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. The Light Between Oceans
    As a drama about adult responsibility, selfishness and moral obligations, however, it never wavers in its commitment to examine what it means to raise a child.
  2. House Party
    Unlike most teen-age movies, which attempt to impose some kind of adult order and significance on the events they recall, House Party has the light touch, rude wit and immediacy of rap as improvised by someone in top form.
  3. Daughters of the Dust
    For all its harsh allusions to slavery and hardship, the film is an extended, wildly lyrical meditation on the power of African cultural iconography and the spiritual resilience of the generations of women who have been its custodians.
  4. The Watermelon Woman
    That it succeeds in being both stimulating and funny is a testament to the talent and open-heartedness of Ms. Dunye, who wrote and directed the movie and is its star.
  5. New Jack City
    The film's flamboyant portrait of Nino may be stereotypical, but Mr. Snipes makes it chilling.
  6. The Mermaid
    While second-guessing the marketing strategies of movie conglomerates is happily not the concern of this reviewer, it does seem a shame that this exhilarating, bizarre, good-hearted, blatantly obvious sci-fi-fantasy-slapstick eco-fable isn’t getting wider fanfare.
  7. The Last Man on the Moon
    You already know the history told in The Last Man on the Moon, but this story just never grows old.
  8. Fastball
    This appealing documentary makes you understand why aficionados regard baseball as a form of poetry.
  9. 11 Minutes
    You could call Mr. Skolimowski, who is 77, an old dog, and while the multistranded, chronologically intricate narrative conceit of 11 Minutes isn’t exactly a new trick, it’s one he pulls off with devilish panache and startling impact.
  10. Fatima
    If the movie, loosely based on two books by Fatima Elayoubi, tells a familiar story of immigrants struggling to make something of themselves in an alien culture (Fatima speaks some French but reads only Arabic), it does so in a tone that is kindhearted but clearheaded, and the performances are low-key and believable.
  11. Fireworks Wednesday (2006)
    As with Mr. Farhadi’s other films, every detail of speech and body language resonates.
  12. Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
    Belladonna of Sadness is compulsively watchable, even at its most disturbing: The imagery is frequently graphic, and still, after over 40 years, it has the power to shock.
  13. Too Late
    Mr. Hauck’s affection is apparent in every frame, yet outside of an occasionally clunky line or show-offy moment (O.K., sometimes it’s more occasional than just occasionally), he rarely allows it to alter his aim. That aim is to make a modern noir. That aim is true.
  14. Boom Bust Boom
    A remarkably enjoyable, and sometimes very funny, documentary about a frightening topic.
  15. Presenting Princess Shaw
    Yes, the documentary is undeniably uplifting. But …
  16. The Trust
    The script, by Adam Hirsch and Benjamin Brewer, is full of both humor and menace, giving the actors plenty to work with. That makes for an enjoyably slow buildup to an unexpected ending.
  17. Don't Think Twice
    Don’t Think Twice, which has a warm heart, could have been a much nastier movie. Yet its disappointed show-business hopefuls dreading their expiration dates make no bones about their insecurities.
  18. Standing Tall
    Mr. Paradot’s performance is so viscerally intense that there is no escaping its force.
  19. Catching the Sun
    One notion underlying Shalini Kantayya’s winning documentary, Catching the Sun, is that solar power is not only a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels but can also effectively curtail unemployment.
  20. Art Bastard
    For philistines mystified by the value attached to so many artworks that to an untrained eye look worthless, Mr. Cenedella comes across as a reassuring voice of sanity.
  21. Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt
    Ms. Ushpiz is determined to rescue her subject from the banality of biography. The details of Arendt’s childhood, education, romantic life and professional activity are not ignored, but they nearly always illuminate her ideas.
  22. Julieta
    Julieta is scrupulous, compassionate and surprising, even if it does not always quite communicate the full gravity and sweep of the feelings it engages.
  23. As I Open My Eyes
    As I Open My Eyes is best when it observes the fraught but loving mother-daughter relationship between Hayet and Farah.
  24. Class Divide
    What Class Divide does exceptionally well is capture the sense of change at warp speed.
  25. Kicks
    The characters have enough dimension to avoid appearing to be symbols of a social tragedy, and the movie’s relative gentleness makes the harsher realities of Brandon’s world all the more distressing.
