Village Voice's Scores

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For 11,162 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 40% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 56% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 7.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 57
Highest review score: 100 Hooligan Sparrow
Lowest review score: 0 Followers
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,708 out of 11162
  2. Mixed: 4,553 out of 11162
  3. Negative: 1,901 out of 11162
11162 movie reviews
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  1. Junction
    Bledsoe leads an impressive cast, but there's only so much the actors can do with writer-director Tony Glazer's underdeveloped script.
  2. It's Better to Jump
    Without comments from Akka's Jewish residents or any conflicting voices, the film plays like a propagandistic attempt to reshape historical and contemporary narratives.
  3. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?
    This is a film to see and then see again, to soak in and marvel at and -- like its director -- try to keep up with.
  4. Philomena
    The grande dame's performance, alternately goofy and grave, is an absolute tour de force.
  5. The Falls: Testament of Love
    Its soap-opera plot is old hat, and the largely amateurish acting of the ensemble makes it hard to connect with many of the characters.
  6. The Fall of 1980
    Refusing to think small, Lonergan cannot help but fail big.
  7. Everyday
    Michael Winterbottom's wise and involving Everyday specializes in unscripted-feeling moments that ache of life.
  8. Detroit Unleaded
    Director Rola Nashef's visuals can be clunky, and her script's conversational dialogue is occasionally stilted. Nonetheless, she draws her characters in sharp lines, so that the gaggle of customers who frequent Sami's workplace...feel not like types but, rather, like diverse individuals.
  9. CinemAbility
    Sometimes academically clinical, and including infomercial-like narration by Jane Seymour, the film has a bright core of real emotion.
  10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
    Catching Fire suffers from the movie equivalent of middle-book syndrome: The story is wayward and rangy, on its way to being something, maybe, but not adding up to much by itself. Still, it’s entertaining as civics lessons go, and it’s a more polished, assured picture than its predecessor.
  11. Geography Club
    If the characterizations are perfunctory, the performances give them unexpected weight.
  12. Speciesism: The Movie
    Ultimately, Devries seems to want to impress viewers with his anger.
  13. The Long Island Railroad Massacre
    The film registers like a more compelling episode of A&E's The First 48, complete with overwrought, ominous music and tacky re-enactments.
  14. Sunlight Jr.
    Collyer has a keen eye for underrepresented populations, but she'd be better served in the future to scale back on the overstatement.
  15. Nebraska
    Nebraska is the antidote to other family charmers about goofballs in matching sweaters.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Lion Ark
    Finding balance between the rescue of abused circus lions and the fascinating cause and effect of a ban that led to the rescue of said lions proves too much for the creators of Lion Ark.
  17. Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here
    No longer silent but still the lesser talker between them, Ilya is marvelously fluent in spatial forms.
  18. The Great Fallacy
    Each theory and statistic supports the thesis, but the degree to which everyone and everything agrees elicits suspicion rather than interest.
  19. The Great Beauty
    There's little sense in trying to resist the film's relentless boogie-woogie party vibe, its tumultuous visual banquet, its unpredictable sense of switchblade satire, its fools' parade of modern grotesques, or its river of startling melancholy, turning from a wary trickle to a flash flood by film's end. Sorrentino's vision is the size of Rome itself, and his confidence is dazzling.
  20. Faust
    Faust is not your great-granddaddy's selling-your-soul fable, but something new, a dreamy immersion into the messiness of myth, where hubris and desire can get lost in the chaos of time and retelling.
  21. Dear Mr. Watterson
    [A] heartfelt but largely inarticulate documentary.
  22. Charlie Countryman
    LaBeouf and Wood don't clang, but they don't quite click, either. That's not enough for the film to persuade us of its message, that love is worth any sacrifice.
  23. 12-12-12
    Despite some pleasant backstage-footage filler, however, 12-12-12 ultimately so truncates its artists' performances (each is given one song, and those are heavily edited) that the effect is like watching the original TV broadcast in fast-forward.
