and likability of this film make it such a pleasure.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    National Bird
    With stealth and elegance, Kennebeck brings these alarming truths into the light.
  21. Lucky
    This clever thriller teeters on the brink of abstraction, and walks a razor wire between horror and an incredulous absurdity meant to stand for how women must live in the modern world: the daily toll of living in fear of aggression, physical assault and withstanding the misogynistic structures that excuse them.
  22. Titane
    For its sheer silliness and towering pointlessness, Julia Ducournau’s gonzo body-horror shaggy-dog story deserves some points.
  23. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
    Billy Wilder's distinctive, irreverent slant on the world's greatest "consulting detective" holds up reasonably well 32 years on; you wouldn't expect anything directed by Wilder and scripted by his long-time associate IAL Diamond to be anything less than funny and watchable, and this is both.
  24. Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII
    One for the fans, perhaps, and a vivid Gradiva-esque glimpse of the past.
  25. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
    A sequel that is slick with silliness, but peppered with enough wit and peril to sustain the franchise’s momentum.
  26. In the Last Days of the City
    It’s a melancholy, interesting film, slightly opaque, a cine-journal about the way youth is clouded by experience.
  27. Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara
    Bellocchio shows us a brutal convulsion of tyranny, power and bigotry with echoes of the Dreyfus affair in France, and later, horrific events.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Frozen
    Frozen hews to real, recognisable plumb-lines and casts a lingering spell.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    They Died with Their Boots On
    They Died With Their Boots On is a shameful whitewashing of history. Great battles, though.
  30. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
    I can't help thinking that the most interesting things happen in the precredit sequence - the fraught childhood, Blanche's sinister "accident" - but it's still vivid, barnstorming stuff.
  31. Hatching
    An elegantly horrible coming-of-age.
  32. Diamantino
    The film is fun, but, for all its inventiveness, it’s a bit tame, with its nice-but-dim hero. But Diamantino is never dull.
  33. True History of the Kelly Gang
    It is a very grueling spectacle, often brilliant, sometimes slightly redundant and perhaps not able to maintain the storytelling rush of its first act. But it is always weirdly plausible in its pure strangeness and in the oddly poignant moments
  34. Life, Animated
    It’s a beguiling mix of animated storytelling and narration that doesn’t flinch from exploring the emotional highs and lows that accompany a life with autism.
  35. Mandibles
    Mandibules is a rollicking, rambunctious tequila-dream of a movie.
  36. They Cloned Tyrone
    It all bounces along amiably enough, due to the high-octane work of Boyega, Foxx and Parris. Perhaps they deserve to be in a more serious film or in a comedy that was skewed more to grownups. Well, it’s a film with its own peculiarly unexpected innocence and charm.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
    High-school students have plenty of growing pains to offload, and Gomez-Rejon clearly knows what makes them tick. His film is at once buzzy, fun and confronting.
  38. Porcelain War
    A sombre, steadfast argument for art’s life-giving properties.
  39. Citizen Ashe
    The issues involved here might have been discussed a little more extensively and the provenance and context of the TV interview archive material could have been labelled more clearly. But this is a decent film.
  40. A Bigger Splash
    As with I Am Love, Guadagnino has put together something utterly distinctive here, a cocktail of intense emotions, transcendent surroundings and unexpected detours. A real pleasure.
  41. The Kid Detective
    In writer-director Evan Morgan’s unusual neo-noir The Kid Detective, it’s not just a suspect or a motive that’s a red herring, it’s an entire genre, a strange rug-pull of a movie that starts in the middle of the road before ending up off a cliff, in a way that both works and doesn’t, a fascinating gambit nonetheless.
  42. Very Semi-Serious
    It’s a minor work that knows its place in the margins, but is thought-provoking and surreptitiously insightful – and very funny.
  43. The Mission
    Though effective in filling in the gaps of Chau’s story, the impressionistic animation dramatising his final moments commits a similar sin as the swashbuckling tales of yore, and makes a spectacle out of a tragedy that is ultimately not all that mysterious or abstract – but in fact grounded in material sociopolitical contexts.
  44. What Maisie Knew
    The adults' behaviour is almost as confusing for us as it is for her. It's a neat trick that reminds us these weighty adult issues are both life-changing and, in the moment, somewhat insignificant to someone Maisie's age.
  45. Frankenweenie
    It's a likable film, though not a sensational development in Tim Burton's career.
  46. Strawberry Mansion
    Beneath the crazy candy-coloured palette, there is actually some real human warmth in the love story, and the acting ensemble features some great comic performers in supporting roles.
