Variety's Scores

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For 17,833 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 IMAX: Hubble 3D
Lowest review score: 0 Divorce: The Musical
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9,165 out of 17833
  2. Mixed: 7,031 out of 17833
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17833
17833 movie reviews
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  1. Sixty Six
    While mazel tovs are due for efficient playing and execution, predictable script seldom scores big laughs.
  2. Canary
    Shiota piles tons of symbolic baggage on his pint-size protagonists, who luckily rise to the challenge.
  3. America the Beautiful
    Wide-ranging educational documentary attaches itself to the rise and fall of a 12-year-old fashion model, and indeed, its sincere, cautionary tone seems best suited to younger auds and small screen exposure.
  4. Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert
    This amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny project is best suited to smallscreen exposure.
  5. Dung che sai duk
    The temptation of artists to fiddle with their earlier works brings predictably mixed results in Ashes of Time: Redux.
  6. Choose Connor
    Once Choose Connor ventures into the larger political arena, it begins to work against itself.
  7. Call + Response
    Remarkably informative yet gracelessly constructed, jumping between documentary and concert footage at random.
  8. Roadside Romeo
    Scores high on the tech front but considerably lower on script smarts.
  9. The Universe of Keith Haring
    Warmly affectionate yet curiously hollow, The Universe of Keith Haring is a straightforward biodoc about the Gotham-based artist and style-setter.
  10. Let Them Chirp Awhile
    That Blitstein pulls off this tiredly self-reflexive conceit with relative panache is due in no small part to the scruffy grace of leads Justin Rice ("Mutual Appreciation") and indie fixture Brendon Sexton III.
  11. The Secret of the Grain
    An overlong, dramatically unbalanced picture whose emotional wallop gets somewhat diffused.
  12. Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry
    While it admirably avoids either schoolboyish titters or schoolmarmish prudery, the docu's cheery neutrality comes at the expense of any point of view at all.
  13. Call of the Wild
    Alternately jerking the audience's tears and splashing snow in their faces, 3-D indie Call of the Wild loses focus (literally) but gets by on its good-hearted demeanor and a gently sweet turn by white-bearded Christopher Lloyd as the heroine's protective gramps.
  14. Tony Manero
    Balancing black humor against allegorical indictment of the Pinochet regime's oppression on narrow stack heels, striking, very offbeat period pic Tony Manero follows a psychotic petty criminal into the depths of his crazed obsession with John Travolta's character in "Saturday Night Fever."
  15. Play the Game
    The comedy's broad perfs, predictable story beats and pro but characterless packaging have a smallscreen feel.
  16. American Casino
    The filmmakers' metaphor of the housing market as a casino, with hard-working people's homes used as chips, although apt, may lack the visual and visceral excitement.
  17. Tickling Leo
    A radiant perf by Annie Parisse and a virtuoso turn by Eli Wallach are insufficient to lift this male intergenerational angst-fest out of the ghetto.
  18. White on Rice
    Its amusingly off-kilter humor underserved by pedestrian packaging, Dave Boyle's sophomore feature, White on Rice, is the kind of comedy that hinges on a protagonist near-imbecilic in all matters social, physical and especially romantic.
  19. If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
    Kalmbach’s laid-back approach proves more likable than revelatory.
  20. Irene in Time
    Breezy and indulgent, his is a style that lives or dies on the appeal of his characters and performers, and this time he is mostly let down by both.
  21. After the Storm
    Feels like it was made more for the kids' sake than to communicate their story to outside audiences, who would likely prefer a condensed newsmag-style recap.
  22. Adventures of Power
    Absurdist underdog yarn that feels positively Martian in its brand of tom-tomfoolery. Like a "Saturday Night Live" sketch gone on too long, Ari Gold's feature debut will tax unsuspecting viewers, while sending those on Gold's special wavelength into seizures of delight.
  23. Killing Kasztner
    Frequently cutting away from storylines just before they peak and returning to them too much later, odd editing/structural choices never let the picture build up a satisfying head of steam. Overall look is just slightly better than homevideo.
  24. Looking for Palladin
    Amiable but uneven.
  25. Splinterheads
    Writer-director Brant Sersen's amiable indie comedy -- even less edgy than Greg Mottola's theme-park-set "Adventureland" -- attempts to compensate for its too-familiar romantic setup by defining its characters through idiosyncratic hobbies and traits.
  26. Mammoth
    A mixed bag, Mammoth is a good-looking, smoothly directed, continent-hopping drama about parents and children, globalization and the disconnect between rich and poor, but comes with too much repetitive exposition and lacks an emotional payoff.
  27. The Missing Person
    An intriguingly plotted mystery that unfortunately forgets to put the noir in film noir. A drab, pale-looking affair without a trace of visual style, this cross-country pursuit yarn fights a losing battle to sustain viewer attention via narrative alone, so much does it flounder for lack of imagistic flair.
  28. The War on Kids
    A startling wake-up call about appalling conditions prevailing in American schools, The War on Kids contradicts popular wisdom.
  29. Ricky
    Because Ozon doesn't develop his characters once Ricky shows his true nature, the movie's slightly overcooked working-class realism quickly morphs into a grotesque -- and admittedly funny -- story of a mutant baby.
  30. Crazy on the Outside
    Looking and sounding like a second-tier '80s made-for-cabler, Crazy on the Outside is the sort of bland trifle one might watch to kill time during an extended flight.
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