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 Meddler
    Affable, earnest and humanly scaled, The Meddler is the kind of entertainment that the studios used to supply by the boatload and that now tends to show up on the small screen.
  2. Here Come the Videofreex
    A concise and informative documentary.
  3. A Space Program
    As a tribute to NASA, A Space Program is rich in the core elements that have always propelled humanity’s flights of fancy: imagination and the right tools.
  4. The Birth of Saké
    Mr. Shirai nicely shuffles in the back stories of several workers, and his shots of sky, sea and early morning landscapes could fit amid Hokusai woodcuts.
  5. Batman Returns
    Mr. Burton's new Batman Returns is as sprightly as its predecessor was sluggish, and it succeeds in banishing much of the dourness and tedium that made the first film such an ordeal.
  6. The Infiltrator
    Robert is not a Shakespearean figure like Walter White, but the film at least grants him the moral stature of an incorruptible man risking his life in a dangerous job. The Infiltrator is still a good yarn that, when it catches its breath, allows Mr. Cranston to convey the same ambivalence and cunning he brought to “Breaking Bad” and “All the Way."
  7. Annabelle: Creation
    As with last year’s “Lights Out,” [Sandberg] proves a master of the flash-scare, a nifty choreographer of precipitous timing and striptease visuals. But he’s also adroit with more leisurely horrors.
  8. A Cure for Wellness
    You might feel like you’re in the company of a manic cinephile friend breathlessly recounting his favorite movie scenes in no particular order. You admire his devotion, his taste and his scholarship, but in the end the experience is probably more satisfying for him than it is for you. Still, the company isn’t bad.
  9. Lights Out
    Spackling over any copycat cracks with strong acting and fleet editing, Lights Out delivers minimalist frights in old-school ways.
  10. Above and Below
    Mr. Steiner’s tightly interconnected documentary, with transporting shots, visits people on the margins in the United States.
  11. I Don't Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman
    Ms. Lambert’s film builds nicely, staying in tune with the ordinariness and intimacy explored in Ms. Akerman’s boldly rendered films.
  12. I Went Down
    I Went Down owes much of its novelty to steering clear of Irish movie stereotypes and instead showing off a spare and quizzical indie spirit.
  13. Notfilm
    A charming, earnest, sometimes ungainly mixture of history, criticism and high-minded gossip, Notfilm testifies to an almost inexhaustible fascination with the pleasures and paradoxes of cinema.
  14. Don't Breathe
    It will probably please fans of this simple genre with its solid suspense, murky lighting and “gotcha!” scares.
  15. Sex and Broadcasting
    Professionally comfortable with improvising, the D.J.s make for affable company, and it’s amusing to watch radio from behind the scenes. But a tinge of melancholy also hovers over the movie.
  16. The Flight Fantastic
    Is the film a bit self-promotional? Sure, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.
  17. H.
    A clever film written and directed by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia, H. keeps the viewer watchful, waiting for it to splatter into a familiar horror plot or spin off into an alien abduction.
  18. Transfixed
    For sure, there are plenty of humorous moments here. But that underlying sadness is the most affecting aspect of the film.
  19. Kill Zone 2
    If there’s one rewarding thing about many Hong Kong action directors, it’s that they rarely dawdle in getting to what fight fans have come for: bracing shootouts and high-impact fisticuffs and footwork.
  20. Unlocking the Cage
    Part courtroom drama, part rumination on what separates human beings from other animals, the film is above all a sympathetic portrait of an advocate.
  21. My Big Night
    Thanks to his editor, Domingo González, Mr. de la Iglesia skillfully keeps these many balls in the air, a palpable affection for his players seeping through.
  22. Last Cab to Darwin
    Smartly directed by Jeremy Sims, this sweet-hearted film mostly manages to avoid triteness even as it casually packs an emotional punch.
  23. Suspicion
    One must remark that the ending is not up to Mr. Hitchcock's usual style, and the general atmosphere of the picture is far less genuine than he previously has wrought. But still he has managed to bring through a tense and exciting tale, a psychological thriller which is packed with lively suspense and a picture that entertains you from beginning to—well, almost the end.
  24. How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change
    A one-word assessment of this documentary: Tough. As in, tough to watch. Tough to consider. Tough to ignore.
