The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,304 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: 9,394 out of 20304
  2. Mixed: 8,445 out of 20304
  3. Negative: 2,465 out of 20304
20304 movie reviews
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  1. The Great Fallacy
    Watching it feels like packing a semester-long history course with a very cool, left-leaning teacher into less than 90 minutes. The aim is wide-reaching and abstract, yet cohesive and invigorating.
  2. Junction
    Some predictable plot turns aren’t as damaging as they could be, thanks to solid acting (there isn’t a weak performance in the bunch) and lead characters with distinct personalities and motivations.
  3. 12-12-12
    12-12-12 is not really a concert movie so much as it is a densely compacted scrapbook of moments onstage and off.
  4. Sunlight Jr.
    Despite the intensity of their performances, Ms. Watts and Mr. Dillon are only fleetingly convincing as these desperate young Americans trying to maintain a foothold.
  5. The Great Beauty
    A deliriously alive movie, The Great Beauty is the story of a man, a city, a country and a cinema, though not necessarily in that order.
  6. Faust
    The movie expands in its frame, surpassing simple comprehension and continuing to grow in your mind — and perhaps to blow it — long after it’s over.
  7. Nebraska
    This is a comedy, with plenty of acutely funny lines, a handful of sharp sight gags and a few minutes of pure, perfect madcap. But a grim, unmistakable shadow falls across its wintry landscape.
  8. Sex, Love & Salsa
    For a romantic comedy that doubles as a mockumentary, it can be downright creepy.
  9. Speciesism: The Movie
    A painfully gauche, galumphing attack on factory farming, meat eating, animal experimentation and human supremacy.
  10. Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here
    Ms. Wallach has fashioned a multifaceted, informative portrait conveying the emotional urgency of the Kabakovs’ work.
  11. Caucus
    The film is a testament to the power of observational documentary to tenderly present hypocrisy and to show eccentricity peeking out from behind social masks.
  12. L.A. Superheroes
    L.A. Superheroes is at times endearing, humorous and insightful. But her golden nugget of a story idea suffers in the big-screen telling.
  13. Blood and Ties
    After a promising start, it degenerates into unconvincing ticking-clock melodrama.
  14. The Book Thief
    The Book Thief is a shameless piece of Oscar-seeking Holocaust kitsch.
  15. Billy & Buddy
    Very young children fluent in French may enjoy the film for its jokes, but anyone old enough to read the subtitles is likely to be unamused.
  16. Reaching for the Moon
    Ms. Otto conveys a double-edged intelligence as the film’s pinched notion of “Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil,” while Ms. Pires strides about, every snap judgment and grand gesture a measure of her appeal. Both are hemmed in by direction and a screenplay that are relentlessly on point (as well as an off-the-shelf score).
  17. It's Me, It's Me
    Though the film is occasionally frustrating and confusing, the modern life it is commenting on is certainly that, too.
  18. At Berkeley
    A documentary necessarily conveys a point of view, and although Mr. Wiseman, as is his wont, is neither seen nor heard in a film that proceeds without commentary or subtitles, his spirit is palpable. Without overtly editorializing, the film quietly and steadfastly champions state-funded public education available to all.
  19. Approved for Adoption
    The movie is not always well unified and sequenced, but that seems to reflect Mr. Henin’s ambivalence over a past that’s like a book he is at once rereading and rewriting.
  20. Finding Mr. Right
    Finding Mr. Right (even the title is generic) has a top-to-bottom capable cast, a nice sense of place and a few honest epiphanies that are given time to land. But neither the comedy nor the romance exists beyond the level of idea.
  21. Go for Sisters
    As long as Go for Sisters is focused on its characters, it remains on firm ground. But the flimsy detective story draped over them is underdeveloped and too sluggishly paced to take hold.
  22. The Wind Rises
    Mr. Miyazaki renders Jiro’s life and dreams with lyrical elegance and aching poignancy.
  23. The Armstrong Lie
    More glaringly than most sports documentaries, The Armstrong Lie reinforces the sad truth that the adage “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game” doesn’t apply to professional sports. Maybe it never did. Winning is everything.
  24. Great Expectations
    Containing enough characters and subplots for three movies, the novel has been nearly suffocated by Mr. Newell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”) and his screenwriter, David Nicholls, in an effort to get everything in.
  25. People of a Feather
    Interweaving Inuit life today with re-enactments of the culture 100 years ago, People of a Feather warmly portrays a cold, uncertain present and a worrying future.
  26. The Ghosts in Our Machine
    The Ghosts in Our Machine is a compelling movie, but its argument expands without deepening.
  27. How I Live Now
    As sun-dappled infatuation abruptly crashes into post-apocalyptic survival, Mr. Macdonald struggles to balance a nebulous narrative on tentpole moments of rich emotional resonance.
  28. Ass Backwards
    The film, a comedy without much comedy in it... clumsily tries to merge road trip humor and beauty pageant parody.
  29. The Motel Life
    The story may be slight, but the performances and ambience resonate.
  30. Medora
    A mournful Midwestern ballad devoid of grace notes.
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