The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,280 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: 9,381 out of 20280
  2. Mixed: 8,435 out of 20280
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 20280
20280 movie reviews
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  1. Meru
    Blindingly beautiful and meticulously assembled by the award-winning editor Bob Eisenhardt, Meru easily makes you forget that what you are watching is completely bananas.
  2. Fresh Dressed
    Much of this film is told through interviews: Mr. Kani is fascinating and also funny; Mr. Combs is cocksure; and Kanye West is appealingly hyper. (“Being fresh is more important than having money!”) The film is rounded out with great archival footage and, especially in the first half of the film, excellent cartoons by Hectah Arias.
  3. Faults
    While Faults glances at the narcissism of cult leaders, its most penetrating investigation is into the root emptiness within disciples, the desperate hunger to relinquish personal initiative.
  4. Poltergeist
    Poltergeist often sounds as if it had been dictated by an exuberant twelve-year-old, someone who's sitting by a summer campfire and determined to spin a tale that will keep everyone else on the edges of their knapsacks far into the night.
  5. Coast of Death
    The director’s wide frame encompasses vast terrain from a middle vantage point, achieving views and noticing changes over time that a mere passer-by might not.
  6. Welcome to Me
    By turns touching, amusing and genuinely disturbing, it defies expectations and easy categorization, forgoing obvious laughs and cheap emotional payoffs in favor of something much odder and more interesting.
  7. Hogtown
    Hogtown plays like a find from a forgotten archive.
  8. Futuro Beach
    Balancing its abstract storytelling with commanding visuals (by the gifted cinematographer Ali Olcay Gözkaya), Futuro Beach explores liberation and reinvention, the tug of familiarity versus the allure of the foreign.
  9. Eastern Boys
    Explores interlocking themes of sexuality, immigration and power dynamics with a cleareyed sensitivity and refuses to demonize even its shadiest characters.
  10. Eva
    The story has several well-disguised twists, and although it’s a drama, it is sprinkled with touches of whimsy, thanks to a colorful collection of robots.
  11. Cupcakes
    This candy-coated confection is so irresistible that you’re captivated by its sentiment even as you acknowledge its manipulations.
  12. Rebels of the Neon God
    Mr. Tsai typically uses narrative as a tool for exploring the moods and meanings that link his characters with one another and with the city that awakens, contains and frustrates their desires. They seem very much stuck in their world, but because that world is the creation of a wildly original artist coming into his own, it also feels alive with possibility.
  13. An Honest Liar
    Directors Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom have produced a jaunty, jovial portrait with a surprising sting in its tail.
  14. Free State of Jones
    Mr. Ross consulted some of the leading experts in the era...and has done a good job of balancing the factual record with the demands of dramatic storytelling. The result is a riveting visual history lesson, whose occasional didacticism is integral to its power.
  15. Big Game
    Onni Tommila, Mr. Helander’s nephew, has an expressive face and marvelous understatement. And Mr. Jackson has never seemed so unblustery; his scenes with the younger actor have ease and humor.
  16. Court
    [A] quiet, devastating critique of the antiquated Indian legal system.
  17. Beauty and the Beast
    Its classicism feels unforced and fresh. Its romance neither winks nor panders. It looks good, moves gracefully and leaves a clean and invigorating aftertaste. I almost didn’t recognize the flavor: I think the name for it is joy.
  18. 52 Tuesdays
    A frustratingly fragmented yet warmly intimate portrait of an evolving bond that frays but doesn’t sever.
  19. Suffragette
    Suffragette is an admirably modest movie. It does not quite have the grandeur and force of “Selma,” and the script has a few too many glowingly emotive speeches. The final turns of the tale are suspenseful, but also a bit frantic. But it is also stirring and cleareyed — the best kind of history lesson.
  20. Lambert & Stamp
    A loving, freewheeling new documentary by James D. Cooper, tells this origin story with panache and nostalgia.
  21. Félix And Meira
    Tiny advances in seduction — like a direct gaze, or the eventual removal of that wig — assume the power of full-on sexual collisions, and Ms. Yaron, with her restlessly darting eyes, easily conveys Meira’s sensual deprivation.
  22. Learning to Drive
    As this movie, directed by Isabel Coixet, tracks the deepening friendship between people from different cultures and backgrounds, it acquires an unforced metaphorical resonance.
  23. Every Secret Thing
    [Amy Berg's] instincts about how to pace a true story serve her well with this imaginary one, and so do the performances by Ms. Fanning and especially Ms. Macdonald.