  25. Speed Sisters
    Subtly rebellious and defiantly optimistic, “Speed Sisters” masks the sound of gunshots with the roar of revving engines. For these women, driving symbolizes a freedom they can otherwise only imagine.
  26. It
    The filmmakers honor both the pastoral and the infernal dimensions of Mr. King’s distinctive literary vision.
  27. Sin Alas
    Mr. Chace does his finest work with Mr. Padrón, and together director and actor create a portrayal of a man who, even as he’s stirred to action, seems increasingly burdened by his sentimental education.
  28. Little Man Tate
    As directed by Ms. Foster, the film has a kind of purity of purpose and control that is very rare in mass-market movies. It avoids a lot of sentimental nonsense. It is also sparely (and well-) written by Scott Frank.
  29. Tikkun
    There is no denying the film’s uncanny power or its visual discipline. It’s a luminous puzzle with a few pieces missing.
  30. Hacksaw Ridge
    Desmond Doss was calm, humble and courageous, qualities Mr. Gibson honors but does not share. It is possible to be moved and inspired by Desmond’s exploits while still feeling that his convictions have been exploited, perhaps even betrayed.
  31. What We Become
    What We Become is a very pretty movie with a very dark heart. The payoff is brutal, but earned.
  32. Kaili Blues
    As lovely as the movie is to look at (and the final scene is exceptionally wonderful), it’s too oblique to concentrate its energies and sharpen its focus.
  33. Slack Bay
    As it turns out, modes of farce and fantasy enable Mr. Dumont to pull the rug out from under the viewer in a number of new and upsetting ways. Be prepared.
  34. Staying Vertical
    Something about the strangeness of the people and the harsh indifference of the nature that surrounds them feels real, even if realism in the conventional sense may be the last thing on the filmmaker’s mind.
  35. The Red Turtle
    The Red Turtle practices a minor, gentle magic. It wants you to smile and say, “Ahh,” rather than gasp and say, “Wow.” But somehow the understatement can feel a bit overdone, as if the film were hovering over you, awaiting an expression of admiration.
  36. Clash
    Clash turns into a full-fledged horror movie, albeit one without the fake comfort of a supernatural or science-fiction pretext. It’s just man’s inhumanity to man, in full sway.
  37. Endless Poetry
    The images in Endless Poetry are arresting and sometimes disturbing, but there is an earnest commitment to ecstasy and authenticity that renders moot any question of offensiveness or exploitation.
  38. Risk
    To some degree in spite of Ms. Poitras’s journalistic intentions — though very much as a consequence of her rigorous honesty — the picture that emerges is complicated, unsettling and intriguingly ambivalent.
  39. Pervert Park
    To be sure, nothing in this film is easy to hear. But that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be said, and learned from.
  40. Kiki's Delivery Service
    A conventional but delightful tale of self-discovery and heroism from Mr. Miyazaki, it feels like Disney one moment, Truffaut the next.
  41. As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM
    “As I AM” rockets through its subject’s life, teeming with testimonials from the superstar producer-D.J.s Mark Ronson and Paul Oakenfold, among many others. And then it ends, leaving you spent. And wistful.
  42. Carnage Park
    Its dialogue would probably fit on a couple of sheets of paper. But it sure is creepy, in a throwback sort of way.
  43. The Chaser
    While it could stand to lose 20 minutes and several plot twists, Mr. Na’s debut manages to be thought-provoking and adventurous while providing solid thrills.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Sugarland Express
    The movie has a casual craziness that seems especially native.
  45. The President
    The Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf (“A Moment of Innocence,” “Kandahar”) is not known for his kineticism, but The President — which he has suggested is his comment on the Arab Spring — has surprising urgency and sweep.
  46. Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
    Effective topical entertainment, we are reminded, rarely comes without creative conflict.
  47. The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
    To be sure, this loosely structured story needs a stronger outline; you’ll often wish for clarifying details on the group’s programming and its unfamiliar instruments. But then the music will play, and you’ll think this film wants for nothing.
  48. 'Til Madness Do Us Part
    This overlong (nearly four hours) but sporadically extraordinary portrait of a forgotten corner of society may be tough going even for fans of forbidding cinema.
  49. Germans & Jews
    Part psychology seminar and sociology course, “Germans & Jews” finds its sharpest insights as it examines the stress of communication, when both sides are so hyper-aware of the past that it hinders what’s said in the present.