  26. The Take
    The movie sweeps you along with a brisk pace and even dashes of humor.
  27. Keepers of the Game
    There are heroic adults here.... There is also deft editing, artful camerawork and effective music in abundance.
  28. Richard III
    For all the talk nowadays about a revival of swank, nothing in contemporary fashion can compete with the glamour of upper-class English life in the 1930's as it is elegantly caricatured in Ian McKellen's updated Richard III.
  29. Older Than Ireland
    It’s often said that the Irish, blessed with the gift of gab, can be splendid raconteurs. You’ll find generous evidence to that effect here. And a bit of poetry as well.
  30. Jia Zhangke, A guy from Fenyang
    The movie’s most moving sequence is near the end, when Mr. Jia discusses his father, who faced awful hardships during the Cultural Revolution.
  31. Tickled
    [Mr. Farrier] and Mr. Reeve see the humor, but they also see the pathos — because it’s all fun and giggles until someone gets hurt.
  32. Los Sures (1984)
    It’s a must see for those interested in both the history of Lost New York and the power of nonfiction cinema.
  33. Cash Only
    I must have breathed while watching Cash Only. But it sure felt as if I didn’t. This brutal and severe film has that effect.
  34. The Other Side
    Whatever genre it belongs to, The Other Side is powerful and disturbing.
  35. I, Daniel Blake
    What makes the pain of this film bearable is Daniel’s unquenchable decency, courage and perseverance.
  36. Neruda
    Mr. Larraín invites us to believe that history is on the side of the poets and the humanists, and that art will make fools of politicians and policemen. But he is also aware, as Pablo Neruda was, that history sometimes has other plans.
  37. Blood Father
    Mr. Gibson makes a persuasive derelict John Wayne with a loose, energetic performance, finely tuned comic timing and an amused, self-aware “Lethal Weapon” glint.
  38. Gimme Danger
    Gimme Danger is still plenty entertaining and includes many moments of foaming-at-the-mouth musical fury.
  39. The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki
    The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki deepens quietly. This is Mr. Kuosmanen’s first feature (he has directed a few shorts), and if he had any rookie jitters you wouldn’t know it.
  40. The Wailing
    I was so invested with Jong-gu and his family that as the suspense, violence and worse ratcheted up, I was not merely scared, but heartbroken. An overly literal bit of business at the end slightly undermines the film. As a whole, though, The Wailing is the hard stuff. Handle with care.
  41. Len and Company
    Len and Company...never strains for profundity. Instead, it savors observational subtleties, especially in Mr. Ifans’s assured performance. For a baby-boomer-meets-millennial family drama, that’s plenty.
  42. The Final Master
    The characters and the actors playing them are appealing, and the fight scenes have a lot of moxie, not to mention a lot of steel-slinging.
  43. Seoul Searching
    Seoul Searching is rude, funny, silly and poignant. Above all, it’s kind; Mr. Lee understands that belonging is a feeling that many of us may never experience.
  44. To Life
    There is a delicate beauty to this movie and its visual composition.
  45. Gleason
    Gleason is incredibly frank about Gleason’s physical suffering and the toll his terrifyingly implacable physical deterioration takes on his marriage.
  46. T-Rex
    You don’t have to be a boxing fan to be awed by Claressa Shields, the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport. But if you are, you’ll still be knocked out.
  47. Call Her Applebroog
    Beth B is not out to deliver a comprehensive biography. Instead, she achieves a vivid snapshot of a still-vital artist late in a still-purposeful life.
  48. Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes
    The film, directed by Mikkel Norgaard (who’s borrowed a thing or three from David Fincher) and first released in Denmark in 2013, often focuses on research rather than on gunplay, yet somehow it still feels filled with action. That’s a testament to its lead actors.
  49. Parched
    Despite the appalling circumstances and events it depicts, the movie’s plain and unstinting affection for its lead characters gives Parched a frequently buoyant tone.
  50. Arrival
    Arrival isn’t a visionary movie, an intellectual rebus or a head movie; it’s pretty straight in some respects and sometimes fairly corny, with a visual design that’s lovely rather than landmark.
  51. Roseanne for President!
    Fascinating.
  52. From This Day Forward
    In marriage and parenthood, one size doesn’t fit all. Marcia’s words at the wedding about surmounting differences speak volumes about love’s adaptability.