  24. The Best Man Holiday
    Lee seems less interested in capturing how people of color talk than in capturing how people talk. He coaxes us to step in and listen, and the very casualness of his invitation is the key to the joyousness of The Best Man Holiday, flaws be damned.
  25. The Book Thief
    The Book Thief is just too tidy to have much impact.
  26. Caucus
    Caucus is a lively, hilarious, upsetting crash-course in recent history. It's also revelatory at times, especially as it reframes infamous sound bites in their of-the-moment context.
  27. The Wind Rises
    An emotionally generous and expansively detailed romantic fantasy.
  28. Reaching for the Moon
    Poetry refracts life; this film can only reflect it, and tritely at that.
  29. People of a Feather
    Heath never puts together a larger narrative about the decline of Inuit culture and offers little political history of the situation.
  30. Paris Countdown
    The skirmishes are alternately silly and wan. The film's gloomy techno score is its most lasting attribute.
  31. The Motel Life
    The Motel Life too often revisits the same emotions and sentiments, leaving us with a portrait that feels frustratingly simple.
  32. Medora
    This stellar, incisive slice-of-life doc centers on the kind of crowd-pleasing competition story that lures in audiences and then lays bare heartsick truths about small-town America today.
  33. How I Live Now
    Tender, humane, and searing, How I Live Now stands as something all too rare: a movie about young people that young people may love — but not one that lies to them, and not one built for them alone.
  34. Great Expectations
    Newell's film doesn't supplant Lean's, of course. The yearning is more vague, the gloom less consummate. But it's the best since, rich in feeling and dark beauty, alive with the superior scenecraft, chatter, and imagination of the most beloved of novelists.
  35. Go for Sisters
    It's not bad, but it feels rote, as if the film's events are just an excuse for us to hang with the film's people.
  36. The Ghosts in Our Machine
    A film whose sense of urgency and purpose is utterly engrossing.
  37. Finding Mr. Right
    A pleasant enough way to spend two hours if you're not looking to be surprised.
  38. A Case of You
    A Case of You is a disappointing romantic comedy that aspires to social relevance until the third act, when it settles for pat Freudian revelations.
  39. Billy & Buddy
    Despite a few manic comic episodes, writer-directors Alexandre Charlot and Franck Magnier never again capture the sense of joyous connection that can exist between child and pet.
  40. At Berkeley
    Wiseman's generally static camera spends prolonged periods of time in the classroom, at student gatherings, and in the halls of educational power, training a multifaceted gaze on opinions regarding an economic shift affecting faculty salaries, subsidized programs, student tuition, and the university's fundamental "public" character.
  41. Ass Backwards
    The episodic story and minimal budget result in a small canvas over which these two huge characters dominate.
  42. The Armstrong Lie
    To use a phrase from the film, The Armstrong Lie is a "myth-buster." It's wholly necessary, brilliantly executed, and a complete bummer.
  43. Approved for Adoption
    Watching the animated memoir Approved for Adoption can stir a serenity like skipping stones on water for a delightfully long time.
  44. Thor: The Dark World
    Lacking Iron Man’s wit, the Hulk’s brains, and the Captain’s ideals, he’s in peril of going poof himself if the franchise doesn’t figure out how to capitalize on its most glorious hero.
  45. Ender's Game
    Some of the movie isn't bad.
  46. Last Vegas
    The film’s hidden asset is the luminous Mary Steenburgen, funny and gorgeous as an empty-nest mom turned lounge chanteuse who beguiles the dudes with age-appropriate flirting and arch humor.
  47. Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven's Final Symphony
    Each anecdote builds upon the next to create that rarest of films: a documentary as ineffable and transformative in its reach as it sets out to be.
  48. Sweet Dreams
    It's utterly rousing watching the women master their instruments and then push past the birth pains of their new business enterprise, and it's completely wrenching as their individual backstories unfold.
  49. The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
    In essence, the film is a lecture, but Zizek's associative thinking and understanding of the applicability of psychoanalysis makes it a lecture like no other.