  24. One Cut, One Life
    As much as the film is shadowed by a keen awareness of mortality, One Cut, One Life often pulses with an almost ecstatic vitality. In its vision of human existence, life is as messy and unpredictable as it is precious.
  25. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
    The film genre that might be called Old People Behaving Hilariously gets an appealing new entry with The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, a sometimes daffy, often droll Swedish movie.
  26. Pacific Rim: Uprising
    The movie balances amiable humor and standard believe-in-yourself bromides with better than average action sequences.
  27. Tu Dors Nicole
    [A] wonderful, lighter-than-air movie.
  28. Barbershop: The Next Cut
    The most fascinating — and the most moving — thing about this sprawling, sincere and boisterous movie is its tone.
  29. The Road Warrior
    In its stripped-down, cannily cinematic way, it's one of the most imaginative Australian films yet released in this country. It has no pretensions to do anything except entertain in the primitive, occasionally jolting fashion of the first nickelodeon movies, whose audiences flinched as streetcars lumbered silently toward the camera.
  30. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
    This film has showier stunts than its predecessors, and a better sense of humor. It also has Tina Turner, in chain-mail stockings.
  31. Güeros
    The story pops and swerves; the images are by turns comical, banal and ravishing; and the result is a briskly shaken cocktail made of equal parts provocation and comfort. You come away with a buzz that is invigorating and pleasantly familiar.
  32. I Believe in Unicorns
    Stretched to 80 minutes, the story (by the director Leah Meyerhoff) almost breaks; that it holds together without compromising its simplicity or emotional authenticity only proves that, contrary to the maxim, you don’t need a gun if you’ve got the right girl.
  33. The Little Prince
    The voice casting and the visual representations of the characters the boy encounters on his journeys are superb.
  34. Paulina
    Indeed, few satisfying answers arise here. But there’s bravery in asking the questions, and this film knows something about courage.
  35. Phantom Halo
    A dark, satisfying work that can be forgiven for the moments it succumbs to Hollywood convention.
  36. Balls Out
    Besides a clever, blithely ribald script by Bradley Jackson, the movie benefits from a potent “Saturday Night Live”-empowered cast.
  37. Rubble Kings
    At slightly more than an hour, the film may not be definitive, and its chronology is a little fuzzy. Even so, Rubble Kings is a fascinating, valuable work of social, music and New York history, a celebration of a peaceful revolution by those who helped birth it.
  38. A Borrowed Identity
    Impressive acting (especially from Mr. Suliman and Yael Abecassis as Yonatan’s mother) enhances this thoughtful drama, directed with a sure hand by Mr. Riklis, a film veteran.
  39. Five Star
    Slow and steady, and with remarkable assuredness, Keith Miller’s Five Star plays mean-streets drama in the lowest of keys.
  40. Stray Dog
    Ms. Granik’s tact and curiosity are remarkable. So is her subject’s openness.
  41. Breathe
    Breathe conveys an uncanny insight into the psychology of late adolescence, when lingering childhood fantasies can combust with burgeoning adult sexuality in a swirl of uncontrollable feelings.
  42. Slow Learners
    Only a few scenes fail to draw laughs in a movie that’s unexpectedly smart and consistently amusing.
  43. Counting
    A wistful meditation on the world, its beauties, mysteries and injustices.
  44. A Brilliant Young Mind
    This warm, robust movie ultimately transcends the formulas with which it flirts to become a far more subtle and honest result than a machine-tooled tear-jerker like “The Theory of Everything.” When the film doesn’t try to build up the usual suspense found in movies about competition, you sigh with relief.
  45. Truth
    More than most docudramas about fairly recent events, it is so well written and acted that it conveys a convincing illusion of veracity.
  46. Barcelona
    Barcelona, like "Metropolitan," indulges in long, hair-splitting discussions without resorting to broad gags or worrying about wearing out its welcome.
  47. God Bless the Child
    Shot with available light, the suburban rambles are portrayed so naturally that it’s hard to believe they are scripted.
  48. Baby Driver
    There’s much to enjoy in Baby Driver, including the satisfactions of genuine cinematic craft and technique, qualities that moviegoers can no longer take for granted.
  49. Bad Boys: Ride or Die
    This violent franchise has rarely felt so assured, so relaxed and knowingly funny.
  50. Rosenwald
    [A] rich and fascinating biography.
  51. The Mend
    Directing his first feature after some shorts, John Magary digs into his characters with fresh eyes and a sly sense of adventure.
  52. Creep
    The film is remarkable, considering its minimal means and surprising lack of bloodshed, given the genre. Does it stay with you? A little.