  50. Breaking a Monster
    What’s troubling is the film’s slow and steady exposure of a music business machine that gobbles up individuality and spits out a sellable package.
  51. Department Q: A Conspiracy of Faith
    The closing scene of “Faith,” beautifully blunt, ends it on the perfect note. Sure, you could point out a few shortcomings here and there. But those sins are easy to overlook.
  52. Paint It Black
    It’s not an easy movie to embrace, but it lingers.
  53. Tracktown
    Fact and fiction blend nicely in Tracktown.
  54. The Academy of Muses
    While eavesdropping on these academics, you may be captivated by their exchanges while frustrated by their stasis while curious about their lives. Indeed, there are several ways to look at these scenes. But all you really have to do is listen.
  55. Almost Christmas
    The family comedy-drama Almost Christmas is an often disarmingly entertaining picture, in spite of its being a not particularly well-thought-out cinematic contrivance.
  56. Bazodee
    The title, by the way, is Trinidadian slang for being disoriented or dizzy or just a little bit crazy, possibly because of romance. And you might go bazodee over that contagious soca beat.
  57. Wicked
    Despite its bumps, the movie is consistently amusing simply because it is “The Wizard of Oz” and it’s fun watching colorful, off-kilter characters singing, dancing and sometimes flying through the air (without a superhero suit).
  58. Cold War 2
    It is a summer sequel worth its salt, a brisk exercise in suspense and high-gloss mayhem.
  59. Garnet's Gold
    Approaching the story for the traditional trappings — narrative, action, even logic — is to ensure disappointment. But look to it for beauty and lyricism, and you may find a deeper satisfaction.
  60. Yarn
    It isn’t perfect — it’s a little too airy and artsy in spots — but still, thread and string should be jealous.
  61. Ovation
    Dependably genuine, and suffused with Mr. Jaglom’s increasingly mellow intelligence, this lighthearted backstage drama will feel to his fans like a gathering of familiars.
  62. Hooligan Sparrow
    Hooligan Sparrow, which Ms. Wang also shot and skillfully edited, has the pulse of a mainstream thriller but without the pacifying polish and tidiness.
  63. Miss Sharon Jones!
    When [Ms. Jones] bounds onstage with a holler and a howl — and diction that nails every last word to the melody — it’s clear she deserves that exclamation point in the title. Even if the movie around her sometimes struggles to do the same.
  64. Transpecos
    Though rife with implausibilities, Transpecos is fortified by strong acting and a location whose desolate beauty is a gift to Jeffrey Waldron’s serene camera.
  65. Sand Storm
    As a director, Ms. Zexer has a fine eye for the texture of daily life, which she fills in with resonant physical details and sweeping, scene-setting views.
  66. Long Way North
    The frosty landscapes have a subtle beauty, pale and sometimes shrouded in mist, giving the film a very different look from what often comes out of the big studios — somber, which is appropriate to the story.
  67. Don't Worry Baby
    Despite an implausible ending devoid of consequence, “Don’t Worry Baby” benefits from tidy editing, cinematography and, most of all, the presence of the seasoned Mr. McDonald and Ms. Balsam. Their nuanced authority — and the vibrant Manhattan backdrop — make the trip worthwhile.
  68. The Lost Arcade
    Part scrappy, part sweet and wholly enjoyable, The Lost Arcade is a love letter to a vanished piece of New York, and a little wish for the future.
  69. Smithereens
    Eventually, it becomes clear that neither Wren nor the movie is going anywhere, since the character never becomes any more thoughtful or less selfish than she was to begin with, and since her bouncing between Paul and Eric has become both predictable and strained. But before it runs out of steam, Smithereens is ragged, funny and eccentric. It has as much life as the indefatigable Wren, and that's plenty.
  70. Floyd Norman: An Animated Life
    The humble Mr. Norman is always ready with a laugh, and it’s tough not to smile yourself when he reaches for a pencil and starts drawing. When that happens, it’s redundant to say he’s special. Anyone can see it.
  71. Ithaca
    Ms. Ryan’s muted approach may be what we’ve come to expect of looks back at this period — nostalgia always comes with a lot of browns and grays, and with plenty of voice-over (in this case, Marcus’s letters to Homer). But she executes the formula well.
  72. The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years
    The way to watch is to ignore the image burnishing and just feel the moment.
  73. Office Christmas Party
    Sometimes the movie, directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, is too obviously just a framework for its stars to deploy goofy schtick, but the overall package is naughty, inappropriate fun.
