The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,269 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Short Cuts
Lowest review score: 0 Gummo
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9,377 out of 20269
  2. Mixed: 8,428 out of 20269
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 20269
20269 movie reviews
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  1. The One and Only Dick Gregory
    By covering so much ground, it doesn’t have room to dig too deep. But along with some very funny footage of a master of his craft, it offers a convincing argument that while Gregory became famous for his comedy, what made him such a riveting cultural figure is what he did after he left it behind.
  2. Zola
    There is plenty of drama, and some hard feelings . . . but not a lot of intrigue or honest emotion. I guess if that’s what you’re after, it’s best to stick to Twitter.
  3. Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story
    The dishiness is fun, but Lady Boss is most penetrating when it lifts the carapace of glamour Collins had constructed, both as alter ego and as armor against her critics.
  4. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
    On one hand, this is just cinema. On the other, there’s something about the way that the editing keeps time with the music, the way the talking is enhancing what’s onstage rather than upstaging it. In many of these passages, facts, gyration, jive and comedy are cut across one another yet in equilibrium. So, yeah: cinema, obviously. But also something that feels rarer: syncopation.
  5. Wolfgang
    A fairly vapid and shallow affair, even by the low standards of the celebrity bio-doc subgenre, Wolfgang provides copious archival montages of “the first celebrity chef” (Julia Child apparently didn’t count), but precious little understanding of what actually makes him tick.
  6. Fathom
    At times, the doc feels like science-fiction without the fiction. Swap whales for aliens and these two doctors aglow with the thrill of discovery could double for Jodie Foster in “Contact” or Amy Adams in “Arrival.”
  7. The Ice Road
    As any Neeson watcher will tell you, you don’t mess with his action characters once their dander is up. Sadly, Neeson’s dander is no match for a hackneyed plot, poorly visualized stunts and characters whose behavior can defy common sense.
  8. Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide
    Scharf’s stories of meeting up with Haring (they were roommates for some time) are evocative and moving.
  9. Against the Current
    It’s not difficult to be moved and impressed by Gretarsdottir’s life story, especially when she details the secrecy of her struggles, but the story falls short in tying these emotional threads with her athletic accomplishments in an eloquent manner.
  10. F9: The Fast Saga
    The director Justin Lin, happily brandishing all the expensive digital tools at his disposal, makes “F9” feel scrappy and baroque at the same time. The identity of the brand rests on twin foundations of silliness and sincerity, both of which are honored here.
  11. God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunija
    The standoff with authorities dawdles and languishes, and a side plot with a TV journalist (Labina Mitevska) feels one-note. Still, we should all look forward to seeing what Petrunya does next.
  12. Lourdes
    The movie also shows the volunteers and health care workers who look after the pilgrims during the devotional season. The movie allows these figures moments of frankness — there’s much about their jobs that’s tiring and unappetizing — but the viewer will be mostly impressed by their compassion.
  13. My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To
    This may be dark fodder for a family project, but the result is a visually striking meditation on obligation and complicity.
  14. Rebel Hearts
    The onslaught of information certainly impresses by illuminating a rich and not-often-discussed slice of feminist history, but the execution is distractingly flashy and gratingly unfocused.
  15. Sun Children
    Majid Majidi’s latest feature doesn’t lack in style or charm, using a child’s perspective — a staple in Iranian cinema — to locate beauty and hope in a cynical world. As is often the case with the director’s work, however, precious visuals come at the cost of narrative complexity.
  16. False Positive
    Despite its vaguely unsettling clinical ambience, very little about the film as it makes its way to an ultimately flat and predictable final twist, manages to feel tense or thrilling. Or even funny for that matter.
  17. Sisters on Track
    Both films are conventional in cinematic style, and they constitute the kind of feel-good entertainment that is easy to recommend. But what is timely and interesting — even thorny — about these films is their focus on the economic opportunities generated by athletic achievement
  18. LFG
    Both films are conventional in cinematic style, and they constitute the kind of feel-good entertainment that is easy to recommend. But what is timely and interesting — even thorny — about these films is their focus on the economic opportunities generated by athletic achievement
  19. Lansky
    The heart of this movie, directed by Eytan Rockaway, is the relationship between the writer and his subject. So it’s dismaying when Lansky turns out to include flashbacks, with John Magaro (“First Cow”) playing a much flatter version of the mobster as a young man.
  20. I Carry You with Me
    Turning time and memory into an elliptical portrait of what it means when borders become barriers, I Carry You With Me, the first narrative feature from the documentary filmmaker Heidi Ewing, trades distance for empathy.
