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. Eyes of Laura Mars
    It's the cleverness of Eyes of Laura Mars that counts, cleverness that manifests itself in superlative casting, drily controlled direction from Irvin Kershner, and spectacular settings that turn New York into the kind of eerie, lavish dreamland that could exist only in the idle noodlings of the very, very hip.
  2. Ride Your Wave
    The director, Masaaki Yuasa, is adept at stories and visuals where water is a major character.
  3. Bright Lights, Big City
    It may not capture Mr. McInerney's novel completely or even succeed in standing on its own, but it does go a long way toward bringing the book to life. If Mr. McInerney's readers think it incomplete, they should also find it enjoyably familiar.
  4. French Connection II
    The concerns of French Connection II are not much different from those of old Saturday-afternoon movie serials that used to place their supermen in jeopardy and then figure ways of getting them out. The difference is in the quality of the supermen and in their predicaments.
  5. Next of Kin
    An appreciably better-than-average revenge drama.
  6. American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel
    American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel doesn’t break ground cinematically, but it is eye-opening in other ways.
  7. My Dinner with Andre
    It's the achievement of Mr. Malle, the director of Atlantic City, Pretty Baby and a lot of other very fine, conventional movies, that he has successfully turned his two real-life personalities into actors capable of representing themselves.
  8. Eternals
    The actors are the movie’s great superpower and give it warmth, even a bit of heat, and a pulse of life that’s never fully quelled by the numerous clamorous action sequences.
  9. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
    It’s not only Mister Rogers’s kindness that hovers over “Beautiful Day,” but also his creative spirit. Paying tribute to his skills as a composer, performer and puppeteer, the movie affirms his status as a hero of the imagination.
  10. Tel Aviv on Fire
    The story risks being overwhelmed along with its protagonist — pulled apart by too many competing arcs that collide in ways that aren’t always graceful. But on the other hand, too neat a movie might risk inauthenticity.
  11. Lean on Me
    Audiences are apt to root for the film's Mr. Clark even when they aren't entirely enthusiastic about what he's doing. Much of this is attributable to Mr. Freeman's fiery and compelling performance, but a lot of it also comes from the director John G. Avildsen (''Rocky''), who has stacked the deck in every way he can.
  12. Just Mercy
    Just Mercy is saved from being an earnest, inert courtroom drama when it spends time on death row, where it is opened up and given depth by two strong, subtle performances, from Foxx and Rob Morgan.
  13. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band
    You can’t beat the access or the clips, although the absence of Hudson (whom Roher apparently filmed) from the present-day interviews is peculiar. His voice might have provided a valuable counterpoint to Robertson’s recollections.
  14. The Sky Is Pink
    The fantasy of The Sky Is Pink is that Aisha’s death allows her to see her mother with adoring omniscience, and the film is never more pleasing than when it revels in the glamorous melodrama of a superstar performing motherhood.
  15. Ema
    Whether a melodramatic comment on art and anarchy, or a wild experiment in toxic maternalism, the film feels like a fever that just won’t break.
  16. Greed
    Coogan brings his usual comic reliability to his characterization, as does Isla Fisher as the rich man’s predictably estranged wife, and they wring laughs from the material.
  17. Hope Gap
    While you’ve seen this portrait before, and better, Nighy and Bening are so in tune with their characters that such rote renderings are easily forgiven.
  18. La Flor
    La Flor is perhaps more fun to think about than to sit through, though there are some exquisitely beautiful sequences.
  19. Great Balls of Fire!
    Anyone looking for a true sense of his importance in the history of rock-and-roll will be let down by Great Balls of Fire. But though the film may skimp on the truth, it is loaded with terrific music and outrageous fun.
  20. The Hospital
    Although Mr. Chayefsky has written a very contemporary melodramatic farce, his political sympathies have their roots in the liberalism of 20 years ago.
  21. Zombieland: Double Tap
    Zombieland: Double Tap sets the bar low and steps easily over it, which makes it better than a lot of recent big-screen comedies. It doesn’t have much on its mind, but it isn’t completely brain-dead either.
  22. Seberg
    A flawed and fascinating film about fame and martyrdom.
  23. The Perfect Candidate
    The movie’s lived-in acting and unhurried pace make it a better-than-palatable viewing experience.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Marooned
    If Marooned falls short as a soaring blockbuster, it does keep both feet on the ground.
  25. Tigers Are Not Afraid
    Thematically underdeveloped yet pleasingly creepy, Tigers Are Not Afraid balances its mild terrors with appealing moments of childish creativity.
