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. Save Yourselves!
    The quirky Save Yourselves! is not necessarily a genre reinventor but a good example of how much fun you can have on a non-studio budget.
  2. Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America
    More than the informational nuggets the movie flashes onscreen, these scenes of personal interaction help make “Unsettled” distinctive.
  3. Skyman
    Subdued and temperate, Skyman refuses to lean into the mystery of Carl’s claims or wind us up for a final resolution. Those elements might be present, but they’re never allowed to obscure what is essentially an empathetic, textured portrait of loneliness and loss.
  4. Slalom
    The writer and director, Charlène Favier, had previous experience as a competitive skier, and she is attentive to the textures of mountainside sports and how abuse plays out in this setting.
  5. Summer of 85
    It ultimately stumbles in this balancing act and loses sight of its emotional core, but its efforts remain compelling and delightfully bizarre.
  6. Sputnik
    While Sputnik doesn’t make its substantial borrowings from other sci-fi pictures entirely new, it does juice them up enough to yield a genuinely scary and satisfying experience.
  7. Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly
    Even for those familiar with Ai and his work, the film’s offerings of fascinating insights into his personal life and an exploration of the stakes of personal freedom make it a worthy viewing experience.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Killing
    Though The Killing is composed of familiar ingredients and it calls for fuller explanations, it evolves as a fairly diverting melodrama.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mildred Pierce
    Mildred Pierce lacks the driving force of stimulating drama, and its denouement hardly comes as a surprise, but it is cut from a pattern that has been hugely successful in the past and it probably will be this time too.
  10. Dateline—Saigon
    Despite stodgy trappings, Dateline-Saigon captures a swirl of personalities and conveys the excitement of reporting in a fast-moving, confusing and dangerous atmosphere.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Animal Crackers
    A further example of amusing nonsense.
  12. All Together Now
    The movie’s familiar suggestion of music as a light in the darkness works primarily because its star shines so brightly.
  13. 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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Flying Down to Rio
    It is a hearty and lively show, the story of which is just about equal to that of other musical offerings.
  15. Spider-Man: No Way Home
    Her casting as MJ and her expanded role in the series continue to pay off, and Zendaya’s charisma and gift for selling emotions (and silly dialogue) helps give the new movie a soft, steady glow that centers it like a heartbeat as the story takes off in different directions.
  16. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
    Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a fast-paced romp that’s silly, filled with quips and unabashedly for children — which is refreshing, coming at a time when so many other children’s franchises have succumbed to Sturm und Drang.
  17. Make Up
    It’s an intriguing interpretation of adolescent discovery, one that uses horror to suggest the dread that comes with finding a sense of self.
  18. All In: The Fight for Democracy
    In a sense, it’s less a documentary for posterity than an urgent broadcast. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth hearing.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Gay Divorcee
    Like the carefree team of Rogers and Astaire, The Gay Divorcee is gay in its mood and smart in its approach.
  20. Rebuilding Paradise
    Though it might seem generic in some respects, Rebuilding Paradise resonates with the moment.
  21. Host
    Though not as dynamic as “Unfriended,” another “desktop movie,” Host observes uncannily the supernatural, ephemeral, and material worlds colliding together, gesturing toward an uncertain future.
  22. Shine Your Eyes
    Shine Your Eyes, from the Brazilian filmmaker Matias Mariani, finds a distinctive way to tell a familiar narrative — of immigrants in megacities, of how dreams can pummel you and of the complexity of fraternal bonds.
  23. The Bear
    No less amazing than the material Mr. Annaud has captured on the screen is the fact that he has gone to such crazily elaborate lengths to capture it at all.
  24. A Most Beautiful Thing
    The film’s fast-paced editing makes it difficult to get to know individual members, but the men register powerfully as a collective, just like a real rowing team.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    El Topo
    El Topo is a good deal more interesting and a good deal less hung up on its own pretensions than all my most intelligent friends had led me to believe.
  26. Liquid Sky
    It's the overall resourcefulness of Mr. Tsukerman and his talented colleagues that gives Liquid Sky its high style. Visually bright and arresting, with a varied and insinuating electronic score, the film is full of eye-catching images.
  27. Song Without a Name
    The narrative drifts, but the alienation communicated by the movie’s images feels purposeful and striking.
  28. The Way I See It
    The movie is impeccably crafted and consistently engaging.