  21. Werewolves Within
    Werewolves Within darts between sharp visual gags, intricately choreographed scenes and a few standout performances, but its climax lands with a thud.
  22. Siberia
    I can’t think of other actors at his level who could keep a sense of true north in a nonlinear story like this, from bear scene to sex scene to earnest confrontations, amid quotations from St. Augustine and Nietzsche.
  23. Jagame Thandhiram
    Some moments feel fresh, but the movie’s patterns are familiar: scheme, slaughter, repeat.
  24. Triumph
    Mitte, who played the son in “Breaking Bad” and himself has cerebral palsy, sells Mike’s tenacity, but the contrivances around him let him down.
  25. The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
    The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is loud, lazy, profane and well nigh incoherent. It’s also at times quite funny, with a goofy vulgarity that made me giggle.
  26. The Birthday Cake
    Giannopoulos might be inexperienced, but he’s canny with mood and unafraid to experiment with the rhythms of violence. I, for one, am keen to see what he does next.
  27. Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It
    Moreno is given full rein of her story, which doubles as a case study in the highs and lows of showbiz for a woman of color.
  28. My Name Is Bulger
    The “nothing to see here” focus gives the homey-feeling film the whiff of a sanctioned production.
  29. Fatherhood
    Despite Weitz’s sensitive direction and a superb cast — including Frankie R. Faison as Marian’s patient husband, DeWanda Wise as Matt’s patient love interest and Paul Reiser as his patient boss — Fatherhood can’t quite deliver.
  30. 12 Mighty Orphans
    12 Mighty Orphans is a plodding football drama in which the characters talk to one another like folksy social workers.
  31. Sweet Thing
    Rockwell intentionally reminds his audience of the rich history of American independent cinema, where filmmakers across decades have built dreamscapes out of the textures of everyday interactions.
  32. A Crime on the Bayou
    in covering the repercussions of the branching cases, A Crime on the Bayou shows how superficially straightforward, courageous acts — like refusing to plead guilty unjustly or defending the unjustly accused — are hard.
  33. Summer of 85
    It ultimately stumbles in this balancing act and loses sight of its emotional core, but its efforts remain compelling and delightfully bizarre.
  34. Les Nôtres
    The film’s drama wrestles itself to a standstill (along with leaving some characterization sketchy, like that of a concerned social worker). Yet Leblanc might come closer to the sensation of concealed trauma than movies with more familiar storytelling beats.
  35. The Sparks Brothers
    The Sparks Brothers, an energetic documentary directed by Edgar Wright, explains their appeal in part by emphasizing how it cannot be explained.
  36. Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation
    the connections drawn in Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation are sufficiently instructive that watching and listening to these writers is also, in a way, like hearing one author in stereo.
  37. The French
    Klein weaves all these moments into a story one could call spectacularly earthbound.
  38. Luca
    It’s about the sometimes risky discovery of pleasure, and it’s a pleasure to discover.
  39. Sublet
    Though far from the gold standard of “brief encounter” dramas like Andrew Haigh’s “Weekend,” Sublet nevertheless wins you over with its subtle charm and its mellow depiction of two men forging an unexpected connection.
  40. The Power of Kangwon Province (1998)
    Etched with precision and conveying a world of feeling, The Power of Kangwon Province is the second feature by the South Korean director Hong Sang-soo and one of the best films you can see this year.
  41. Revolution Rent
    Despite the intriguing premise of the film, its cursory and lopsided narrative approach dilutes its salient themes and messages.
  42. The Space Between
    This is one of those movies that never quite sinks to the risible depths you kind of wish it would.
  43. Wish Dragon
    Wish Dragon is a transporting experience, but it’s far from a whole new world.
  44. Queen Bees
    Each of these stalwarts bring more than charisma to their roles, and when the writing itself displays some snap (which admittedly isn’t that often) the performers bite right into it.
  45. La Dosis
    La Dosis harms itself by refusing lucidity. What should be a razor’s edge rivalry plays more like a hamstrung thriller.
  46. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
    If it’s annoying to watch a follow-up snark at itself while implicitly snarking at viewers for buying tickets to a crass-ified Peter Rabbit, the conceit offers evidence that things might have been worse. At least Gluck doesn’t send Peter into space.
  47. Domino: Battle of the Bones
    With its deep ensemble, the movie doesn’t want for colorful characters, and Davis keeps his cast loose, unvarnished and unleashed. But the movie lacks focus when it moves between its larger-than-life plotlines.
  48. Rogue Hostage
    Rogue Hostage is shoddy work.