  50. Tough as Iron
    Far better as a family drama than as a gangster picture, the film's muddled attempt at marrying the two distracts from its emotional center.
  51. Two: The Story of Roman & Nyro
    A vanity project riding the waves of a socio-political moment, Two confirms just as many stereotypes as it attempts to dismantle.
  52. Skinwalker Ranch
    Fixed cameras lend themselves well to dimly lit effects and shrewd obfuscation, and McGinn proves a fine hand at stock-horror misdirection.
  53. Sal
    A stubbornly not-bad character study.
  54. Running from Crazy
    The possible hereditary nature of suicide in general and of the seven known Hemingway suicides in particular is lazily poked at; decades of research go unmentioned and unexplored.
  55. The New Black
    What emerges is an illuminating look at the ways race, specifically blackness, has been cynically portrayed by the mainstream media, rightwing politicians and religious leaders, and even some white queer activists.
  56. Man of Tai Chi
    The film is stale Chinese popcorn from the get-go, with only Chen's wiry guilelessness and wicked athletic skills to keep it remotely edible.
  57. The legend of Sarila
    A vibrant color scheme and the deliciously evil cackle of Christopher Plummer elevate this kid-friendly animated adventure from Canada.
  58. Last Love
    Scene after scene is defined by blunt exposition and gooey maxims, not to mention cornball visual metaphors.
  59. In the Name Of
    A nuanced, character-driven critique of the Catholic Church and its regressive stance on homosexuality.
  60. The Impaler
    The cell phone reception in Dracula's castle is pretty bad, but it can't be as frustrating as trying to fathom the plot of this woefully muddled horror film.
  61. Immigrant
    Immigrant is reportedly based on writer-director Barry Shurchin's own family history, but the story he's chosen to tell is so melodramatic and relentlessly grim that any passion he feels for the material isn't reflected onscreen.
  62. Free Birds
    Like so many modern animated features, Free Birds packs too much in; the picture feels cramped and cluttered, and, despite its occasionally manic action, it moves as slowly as a fattened bird waddling toward its doom.
  63. Fighting for Freedom
    None of these TV-movie trappings does Freedom's topical subject any favors, but they do confirm that those most passionate about something often require some sort of creative filter when making art about it.
  64. Diana
    Diana is a Lifetime movie in sensible pumps, at once too silly to be taken seriously, yet so self-serious it rarely allows us to giggle.
  65. Dallas Buyers Club
    What's remarkable about Dallas Buyers Club is its lack of sentimentality. The movie, like its star, is all angles and elbows, earning its emotion through sheer pragmatism.
  66. The Counselor
    The Counselor is the cumbersome end product of a high-minded writer trying to slum and a slick director aiming for cosmic depth.
  67. Casting By
    While Dougherty clearly had an almost eerie sense of how a particular actor might inhabit a part, this film also shows that she may have single-handedly created a filmmaking craft and then made it indispensable.
  68. Escape Plan
    With its fun script and cheap visuals, Escape Plan evokes the halfwit cheesiness of 1980s-era Cannon films, but it also recalls the deft pacing and legibility of their action sequences.
  69. Behind the Blue Veil
    What we're presented with is a scattering of scenes amid an overpowering backdrop of geopolitical and anthropological explanation, and nothing resembling drama.
  70. Birth of the Living Dead
    What distinguishes this doc from much of the tedious critical prose Romero has inspired is the fan-boy and fan-girl ardor that fuels its smarts--both behind and in front of the camera.
  71. Big Sur
    Not exactly a hagiography, Polish's film isn't a tragedy, either -- it's just an uneventful afternoon spent with a dozing rummy.
  72. Aftermath
    What gives Aftermath its peculiar strain of portent is Pasikowski's consistent suggestion of the futility of bold, desperate attempts to undo a wrong.
  73. The Broken Circle Breakdown
    The Broken Circle Breakdown crashes as frequently as it soars, but the ache at its center feels real.
  74. Boss
    Boss is that rare Bollywood action film whose stars are worthy of the pedestal they're put on.
