The New York Times' Scores

Select another publication »
For 20,278 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: 9,380 out of 20278
  2. Mixed: 8,434 out of 20278
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 20278
20278 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc
    As Denji and his adversaries converge on and above city streets, it’s possible to enjoy the combat on the level of pure sensation. Here, the rapturous ability of anime to isolate and prolong movement and emotion within a frame is on full display.
  2. Escape from Mogadishu
    With little interest in elucidating the conflict at hand, much less in distinguishing between the various Somali parties in play, “Escape” is a wildly inadequate history lesson — it’s a silly blockbuster after all. More offensive is the film’s eagerness to whittle one nation’s traumatic episode into a setting for confectionary escapades.
  3. Deep Blue
    Much of what the filmmakers and their team of cinematographers capture is undeniably remarkable, but their overt attachment to certain scenes can make watching a chore.
  4. Le petit lieutenant
    Le Petit Lieutenant embraces the spectrum of human drama and comedy, and like a lot of French films it is keenly involved with the everyday pulse of work.
  5. The Land of Steady Habits
    Even though Anders and the people around him can be sorted into recognizable types (a fault, mostly of Mr. Thompson’s book), they are also amusing and awful in ways that can feel disconcertingly real.
  6. Always in Season
    Olive weaves these stories together with fluidity and purpose, but the ideas of Always in Season sometimes crowd one another out.
  7. Without Limits
    Towne especially excels at the smaller touches that bring such connections to life, whether it's an ear for pop music or a clear familiarity with college girls, circa 1970, or the group of bonsai trees that presumably occupy Bowerman when he isn't measuring feet and molding rubber. His proudly unconventional Without Limits is filled with such souvenirs of the real world.
  8. From Up on Poppy Hill
    This movie...is a lovely example of the strong realist tendency in Japanese animation. Its visual magic lies in painterly compositions of foliage, clouds, architecture and water, and its emotional impact comes from the way everyday life is washed in the colors of memory.
  9. 22 Jump Street
    More is more and is, at times, just right in 22 Jump Street, an exploding piñata of gags, pratfalls, winking asides, throwaway one-liners and self-reflexive waggery.
  10. Black Death
    Here, excessive piety and rampant paganism are equally malevolent forces, the film's baleful view of human nature mirrored in Sebastian Edschmid's swampy photography. As is emphasized in a nicely consistent coda, the Lord's side and the right side are not necessarily one and the same.
  11. The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
    Mr. Zizek’s daisy-chained improvisations amount to an argument on behalf of complexity and unseen depths, and, like much academic writing, it risks monotony and becoming as reductive as it can be seductive.
  12. A Dark Song
    The movie dives into the black arts with methodical restraint and escalating unease.
  13. Twilight's Kiss
    Handsomely shot but humble in approach, the film can often feel purposeful, laying down groundwork that other stories of queer experience might take for granted. But Tai Bo’s pragmatic momentum as Pak has a way of restoring a succinctness to the movie, which avoids minimizing or exploiting the pains of concealment.
  14. Erupcja
    Although Charli and Góra can’t quite translate enough layers between them to make this film really bruise, this is a pleasantly slight work that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
  15. Frybread Face and Me
    The movie is overfamiliar and earnest, but you can’t accuse it of not being heartfelt.
  16. We Are What We Are
    It’s all a little silly, but Mr. Mickle’s restrained gravity stifles the impulse to laugh.
  17. Birdy
    Mr. Modine's performance is exceptionally sweet and graceful; Mr. Cage very sympathetically captures Al's urgency and frustration. Together, these actors work miracles with what might have been unplayable.
  18. Young Adult
    Shorter than a bad blind date and as sour as a vinegar Popsicle, Young Adult shrouds its brilliant, brave and breathtakingly cynical heart in the superficial blandness of commercial comedy.
  19. Postcards from the Edge
    Postcards From the Edge seems to have been a terrifically genial collaboration between the writer and the director, Miss Fisher's tale of odd-ball woe being perfect material for Mr. Nichols's particular ability to discover the humane sensibility within the absurd.
  20. Oasis: Supersonic
    It may surprise people who’ve experienced the Gallaghers only in tabloid-fodder mode that “Supersonic” teems with stirring and even moving moments.
  21. Winnebago Man
    A small, mildly entertaining documentary.
  22. Personal Best
    It's also full of lyrical slow-motion footage of women athletes' training - jogging, sprinting, running the high hurdles, throwing the shot, broad jumping and high jumping. These sequences are accompanied by not-great pop music that has been poured over the images in a way that suggests fudge sauce on top of fried chicken.
