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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    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Reivers
    Mark Rydell's direction conveys a zestful spirit, as do the film's turn-of-the-century look and picaresque minor characters.
  2. Scream of Fear
    Though clearly influenced by Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 Psycho, Scream of Fear is closer to Orson Welles in its baroque visual design and delight in style for style's sake. [21 Oct 2008, p.C4]
    • The New York Times
  3. Joy Ride
    Some of the material feels fairly standard, as they share misfit upbringings and showbiz gossip, but each veteran comedian lends an unpredictable element through self-deprecating candor.
  4. Roh
    Symbolism overshadows characterization, or any sense of motive for that matter, nevertheless Roh succeeds as a spine-tingling baffler, hitting at nerves we can’t quite articulate but feel all the same.
  5. Made in America
    Seeming warmer and more comfortable in this antic comedy than she has before, Ms. Goldberg is helped not only by the right co-star but also by the right role.
  6. The Outsider
    The Outsider is vivid even if it isn't much of a character study, and energetic even though it's often clumsy.
  7. That's Entertainment! III
    With the best material used up, That's Entertainment! III cleverly focuses on outtakes, unfinished numbers and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the old musicals. This results in a lively and funny compilation of curiosities suggesting what might have been.
  8. 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas
    If your holiday dinner table sees some heated arguments this year, just be glad if it doesn’t result in an actual melee, with armed standoffs in front of a blow-up Santa Claus.
  9. Posse
    Mr. Van Peebles and his screenwriters, Sy Richardson and Dario Scardapane, care most about making their points emphatically, even if that sometimes leaves Posse riding heavy in the saddle. Luckily, most of their film is fast-paced and star-studded enough to avoid an overly preachy tone.
  10. This Is Not a War Story
    This Is Not a War Story, which Lugacy also directed, is a naturalistic, chat-heavy narrative that captures the difficulties wrought by the unimaginable trauma individuals face as they attempt to forge connections and find peace after war.
  11. The Body Snatcher
    This new gloomlodger, though not as nerve-paralyzing as the performers might lead you to expect, has enough suspense and atmospheric terror to make it one of the better of its genre.
  12. Burning
    The director, Eva Orner (“Chasing Asylum”), makes her contribution to documentaries on climate change by sticking to Australia and underlining the visceral impact on Australians. It’s hellish: red skies and dark days, fear and helplessness, pregnancy complications and death.
  13. Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
    A free-for-all comic spoof that brings the "hood" genre of Hollywood films full circle. Crude and chaotic, the movie stridently stands every serious theme and anguished emotion from those two groundbreaking films on its ear. [13 Jan 1996, p.21]
    • The New York Times
    • 42 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Magic Christian
    A superb realization of the book.
  15. Joy Womack: The White Swan
    To a degree, Womack’s audacious career path has been shoehorned into a conventional profile format.
  16. Beijing Spring
    The most stirring parts of “Beijing Spring” showcase the power of the cinematic arts. The film weaves in long-unseen footage of the artists’ demonstrations that thrums with both history and stunning aesthetic beauty.
  17. A Naija Christmas
    This romp about three brothers trying to make their mother’s holiday wish a reality is festive and illuminating.
  18. Reopening Night
    So many things can and do go wrong, but this production diary’s most intriguing element is the way it considers the value of art at a time when the country seems to be on fire.
  19. Hold Your Fire
    The film’s intention may have been to highlight the negotiator’s achievement, but it appears that it was public pressure, as much as his influence, that prevented more bloodshed.
  20. American Gadfly
    Gravel, in his appearances, comes across as avuncular, eager to share ideas but even more eager to encourage young acolytes.
  21. Definition Please
    More touching than riotous, Definition Please proves to be impressively nuanced once it begins revealing why Monica is so prickly around Sonny.
  22. Munyurangabo
    What is most impressive is the care with which Mr. Chung manages this risky undertaking. He seems to have made this film above all by listening and looking.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Big Bad Mama
    As Wilma McClatchie, the widow who, along with her two teenage daughters, heads into a life of crime with nary a trace of regret, Ms. Dickinson is at her most gloriously sexy.
  24. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
    The gently efficient story feels like an attempt to illustrate Bhutan’s real-life “Gross National Happiness” initiative.
  25. Salt in My Soul
    Salt in My Soul is extremely painful to watch, especially as it shows the roller coaster of Smith’s recurring hospitalizations. But it does paint a vivid portrait of who she was and what she believed.
  26. Memory Box
    The relationship between mother and daughter is rather thinly etched — there’s a little too much going on in this ambitious, intergenerational film — but Hadjithomas and Joreige deftly use Maia’s archive to weave together past and present.
  27. A Quiet Place: Day One
    It is at its very best whenever Nyong’o’s face fills the screen, like the postapocalyptic heroine of a silent movie. What she can do with relatively little is simply astonishing, and you absolutely believe in both Samira’s despair and her determination. Nyong’o has created a woman whose life force can never be fully extinguished.
  28. Emergency
    Thanks to some good filmmaking decisions, Emergency is rife with tart observations about campus life.
  29. Living
    As in a David Lean movie, passion mingles elegantly with repression, and Williams emerges as a kind of romantic figure, a man shocked, then delighted, by the thrill of finding himself.
  30. Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
    It is likely to leave viewers shaken, and it is always comprehensible, even in sequences that illustrate what the pilots saw in the cockpit.
  31. Thirteen Lives
    This is a pragmatic recounting of a nigh-impossible mission: first, to find the trapped boys, and harder still, to swim them out.
  32. Bros
    Bros is hyper-conscious that it’s a landmark built on a fault line. No matter how many ideas it crams into its quick-paced plot, it’s doomed to fall short of representing an entire group of people — and it knows it shouldn’t have to. As such, Eichner’s challenge makes for a conflicted Cupid.
  33. Am I OK?
    The movie feels very lived-in, the banter fresh and funny, even if sometimes it feels like it’s standing in place a bit too long
  34. God's Country
    The movie works best when it doesn’t over-explain and instead lets the land and the characters, the wide open spaces and the performances — especially Newton’s meticulously controlled turn — speak for themselves.
  35. Something in the Dirt
    Overlong and overwritten, “Dirt” nevertheless unfolds with an enjoyably comic quirkiness, a tale of two doofuses who sought meaning in symbols and found comfort in friendship.
  36. They/Them/Us
    They/Them/Us finds sharp humor in more relatable friction: namely between Charlie and Lisa (Amy Hargreaves) as they attempt to reconcile their domestic responsibilities with their voracious sexual appetites.
  37. The Janes
    Cookie-cutter though it is, The Janes does have something going for it: its interview subjects, the former Janes, who all speak about their beliefs and shared past with striking clarity.
  38. 2nd Chance
    Bahrani’s film (which he narrates) beetles along without fully exploiting Davis’s ample entertainment value, which is counterbalanced by accounts of his dubious actions and sometimes unseemly opinions.
  39. I Didn't See You There
    With his feature, Davenport stakes out his own vantage point on the world, one that leaves a viewer wishing to hear his thoughts elaborated even further.
  40. Meet Me in the Bathroom
    There are revealing glimpses into the early work of artists who would morph into entities that were slicker and ostensibly cooler.
  41. Nothing Compares
    Nothing Compares is a worthwhile appreciation of the artist.
  42. Ikiru
    If it weren't so confused in its story-telling, it would be one of the major postwar films from Japan. As it stands, it is a strangely fascinating and affecting film, up to a point—that being the point where it consigns its aged hero to the great beyond.
  43. Cheaper by the Dozen
    The ensemble of children has a natural, authentic-seeming rapport, and Braff and Union, as the beleaguered but loving parents, have an easy, irresistible chemistry, buzzing with big-hearted charisma every time they share the screen.
  44. Indemnity
    A South African thriller haunted by the ghosts of many Hollywood blockbusters past, Indemnity trades plausibility and originality for a worthy substitute: a great deal of fun.
  45. The Pact
    Neumann’s baroness is grandiose and transfixing (as are Anne-Dorthe Eskildsen’s handsome costumes).
  46. The Fabulous Filipino Brothers
    Every frame is flush with warm, saturated color, and the vibrant quality of the images conveys joyous generosity. The most poignant appeal of this movie is the feeling it creates of being welcomed into a family that radiates all things bright and good.
  47. The Long Walk
    The reward for waiting for the fog to lift is a movie that presents a unique take on science fiction, one that looks for the ghosts that linger on in a world that has been shaped by technology.
  48. Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
    A wry take on the material that combines animation and live-action comedy, the movie has some of the hip flair and anarchic meta-humor of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” as well as an irreverent, self-referential attitude that’s rather appealing.
  49. The Line
    The film is at its strongest when it focuses, in its more understated scenes, on a distressing human tendency: to create distance between ourselves and those who know us best.
  50. Nobody's Hero
    Guiraudie is after something much different here: creating a palpable sense of the connection between fear and desire, which, sure, aren’t the most rational of our human impulses — but neither are love, marriage or jihadist crusading.
  51. Rimini
    We know there’s great tragedy and ugliness behind the smoke and mirrors, but we watch in amusement nonetheless. Sinisterly, Seidl reminds us how easy it is to turn people into objects for the taking.
  52. Alcarràs
    The film’s striking images — a girl’s made-up face, sullen amid a crowd of colorful revelers; solar panels gleaming sinisterly below a full moon — leave an indelible trail.
  53. For Lucio
    This isn’t “Lucio for Beginners” by any means. Nor is it a greatest-hits anthology or a “behind the music” tell-all. It’s a tribute and an invitation to further research.
  54. Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film)
    As a performance piece, “Driving Home 2 U” is an exhilarating and intimate showcase for Rodrigo, as commentary about her album’s tracks spills seamlessly, in musical-theater fashion, into “Sour” tunes. Songs are newly arranged and presented in some breathtakingly scenic spots.
  55. Moonshot
    Sprouse plays it a touch broad, veering sometimes from endearing to goofy. But Condor is note-perfect, and Winterbauer directs with a light, playful touch, giving the movie an energy that’s nimble and vibrantly sexy.
  56. Father of the Bride
    Father of the Bride shows the sort of rich cultural representation that can happen when people from the cultures being represented are enlisted to tell their own stories.
  57. Around the World in 80 Days
    It makes like a wild adventure picture and, with some forty famous actors in "bit" roles, it also takes on the characteristic of a running recognition game. It is noisy with sound effects and music. It is overwhelmingly large in the process known as Todd-AO. It runs for two hours fifty-five minutes (not counting an intermission). And it is, undeniably, quite a show.
  58. Family Squares
    Filmed during quarantine in 2020, Family Squares uses the communication tools of the pandemic era to deliver a film with the intimacy of a home movie, while still exploring the chaos and limitations of technology.
  59. Infinite Storm
    With this role, Watts is reminding us that she can hold the screen by herself and without saying a word tell you everything you need to know about a character — and all the while looking fantastic.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The World of Jacques Demy
    [Varda's] film slides in and out of [Demy's] career and personal life with a French sensibility that puts no great stock in exact chronological order or clearly announced shifts from one film to the next. At times this is annoying, but it pays to keep up, or if necessary back up a bit, to get the measure of an elegantly romantic filmmaker with a strong feel for nostalgia and chance. [09 Dec 2003, p.E1]
    • The New York Times
  61. Metal Lords
    Conventional but genuine, Metal Lords comprehends the riot of adolescent emotions and the many ways teenagers manage them.
  62. The Rose Maker
    It’s a relaxed film, one that allows the audience to sit back and, if not smell the roses, then at least appreciate them.
  63. Calendar Girl
    This affectionate portrait is also well grounded. Finley is remembered as a hard worker among other hard workers.
  64. Meg 2: The Trench
    The director having fun is the presiding feeling here — which may account for why the movie is so frequently amusing, and occasionally delightful.
  65. Look at Me: XXXTentacion
    Fascinating and exasperating.
  66. Josep
    The 74-minute film leaps among time frames without much warning. Occasionally, the screen erupts into crackling black-and-white images drawn directly from Bartolí’s work — as if torn from the very pages of his sketchbooks.
  67. Gone in the Night
    Twists galore follow, the torque of which surprises again and again.
  68. Spin Me Round
    Although Plaza’s character makes it clear this is a story about complicity and manipulation, Baena keeps the tone silly, barely striving for scares even when creepy masks slink into view. He’s content to let the music take over — and so are we with its sly needle-drops that pull from heady italo disco and giallo horror scores.
  69. Master of Light
    The thesis of the movie — that art can be restorative and help overcome cyclical, systemic failures — might seem trite. But Morton’s devotion to his painting and his loved ones makes it difficult not to be moved.
  70. Olga
    Budiashkina, a Ukrainian gymnast in her acting debut, plays Olga beautifully as a guarded, stubborn teenager with the weight of exile on her shoulders, who refuses to quit but still needs her mother, who is stone-faced on the mat but still cries into a stuffed animal.
  71. Anonymous Club
    Barnett muses on the contradiction of how, in one performance, she might be “vivid and alive” and in the next “distant,” even though she’s going through the same motions with each show.
  72. Easter Sunday
    Easter Sunday is at its strongest when it stays close to the Valencia family, which is made for TV.
  73. Outside Noise
    Fendt is more interested in tracing the architecture of their ennui than considering its cause or consequences, and the movie observes their leisure with a warm gaze.
  74. Pushing Hands (1991)
    Pushing Hands, which was made before "The Wedding Banquet" and "Eat Drink Man Woman," is a smaller film than its successors, but it has much the same emphasis on everyday kindness and respect, along with discreetly traditional values.
  75. Los Conductos
    Out of Pinky’s marginalized life, Restrepo conjures a lush but nevertheless desolate cinematic atmosphere.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Big House
    It is a film that sweeps swiftly along, with some conspicuously fine episodes and others where the humor is not a little forced.
  77. The Chosen
    Certainly, this is a gently evocative movie, with its glimpses of a strict and self-contained culture, and its memories of a time gone by.
  78. Wyrmwood: Apocalypse
    If you’d like to see the horror-action equivalent of an old metal rock musician lighting his electric guitar on fire and then playing it with his teeth, this is your movie.
  79. As They Made Us
    Even with veterans like Hoffman and Bergen, it’s Agron’s film. She and Bialik make Abigail’s filial loyalty as sympathetic as it is exasperating, and as rife with difficult truths about aging as it is understatedly hopeful about growing up.
  80. Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain
    Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain, named for one of its signature songs, is an often engaging chronicle of the group (which has sold more than 20 million albums), one that is probably best appreciated by fans.
  81. Suzume
    It’s not just the drama that works. Shinkai delivers hilarious physical comedy in the awkward gambols and leaps of Souta the three-legged chair — a refreshing reversal of the trope of the handsome young love interest who leads the naïve girl on a journey.
  82. Women of the White Buffalo
    Though the film lacks a clear narrative arc, put together, these stories draw a line between the historical genocide and displacement suffered by Indigenous people and the present destitution on reservations.
  83. Moonage Daydream
    It’s less a biography than a séance.
  84. Mississippi Masala
    Mr. Washington and Ms. Choudhury, whose first film this is, work well together. He has a screen heft that gives the film its dramatic point. Her voluptuous presence defines the urgency of the love affair. In terms of wit and plain old good humor, they are each other's equals.
  85. White Building
    The film’s loose plotting and secondary character development can leave a few too many hanging threads, but its sense of place is so palpable you can almost smell the smoky city markets, the sweat, the hormones.
  86. 13: The Musical
    While every image is as bright and colorful as a new box of crayons, the kids themselves never come across as artificial, thanks in part to Jamal Sims’ naturalistic but crisp choreography, which emphasizes stomps and leans and long-legged strides.
  87. Day Shift
    Jamie Foxx might have top billing, but right there beside him are the professional contortionists whose eye-popping moves are more commonly seen in Las Vegas showrooms than on movie screens.
  88. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie
    All in all, “Rise” is as dependable as a Manhattan slice: not mind-blowing in the slightest, but just delightfully cheesy enough to keep kids and adults alike satisfied.
  89. Hello, Bookstore
    Tannenbaum’s fondness for his store and its wares is a beautiful thing to behold, even at its most vulnerable.
  90. Luzifer
    Its intellectual aspiration produces an ideologically crowded film, where each philosophical meditation struggles to receive the attention and depth it deserves. Perhaps that is the point: Brunner seems to want to leave us with more questions than answers — or at least, compel us to search for the devil in everything.
  91. In a New York Minute
    The promising first-time feature filmmaker Ximan Li embraces the twists of immigrant experiences in the drama In a New York Minute.
  92. Spring Awakening: Those You've Known
    Michael John Warren’s film is a sure-handed blend of making-of explainer, theater-kid scrapbook and jukebox documentary, doling out hits from its theatrical run (through clips) and the reunion.
  93. God's Creatures
    God’s Creatures is ultimately a movie about the collision between a mother’s fidelity and her moral conscience, and Watson is terrific at telegraphing how these instincts grind against each other to terrifying ends.
  94. Miracle
    Framed by scenes of weeping, the narrative does not entirely pull itself into a satisfying arc, but the film nevertheless unfolds with dexterity and suspense.
  95. The Banshees of Inisherin
    The Banshees of Inisherin might feel a little thin if you hold it to conventional standards of comedy or drama. It’s better thought of as a piece of village gossip, given a bit of literary polish and a handsome pastoral finish.
  96. The Ipcress File
    The Ipcress File is as classy a spy film as you could ask to see.
  97. Hocus Pocus 2
    While its new sequel, Hocus Pocus 2, may be a blatant attempt by Disney to continue propping up its streaming platform Disney+ (where the movie has its debut), it manages to capture the same hokey magic of the original while creatively updating its humor.
  98. Cane Fire
    The cinematography is often grainy, and occasionally Banua-Simon’s choice of interview subjects feels unfocused or repetitive. But there is tremendous educational and moral value in his overview of the history of Kauai.
  99. My Fake Boyfriend
    To set expectations, it’s best to think of My Fake Boyfriend as two movies. There’s the gay rom-com, focused on Andrew, that Pride month viewers have presumably tuned in for, and then there’s an almost “Black Mirror”-ish comedy, centered on Jake, about a meddling techie who gets caught up in his best friend’s life.
  100. Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets
    It’s a zippy, entertaining approach that offers a surprising degree of insight into the psychology that produced the GameStop phenomenon. Investors played with serious money, but their mind-set was a farcical dive into hyperspace — a week of gambling in a cyber-Vegas that, for some, was worth the hangover.
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