  53. The Kind Words
    Humor creeps in from strange sources, including a seller of funeral packages and a march through a Paris graveyard. And while not every motivation is clear, subtext isn’t everything in a movie as complex and satisfying as this one.
  54. Three
    When the tension finally does break, the movie goes a little nuts, in venerable Johnnie To tradition. The elaborate, largely slow-motion multifloor action climax is as audacious as anything he has staged and filmed.
  55. Summertime
    This is a film about the struggle for sexual freedom and women’s rights, and also about the power of region, class and custom in the lives of its characters.
  56. The Love Witch
    Ms. Biller’s movie, like its heroine, presents a fascinating, perfectly composed, brightly colored surface. What’s underneath is marvelously dark, like love itself.
  57. Ouija: Origin of Evil
    The director, Mike Flanagan, who with Jeff Howard also wrote the script, demonstrates rare patience for horror fare as he builds toward the macabre.
  58. Imperium
    Nate’s journey is used primarily to show us the variations in extremist groups and how they might accomplish something drastic like set off a dirty bomb; his inner turmoil takes a back seat. The movie works just fine as a straightforward thriller, though.
  59. Bleed for This
    With their scrupulous but unobtrusive attention to pertinent details, Mr. Younger, Mr. Teller and the rest of the cast make Bleed for This more than an inspiring version of Mr. Pazienza’s story; they make it a genuinely interesting one.
  60. The Seventh Fire
    The betrayal of Native Americans by larger forces looms over this powerful movie without ever being explicitly discussed.
  61. The People vs. Fritz Bauer
    Mr. Kraume captures the glances and motions that lay bare a character’s thoughts. He’s fond of the gruff and curmudgeonly Bauer, yet sentimentality is scarce while the double-crossings are surprising and the dry humor is welcome.
  62. Train to Busan
    Often chaotic but never disorienting, the movie’s spirited set pieces — like a wriggling ribbon of undead clinging doggedly to the last compartment — owe much to Lee Hyung-deok’s wonderfully agile cinematography.
  63. Real Life
    The ending of Real Life is the most uproarious of a good many inspired moments.
  64. Citizen Soldier
    The sense of danger is palpable, as is the sense of misery after the most dreadful scenes.
  65. Private Property
    This tense and upsetting film has more psychological depth and empathy than the comparable sensationalist fare of its time, and shudder-inducing cinematic style to spare. Private Property qualifies as a genuine rediscovery.
  66. T2 Trainspotting
    Playing with memory — the characters’ and our own — allows Mr. Boyle and his cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, to conjure some of the movie’s loveliest, most melancholy images.
  67. A United Kingdom
    While her filmmaking style can sometimes come across as staid, [Ms. Asante's] sense of pace is always acute. The best reason to see A United Kingdom, however, is the performance by Mr. Oyelowo.
  68. Their Finest
    Their Finest is too understandably serious to be called a romp, yet it has a buoyancy that lifts you and, in Ms. McCrory, a woman who does, too.
  69. Little Sister
    A strange, spiky movie that refuses to beg for our affection, Little Sister, the fifth feature from Zach Clark, molds the classic homecoming drama into a quirky reconciliation between faith and family.
  70. Will You Dance with Me?
    This is not a picture about which extravagant claims ought to be made; it really is, in the end, an hour and change in a London disco in 1984. But as a page from an artist’s notebook, and a time capsule curio, it rates pretty high.
  71. Neither Heaven Nor Earth
    On the most fundamental level, Neither Heaven Nor Earth is an impressive stunt, a horror movie masquerading as a film about the horrors of war. But its gravity and intelligence...make it something more.
  72. Finding Altamira
    In Antonio Banderas, Mr. Hudson has a winning de Sautuola of personal modesty, scientific integrity and paternal warmth.
  73. One More Time with Feeling
    Even in the throes of grief, Mr. Cave retains his mystique as a rock shaman.
  74. The Eagle Huntress
    Viewers jaded by daily doses of digital dazzlement might not fully register the reality of the wonders they are witnessing. But that doesn’t, in the end, make The Eagle Huntress any less wonderful.
  75. Splash
    Splash could have been shorter, but it probably couldn't have been much sweeter. Only purists will quibble with the blissfully happy ending, which has the lovers swimming through a shimmering underwater paradise that is supposed to be the bottom of the East River.