  29. Robin's Wish
    As potentially valuable as Robin’s Wish is for illuminating Williams’s death — initial reports noted his past struggles with addiction and depression — it is more affecting and appealing as a tribute. Stories of Williams as a matchless improviser, an unpretentious neighbor and a man who had a gift for consoling others suggest the world lost not just an uproarious presence but a kind one.
  30. Martin Margiela: In His Own Words
    It is a poem about the ways in which the speed and ubiquity demanded by the internet have squeezed certain creative wells dry, perhaps irreparably.
  31. Alone
    This minimalist survival thriller unfolds with such elegant simplicity and single-minded momentum that its irritations are easily excused.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Cocoanuts
    Fun puts melody in the shade in the audible pictorial transcription of the musical comedy The Cocoanuts.
  33. The Thrill of It All
    I don't want to give you the impression that The Thrill of It All is a great film. I just want to tell you it is loaded with good, clean American laughs.
  34. Enola Holmes
    The film is successful in balancing these broad themes with our heroine’s adventures, and that is due in large part to the work of Brown, whose energetic performance breathes new life into the Holmes creative world.
  35. The Front Page
    Even though the mechanics and demands of movie-making slow what should be the furious tempo, this Front Page displays a giddy bitterness that is rare in any films except those of Mr. Wilder. It is also, much of the time, extremely funny
  36. Epicentro
    Whether Sauper’s travels delivered a cohesive movie this time is debatable, but what he does find is always interesting.
  37. Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles
    Ultimately the results are eye-popping, sometimes almost confoundingly so.
  38. Watch List
    It has a sturdy, vivid construction, and is a convincing demonstration of the venality that’s central to the thinking of hardly squeaky-clean antidrug zealots.
  39. The Boys in the Band
    The ensemble is superb, and each member has at least one standout moment, but the movie rides on the shoulders of Parsons, as Michael, the host of the party.
  40. A Kiss Before Dying
    A Kiss Before Dying is not Crime and Punishment. It is pop movie making to be enjoyed without guilt.
  41. Sunrise at Campobello
    A well-done, moving biographical film.
  42. Class Action Park
    Class Action Park loses its footing somewhat in the closing passages; Scott and Porges don’t seem to know quite how to wrap things up, and the film’s big tonal shift is a turning point that is all but impossible to come back from.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Great Impostor
    An amusing, and occasionally fascinating, comedy-drama about the career of one of the most amazing—and likable—contemporary charlatans, Ferdinand W. Demara Jr.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    To Each His Own
    To Each His Own spins dangerously on the brink of bathos but it seldom spills over into that treacherous chasm for more than a fleeting scene or two, thanks to a screen play which artfully dodges complete morbidity.
  45. The Mole Agent
    The movie’s straddling of the dramatic and the documentary forms is unsettling. Unless you unquestioningly accept its method, this chronicle can look like a glaring invasion of privacy. But the film’s people are moving, and the payoff is compassionate, humane and worth heeding.
  46. Apocalypse '45
    Apocalypse ’45 knows that war is hell for everyone. But it’s difficult to escape the sense that, in this film’s view of history, America is top of mind.
  47. Monday
    While Monday is not quite as bracing as Papadimitropoulos’s prior feature, “Suntan,” it’s a sharply observed, well-acted picture with a lot of tart detail and a few real stings in its tail.
  48. The Golden Girl
    Deftly, the film shifts focus from Raducan’s disqualification to the entrenched injustices of Olympic sports, with their outsized pressures and brittle illusions of meritocracy.
  49. I Hate New York
    Because Sánchez followed his subjects for so long, he was able to pack some surprises up the movie’s sleeve. As a couple of its figures undergo drastic life changes, a narrative both tragic and inspiring emerges.
  50. Critical Thinking
    Critical Thinking does little to detach itself from genre cliché; yet this heartfelt drama about a rough-and-tumble group of high-schoolers who claw their way to a national chess tournament has a sweetness that softens its flaws.
  51. Unpregnant
    Its driving force may seem topical, but the story’s heart is timeless: the harmony between longtime friends, and Veronica and Bailey throw themselves into even the most fraught situations with giddy enthusiasm.
  52. Man of a Thousand Faces
    Thanks to a dandy performance by James Cagney in the role of the great silent-film star, Lon Chaney, there is drama and personality in Man of a Thousand Faces.
  53. Friendsgiving
    At the heart of Friendsgiving, like many movies of its kind, is a story about the importance of family (both blood and chosen). But the film also captures, with a deft mix of earnestness and humor, the messiness of grief.