  49. Censor
    A homage of sorts to the low-budget trash of the period — and a mordantly humorous jab at its excesses — Censor gazes on movie history with style and commitment, but little apparent purpose beyond simulation.
  50. The Misfits
    For the first 20 minutes or so — a blitz of eye candy and ear worms — its breezy action and the performers’ good cheer are enough to entertain. Too soon, though, the movie drifts into narrative doldrums that derail its momentum and drain the cast’s energy.
  51. Asia
    Asia and Vika struggle to emerge as full-fleshed characters from the movie’s dull, blue-grey frames, while the script rushes through provocative plot turns in its bleak procession toward a wrenching conclusion.
  52. Holler
    Riegel has said that Ruth’s story was inspired by her own challenges leaving the area. Even the medium — Super 16-millimeter film, in the era of digital — adds to the ambience of rusting, abandoned machinery.
  53. Infinite
    Infinite muddles around with some wishy-washy Eastern philosophy, and has mostly charmless actors (with the exception of Ejiofor, magnetic against the odds) duel and drive while mouthing exposition that lacks even a wisp of subtext.
  54. In the Heights
    It’s a piece of mainstream American entertainment in the best sense — an assertion of impatience and faith, a celebration of communal ties and individual gumption, a testimony to the power of art to turn struggles into the stuff of dreams.
  55. Awake
    There is no getting around it: Mark Raso’s Awake is bad. But at least it’s so bad that it’s often ludicrously laughable: Netflix may well have a cult turkey on its hands.
  56. Tove
    The soft-focus cinematography is beautiful but drippy, and this general tendency toward mushy melodramatics presents an unflattering contrast to the sharp-lined vivacity that Jansson brought to the page.
  57. Chasing Wonders
    In spite of its tidy running time, Chasing Wonders is diffuse and often limp.
  58. Edge of the World
    Edge of the World plugs its narrative gaps with corn and cliché.
  59. Grace and Grit
    An insufferable movie.
  60. Under the Stadium Lights
    Some sports movies build to inspirational speeches; Under the Stadium Lights treats platitudes as the main event.
  61. Slow Machine
    Difficult to describe and confounding to follow, the film is best when you submit to the surreal nature of it; then, you will be open to witnessing one of this year’s most mesmerizing movies unfold. Films of such lo-fi aesthetics rarely feel this major.
  62. City of Ali
    The nuances of Ali’s relationship with Louisville — where Ali faced discrimination as a Black American and controversy for his refusal to be drafted — tend to get lost in the celebration of civic pride.
  63. All Light, Everywhere
    In a manner that is patient — and sometimes even playful — rather than polemical, “All Light, Everywhere” contributes to debates about crime, policing, racism and accountability.
  64. Bad Tales
    The story is both overwrought and underdeveloped, with potentially important plot details insufficiently explained or left out altogether.
  65. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
    “The Devil Made Me Do It” is an excellently spooky work of fiction. It would be even better if it privileged ghoulishness over gospel.
  66. Undine
    Undine is ultimately more enigmatic than most of Petzold’s work. It is also, like its title character, eerily beautiful. While it could well serve as a high-end date movie, it’s also something more.
  67. Spirit Untamed
    With its saucer-eyed, bobblehead-like characters, it’s a version barely distinguishable from the majority of animated children’s movies these days — more like Spirit domesticated.
  68. Changing the Game
    Changing the Game could have gone further, analyzing how fairness in sports is a myth to begin with. But the movie isn’t interested in rewriting the rules; it would rather introduce us to the brave young people who are.
  69. Port Authority
    Bloom is an alluring actress, especially when playing more subtle dramatic beats. While she’s unable to elevate a rote script, Bloom, and her character, understand how to catch the gaze of an audience in a way that the camera does not.
  70. Apocalypse '45
    Apocalypse ’45 knows that war is hell for everyone. But it’s difficult to escape the sense that, in this film’s view of history, America is top of mind.
  71. Five Years North
    There’s much to unpack here, from the preponderance of Latino agents in ICE to the mental health effects of immigration, evident in Luis’s panic attacks. But the film, frustratingly, stays on the surface, settling for easy emotional moments.
  72. The Mercy of the Jungle
    The film’s palpably-rendered environment, with stiflingly dense foliage and vivid natural soundscapes, heightens the dizzying nature of the war without resorting to titillation or idealized images that might glorify pain and suffering.
  73. Ahead of the Curve
    The film’s subjects are overwhelmingly earnest, but the movie suffers for its substitution of enterprise over entertainment.
  74. Dog Gone Trouble
    That the movie can be summed up in a silly, simple dog rap indicates there wasn’t much of a story here to begin with.