  75. American Promise
    The film ends on up notes, but its strength is that it's not really a feel-good movie, instead shining a light on both how far we have come in terms of race in America and how very far we still have to go.
  76. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
    By Jackass standards, Bad Grandpa is benign—it’s neither as fun nor as thrilling as watching Knoxville play tetherball with a beehive.
  77. Not Yet Begun to Fight
    It stuns, and what's missing doesn't compare to what it shares.
  78. Bridging the Gap
    Bridging the Gap is gorgeous and weird.
  79. Out Loud
    Out Loud is too clumsily put together to give its subject the weight it needs to feel both grounded and moving.
  80. Remington and the Curse of the Zombadings
    The comedy preaches tolerance... But using hate crimes—even cartoonified ones—as a source of humor is troubling, and the mincing stereotypes on display bring to mind a little kid pointing and shouting, "Homo! Homo!"
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    House in the Alley
    At its best, the film deftly plumbs the gulf between its central couple... At its worst, it paints a Victorian portrait of womanhood... It's shoddily plotted, too.
  82. Toad Road
    Though far from perfect, Toad Road is also the first unique horror film to come along in years.
  83. When I Walk
    It's an often gut-wrenching viewing experience in which the triumphs of the hero are hard won.
  84. The Square
    [A] powerful, exacting depiction of Egypt's struggle for meaningful change.
  85. Spinning Plates
    A love letter to that singular intersection of artistic innovation, cultural legacy, community pride, and family-sustaining (or -straining) commerce known as the restaurant.
  86. I Am Divine
    A worthy documentary tribute to the drag queen icon.
  87. Blue Is the Warmest Color
    Kechiche and his actresses explore the in-between—ecstasy, exploration, the comfort and eventual boredom of domesticity—and the aftermath, the painful shards of feeling we cling to after something has shattered. And they don't mess around when it comes to the ferocity of love, sex, or, God help us, the two combined.
  88. Bastards
    Style can't fully compensate for a tale that, underneath its gorgeous affectations, proves undercooked, especially during a third act that provides duly titillating answers to its initially beguiling mysteries.
  89. Cut to Black
    While Eberle's execution falls short, the scale of his ambition can't help but stir admiration.
  90. Carrie
    Kimberly Peirce changes almost nothing in her rallying remake of Brian De Palma’s classic about a troubled telekinetic teenager. She doesn’t have to.
  91. Haunter
    Has an elegance roughly on par with a Goosebumps novel, refusing to follow its own contradictory rules and barely sustaining a pretense of internal logic.
  92. The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers
    This particular rendition of a history often told is little more than propaganda.
  93. Peaches Does Herself
    While it helps to already be a fan, it's imaginative and energetic enough to be entertaining for the uninitiated.
  94. Our Day Will Come
    The exhausting and unrelatable Our Day Will Come escalates to a violent rampage as essentially unpleasant and nonsensical as its characters.
  95. Lost for Words
    Fortunately, there's far more to his slickly directed film than mere virtual tourism.
  96. Torn
    Made for less than $500,000, Torn is proof that a little can go a long way. In fact, the microscale perfectly lends itself to the story's quiet revelations.
  97. Paradise
    There's something to be said for fiction that, in its form, dares to resemble life as it's lived. Our minor failings and chemical imbalances certainly shape our stories. This troubled yet promising debut gets that much right.
  98. I'm in Love with a Church Girl
    It's hard to quibble with Steve Race's film on theological grounds, though in narrative and aesthetic terms, there's something unholy about its mixture of inane clichés, shallow music-video glossiness, and incessant preaching.
  99. The Human Scale
    The Human Scale lacks both the punch needed to appeal to the layperson and the deep wonkiness to gain the attention of true geeks of the built environment.
  100. Hellbenders
    Aided by capable if unnecessary 3D effects, Petty displays a flair for staging violent action, but he's trapped inside a broad comic set-up that doesn't mesh with the story's innate meanness.
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