  23. Gemini
    What really interests Mr. Katz here are movies — the fingerprints of directors like Robert Altman, David Lynch, Michael Mann and Sean Baker are all on Gemini — and how they have shaped Los Angeles, or at least our ideas about it.
  24. Singles
    Mr. Crowe (who wrote "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and directed "Say Anything") has an exceptional ability to enjoy such characters without a trace of condescension
  25. Brad's Status
    Brad’s Status at its best is genuinely thought-provoking.
  26. The Pledge
    Not a pleasant film, but it is deeply, scarily rewarding.
  27. Nicholas Nickleby
    The director has produced a colorful, affecting collage of Dickensian moods and motifs, a movie that elicits an overwhelming desire to plunge into 900 pages of 19th-century prose.
  28. Real Women Have Curves
    Effervescent and satisfying, a crowd pleaser that does not condescend.
  29. Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
    Presents itself as an anguished brief against capital punishment, especially the execution of people who are legally insane...But the timing of its release smacks of the very exploitation that Mr. Bloomfield condemns.
  30. The Score
    I don't know how much The Score cost, but it's pretty close to worthless.
  31. The Road Home
    A cinematic ballad of such seamless construction and exquisite tonal balance it transcends most of the pitfalls of movies that aspire to a classic, lyric simplicity.
  32. Santo Domingo Blues
    Without losing sight of the music's essential energy, Mr. Wolfe peppers his film with quietly resonant shots.
  33. Making the Boys
    Captivating documentary about the creation of, and reaction to, the breakthrough play "The Boys in the Band."
  34. Nothing Personal
    Not since "Flashdance" has a lobster dinner been seasoned with so much unspoken emotion.
  35. Lost Bohemia
    A sad and spirited elegy for the Carnegie Hall Studios, which for more than a century provided working, living and teaching space for all kinds of artists on the floors above the famous concert hall.
  36. The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby
    Carl Colby's smart, fact-packed film The Man Nobody Knew operates on many levels, all riveting.
  37. Last Days Here
    Nevertheless the fierce loyalty of Mr. Liebling's nearest and dearest is extremely touching, and Last Days Here - despite its stinginess with back story and early performance footage - works hard to reveal the man beneath the four-decade heroin habit.
  38. Scenes of a Crime
    This smart, cool-headed film, which has a "Rashomon"-like vision of the case, presents a disturbing picture of courtroom justice and how different people come to opposite conclusions, based on the same testimony.
  39. Hanna Ranch
    Like many tragic visionaries, Kirk Hanna lives on through his ideas long after his death.
  40. Copenhagen
    Mark Raso’s first feature, Copenhagen, takes on a taboo — great for high-stakes storytelling, if it’s not used to generate empty shock. Worry not: His absorbing film has a delicate nuance that will linger after the popcorn’s gone.
  41. Botso
    With enough tragic-restorative plot twists for a 12-hour mini-series, Botso is an enchanting film for two reasons: Mr. Korisheli’s humanity is magnetic, and no more beautiful case could be made for the psychological healing power of making music.
  42. 52 Tuesdays
    A frustratingly fragmented yet warmly intimate portrait of an evolving bond that frays but doesn’t sever.
  43. How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock at his Farm in Normandy
    Documentary masters like Mr. Leacock and Mr. Blank have long been drawn to filming other artists, even though the enigma of artistic endeavor may appear to elude portrayal on film. But in How to Smell a Rose, it’s just as important to feel the relationship between these two, with Mr. Leacock as something of a mentor.
  44. Equal Means Equal
    Broader than it is deep, Equal Means Equal still drills down into enough specific issues to shock us afresh.
  45. The Ruins of Lifta
    An achingly poignant documentary.
  46. 32 Pills: My Sister's Suicide
    The more Hope’s own obsession grows, the more involving the movie gets, even as it raises ethical questions about its making — and about those who continue to watch.
  47. Bill Frisell: A Portrait
    The movie is at its liveliest when it depicts Mr. Frisell making his distinctive sound with a variety of colleagues. And, fortunately, Ms. Franz includes a lot of such footage.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Road Games
    Jamie Lee Curtis plays the jiggly hitchhiker he picks up, which is one reason he calls her Hitch. Another reason, according to a pretentious statement by the director, Richard Franklin, is to pay tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, who should be twirling.
  49. The Great Race
    Natalie Wood is on hand as a cheroot-smoking suffragist (with a phenomenal wardrobe), but the movie is largely powered by Lemmon’s energy, roaring like Jackie Gleason as the bombastic Professor Fate and later appearing as his double, the klutzy crown prince of a Ruritanian kingdom.