  54. Midnight Lace
    It's always nice to have a mystery melodrama, no matter how implausible it may be, that takes place amid elegant surroundings and involves people who are beautiful and rich. It makes one feel so luxurious to be there with the diamonds and champagne, enjoying the heat on the rich folks and knowing that you are not going to be burned.
  55. I Am Greta
    It’s a bit of a blur, but Thunberg strikingly upends the stereotype of the young innocent as poster girl.
  56. Totally Under Control
    It elevates voices who sounded early alarms about the virus and whose warnings were lost in a din of complacency, incompetence and political calculation. Not all of these interviewees or their messages have broken through to the public consciousness.
  57. Night of the Kings
    Lacôte crosses the open-ended energy of griot traditions with the surging tensions of the prison’s close quarters.
  58. Another Round
    It’s a sweet, strangely modest tragicomedy about the pleasures of (mostly banal) excess.
  59. Concrete Cowboy
    The movie’s convincing accretion of detail and its affectionate fictionalization of an actual subculture are disarming.
  60. Mandibles
    Mandibles is sweet, simple, and oh-so-very stupid — a stupidity that’s oddly liberating, like making up ridiculous scenarios with a pal over bong hits.
  61. Shadow in the Cloud
    The twists come rapidly in the movie’s first half; in the second, the narrative dissolves into a zigzag of flying bodies and explosions that bend the laws of space-time. But the implausibility of it all is a perk: There’s never a moment in this rollicking film when you can tell what’s coming next.
  62. H is for Happiness
    Its meticulous visuals do frequently tip into preciousness, yet this cuteness is offset by the movie’s refreshingly direct take on depression and despair. This unusual children’s film may be fussy, but to its credit, it is not frivolous.
  63. I've Got Issues
    The movie observes collective pain with endearing absurdity.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Monkey Business
    Whether it is really as funny as Animal Crackers is a matter of opinion. Suffice it to say that few persons will be able to go... and keep a straight face.
  65. Love and Monsters
    Love and Monsters lacks the self-seriousness of typical dystopian flicks but, despite its surprisingly perfunctory title and relatively thin plot, it doesn’t completely lack depth.
  66. Evil Eye
    Choudhury is excellent here as a fraught matriarch — as good as she was as a young rebel three decades back. And Maskati’s performance is a slippery mix of suave and menacing, which helps sell the farthest-fetched elements of this story.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Imitation of Life
    A gripping and powerful if slightly diffuse drama which discussed the mother love question, the race question, the business woman question, the mother and daughter question and the love renunciation question.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dracula
    With Mr. Browning's imaginative direction and Mr. Lugosi's makeup and weird gestures, this picture succeeds to some extent in its grand guignol intentions.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Scarface
    It is a stirring picture, efficiently directed and capably acted, but as was once said of The Covered Wagon, that it was all very well if you liked wagons, so this is an excellent diversion for those who like to take an afternoon or an evening off to study the activities of cowardly thugs.
  70. Kiss the Ground
    The film makes a case for the healing power of soil, arguing that its capacity to sequester carbon could be the key to reversing the effects of climate change.
  71. Daisy Miller
    Daisy Miller transfers to the screen simply and elegantly. Very little is lost that isn't regained through the always unpredictable conjunction of performers with material.
  72. Public Trust
    The documentary is conventionally structured and sometimes placid, but it has an alarming message.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nothing Sacred
    Briskly paced under the direction of William Wellman, the caustic comedy by Ben Hecht treads harshly on many a taboo. [16 May 1999, p.5]
    • The New York Times
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sands of Iwo Jima
    Sands of Iwo Jima so easily could have been a great war film instead of just a good one.
  75. A Minecraft Movie
    There’s something almost refreshingly bold in the full-tilt inanity here — in taking a blockbuster budget and embracing idiocy, as if to knowingly say, “I mean, it’s a Minecraft movie.”
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Vampire Lovers
    The Vampire Lovers, praise be, does manage to be a departure from a hackneyed, bloody norm. It also is professionally directed, opulently staged and sexy to boot.
  77. Freedia Got a Gun
    Freedia’s beguiling charisma carries the film, and it makes the case that her impressive power, in conjunction with collective action, could help carry a movement, too.
  78. The Goddess of Fortune
    The details of this engaging and sometimes heart-tugging picture are entirely contemporary.