  26. Hamburger Hill
    Two actors who do have good material, and make the most of it, are Courtney Vance, as the platoon's snappish, highly articulate medic, and Dylan McDermott, as the platoon's exhausted sergeant. Mr. Vance is particularly fine. The narrative picks up weight and momentum every time he comes on the screen. Also good is Tegan West, who plays yet another young, raw lieutenant who must depend on the patience of his men.
  27. Daniel Isn't Real
    What starts as a mediocre psychological thriller finishes as a surprisingly toothsome and creative horror film, complete with creature features and journeys into the abyss.
  28. Casualties of War
    Mr. Penn plays Meserve with terrific elan. There is plausibility in every movement and gesture, and especially in his crafty handsomeness. His Meserve is the sort of man one credits with thoughts when the mind may, in fact, be completely blank.
  29. The Duellists
    A film that satisfies not because it sweeps us off our feet, knocks us into the aisles, provides us with visions of infinity or definitions of God, but because it is precise, intelligent, civilized, and because it never for a moment mistakes its narrative purpose.
  30. Romper Stomper
    While enticing you to hate the gang and take delight in everything bad that happens to its members, the film also gives you the vicarious thrill of being one of the gang.
  31. Strange But True
    The tale is a jolting one, and the superb players do justice to the emotional distress of its characters. But a surer directorial hand might have yielded a more resonant experience.
  32. Alligator
    A very funny meditation on the old ''what happens when you flush the goldfish down the john?'' nightmare. It is also a formula film that simultaneously demonstrates the specific requirements of the formula while sending them up with good humor.
  33. Koyaanisqatsi
    Koyaanisqatsi is an oddball and - if one is willing to put up with a certain amount of solemn picturesqueness - entertaining trip.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Jazz Singer
    The Vitaphoned songs and some dialogue have been introduced most adroitly. This in itself is an ambitious move, for in the expression of song the Vitaphone vitalizes the production enormously. The dialogue is not so effective, for it does not always catch the nuances of speech or inflections of the voice so that one is not aware of the mechanical features.
  35. The Fortune Cookie
    The Fortune Cookie is no more sunny--and, if possible, even less romantic--than Kiss Me, Stupid, Mr. Wilder's last film and a comedy of unrelieved vulgarity, but it has style and taste.
  36. Bunny Lake Is Missing
    The movie has its share of logical inconsistencies, although to dwell on them is to ignore its deliberate ambiguities and considerable panache.
  37. Fantastic Fungi
    A charming blend of science and conjecture, Fantastic Fungi wants to free your mind.
  38. Everybody's Talking About Jamie
    Jonathan Butterell’s film, now streaming on Amazon, is a charmer, every bit as sunny, confident and ultimately compelling as Jamie himself.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In the Shadow of the Moon
    The film is never less than engaging, and it’s just about always clever.
  40. Friedkin Uncut
    The documentary also reminds viewers of why Friedkin has earned this tribute. For all his career ups and downs, he has remained devoted to making genuinely challenging and exciting work, and has succeeded more often than not. The documentary serves as a strong incitement to dig into it.
  41. No Place Like Home (2006)
    The picture abounds with amazing landscapes and trenchant but quietly articulated commentaries on tourism and Jamaica’s other economies, or lack thereof, in this era.
  42. Jexi
    While its mode of argumentation gets weaker as the standard-issue boy-meets-girl-meets-carpe-diem plot progresses, the appealing cast and brisk running time help “Jexi” not wear out its welcome.
  43. Career Opportunities
    Mr. Whaley has to work too hard to be antic in the early, Ferris Bueller-type scenes, but he gets much better in more easygoing moments. The gorgeous Ms. Connelly is more model than actress, but by those standards she is relatively lively.
  44. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
    A Marvel movie, for sure. But a pretty interesting one, partly because it’s also a Ryan Coogler film, with the director’s signature interplay of genre touchstones, vivid emotions (emphasized by Ludwig Goransson’s occasionally tooth-rattling score) and allegorical implications.
  45. Klaus
    It all moves along so amiably, and offers such consistently delightful visuals, that the conventional plot points, up to and including an inevitable “but I can explain” bit, are entirely digestible.
  46. The Two Popes
    The actors draw out both the spiritual and the psychological dimensions of their characters. The interplay, a duet with sweet and eccentric harmonies, is fascinating to observe, even as it undermines the overall structure of the narrative.