  53. A Bigger Splash
    The world that Mr. Guadagnino creates is at once seductive and aspirational, and another reminder that movies have always excelled at stoking consumer desires.
  54. Kingdom of Shadows
    The American demand for drugs, which feeds the cartels, is mentioned, though regrettably not expanded upon. But as a rendering of Mexico’s agonized convulsions, Kingdom of Shadows is unforgettable.
  55. Where to Invade Next
    Where to Invade Next is a sprawling, didactic polemic wittily disguised as a European travelogue.
  56. De Palma
    Like any good work of criticism, De Palma will be catnip for passionate fans while also serving as a primer and a goad for the skeptical and the curious. Mr. De Palma is remarkable company — witty, insightful and neither unduly modest nor overbearingly vain.
  57. Florence Foster Jenkins
    Ms. Streep is a delight, hilarious when she’s singing and convincingly on edge at all times.
  58. Right Now, Wrong Then
    Contemplating both tales in succession can induce a far from unpleasant sense of vertigo, a feeling of standing at the edge of an abyss of wide-open philosophical questions and deep psychological mysteries.
  59. Maggie's Plan
    Ms. Miller’s choices are hard to argue with. She steers gracefully through a zigzagging plot, slowing down for quiet, contemplative stretches and pausing for jokes that are irrelevant but irresistible. She finds a tricky balance of farce, satire and emotional sincerity, a way of treating people as ridiculous without denying them empathy.
  60. The Man Who Saved the World
    I was just at the right place at the right time,” Mr. Petrov says, a simple truth that becomes shocking when considering the alternative. For that alone, this account of a Cold War near miss deserves a wide audience.
  61. The Clan
    The cleverest and most troubling aspect of the film is its empathy.
  62. From Afar
    In withholding biographical information about the characters, the movie supplies just enough material to prompt you to fill in the blanks.
  63. Mr. Right
    Ms. Kendrick — whether playing daffy, amorous, insightful or indignant — carries the movie. And her surprising shades of grit don’t hurt, either.
  64. Becoming Bulletproof
    While the scenes shown from “Bulletproof,” the western they complete, are haphazard, that’s of little concern. If you want to see real courage, it’s not in that movie anyway. It’s in this documentary.
  65. Western
    With its evocative landscapes and its non-narrative, cinéma vérité style, Western is a layered, atmospheric chronicle of living traditions like bullfights and rodeos, mariachi bands and Texas two-steps. Yet the film also records the tremors of change.
  66. The Creeping Garden
    Throughout, the filmmakers achieve the rare documentary feat of delving into a topic from multiple angles without slathering it in adulation.
  67. Taken by Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis
    Roddy Bogawa’s Taken by Storm taps that intimate, thrilling ritual of another era: picking a record in a music store, beguiled by a mysterious album cover before the needle has even dropped.
  68. Dukhtar
    Its principal merit is the quiet authority of Ms. Mumtaz, who combines a mother’s passionate concern with glimmers of an awakening consciousness.
  69. Cars 3
    If you can roll with it, the movie is both breezy fun and a pain-free life lesson delivery vehicle
  70. Ant-Man and the Wasp
    It’s funny how little things, like personality, can lift a movie. Ant-Man and the Wasp features kinetic action sequences, but what makes it zing is that Mr. Reed has figured out how to sustain the movie’s intimacy and its playfulness, even when bodies and cars go flying.
  71. The Messenger
    Overall, the arguments are persuasive, the message from the birds powerful, and the film a rich and satisfying call to action that is presented with some novel ideas for how to restore the ecological balance.
  72. The Girl in the Book
    Given [Ms. Cohn] confident hand behind the camera and gift for rich female characters, you hope to see more portraits from her in the future.
  73. Jane B. par Agnès V. (1988)
    While the word “feminism” is never uttered in this movie, Jane B. par Agnès V. is an exemplary feminist work, one in which two female artists, self-aware but hardly self-conscious, create beauty by exchanging notes.
  74. Criminal Activities
    It doesn’t feel like a mere imitation; it has too much wit and too many striking performances for that.
  75. Elstree 1976
    "Star Wars” fans will, of course, love this film, but it’s also a thought-provoking exploration of the dawning of our current age.
  76. Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art
    The film’s generous views of spectacular works like Smithson’s monumental “Spiral Jetty” (the work projects into the Great Salt Lake in Utah) and Mr. Heizer’s “Double Negative” in Nevada (a huge trench bisected by a canyon) are best seen on the largest screen available.