  74. The Tenth Man
    The Tenth Man, a modest charmer from Argentina, breathes considerable life into the rather trite scenario of a man discovering his religious roots, in part because it seems genuinely curious about the community in which it’s set.
  75. Olympic Pride, American Prejudice
    [A] deft and comprehensive documentary.
  76. Land of Mine
    Mr. Zandvliet is less interested in the stark battle between good and evil than in the shifting ground of power and responsibility, and the way that every person carries the potential for decency and depravity.
  77. Viva
    While desperation and a critique lurk under all these garish surfaces, neither emerges because Ms. Biller, finally, adores this milieu too much to tear it apart.
  78. Westworld
    Crichton the director seems to have had more fun with the film than Crichton the writer, whose screenplay can offer us no better explanation for the sudden, bloody robot rebellion than an epidemic of "central mechanism psychosis."
  79. Abortion: Stories Women Tell
    What Ms. Tragos succeeds in illustrating is that if you take away the signs and listen to the stories, there is little difference between women on opposite sides of the debate — at least in the region she covers.
  80. 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.
  81. Landfill Harmonic
    The story behind “Landfill Harmonic” is so good that even some imperfect filmmaking can’t hold it back.
  82. Girl Asleep
    As it seesaws between Greta’s conscious and unconscious minds, the movie begins to feel like a waking dream.
  83. Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA
    Making a Killing generates a disgust that can’t be shaken.
  84. Happy Hour
    If Happy Hour doesn’t quite deliver all it promises, that may only be because it promises quite a lot.
  85. Is That You?
    A bittersweet and lovely little movie.
  86. The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger
    The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger is a challenging, sometimes poignant engagement with the man and his work.
  87. The Ruins of Lifta
    An achingly poignant documentary.
  88. Phantasm
    It's thoroughly silly and endearing.
  89. Silicon Cowboys
    Silicon Cowboys prizes the human drama behind business events, much as in “The Social Network” or “Steve Jobs.” Those films, too, pretended that technology was the star. But they knew that people were the real story.
  90. Chuck
    Mr. Schreiber has almost no physical resemblance to Wepner, in his heyday a burly, mustachioed redhead. Mr. Schreiber is a terrific actor, however, and he pulls it off. His portrayal works partly because of its understatement.
  91. Maudie
    Stick with the movie for its leads, Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, a beautifully matched pair who open up two closed people, unleashing torrents of feeling.
  92. The Ivory Game
    While more information on the animals and their ecosystems is needed, the stakes described here are immense, as is the sorrow over majestic creatures massacred only so that their tusks can be made into baubles.
  93. Homeland: Iraq Year Zero
    “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime,” Ernest Hemingway wrote. Homeland: Iraq Year Zero is both an irrefutable proof of that statement and a nagging reminder that the statement is insufficient to address the ultimate tragedy of war.
  94. The Monster
    Part of the ticklish enjoyment in The Monster is how the director, Bryan Bertino (“The Strangers”), plays with genre registers and how, after opening with disquieting stillness and an isolated child, he slowly yet surely turns up the shrieks.
  95. Passage to Mars
    While those seeking interplanetary scenarios may want more details, fans of endurance stories will be pleased. Indeed, Passage to Mars has the effect of making a trip to another world appear almost secondary. The journey undertaken here seems nearly as frightful and fascinating.
  96. The Age of Shadows
    The Age of Shadows might tempt another filmmaker to dwell on issues or delve deeper into its characters’ hearts. Yet, for this director, exposition can’t hold a candle to elegantly staged shootouts. And who can blame him. He knows his strengths.
  97. Lady Macbeth
    Mr. Oldroyd boxes Katherine in his attractive visuals, imprisoning her as her male relatives do. Yet his intellectual distance also turns her into a specimen, a pinned butterfly turned taxidermy beast.
  98. My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea
    An eccentric and lively animated fantasy.
  99. The Untamed
    Mr. Escalante is an exceptionally deft and subtle realist, and you sometimes feel, in “Heli” and even more so in The Untamed that he is drawn to extremity partly out of boredom with his own skill.
  100. 1000 Rupee Note
    A parable about the contagious nature of corruption and the curse of dirty money, 1000 Rupee Note asks, How valuable is a windfall to people who live their lives largely without money?
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