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 Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
    Too much of the film feels like shorthand, a trail of teasing crumbs to lead us to the inevitable sequels.
  2. Old Cats
    You understand the different ways the members of this extended family are trapped, in physical space and in psychological patterns they don’t fully understand. But you also realize that, like house cats that venture to the door to sniff at the air outside, they don’t necessarily want to be free.
  3. Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!
    Poor pacing and editing result in a lack of transition between scenes; poignant moments are punctuated with distracting music; and the dialogue is overstuffed with platitudes that land like corny messages from fortune cookies.
  4. The Happy Sad
    The actors are so relaxed and personable that the film’s occasional glibness — and its over-reliance on coincidence to further the cross-pollinating narrative — is easy to let slide.
  5. Herblock: The Black & the White
    It’s fortunate that the cartoons on display are such instantly satisfying works of popular genius, because, despite its subject, “Herblock” shows how even an edifying talking-heads documentary bumps up against the limitations of the format.
  6. Drew: The Man Behind the Poster
    At length, the cheerleading...becomes a mildly taxing torrent. And Mr. Struzan, while an agreeable presence, is not an especially engrossing speaker. But then there is his artwork, an essential aid to the movies — and often their superior.
  7. You Will Be My Son
    [A] beautifully acted movie.
  8. Jobs
    The Great Man theory of history that’s recycled in this movie is inevitably unsatisfying, but never more so when the figure at the center remains as opaque as Jobs does here.
  9. Spark: A Burning Man Story
    Since we can’t all attend Burning Man, we can be thankful for “Spark,” which is probably the next best thing.
  10. Inch'Allah
    Grim, intelligent and vividly photographed by the director’s father, Philippe Lavalette, Inch’Allah works best when the camera alights on Ava and Rand, whose marvelously mobile faces convey all the complexity that Chloe lacks.
  11. Austenland
    Advancing without a single original idea or surprising moment, Austenland seems torn between poking fun at the British and lampooning Austen’s many American fanatics — a riskier enterprise, considering that they’ll be needed to fill theater seats.
  12. Paranoia
    Mr. Oldman and Mr. Ford are the only actors in the film, directed by Robert Luketic (“Legally Blonde”), skillful enough to navigate the yards of jargon-packed boilerplate in Jason Hall and Barry L. Levy’s thudding screenplay.
  13. Ain't Them Bodies Saints
    Strong emotions — desperation, dread, desire — are indicated but not really communicated, and everything happens in a hazy atmosphere of humorless homage and exquisite good taste.
  14. Kick-Ass 2
    The writer and director, Jeff Wadlow, can’t obscure the movie’s misogyny, and he also has a tough time staging a scene and selling a joke. His worst offense is that he has no understanding of the power, gravity and terrible beauty of violent imagery, which means he has no grasp of cinema.
  15. Cutie and the Boxer
    Mr. Heinzerling is an artist too. The window he has opened onto the lives of his subjects is a powerful and beautiful visual artifact in its own right.
  16. Lee Daniels' The Butler
    A brilliantly truthful film on a subject that is usually shrouded in wishful thinking, mythmongering and outright denial.
  17. The Crash Reel
    An engrossing, unsettling documentary.
  18. The Patience Stone
    Mr. Rahimi opens up an entire world inside the couple’s modest house, filling its few rooms with enough air, sharp words and slow-boiling intrigue that the walls never feel as if they’re closing in on you.
  19. This Is Martin Bonner
    It’s gratifying to see the care taken with his characters, though it would be no betrayal of them for Mr. Hartigan to flesh out their world and their lives further.
  20. The United States of Autism
    Yes, the animated opening sequence has a professional polish that the rest of the film lacks, but the documentary’s chosen angle is meaningful: The world of autism is as diverse as the nation.
  21. Off Label
    The film’s stacked stories naggingly lack a cohesive train of thought beyond the often harmful pervasiveness of pharmaceuticals in American society.
  22. The Good Son: The Life of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini
    Jesse James Miller’s moving documentary “The Good Son” is like a brisk novel with a bigger-than-life protagonist.
  23. Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride
    Though not terribly nuanced, a bit muddled and lacking certain perspectives, “Zipper” drives home the fragile identity of even the city’s signature locales and the alarming cultural myopia of much redevelopment.
  24. I Give It a Year
    This painfully awkward product fails on almost every level.
  25. The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear
    The film produces moments that catch in the throat.
  26. Jug Face
    Some low-budget manifestations of the supernatural jazz up the frights now and again, but as the novelty of worshiping a hole in the ground fades, the film paints itself into a corner.
  27. Blood
    Dark, airless and packed with psychological hurt that seems to spring from nowhere, this angry morality play, tucked inside a police procedural, suffers from a crippling lack of back story and characters whose relationships are fraught with unexplained complexity.
  28. Chennai Express
    The movie chugs along for most of its 2 hours and 20 minutes searching for comedy and characters in a frantically overplotted story.
  29. The Gardener
    An intimate, discursive inquiry into religious belief that opens to include questions about cinema.
  30. Planes
    Planes is for the most part content to imitate rather than innovate, presumably hoping to reap a respectable fraction of the box office numbers of “Cars” and “Cars 2,” which together made hundreds of millions of dollars (not to mention the ubiquitous product tie-ins).
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