  47. Depraved
    Making the most of his limited budget, not unusual for the prolific Fessenden, he has produced possibly his most coherent and visually polished work to date. The makeup effects and lead performances are excellent, and Fessenden’s signature cheek (two strip-club employees are called Stormy and Melania) never tips into silliness.
  48. The Lair of the White Worm
    Not a worm is left unturned in Ken Russell's buoyant, mischievous and predictably overwrought new film.
  49. Britt-Marie Was Here
    Britt-Marie Was Here is a relatively unchallenging yet ultimately pleasant watch.
  50. The V.I.P.s
    The V.I.P.s is, gratifyingly, a lively, engrossing romantic film cut to the always serviceable pattern of the old multi-character Grand Hotel, and some of the other people in it are even more exciting than the two top stars.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Panic in Needle Park
    It is a nightmare world view, but it is a world view, and The Panic in Needle Park never pretends that it is subject to moral condemnations, or to easy cure or the insights of urban sociology.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dead Ringer
    Uncommonly silly little film, but it is great fun to watch.
  53. I'm Leaving Now
    A close-range film about distance, the short, poignant documentary “I’m Leaving Now” unfolds like a character study.
  54. Cracked Up
    Hammond, who describes his face as so bland that it becomes a canvas for so many others, emerges as a riveting, eccentric character: Fragile, lyrical and haunted, like a doomed figure out of Tennessee Williams.
  55. Memory: The Origins of Alien
    While it is generally engaging to learn about the influences of the screenwriter Dan O’Bannon or the artistic process of H.R. Giger (who designed the alien), the documentary is at its least fawning when it focuses on technique.
  56. My Zoe
    An unusually compelling domestic drama with sharp ears, a sharp eye, and up to a point, sharp teeth.
  57. The Kingmaker
    It’s an ugly story shrewdly told, with a sense of humor and also a deeper feeling for history.
  58. Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael
    Though ''Roxy Carmichael'' is never as fresh or powerful as it might have been, it is a sweetly engaging film in the Barry Levinson school: just when you think it might fall into a bottomless pit of sentimentality, it stops short.
  59. Dream Horse
    This sports underdog story, which is based on true events, has several features endemic to the genre. But Dream Horse, an unabashed crowd-pleaser directed by Euros Lyn, earns its smiles and cheers.
  60. Red Penguins
    If Red Penguins doesn’t always strike a satisfying balance between the glib and the grim, the broader topic — the commercialization of hockey — affords it a novel lens on Russia’s economic transition.
  61. The French Dispatch
    Anderson expresses a fan’s zeal and a collector’s greed for both canonical works and weird odds and ends, a love for old modernisms that is undogmatic and unsentimental. Which is not to say unfeeling.
  62. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
    Let There Be Carnage flourishes in high-energy moments and feeds off low expectations; it’s the mold in the Avengers’ shower.
  63. Victim
    As a straight piece of blackmail melodrama, it is a good bit below the British par. But as a frank and deliberate exposition of the well-known presence and plight of the tacit homosexual in modern society it is certainly unprecedented and intellectually bold.
  64. Amazon Women on the Moon
    An anarchic, often hilarious adventure in dial-spinning, a collection of brief skits and wacko parodies that are sometimes quite clever, though they're just as often happily sophomoric, too.
  65. The Last Tree
    The film feels at times like it is trying to take on too much — plotlines are rushed, relationships feel unearned or not explained. Still, I can’t help but be impressed by Amoo’s attempts to direct a familiar narrative with such a complicated set of questions.
  66. Paris Blues
    Paris Blues is a small movie with large ambitions.
  67. The Comancheros
    So studiously wild and woolly it turns out to be good fun.
  68. Tell Me Who I Am
    Their moment of resolution at the end is very moving, but the movie also testifies that while love and forgiveness can ameliorate suffering, it can’t really wipe it all away.
  69. Nosferatu the Vampyre
    Herzog's film seems well worth the effort to me. It's funny without being silly, eerie without being foolish and uncommonly beautiful in a way that has nothing to do with mere prettiness.
  70. Bombshell
    Part of what works in the movie is that it does a good job of presenting the ordinary assaults that women, even those with great privilege, can endure simply to get through a day, including dehumanizing “compliments.”
  71. The Black Hole
    The Black Hole is attractively unpretentious and at times quite snappy.
  72. Serendipity
    It seems best to view Serendipity as one component of a much bigger project (a book on Nourry’s work with the same title was published in 2017) — a body of work in which life and art are inseparable.
  73. That Darn Cat!
    The color is good and Bobby Darin warbles a song at the start that may be amusing to humans but would probably fill Felix with disgust. Anyhow, it's an entertaining picture.
