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 Vessel
    The Vessel is a modest, but not maudlin, parable of hope about mustering the strength to vigorously plunge again into life’s uncertainties after a devastating loss.
  2. Coming Through The Rye
    As Salinger, the formidable Chris Cooper has a brief but masterly turn, sympathetically rendering the writer as a curmudgeon defending his literary offspring.
  3. Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
    Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise covers so much ground that it’s usually easy to forgive the filmmakers for not digging deeper. This is a documentary interested in breadth rather than depth, and on those terms it succeeds.
  4. Rock Dog
    The title character of Rock Dog isn’t likely to end up on anyone’s Top 5 list of animated heroes, but the film does have a thoroughly enjoyable rocker in it. And an appealingly nasty wolf, too.
  5. 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.
  6. It Had to Be You
    Cristin Milioti (“How I Met Your Mother”) is so quirkily endearing in the lead role that she makes it easy to just go with the airy tale.
  7. The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America
    Directed slickly by Paul Dugdale, “Olé” is less a concert film or travelogue than a historical account — swiftly, smartly assembled, reflecting events only six months old.
  8. My Scientology Movie
    My Scientology Movie relies on a shaggy, meandering charm. At times it plays like an extended skit on “The Daily Show”; yet its disorder also makes its insights — like how strongly the church’s training sessions resemble acting classes — feel refreshingly organic.
  9. Ocean's 8
    Its cast aside, the movie sounds and narratively unwinds like the previous installments, but without the same easy snap or visual allure.
  10. Mirzya
    Sure, the filmmakers overdo their work. But it’s all in the service of love, and somehow that makes it O.K.
  11. In Pursuit of Silence
    Its arguments range wide without going deep, but its factoids about the medical benefits of hanging out in a forest — and the cognitive costs of a noisy school or hospital — are fascinating and persuasive.
  12. National Bird
    [An] elegantly unsettling documentary.
  13. Tampopo
    Mr. Itami often strains after comic effects that remain elusive. The most appealing thing about Tampopo is that he never stops trying. A funny sensibility is at work here.
  14. Mr. Donkey
    Zhou Shen and Liu Lu’s bleak farce Mr. Donkey, adapted from their play, has a sentimental streak, and, as farce can, a tendency to overheat. But beneath its mild staginess and intermittent mania lies a cynical, piercing parable about China’s past and perhaps its present.
  15. Seasons
    The movie’s cinematographers may hog the limelight, but it’s the sweat of the sound engineers that brings their work to life.
  16. Mifune: The Last Samurai
    It’s a brisk and energetic primer for those who don’t know his movies or are ready to watch them again. And it doubles as a history of the chanbara (sword fighting) genre, providing an opportunity to sample clips from seldom-seen or partially lost silent films.
  17. Burn Country
    Mr. Rains, Ms. Leo and Mr. Franco are all so interesting that you wish they had more to bite into. But the film has a transfixing quality nonetheless.
  18. Dreamland
    It’s a smart, understated sex comedy, a description that suggests a certain maturity. You’d never suspect it was the first feature from its director, Robert Schwartzman.
  19. Ivory. A Crime Story
    This roughly constructed yet passionate documentary isn’t shy about showing the massacre of elephants or about calling out the groups implicit in the killings. That bluntness and courage usually overrides the uneven filmmaking.
  20. Asperger's Are Us
    Asperger’s Are Us rarely stretches to be funny or poignant or touching, and that makes this documentary all the more of each.
  21. Iron Moon
    Iron Moon has a slowly mounting, but lingering, impact.
  22. Ne Me Quitte Pas
    Ne Me Quitte Pas...is soberingly adept at portraying the tedium of drunken life. Whether it actually avoids emulating said tedium depends on how engaging you find its two stooges. I was sympathetic without being wholly charmed.
  23. A Wrinkle in Time
    A Wrinkle in Time, faithful to the affirmative, democratic intelligence of the book, is also committed to serving its most loyal and susceptible audience. This is, unapologetically, a children’s movie, by turns gentle, thrilling and didactic, but missing the extra dimension of terror and wonder that would have transcended the genre.
  24. Everything, Everything
    With a pair of irresistible leads and a straightforward love-overcomes-adversity story, Everything, Everything scores a direct hit on the teenage-girl market. Others might find it pretty enjoyable as well.