  47. Romería
    Simón has an instinctive and almost miraculous way of just immersing herself within extended freewheeling family scenes – her camera moving unobtrusively in the group, like another teenager at the party, quietly noticing everything.
  48. Southside with You
    Southside With You uses our affection for the Obamas to add urgency in the otherwise simple script.
  49. Bottoms
    Bottoms is actually a bizarrely violent film, and its plot is always teetering on the brink of pure incoherence, but it’s always funny, thanks to the goofy and winning comic presences of Sennott and Edebiri.
  50. Wild
    Vallée, in collaboration with screenwriter Nick Hornby, gives the film its energy by pulling the narrative apart. They create a two-hour hallucinatory montage of the hike and Cheryl's back story that's wound together with the songs, phrases and poetry that she recited to herself as she walked.
  51. Beastie Boys Story
    This film is a time capsule of the 1980s: an era that was crass and excessive in so many ways, but now seems weirdly exotic.
  52. On the Count of Three
    While it’s ultimately a little too messy to work quite as well as it could have, given the interesting and ambitious ingredients, On the Count of Three is proof that Carmichael is a director to be excited about, hoping that perhaps he finds time to write his next script himself.
  53. The Sea Beast
    The Sea Beast gets the balance just right between rollicking action scenes, the inevitable didactic anti-hunting message about respecting other species’ right to exist and family-friendly humour.
  54. Raya and the Last Dragon
    While some of the beats might be a little too predictable and while the emotional wallop at the end might be more of a gentle tap, Raya and the Last Dragon works for the most part, a charming, sweet-natured YA-leaning adventure that acts as proof that Disney needs to focus on moving forward rather than continuing to look back.
  55. The Stone Roses: Made of Stone
    Meadows is clearly not interested in lifting the biographical lid on anyone, just getting alongside the band, and picking up on their energy, vulnerability and excitement. He has no agenda; he just loves the Stone Roses, and it's a great, heartfelt tribute.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Salt of the Earth
    Salt of the Earth has humour, genuine feeling and great sincerity: it's a film about hope.
  57. Scala!!!
    A very entertaining madeleine for movie-going of the analogue age.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Oliver!
    Some of the set pieces are overdone but the final scenes take on an almost operatic quality.
  59. When the Light Breaks
    The two women’s scenes together give the film its most interesting moments.
  60. Polisse
    A drama with interesting moments, but also some false notes and a wildly bizarre ending.
  61. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
    It’s a powerful, immersively detailed film, with three outstanding performances.
  62. Smoking Causes Coughing
    The cumulative effect is very pleasurable. The film has got some Python, Douglas Adams, Charlie Kaufman and also John Waters and Ed Wood Jr in it; it’s also possible that Dupieux has seen Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in Stanley Donen’s Bedazzled.
  63. Catherine Called Birdy
    In Dunham’s hands, the throughline of enduring and discovering one’s worth, however historically imagined, is at once a comfort and a lark.
  64. Mary and The Witch's Flower
    The film has charm as well as a certain deja vu for audiences, although for me it didn’t quite have the distinction of Marnie.
  65. The Measure of a Man
    The Measure of a Man’s decision to keep its conflicts so microscopic in the service of realism is a real problem. Put bluntly, Brize’s touch is so light that it’s immeasurable.
  66. McCullin
    McCullin emerges as an unsentimental, plain-speaking, thoughtful man, disgusted at the inhumanity of war – and yet candid about how he is also personally and professionally drawn to its drama.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Western
    Poirier directs with a clear eye, an unsentimental mind and a fine ear for table talk. The humour, and there is plenty of it, comes from within, coloured by a view of the human race that combines realism with affection. [08 May 1998, p.7]
    • The Guardian
  68. My Old Ass
    Plaza’s natural toughness gives this film some texture, but the truth is she isn’t in it much. You can spend very, very long stretches of the running time longing for her to re-emerge. So, when she doesn’t, it feels bland.
  69. Jackass Forever
    “This isn’t a Mensa convention!” says one player. Is that disingenuous? Isn’t there, in fact, some advanced showbiz intelligence and surrealist savvy in the way Jackass is set up and edited? Either way, it has a horror-comedy impact.
  70. The Three Musketeers - Part 2: Milady
    It’s still a tremendous spectacle: all four of the musketeers are very attractive characters, particularly the noble and agonised Civil as D’Artagnan.
  71. Computer Chess
    Bujalski really has pulled off something extraordinary here.
  72. Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo
    The film has its own specific vibe, thanks in part to the writer-directors’ unique, immersive sense of the milieu and the leads’ tender chemistry.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Casting JonBenét
    This isn’t really a film in search of a definitive truth – it’s a deliberate provocation to the conventional notion of truth in the age of media frenzies over salacious crime.
  74. Unrelated
    As if from nowhere, a first-time British film-maker has appeared with a tremendously accomplished, subtle and supremely confident feature, authorially distinctive and positively dripping with technique.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Gun Crazy
    It's a superbly crafted film by a cult film-maker and features a virtuoso bank robbery sequence shot in a single take from a camera in the back seat of a car.
  76. Midwives
    This is a dark reminder that even childbirth, that most universal human experience, can be clouded by sectarianism and suspicion.
  77. Bones and All
    Bones And All is an extravagant and outrageous movie: scary, nasty and startling in its warped romantic idealism.
  78. Motel Destino
    This film is terrifically acted by its central trio: three intensely and unselfconsciously physical performances in which their bodies are frequently on show, sensual but fragile.
  79. Dune: Part One
    Villeneuve is superb at juxtaposing the colossal spectacle with the intimate encroachment of danger and a mysterious dramatic language that exalts the alienness of every texture and surface.
  80. The Invitation
    While some viewers may complain that the action is too heavily weighted toward the ending, I’d argue that this is a strong example of destination-not-the-journey film-making.
  81. In the Shadow of Women
    Garrel struggles to unearth anything new. The mechanics of the relationships on show fail to lead anywhere unexpected while the dialogue is often flat and on-the-nose.
  82. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
    This is a tear-jerker that does not shrink from using plangent piano chords on the soundtrack to tell you when to feel sad, but it also has something interesting to say about intergenerational wealth.
  83. Rush
    What Rush has to offer is a great human drama, two dangerously talented men pushing each other to risky victory and a superb script, delivered with some mastery by Hemsworth and Brühl.
  84. The Half of It
    The Half of It is a strong, warm-hearted and quietly progressive addition to the expanding Netflix teen movie pack which treats its target audience with the respect they deserve.
  85. Armageddon Time
    Gray has given us tough, sinewy and memorable New York movies in the past such as The Yards and We Own the Night, but this is weighed down with a sentimental and self-regarding staginess.
  86. Lovesong
    Keough and Malone convey a palpable sense of yearning for one another during these sequences, but Kim and Bradley Rust Gray’s barebones script doesn’t match their efforts.
  87. Colette
    This is a highly enjoyable and bracing piece of work from Wash Westmoreland.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Workshop
    It’s a film which demonstrates that debate, the exchange of ideas, can be as thrilling as any ramped up action flick.
  89. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
    This new animated origin story for the chelonian adventurers is unexpectedly funny, with a rather stylish crepuscular design.
  90. Disobedience
    This is richly satisfying and powerfully acted work.
  91. Becoming Cousteau
    Becoming Cousteau is no hagiography, but greater distance might have also allowed Garbus to reflect more on the man’s environmental legacy.
  92. Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words
    Eat That Question does a good job of giving us just a taste of nearly every era in Zappa’s multifaceted career.
  93. Woman of the Hour
    It’s a fascinating and frightening stranger-than-fiction tale and is an unusual choice for Kendrick’s directorial debut. She makes a convincing first-time film-maker, capturing the feel of a time and a number of places with ease.
  94. Hidden Figures
    Hidden Figures is a bouncy, almost garish feelgood girl pic. A movie that knows right from wrong and doesn’t see any use in complicating matters.
  95. Sylvie's Love
    It’s a film that both looks and feels the part, a handsomely made love story that’s easy to fall in love with.
  96. Eno
    You could almost call [Eno] a meta-artist. And this is his meta-documentary; it is not, ultimately, as radical as it purports to be, or as revealing as it could have been perhaps (some external viewpoints would have been welcome), but stimulating and cerebral all the same.
  97. The Infiltrators
    The varied ingredients blend together well.
  98. Assassins
    What an extraordinary story of sexism, violence, diplomatic bad faith and dishonesty on an international scale.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
    This desire to pull punches in presenting his darker side beyond occasional lip service makes for a viewing experience where we often feel we aren’t getting the whole picture for fear of offending the recently deceased.
  100. A Couple
    It is a thoroughly intelligent production, a film festival event that could not exist in the rough-and-tumble of regular movie distribution but will I hope find a home on streaming services.
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