  74. Watson
    The movie can be frustratingly deferential toward Watson, but it is never less than urgent.
  75. Honey, I Blew Up the Kid
    If the new film doesn't exude quite as much fairy-tale magic as the original, it is still a thoroughly entertaining family romp.
  76. The Apollo
    While “The Apollo” itself might have taken a more inventive approach, it derives its power from the artistry it captures.
  77. To Kid or Not to Kid
    Candid and empathetic, the movie’s segments can feel rushed and unfocused; yet they have a ragged intimacy that argues implicitly for an individual’s right to choose, without interference or condemnation.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Swiss Family Robinson
    The Robinsons, their island and Mr. Disney have made a real Christmas contribution for any family.
  79. Ip Man 4: The Finale
    There is no mystery about who wins the movie’s final bout, but it is never less than thrilling to watch Yen’s fluttering limbs in action.
  80. James and the Giant Peach
    A technological marvel, arch and innovative with a daringly offbeat visual conception. But it's also a strenuously artful film with a macabre edge that may scare small children. And beyond that, it lacks a clear idea of who its audience might be.
  81. The Daytrippers
    The main action of The Daytrippers is bright, real and even poignant enough to make this journey worth the ride.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Night of the Creeps
    Beyond it's obviously derivative inspiration, the film shows a fair ability to create suspense, build tension and achieve respectable performances.
  83. Candyman
    The film's spooky atmosphere is accentuated by Anthony B. Richmond's cinematography and Philip Glass's score. Ms. Madsen's performance is a lot more enterprising than what the material requires; the same can be said for Mr. Rose's direction.
  84. The Craft
    A surprisingly skittish fable of adolescent powerlessness, grandiosity and the nursing of psychic wounds. As the witchcraft escalates, the movie exchanges its psychological acuity for garish special effects that hammer home a ponderous warning to once and future witches: be good or else.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator
    This haunting documentary is a powerful addition to a growing body of post #MeToo films — including “Finding Neverland” and “Surviving R. Kelly” — that show how cultural power is accumulated and weaponized.
  86. 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.
  87. After Parkland
    After Parkland is not easy to watch, and certain choices (of images, of music) could be construed as calculated. But the movie succeeds where it counts: showing the reverberations of violence long after most cameras left.
  88. My Friend the Polish Girl
    Shot mostly in black and white and with an improvisational feel, My Friend the Polish Girl is cool and clever, feigning social realism with winking calculation.
  89. Deadly Friend
    Deadly Friend is stylish and sardonic enough to offer horror fans some knowing laughs and a pleasant relief from shrieking.
  90. Slaughterhouse-Five
    A wild, noisy, sometimes very funny film that eventually becomes as unstuck in its own exuberance as its hero, Billy Pilgrim, the Illium, N. Y., optometrist, is unstuck in time.
  91. Togo
    When Togo gets going, it goes.
  92. Inherit the Viper
    As the movie heads for its quietly ghastly denouement, its plot mechanism gets a little wobbly, which is ultimately forgivable. It’s a genuinely tough picture, but it also has a real undercurrent of compassion.
  93. Slay the Dragon
    Slay the Dragon is not short on outrage, and just because some of this material is not new doesn’t mean it’s not worth repeating.
  94. Afterward
    The resulting emotions are complex, and Bloch, here directing her first feature, can be excused for allowing a few of the scenes to stray. But by the end of the documentary, she and many of her subjects posit that it’s possible to learn from history and to change, and to trust each other a little more.
  95. Chinese Portrait
    Its primary interest lies in the tension between candid moments and shots that appear artfully composed.
  96. VFW
    Essentially a geezers-fight-back siege movie (Tom Williamson plays the sole young veteran), VFW is riotously scuzzy and warmly partial to its rusty heroes.
  97. Once Were Warriors
    A brutally effective family drama. Rough around the edges and crudely obvious at times, it still presents a raw, disturbing story of domestic strife.
  98. John Lewis: Good Trouble
    Although the film uses a conventional format, it makes an urgent argument: that a new wave of voter suppression has threatened the rights that Lewis labored to secure.
  99. Malice
    Though light of weight, it hugs the road around every hairpin curve in its cruel and twisty narrative.
  100. White Palace
    No more convincing on screen than it was on the page. But it is greatly helped by the presence of Mr. Spader, who was apparently born to play life-denying, icy-veined young heroes, and especially Ms. Sarandon, who has made a career out of coaxing such characters out of their buttoned-down ways.
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