The New Republic's Scores

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For 489 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 39% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 59% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Lowest review score: 0 Hulk
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 285 out of 489
  2. Mixed: 159 out of 489
  3. Negative: 45 out of 489
489 movie reviews
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  1. Imaginary Heroes
    The result is almost like a film we have seen before but don't mind seeing again. The dialogue is generally fresh, the relationships ring true.
  2. Q & A
    If you want glossy New York, see Woody Allen’s Manhattan. If you want the New York that makes people’s faces look the way they do in the subway, see Lumet.
  3. The Secret Lives of Dentists
    It has almost no story: its claim on our interest is in the texture of family life, which is what really fills the screen.
  4. Strayed
    Téchiné has a reputation in France as an especially empathic director of women--Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche among them--and he has understood this Odile very well.
  5. The Flower of Evil
    The latest Chabrol is a bit bland, but by now a new film of his is almost like meeting a previously unencountered family member.
  6. Do the Right Thing
    There's a great deal in black America that has yet to reach the screen, and Lee is a prime candidate, in gift and gall, to help fill the gap. [July 3, 1989]
    • The New Republic
  7. The History Boys
    At the last, despite the modern touches in Bennett's screenplay, The History Boys fills the traditional bill. Wellington would probably not be too upset by it. Eventually it tells us that Waterloo is still in pretty good hands.
  8. Amazing Grace
    The dialogue is bright, historically styled yet lithe; the characterizations are graphic even with minor people.
  9. Sangre De Mi Sangre
    And Jesus Ochoa, the veteran actor who plays Diego, makes us jealous of Mexico. How easily powerful he is, how complex without pretense.
  10. Pretty Woman
    No one is expected to believe Pretty Woman . We're just supposed to enjoy it... Pretty Woman wants only to engage us for two hours, and it does. [16 Apr 1990, p.26]
    • The New Republic
  11. Nowhere in Africa
    This is a fictional film, but it is based on a novel by Stefanie Zweig that is autobiographical. The adaptation was done by the director Caroline Link, whose screenplay is serviceable and whose directing is generally sure.
  12. Head-On
    Burns with sincerity and serious intent.
  13. Absolute Wilson
    This film is a valuable signet of Wilson's carefully articulated independence.
  14. Batman
    It's relatively easy to convey the claustral in interior scenes, but [designer] Furst and the director Tim Burton do it even when the setting is a great flight of steps before the municipal building or the huge square where Batman and the joker confront each other. [31 July 1989, p.24]
    • The New Republic
  15. The Inheritance
    Once we learn the story's terrain, we have a pretty good idea of the paths it will follow. Still, because the picture is tidily directed and acted--in one case, better than that--it has the comforts of well-made old things.
  16. The Safety of Objects
    The result is not a quilt, just a succession of story snippets that keep interrupting one another.
  17. Absolute Power
    Flies into the improbable at its big moments. [17 Mar 1997, p. 28]
    • The New Republic
  18. There's Something About Mary
    The gem in this rag pile is Cameron Diaz as Mary: quick, witty, pretty, warm. There is something about Mary. [17 Aug 1998]
    • The New Republic
  19. 2046
    The story is multiplex and unclear.
  20. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
    Though there is plenty of action, particularly at the start and at the end with two blasting sea battles, much of the film is not sufficiently interesting.
  21. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
    More amusing than exciting. [19 June 1989, p.28]
    • The New Republic
  22. Mystic River
    Little more than the distended first half of a twisty, dark "Law & Order" script.
  23. Open Range
    Many sequences, many moments, are turned skillfully, and the look of the film is much of the time breathtaking. Yet, for its entire two hours and fifteen minutes, we merely watch it. It is there. We are here, regrettably objective.
  24. Mondovino
    Mondovino is repetitious. The version that is being shown here runs 131 minutes and would be more effective with about twenty minutes of condensation.
  25. Private Fears in Public Places
    The picture is so suavely made that we don't feel disappointed until it is over: what chiefly holds us is the quality of the acting.
  26. Down in the Valley
    What keeps us watching? Chiefly it is Edward Norton's performance as Harlan. It is hard to doubt his belief in everything he says, no matter how silly or dangerous it sounds.
  27. Monsieur Ibrahim
    At least we have the chance to see Sharif again, with our memory of the sun behind him, even though this film is not much more than a sweetmeat--Turkish delight.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Man with the Golden Arm
    The film is a pretty good picture show, as we used to say, but anyone who has read Nelson Algren’s wonderfully poetic novel is likely to make invidious comparisons and be otherwise distracted, particularly when the film strives to narrow itself to a problem of drug addiction. 
  29. Winter Solstice
    Sternfeld not only deals empathically with his cast, he seems to know that his screenplay is not very novel or stirring; nonetheless, he wants to present these human beings in their skins, so to speak.
  30. Iron Island
    Well-photographed and adequately directed and acted, Iron Island is (painless) propaganda, informing us about domestic peace and goodwill. And this film, too, leaves us with a question: why does the currently aggressive Iran want the world, especially our chunk of it, to see what it is "really" like?
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