  50. On the Town
    Gaiety, rhythm, humor and a good, wholesome dash of light romance have been artfully blended together in this bright Technicolored comedy.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blackbeard's Ghost
    The whole thing, by the way, shines in nifty color. But the real appeal of such wholesomeness is the brisk, unsugary serving, under Robert Stevenson's trim direction, and the consistently adroit humor, which sidesteps slapstick.
  52. Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo
    There are a lot of laughs in his Hollywood redemption story, which also reveals Trejo’s hard-won gentleness.
  53. Represent
    The film deduces that these women need meaningful support, but doesn’t fully explore what that might look like — whether it would come in the form of campaign teams, money, endorsements or all of the above.
  54. Period of Adjustment
    Isobel Lennart's screenplay adds a few mild embellishments and George Roy Hill has directed in a nice, clear, uncomplicated way.
  55. Diane Warren: Relentless
    Even if you don’t care for Warren’s tunes, this movie is likely to make you a fan.
  56. 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.
  57. River of Grass
    It is wonderful at conveying a sense of suffocating ennui. Too wonderful, since the story is so sketchily told and the dialogue is so fragmentary that it doesn't quite cohere. The characters remain hazy ciphers in the torpid atmosphere of a place you'll never want to visit.
  58. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
    As a work of cinema, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch can seem a bit torn in its approach, caught between a desire to spread a message to mainstream viewers and more cryptic, artistic aims. At times, more information would be preferable; in other scenes, images speak volumes without words. But as advocacy, the movie is potent and frequently terrifying.
  59. Mad Hot Ballroom
    Ms. Agrelo and Ms. Sewell deserve praise for discovering and illuminating this delightful corner of an educational system that is often portrayed in the grimmest terms, but their execution falls a bit short.
  60. Mr. Gaga
    A more finely focused treatment would have made a much better summation of, or introduction to, Mr. Naharin’s work.
  61. What Is Democracy?
    Like democracy itself, the movie assumes such a broad mandate and has such noble intentions that indicating its shortcomings seems almost beside the point.
  62. Only the Young
    If Mr. Tippet and Ms. Mims weren't such accomplished visual stylists, you might even think that the teenagers shot the documentary themselves, which explains both its appeal and its limitations.
  63. Bronson
    Bronson invites you to admire its protagonist as a pure, muscular embodiment of anarchy. And perhaps you will, but you may also be glad that he’s still behind bars.
  64. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    There are waves of brilliantly orchestrated anxiety and confusion but also long stretches of drab, hackneyed exposition that flatten the atmosphere. We might be watching "Cold Case" or "Criminal Minds," but with better sound design and more expressive visual techniques.
  65. The Cage Fighter
    The Cage Fighter is not riveting from moment to moment, but Mr. Unay allows the movie’s themes to click into place beautifully toward the end.
  66. Steal This Story, Please!
    Goodman’s career is fascinating on its own merits, and the film is full of footage of her doggedly chasing down politicians and sources who clearly would prefer to control their own story. But more important, the movie gradually explores the fundamentals of journalism that she believes in and passes on to colleagues.
  67. Searching for Ingmar Bergman
    Enthusing over an effect Bergman used in his great 1983 “Fanny and Alexander,” the director Olivier Assayas concludes, “Art defines truth.” Just about every minute of this movie shows how that’s true.
  68. The Outpost
    The Outpost evolves from what initially feels like a collection of war-movie commonplaces, highlighting crude-talking soldiers in a bad situation, into something more complex and illuminating.
  69. The Spanish Prisoner
    This is his sleekest and most engaging film thus far. If you like a good cat-and-mouse game with a keen ear for language, then go.
  70. Desperately Seeking Susan
    Desperately Seeking Susan, based on a good screenplay by a new writer named Leora Barish, is a terrifically genial New York City farce in which the lives of two very different young women become tangled in an Orlon web of lies, half-truths and cross purposes. Full of funny, sharply observed details, reflected in Santo Loquasto's witty production design as well as in all of the dozens of individual performances. The cast is virtually a Players Guide to the variety of performing talent available in New York.
  71. Predator: Badlands
    In the end, what is most surprising about Predator: Badlands is also the most obvious, which is that filmmaking matters even to formulaic, apparently indestructible franchises.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Booksellers
    Charming.
  73. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
    If you’ve spent any time with these characters, it’s hard not to get swept up in the saga, and it’s easy to be moved by the bond between Hiccup and Toothless, who is, in effect, a very loyal dog who can fly and harness the power of lightning bolts.
  74. Swingers
    Suspicious and hilariously self-absorbed, Favreau's every bit as comfortable in California as Charles Grodin's "Heartbreak Kid" was in Miami.