  77. Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict
    Ms. Vreeland has paced her documentary well, a chapter to each era, with hundreds of beautiful images spanning decades of artists, galleries, parties, scenes. She also makes good use of interviews Guggenheim gave to a biographer a couple of years before her death in 1979.
  78. The Dark Horse
    The movie partly resists the temptation to follow a predictable feel-good route to a fairy-tale ending. That said, it has enough conveniently timed little triumphs to send up warning signs.
  79. Very Semi-Serious
    If you’ve ever been curious as to how a cartoonist gets into The New Yorker and what happens then, Very Semi-Serious offers very satisfactory info.
  80. He Never Died
    The humor in Mr. Krawczyk’s script is deliciously subtle, as it has to be when your lead character is a man of few words; a viewer might easily spend the first half of the movie not even realizing it’s there.
  81. The Wave
    The filmmakers (the script is by John Kare Raake and Harald Rosenlow Eeg) cook up the sort of unpleasantness that turns the better disaster pictures, like this one, into nail-biters.
  82. Doctor Strange
    The space-and-time warping and mirrored realities in Doctor Strange are a blast. They’re inventive enough that they awaken wonder, provoking that delicious question: How did they do that?
  83. dream/killer
    Though the timeline and a few details could use further clarification, dream/killer remains fast-paced and frightening.
  84. Viva
    It infuses a too-familiar story with so much heart that you surrender to its charm and forgive it for being unabashedly formulaic.
  85. The Brand New Testament
    Most of the humor is too lighthearted to offend all but the most reverent believers, and the movie’s inventiveness rarely flags.
  86. Sunday Ball
    Captured more for poetry than for clarity, the topography of penalties and free kicks can be impossible to follow. But Léo Bittencourt’s photography has flash and flair, and hardscrabble determination on a real-life field of dreams has a narrative all its own.
  87. The Edge of Seventeen
    [Ms. Steinfeld] manages a tricky balancing act, making Nadine simultaneously sympathetic and dislikable.
  88. War Dogs
    [Todd Phillips] delivers an entertaining tale, especially when one or both men have to travel from their home base in Florida to overseas hot spots to correct their ineptitude.
  89. Men Go to Battle
    The filmmakers’ bold pushback against the rigid formality of the genre they draw upon doesn’t always deliver. With the exception of Ms. Korine, the performers often seem to have a hard time shaking off the aura of the contemporary. Nevertheless, there’s much of value here.
  90. We Are Twisted F***ing Sister!
    The movie tells an incomplete version of the band’s story...but provides a comprehensive and sometimes harrowing portrayal of the grind a working bar band in the 1970s had to endure to get by.
  91. Tallulah
    The story in Tallulah sometimes strains credulity, but it’s beautifully told and acted.
  92. Swiss Army Man
    Impossible to categorize, this stunningly original mix of the macabre and the magical combines comedy, tragedy, fantasy and love story into an utterly singular package that’s beholden to no rules but its own.
  93. Captain Fantastic
    It’s left to Mr. Mortensen, who can make menace feel like vulnerability — and turn vulnerability into a confession — to keep the movie from slipping into sentimentality. He’s the most obvious reason to see it, although Mr. Ross’s insistence on taking your intelligence for granted is itself a great turn on.
  94. The Witness
    A re-creation of the night, with an actress playing the screaming victim while Mr. Genovese observes, is harrowing.
  95. Marguerite
    Marguerite overstays its welcome by at least 20 minutes. What redeems it is Ms. Frot’s subtle, deeply compassionate portrayal of a rich, lonely woman clutching at an impossible dream until reality intrudes.
  96. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
    Hunt for the Wilderpeople takes a troika of familiar story types — the plucky kid, the crusty geezer, the nurturing bosom — and strips them of cliché. Charming and funny, it is a drama masquerading as a comedy about an unloved boy whom nobody wants until someone says, Yes, I’ll love him.
  97. The Lure
    We are not exactly in the present and not precisely in the past, but in a dreamy cinematic space where distinctions of genre and tone are pleasantly (and sometimes shockingly) blurred.
  98. The Confirmation
    The pleasures are modest but rewarding in Bob Nelson’s character study The Confirmation.
  99. They Will Have to Kill Us First
    Johanna Schwartz’s miraculously hopeful documentary, They Will Have to Kill Us First: Malian Music in Exile, delivers a vibrant testimony of resilience under oppression.
  100. Eva Hesse
    It’s like a comprehensive exhibition catalog or a thorough critical essay — an indispensable aid to understanding and appreciating a fascinating artist.
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