  79. Dead of Winter
    The screenplay is inelegant but lively, and the direction gives the material a wicked edge.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Masque of the Red Death
    The film is vulgar, naive and highly amusing, and it is played with gusto by Mr. Price, Hazel Court and Jane Asher. As for Mr. Corman, he has let his imagination run riot upon a mobile decor singular for its primary color scheme. The result may be loud, but it looks like a real movie. On its level, it is astonishingly good.
  81. Hard Target
    Mr. Woo's obvious gusto and his taste for myth making are readily apparent. But so is his fondness for the slow, lingering death scene coupled with sickening sound effects. Presenting Mr. Van Damme as reverentially as Sergio Leone did the young Clint Eastwood, Mr. Woo displays a real aptitude for malignant mischief, which is this story's stock in trade.
  82. Coming Home Again
    Wang — using a direct, unadorned shooting style — along with his cast (Justin Chon, who’s been around for some time, makes a strong impression as Chang-rae) put them across with unusual integrity.
  83. Citizen Penn
    Sean Penn’s work in Haiti after its devastating 2011 earthquake continues to this day. And this new documentary Citizen Penn is a revealing, engaging chronicle of the actor’s activism.
  84. Crazy, Not Insane
    Dr. Lewis is an engaging interview subject whose clarity and upbeat demeanor contrast strikingly with the macabre material. Her writings are read as voice-overs by Laura Dern. Dr. Lewis has also kept an excellent archive.
  85. Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan
    The director Julien Temple — who has excellent documentaries on the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer and other galvanic musicians under his belt — is very good at this sort of thing.
  86. Madre
    The result is an unusually compelling character study, one that, commendably, opts to end on a humane note rather than a dark judgment.
  87. Rams
    Directed with a genial breeziness by Jeremy Sims, the movie negotiates emotional downshift and uplift with confidence.
  88. Cherry
    Whether they’re comfortable owning up to it or not, the Russos are better moviemakers than their Marvel movies (the most recent of which was the gargantuan hit “Avengers: Endgame”) allow them to be. They demonstrate that here. Holland, also a veteran of the superhero mode of cinema (he’s Spider-Man these days) shows performing chops that web-slinging doesn’t often let him flex.
  89. Farewell Amor
    Even as Farewell Amor treads familiar paths, its tripartite structure allows for uncommon nuance.
  90. Koko-di Koko-da
    Though at times tasteless and barely coherent, the story is oddly affecting, the very strangeness of Nyholm’s folkloric vision and its unnerving execution pulling you in.
  91. Blue Bayou
    Beautifully relaxed family scenes help us forgive the ponderous direction.
  92. The Day of the Locust
    Its grossness—its bigger-than-life quality — is so much a part of its style (and what West was writing about) that one respects the extravagances, the almost lunatic scale on which Mr. Schlesinger has filmed its key sequences.
  93. Coded Bias
    The most cleareyed of several recent documentaries about the perils of Big Tech (“The Great Hack,” “The Social Dilemma”), Coded Bias tackles its sprawling subject by zeroing in empathetically on the human costs.
  94. Little Fish
    Once you’re swept up in Emma and Jude’s romance — it’s not hard, even though the montages veer a little too precious — the skimmed-over science matters little. This is sci-fi rooted more in feelings than fact. Its resonance is similar to “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” though it’s arguably antithetical in plot.
  95. Free Time
    The sound effects are emphatic enough to call attention to themselves, and serve as a tacit, admirable acknowledgment that this material has been shaped. Even so, some of the clatter distracts from the purity of these great images.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Anderson Tapes
    In Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes the quality of professionalism appears in rather lovely manifestations to raise a by no means perfect film to a level of intelligent efficiency that is not so very far beneath the reach of art.
  97. The Offence
    The revelations explode predictably, like the ingredients of a 24-hour cold capsule, but the dramatic impact is real while one is watching it.
  98. Safety
    Hudlin transforms a film that would be, in lesser hands, a formulaic hardship-as-aesthetic drama, into an earnest examination of what community means on the field, in the classroom and in our society.
  99. Robin and Marian
    Robin and Marian is a hybrid movie, one that seems embarrassed by feelings; yet it works best when it admits those feelings, when it plays them straight.
  100. A Fine Madness
    Like its careening, footloose hero, A Fine Madness needs discipline. But you'll never guess what lurks around the bend, from gold to brass.
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