  75. Shadow Dancer
    The movie takes no political positions. With an icy detachment, it peers through the fog of war and examines the slippery military intelligence on both sides to portray a world steeped in secrecy, deception and paranoia.
  76. Syndromes and a Century
    Syndromes and a Century, like its curious title, has the logic of a dream, a piece of music or perhaps a John Ashbery poem. Its coherence is evident; it is too lovely and lucid to be frustrating or dull. But it takes place just on the other side of conscious apprehension.
  77. Horton Hears a Who!
    There are aspects of “Horton,”... that are fresh and enjoyable, and bits that will gratify even a dogmatic and orthodox Seussian.
  78. 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.
  79. The Wonder
    Anchored by Lelio’s intelligent filmmaking — and by Pugh’s beautifully calibrated mix of physical vigor and temperamental astringency — Lib embodies the story’s arguments, themes and power with vivid clarity. There’s no denying her or her ravenous hunger for life.
  80. Emma.
    Austen’s story and words, it turns out, prove unsurprisingly durable and impervious to decorative tweaking. And so, after a while, the Anderson-ish tics become less noticeable, and both the emotions and overall movie more persuasive.
  81. The Nomi Song
    An affectionate portrait, not only of Nomi, but also of the long-gone days when downtown Manhattan was an affordable enclave for creative misfits.
  82. Falcon Lake
    Death and desire swirl around the film’s charged atmosphere, though Le Bon has trouble meaningfully bringing out these elements in the narrative itself, hastily throwing in ambiguities in the last act to create a weightier sense of drama. The effect falls flat.
  83. Collapse
    His well-rehearsed rhetoric is shockingly persuasive, and since the majority of his premises are verifiable, any weakness in his argument lies in inferences so terrifying that reasonable listeners may find themselves taking his advice and stocking up on organic seeds. (Those with no access to land can, postapocalypse, use them as currency.)
  84. Damage
    Not even a film maker of Mr. Malle's intelligence and taste can make this stilted story add up. The only ingredient that can make sense of "Damage" is the obvious one: outright eroticism, of the sort that presumably got the film its original NC-17 rating.
  85. Sweaty Betty
    Defiantly amateurish yet never less than engaging, “Sweaty Betty” is a true oddity.
  86. The Disappearance of My Mother
    At the very least, it’s impossible to watch The Disappearance of My Mother without a measure of ambivalence. Gratitude for the chance to make Barzini’s acquaintance, and for Barrese’s sensitivity in making the introduction, is accompanied by ethical queasiness.
  87. Disco Boy
    Disco Boy is a lean but sweepingly ambitious film crafted with formal rigor.
  88. Mansfield Park
    Ms. Rozema has made a film whose satiric bite is sharper than that of the usual high-toned romantic costume drama.
  89. Divan
    If Divan is often fascinating, it is sometimes frustrating.
  90. Deadline
    Not as dynamic as it should be, given the punch of the story it tells, but it makes its points.
  91. Next Stop Wonderland
    Next Stop Wonderland isn't really much more than a beautifully acted, finely edited sitcom, but it creates and sustains an intelligent, seriocomic mood better than any recent film about the urban single life.
  92. The Great Dance: A Hunter's Story
    In a very real way, The Great Dance constitutes an act of preservation and a requiem.
  93. No Date, No Signature
    A tad overdetermined in its studied, snowballing ambiguities, No Date, No Signature is dramatized with an acute sense of the role of class in Iranian society, and is unfussily well directed, creating visual parallels between the two men.
  94. Becoming Astrid
    Erik Molberg Hansen’s relaxed camera movements and fuzzy-soft compositions are quite beautiful, and the performances — including the superb Trine Dyrholm as the baby’s Danish foster mother — are pitch-perfect. Best of all is the magnetic August, whose open, mobile features can slide from plain to lovely with just a shift in the light and whose embrace of the character is a joy to watch.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No Man of Her Own
    Well acted and clearly photographed little drama of musical hall life in Paris.
  96. Macbeth
    Mr. Fassbender gives you a reason to see this Macbeth, although the writing isn’t bad, either.
  97. Bobby Sands: 66 Days
    Mr. Byrne’s film is a sober, evenhanded recapitulation of Sands’s imprisonment and death that places him in a historical context.
  98. Warrior
    It is appropriately blunt, powerful and relentless, a study of male bodies in sweaty motion and masculine emotions in teary turmoil.
  99. Ms. Purple
    Ms. Purple is a moody, downbeat drama soaked in color and saturated with sadness.
  100. Mosul
    Instant death lurks around every corner, and the movie doesn’t shy from killing off major characters. But it does play like an odd match of form and content: a story of single-minded humanitarianism framed as a relentless action spectacular.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »