The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,303 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: 9,393 out of 20303
  2. Mixed: 8,445 out of 20303
  3. Negative: 2,465 out of 20303
20303 movie reviews
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  1. Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
    A small miracle of a film.
  2. Words and Pictures
    Words and Pictures has a host of flaws, but the performances by Mr. Owen and Ms. Binoche have a crackling vitality, and the screenplay’s strongest moments set off the kind of trains of thought that dedicated teachers hope to spur in their students.
  3. Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
    Heavily seasoned with epigrams worthy of Oscar Wilde, this entertaining documentary portrays Vidal as a pessimistic political prophet with streaks of paranoia and misanthropy, but a truth teller nonetheless.
  4. The Dance of Reality
    The Dance of Reality is the work of a highly disciplined anarchist, whose principal weapon against authority is his own imagination.
  5. Cyber-Seniors
    This is a sweet tale that will resonate with anyone who has tried to make a Skype call to a grandparent.
  6. Don Peyote
    A bit too true to a frugal indie philosophy, where winging it beats reshooting, the film gets more woolly and unfocused; many scenes feel improvised and only occasionally hit their marks.
  7. Chinese Puzzle
    This warm-blooded paean to globalization is just enough in touch with reality to keep your eyes from rolling. For Chinese Puzzle genuinely likes people. It overlooks the faults and misbehavior of its eccentric characters to express a lighthearted optimism that doesn’t feel forced or manipulative. It is in love with life.
  8. Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
    Mr. Johnsen offers viewers the challenge and pleasure of an important artist’s company, and a chance to appreciate anew his wisdom, his wit and his bravery.
  9. The American Nurse
    If the film is workmanlike at times, it is also elegantly cleareyed.
  10. The Discoverers
    Mr. Schwarz falters with his ending, which feels overly tidy. Still, it’s not the destination; it’s the journey.
  11. Half of a Yellow Sun
    Half of a Yellow Sun, adapted from the 2006 novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, emerges on screen as a well-acted, finely wrought epic that nevertheless struggles to balance the requirements of melodrama with its drive to capture a historical moment.
  12. A Night in Old Mexico
    The director Emilio Aragón wisely trains the camera on Mr. Duvall. A Night in Old Mexico is his baby, and he rocks it.
  13. A Short History of Decay
    Despite Mr. Maren’s own ample experience as a writer, the references to book culture don’t feel vivid enough to act as more than scene-setting, and the film’s strength lies in the family relationships.
  14. Cold Bloom
    Cold Bloom, in its tightly controlled moods, comes to feel like a smaller and more tentative film than it might have been, despite an admirably frank ending.
  15. A People Uncounted
    Much of this movie is composed of survivors who give harrowing accounts of their experiences, and their warnings about rising ethnic hatred in Europe should not be ignored. But those seeking to learn in depth about, say, the dialects and traditions of the Roma should look elsewhere.
  16. Next Year Jerusalem
    What elevates the film beyond a video scrapbook, though, are the glimpses of the routines and slow rhythms of the nursing home before and after this adventure.
  17. Wolf Creek 2
    Even more inadvisable was the decision (whether made by Mr. McLean or his backers) to transform the mercurial psychopath Mick Taylor (a truly menacing John Jarratt) into a roguish cartoon.
  18. Hanna Ranch
    Like many tragic visionaries, Kirk Hanna lives on through his ideas long after his death.
  19. The Immigrant
    The film is earnestly and unabashedly melodramatic to an extent that may baffle audiences accustomed to clever, knowing historical fictions. But it also has a depth and purity of feeling that makes other movies feel timid and small by comparison.
  20. Million Dollar Arm
    Every conflict is softened by inspirational clichés.
  21. Godzilla
    It is at once bloated and efficient, executed with tremendous discipline and intelligence and conceived with not too much of either.
  22. American Jesus
    It’s not clear what Aram Garriga thinks he is accomplishing in his simplistic “American Jesus,” but he’s not accomplishing much.
  23. Horses of God
    In its demystification of these youthful slum dwellers, the film makes their embrace of terrorism frighteningly comprehensible. Because it follows its main characters over 10 years, from childhood into adulthood, it gives their fates a sense of tragic inevitability
  24. Still I Strive
    The innovative fictional narrative, woven throughout, demonstrates that many of these young actors have learned their lessons well.
  25. The Rescuers
    While the documentary marshals an impressive array of survivors and visits several international locations, it grindingly adheres to an unwieldy tour-style presentation, with more than a few rough spots and, at times, an unpolished look.
  26. Stage Fright
    It’s inspired enough to draw attention to ways that it doesn’t realize its potential.
  27. God's Pocket
    As this strained, foul-mouthed exercise in gallows humor proceeds, God’s Pocket sustains a facade of meanspirited deadpan comedy. But there are no laughs, not even smirks to be had.
  28. Moms' Night Out
    Little of it is funny or genuine, and the benefits and beauty of real faith are nowhere in evidence.
  29. Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
    All in all, the beloved kingdom of Oz is not well served, though there’s just enough detectable affection to keep it from feeling like a pure cashing-in.
  30. Chapman
    The more Chapman reveals, the less seems to be going on, and the more its quirkier developments... play like independent-film clichés.
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