  75. American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally
    This is a plodding and ultimately infuriatingly noncommittal movie.
  76. Blue Miracle
    Gratingly sentimental and simplistic, Julio Quintana’s Blue Miracle, set in Cabo San Lucas in 2014, turns a potentially compelling underdog tale into a sermon. But if you’re in the mood to see Dennis Quaid learning and growing — and engaging in sappy conversations about fatherhood — then step right up.
  77. Plan B
    The movie doesn’t make a joke of Sunny and Lupe’s concerns about pregnancy, dating and parental expectations, and in turn, it’s a delight to laugh through their goofier exploits.
  78. Moby Doc
    What Moby leaves out of his account is as revealing as the tales of homelessness and addiction he puts in.
  79. Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue
    The movie is an affecting group portrait and also a complex and subtle piece of literary criticism.
  80. A Quiet Place Part II
    Though in many respects an exemplary piece of filmmaking, “Part II” remains hobbled by a script that resolves two separate crises while leaving the movie itself in limbo. At least until Part III.
  81. Baggio: The Divine Ponytail
    It’s possible that Baggio: The Divine Ponytail will resonate with soccer fans. But the protagonist’s reputed greatness has not made it to the screen.
  82. Cruella
    This revisionist supervillain origin story, directed by Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya”), doesn’t offer much that is genuinely new, but it nonetheless feels fresher than most recent Disney live-action efforts
  83. Seance
    Seance meanders for most of its running time, wavering between tones and styles. It’s both self-aware and overly serious. It tries to be a murder mystery, a slasher, a coming-of-age tale and a haunted house flick all at once.
  84. This Town
    White squanders the opportunity for true satire, speeding past the many topical issues kicked up by the script — police corruption, mental health, gun crime — into a feel-good conclusion that leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
  85. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
    The film strains to inject even a modicum of drama.
  86. Two Gods
    Ali brings a matter-of-fact compassion to the experiences of three different people: Hanif, a Black Muslim man in Newark, and the two boys he is mentoring, Furquan and Naz.
  87. Two Lottery Tickets
    Negoescu has adapted a short story by Ion Luca Caragiale from 1901, and the lottery ticket concept is not necessarily novel, but he gives the film fresh zest with droll observations and pitifully endearing characters — all while poking meta fun at the austere Romanian New Wave movement he works within, and works to dismantle.
  88. Into the Darkness
    While the plot is absorbing, the movie continually has characters voice their motivations, leaving little to subtext.
  89. Dream Horse
    This sports underdog story, which is based on true events, has several features endemic to the genre. But Dream Horse, an unabashed crowd-pleaser directed by Euros Lyn, earns its smiles and cheers.
  90. New Order
    Franco practically dares the viewer to call his conclusion far-fetched. And for better or worse, the director’s dynamic filmmaking makes some of his projections stick.
  91. Spring Blossom
    Lindon stages an intentional anticlimax that feels confusingly abrupt and unconvincing. Yet her point is well taken: that the desires of young people are as fickle and ephemeral as flowers in full bloom.
  92. Army of the Dead
    With its sticky pacing and divinely unsubtle soundtrack (though The Cranberries’ “Zombie” is always excusable), Army of the Dead is an ungainly, yet weirdly mesmeric lump of splatter-pop filmmaking.
  93. The Dry
    The many red herrings and the dark-secret finale recall the reliable, compulsive appeal of a page-turner, although the tensions don’t always feel fully translated to the rhythms and demands of a film.
  94. Broken Harts
    With a bolder and broader framework, Broken Harts might have been more than fast food for true-crime obsessives.
  95. Stop Filming Us
    Postema’s interlocutors respond with candid critiques, but the director’s self-flagellation feels increasingly empty — less a reckoning with neocolonialism than a toothless display of white guilt. His critical insights are thin, too.
  96. Georgetown
    The cast can only do so much with thin material, and Waltz, duping and swindling grandly, isn’t equipped to make the long con interesting.
  97. There Is No Evil
    To make a movie that ponders the moral rot of an unjust system while under the gun of that unjust system is courageous and artistically potent.
  98. Enfant Terrible
    The film feels both hermetic and declarative, and it’s folly to constantly remind a viewer of Fassbinder’s impossible-to-replicate alchemy of color, lighting, angles and passion.
  99. The Woman in the Window
    The result is something that intermittently looks and sounds like a good movie without ever actually being one.
  100. Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm
    This stuff is best appreciated by rock mavens. Many of the other bands telling their stories (including the Boo Radleys and the Charlatans) didn’t have much of an impact in the States, so Anglophilia helps, too.
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