  25. Old Stone
    Mr. Ma paints a persuasively bleak scene that could use more psychological and philosophical nuance to go with its painstaking grimness.
  26. They Call Us Monsters
    They Call Us Monsters doesn’t shy from the consequences of the violence the prisoners were accused of (we meet a paralyzed victim of a shooting), even as it suggests that the system...proceeds almost mechanically.
  27. Sword Master
    This nostalgic nod to the Chinese magic-and-martial arts genre known as wuxia mixes love story and clan war with equal amounts of silliness and heart.
  28. Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America
    Mr. Davis, speaking to Faith Morris of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, poses a knotty question about how far his cause of eliminating race hate has yet to go. Her reply: “How long is this documentary going to be?”
  29. Ghostland: The View of the Ju/’hoansi
    This is an engaging movie depicting some sympathetic people, and is ultimately worthwhile. But there’s a one-dimensional quality to Ghostland; Mr. Stadler’s team obviously felt it was more important to record events than to explore conditions.
  30. Spider-Man: Far from Home
    The high-school comedy bits of “Far From Home,” while not especially original, have a sweet, affable charm.
  31. Dangal
    As goosed as the drama gets...the uplift feels earned, or at least tough to resist.
  32. The Sunshine Makers
    Whether together or apart, Mr. Sand and Mr. Scully seemed to be operating on a similar wavelength, and the movie gets a lot of mileage from their sometimes excellent, at times hair-raising, occasionally puckishly funny and altogether wild adventures.
  33. Suntan
    Replete with sometimes startling imagery...Suntan captures a set of very specific feelings: the exhilaration and embarrassment of falling, followed by the desperate denial that one has landed in a very bad place.
  34. The Ornithologist
    Mr. Rodrigues ultimately delivers an intriguing, daring film that is likely to surprise both his fans and moviegoers unfamiliar with his work.
  35. Cézanne et Moi
    Cézanne et Moi offers a pungent, demystifying portrait of the rowdy late-19th-century Parisian art world where famous painters and poets mingled and jostled for position at dinner parties and art openings filled with shoptalk, backbiting and intrigue.
  36. Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent
    Throughout, the solitary Mr. Tower maintains an unflappable refinement, dedicated, a college friend says, to “looking for some utopian possibility of living, because that’s what kept the darkness away.”
  37. Girls Trip
    Girls Trip adds complexity to the picture by bringing in class, even as it dispatches with whiteness, showing it the door so that these women can find themselves while rediscovering the power and pleasures of sisterhood.
  38. Alpha
    Mr. Hughes, who for many years cocreated films with his twin brother, Allen, and here makes his solo feature debut, is a sharp and engaged visual storyteller. It’s a pleasure to see him working in expansive wide-screen, a fitting format for his chops.
  39. Only the Brave
    Under its slick, schematic surface, this tale of aspiration and redemption at least offers moments of genuine feeling.
  40. Starless Dreams
    If Starless Dreams inspires conflicted feelings in viewers, it may be by design. It’s hard not to want to flee, and it’s hard to look away.
  41. Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo
    Light on plot yet heavy on chemistry, Paris 05:59 is at times a little precious. But the two leads are so believably besotted that their occasional immaturity doesn’t rankle.
  42. Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe
    One need not admire Zweig’s writing to recognize the worth of this thoughtful treatment of one of the countless real-life tragedies of 20th-century history.
  43. This Beautiful Fantastic
    Enjoyable performances keep the tale from becoming too heavy-handed.
  44. Detroit
    The film’s struggle against simplification — against the sentimentality, wishful thinking and outright denial that defines most Hollywood considerations of America’s racial past — is palpable, almost heroic, even if it is not always successful.
  45. Icarus
    Mr. Fogel could be considered either daring or foolhardy for his initial plan. But his work with Dr. Rodchenkov is levelheaded, and his documentary illuminating.
  46. A Hidden Life
    Franz Jägerstätter’s defiance of evil is moving and inspiring, and I wish I understood it better.
  47. Beatriz at Dinner
    This is neither a simple satire of privilege nor a mock-provocative comedy of diversity and its discontents. It’s about a clash of values, about unresolvable contradictions. Or to put it another way, about good and evil.
  48. City of Ghosts
    More information and in-depth analysis, as well as greater restraint in the use of atrocity images, might have deepened a movie that leans on shortcuts and visual shocks.
  49. Crown Heights
    Like its protagonist, sensitively and shrewdly played by Lakeith Stanfield, the film is soft-spoken and thoughtful, with sweet, lyrical touches that alleviate some of the grimness without blunting the cruelty and injustice of what happened.
  50. Novitiate
    Ms. Betts refrains from easy, uplifting answers and facile condemnations of organized religion. Aided by Kat Westergaard’s warm, restrained cinematography, she takes the viewer close to an understanding of Cathleen’s evolving sense of her relationship with God.
  51. Oklahoma City
    Oklahoma City suggests that conspiracy theories today have consequences for tomorrow — a message with terrifying implications in an age of fake news.
  52. Patti Cake$
    Ms. Macdonald is quite simply a revelation, capturing the reflexive self-confidence and defensive diffidence of the millennial generation with sneaky sincerity and offhand wit.
  53. Pop Aye
    They make a funny pair, by turns amusing and puzzling, though also melancholic and touching. For the most part, these variations seem by design in a movie that flirts with assorted narrative conventions and fluctuating moods without ever settling into a familiar template.
  54. 1 Night
    The journey could be a bit more eventful, but the payoff is charming.
  55. Keep Quiet
    Even if you are unmoved by Mr. Szegedi’s personal story (I found him somewhat sympathetic), what Keep Quiet tells us about its larger themes is upsettingly pertinent.
  56. The Island Funeral
    A road movie that’s as mesmerizing as it is tense.
  57. mother!
    Mr. Aronofsky is a virtuoso of mood and timing, a devoted student of form and technique straining to be a credible visionary. But as wild and provocative as his images can be, there is something missing — an element of strangeness, of difficulty, of the kind of inspiration that overrides mere cleverness.
  58. The Beguiled
    I must say that I found it interesting (even when it approached the ludicrous) because of its place in relation to other Siegel films and because I have nothing but appreciation for the performers.
  59. David Lynch: The Art Life
    Mostly, the documentary is a fond portrait of how one man nurtured his artistic temperament and risked being misunderstood — sometimes by his own family.
  60. Viceroy's House
    The film carries a trace of the sweep of a great screen epic along with the straightforward, explanatory qualities of mass-audience TV, and is never less than absorbing.
  61. Step
    The film’s success is directly dependent on the personalities — and achievements — of the young women highlighted. Despite the narrative gaps, Ms. Lipitz excels at putting across those personalities.
  62. Atomica
    While its premise and some of its effects may be B-movie grade, Atomica — like the best B movies — delivers an unexpectedly rewarding kick.
  63. Dig Two Graves
    Hunter Adams’s Dig Two Graves is that rare chiller conjuring eeriness and dread without defaulting to abundant gore or flagrant nudity.
  64. Nakom
    A strong nonprofessional cast and a use of long takes enhance the sense of immersion in a truly organic production.
  65. Water & Power: A California Heist
    Guided by the work of a handful of burr-like journalists, this dense and disturbing documentary dives into the regulatory quagmire of California water rights with more courage than hope.
  66. Here Alone
    More psychodrama than postapocalyptic adventure, the movie parcels out its scares in small, effective jolts, delivering just enough menace to remind us of the stakes.
  67. War Machine
    After a sluggish and chaotic start, War Machine finds its groove and becomes its own thing: a mordant, cleareyed critique of American war-making that is all the more devastating for being affectionately drawn.
  68. Love & Taxes
    If there aren’t many big laughs here, there are enough smiles to make the time pass pleasantly enough.
  69. The Settlers
    While any explanation of this fraught phenomenon feels like an oversimplification, Mr. Dotan sorts out the forces and personalities that shaped the movement.
  70. Ben-Gurion, Epilogue
    It conveys a satisfying, informative portrait of a well-read man who looks back at his life, good decisions and bad, with wisdom and intelligence.
  71. Badrinath Ki Dulhania
    If “Badrinath” ends up being less about female empowerment than about schooling gents on a cardinal rule, its pop comes from Ms. Bhatt.
  72. Who's Crazy? (1966)
    The movie, shot mostly in crisp, sometimes smoky black and white, is far better, a quirky but purposeful grafting of Mack Sennett to the French New Wave. Yet it’s the soundtrack that has the staying power.
  73. White Sun
    It shows how the lingering disputes of war ripple through lives after guns have ostensibly been laid down.
  74. School Life
    School Life is a loving portrait, primarily, of the inspirational educator couple, who command the respect of their students and always seem to know what a particular child needs to hear.
  75. Betting on Zero
    Even without an upbeat ending, though, Betting on Zero would be persuasive advocacy.
  76. First Man
    It reminds you of an extraordinary feat and acquaints you with an interesting, enigmatic man. But there is a further leap beyond technical accomplishment — into meaning, history, metaphysics or the wilder zones of the imagination — that the film is too careful, too earthbound, to attempt.
  77. Little Boxes
    It avoids the big confrontation or grand statement; doing so allows it to be an effective, if somewhat uneventful, study of the Brooklyn bubble effect.
  78. The Transfiguration
    Mr. Ruffin must carry the film, projecting interior activity and suggesting information where the script (by Mr. O’Shea) does not. That he imbues the film with a weight greater than its words is a testament to his skill as an actor.
  79. I, Olga Hepnarová
    Anchored by a startling performance by Michalina Olszanska, the Czech film “I, Olga Hepnarova” is an austere, hypnotic story of sadness, madness and murder.
  80. The Disaster Artist
    It’s a divertingly funny movie, but its breeziness can also feel overstated, at times glib and a bit of a dodge.
  81. Mean Dreams
    Nathan Morlando’s Mean Dreams may use a time-honored premise — young lovers on the lam (see: “Badlands”) — but it does so with such quiet, gently appealing assurance that it makes the template seem fresh again.
  82. Becoming Bond
    On the whole, Becoming Bond is sufficiently winning that you might even forgive its chapter titles, each one a worse-than-the-previous play on a James Bond-associated phrase
  83. 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.
  84. The Work
    Opening an aperture into a process so ego-stripping that it feels unseemly to witness, The Work is enlightening yet also punishing.
  85. Caddyshack
    It's not as funny as "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie," but it is less pushy than "Meatballs." It is not as thickly stocked with outrageous moments as "Animal House," yet it is far easier to take than "Where the Buffalo Roam."
  86. A Woman, a Part
    Touching on issues of artistic survival and the porous boundary between work and pleasure, Ms. Subrin, an accomplished visual artist and filmmaker, sifts addiction, celebrity and the plight of the aging actress into something rarefied yet real.
  87. Battle of the Sexes
    A glib, enjoyable fictionalization of the 1973 exhibition tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
  88. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
    Everything fits together too neatly in “Three Billboards,” even when chaos descends, but the performers add enough rough texture so that it doesn’t always feel so worked.
  89. The Old Man & the Gun
    How much intensity and suspense can you drain from a movie about cops and robbers without having the thing collapse into anecdote and whimsy? The Old Man & the Gun kind of does just that, but it’s hard to mind too much.
  90. Band Aid
    Both leads are excellent together, and the movie is good at showing how Anna and Ben push each other’s buttons.
  91. Thank You for Your Service
    If, like its characters, Thank You for Your Service sometimes struggles to balance staying strong with wearing its heart on its sleeve, it makes an emotional plea in a direct, effective way.
  92. All This Panic
    All This Panic can feel glancing, its more painful revelations sliding in unheralded and slipping away just as quietly. What’s left is a dreamy diary of a time that passes so quickly yet impacts so profoundly.
  93. The Penguin Counters
    Here’s what sounds like one dud job: calculating bird populations in Antarctica. But here’s what that work has inspired: one swell documentary.
  94. Stronger
    Stronger takes more artistic risks than any other American-made “inspired by true events” picture I can recall.
  95. California Typewriter
    This quirky, obsessive documentary is about so much more than broken keys and busted type wheels. It’s really about how we create art.
  96. Polina
    If this film’s directors, Valérie Müller and the French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, don’t offer much overt material on Polina’s inner life, it’s because they don’t have to: the point of Polina, and this movie, is that her dancing is her being.
  97. Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present
    “I want to make abstract art that’s funny, happy, energetic, joyful,” he exclaims at one point. That he did. This movie is a good introduction to it.
  98. Truman
    This well-made, low-key drama, written by Mr. Gay and Tomàs Aragay, offers some insights into terminal illness.
  99. Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back
    The art is the star and Ms. Axelrod features plenty of it. She also outlines a knowing path through Mr. Cattelan’s career, leaving just enough room to have you wondering if the artist is more of a con man than a genius.
  100. Alex Strangelove
    Alex Strangelove is witty, compassionate and enjoyable throughout; a charming movie and in many respects an enlightened one.
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