  76. Hidden Figures
    From one scene to the next, you may know more or less what is coming, but it is never less than delightful to watch these actors at work.
  77. Kiki
    Kiki shows us a group of brave and beautiful souls for whom the struggle is, unfortunately, probably about to get even harder.
  78. Zoom
    Mr. Morelli mixes live-action and animated scenes to good effect. He doesn’t have time to give his characters depth, but there’s pleasure in figuring out how they connect and pondering the movie’s modest themes.
  79. Miss Stevens
    Ms. Rabe’s beautifully balanced performance reminds you that people never really grow up.
  80. Equal Means Equal
    Broader than it is deep, Equal Means Equal still drills down into enough specific issues to shock us afresh.
  81. Starving the Beast
    As an overview of the issues, the history and the players, Starving the Beast makes a powerful survey course, a prerequisite for further studies.
  82. Free Fire
    Free Fire is an action movie finely tuned to even the most potentially vicious audiences’ tolerances. It is filled with mayhem, but avoids grisly violence — at least until the finale pulls out some gory, and not inapt, punch lines. Luxuriating in disreputability in all the right ways, the film also contains no shortage of profane verbal wit.
  83. Barry
    The movie’s lived-in realism puts Barry on the ground, rather than in the air, where he experiences the usual coming-of-age agonies and joys.
  84. Catfight
    The two leads are mesmerizing, hurling themselves into their physically demented roles with ferocious commitment.
  85. Colossal
    Colossal has such an easygoing, offhand vibe, and takes such pleasure in its characters’ foibles, that it camouflages its deep subject, which is rage.
  86. Frantz
    Frantz takes pains to show both sides’ lingering hostility after a devastating and (the movie implies) senseless war.
  87. I Called Him Morgan
    This is not a lurid true-crime tale of jealousy and drug addiction, but a delicate human drama about love, ambition and the glories of music.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My Name Is Albert Ayler
    Named after one of his albums and built around snippets of audio interviews with Mr. Ayler, it attempts and often achieves a fresh, playful style that’s equally informed by jazz traditions and Mr. Ayler’s urge to shatter them.
  89. The Eyes of My Mother
    Unfolding with a minimum of dialogue, Francisca’s maturation from watcher to doer would be laughable if performed with less nuance or photographed with less originality.
  90. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
    Gruesome without being gory, The Autopsy of Jane Doe achieves real scares with a minimum of special effects.
  91. Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang
    A documentary that is as rewarding as this artist’s work.
  92. Harry & Snowman
    In the film, a student of Mr. deLeyer’s recalls some of his advice: “Throw your heart over the top, and your horse will follow.” Harry & Snowman makes you want to do the same.
  93. Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened
    Because “Merrily” was a musical about the ravages of time on friendship and youthful ideals, the documentary tells parallel stories — one fictional, the other real — of disappointment and disillusion. They give the film a double shot of poignancy.
  94. Thank You for Your Service
    Thank You for Your Service, directed by Tom Donahue, uses its late scenes to explore nongovernment programs that have arisen to help veterans. Those examples are heartfelt and encouraging, and offer some hope after the devastating early sections.
  95. The Son of Joseph
    The Son of Joseph can be trying in its whimsy, yet it builds to a lovely finale that evokes the Bible, the French Resistance and the surreal.
  96. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
    This intelligent, revolting, artistically made and entirely empty look at a murderer comes close to a cinema of pure technique. It is profoundly disturbing, even more for the questions it raises about the use of film than for the mutilated bodies that litter the screen.
  97. Creepy
    Creepy certainly works — looks and feels — like a horror movie, but it also has the conundrums of a detective story, the emotional currents of a domestic drama and the quickening pulse of a psychological thriller, a combination that creates a kind of destabilization.
  98. The Uncondemned
    Most extraordinary are interviews with the women who came forward to provide evidence in court. Their integrity and tenacity, and their loyalty to one another, is enough to bring you to tears.
  99. Disturbing the Peace
    Their stories are compelling — and persuasive.
  100. The Anthropologist
    At this point no documentarian can possibly have a fresh take on climate change, right? Wrong. The Anthropologist, a stealthily insightful film by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger, improbably mixes that topic with a mother-daughter story to produce a distinctive study of change and human adaptability.
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