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. John Carter
    The achievement of John Carter is that it takes the elements worn to nubs by everything from "Star Wars" to "Avatar" to TV's "Fringe" and makes them fresh again.
  2. Misery Loves Comedy
    Misery Loves Comedy reveals artists adept at sounding out the darkest depths of our lives — and then transmuting what they find to laughter, a gift I bet sad young poets might ache for.
  3. My Sister's Keeper
    You don't usually see this unblinking attention to the progress of physical decay in a PG-13 wide-release movie, and to the degree that it represents a real aspect of human experience generally curtained out of sight, it is, in the language of movie people, a brave decision. But makeup department realism alone can't redeem the dramatic fallacies surrounding it.
  4. Step Brothers
    Not to wax too serious here (since this is, after all, a movie in which two nearly middle-aged men beat each other over the heads with blunt instruments on their front lawn), but ticking away just beneath Step Brothers' freely associative surface is a fairly astute commentary on how we define such abstract concepts as "growing up" and "making something of yourself."
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Just an American Boy
    Looking puffier than he did in New York last month, Earle gets his band together, rewrites his play about executed Christian Karla Faye Tucker on the eve of opening night, defends his patriotism (and yours), and flogs the current LP. And then he rocks some more.
  6. Americano
    Americano, which Demy also wrote and stars in, is an ambivalent, occasionally touching work of homage to his parents, yet one whose clumsiness only underscores the superiority of their directly quoted films.
  7. Anonymous
    Emmerich's movie is sporadically enjoyable trash with better performances than it has any right to: Hogg's verminous villain leaves a trail of cold, oozing hisses.
  8. Jack Reacher
    Cruise is definitely too short for the gig, but in this first fight, he proves his tough-guy chops. Outraged Reacher readers can stand down.
  9. 14 Blades
    Come for Ku's joyful choreography, stay for Yen's most memorable post-comeback performance.
  10. 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.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Soaked in Bleach
    The problem is, when facing down Love's and Cobain's outsize, junked-up personalities, Grant seems a total naïf.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Super
    Gunn successfully shifts between celebrating violence and mourning it, but his handling of emotional evolution is clumsier; he seems particularly out of his depth in the film's mawkish ending. But Page is a revelation: There isn't another gorgeous twentysomething actress working today who could more convincingly reveal sexual bravado to be simultaneously silly and creepy.
  13. Partisan
    Cassel is never less than transfixing as a savior with a semi-sinister smile, but Partisan's lack of interest in providing necessary context — especially about the ill-defined larger society that Gregori rejects — leaves it operating on a hazy psychological level.
  14. SLC Punk!
    Merendino's most innovative directorial strategy is to collapse present and past by having Lillard shout Stevo's reflections about his youthful rebellion directly at the camera, while the scene he's describing in the past tense takes place behind him. I know it sounds like a Brechtian affectation, but it works.
  15. Kung Fu Yoga
    Kung Fu Yoga is a proudly silly cultural melting pot in which kung fu and Bollywood meet amicably.
  16. Vanishing on 7th Street
    It is creepy enough to make you hope the theater parking lot is brightly lit.
  17. My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
    Corfixen celebrates her husband for being open in his work, but never shows us how his real-life concerns translate into commendable creative risk-taking.
  18. City by the Sea
    There's nothing wrong with a little creative license, but the abundance of self-serving fabrication in City by the Sea not only diminishes LaMarca's experience and cheapens McAlary's work, it all but desecrates the memory of the real murder victim.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Billabong Odyssey
    Pretty much everything here -- tow surfing, hydrofoil boards, token bit on women surfers -- already appeared in this summer's equally halfass "Step Into Liquid."
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rittenhouse Square
    With just enough art-lack and speak-for-itself whiz (call me cheesy), this doc understands the famoustorical Philly park's appeal: Hot girls sunbathe there, and the bums are ka-razy.
  21. Dog Sweat
    It might be sufficient that Dog Sweat exists at all - but only if you believe intention trumps execution.
  22. Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain
    It's an unsolved mystery in Hollywood why so many based-on-true-life polemical films end up so unremarkable.
  23. True Story
    Especially for a movie that springs from a horrific and grisly crime, True Story feels undershaped and indistinct; it’s too dispassionate to be genuinely chilly.
  24. I Give It a Year
    The funny stuff outweighs the cock-ups, and supporting performances from Stephen Merchant and Minnie Driver kick the movie toward something grander.
  25. Maze Runner: The Death Cure
    The series’ borrowings often have about them a whiff of playful improvisation, the logic of kids with action figures saying, “And what if then they had to drive into that tunnel from The Stand and it was full of zombies?” As The Death Cure grinds on, though, they become less inspired.
  26. Road Hard
    Carolla's stilted screen presence and groan-worthy zingers neuter any humor from Bruce's needy quest to return to the spotlight.
  27. Happy Feet Two
    Really, the movie has absolutely everything except the light touch required for unaffected charm - the mugging is savage - a single piece of memorable original music, or a production number that's celebratory rather than trampling.
  28. The Water Diviner
    Crowe's visual framing and dramatic staging are as assured as his compelling lead performance. Yet as his story becomes weighed down by issues of cross-cultural understanding, forgiveness, and second chances...the film comes to feel like a slight, straightforward tale distended to tedious lengths.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Strings Attached
    At times, No Strings Attached feels almost shockingly attuned to the particular angst of its time and place.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Home
    Home's improvisatory aura proves more believable than "The Anniversary Party's" annoying contrivances, but it does little to hide the obvious fact that watching a rather dull party can be, well, rather dull.
  31. Swiri
    High-powered and gory.
  32. All She Can
    The film proves that closely sketched specificity can trump pedestrian plotting. At least, that is, until steroids rears its ugly and inevitable head and the film veers into morality play and, finally, inspirational uplift.
  33. A Bag of Hammers
    A few striking performances - Ritter, Preston, and Canterbury are especially great - smooth out what might have been a much bumpier ride.
  34. Closed Circuit
    To Crowley's credit, Closed Circuit is decidedly unflashy. But maybe that's a liability: There's a fine line between restrained and drab, and Closed Circuit falls just on the wrong side of it.
  35. A.C.O.D.
    A.C.O.D. ultimately suffers from a rare affliction: an overkill of editing. Whole scenes—especially the farcical finale—peter out just at the simmering point.
  36. Finding Mr. Right
    A pleasant enough way to spend two hours if you're not looking to be surprised.
  37. Paul Verhoeven's Tricked
    As filmmaking it's drearily anonymous — proof, if we needed it, that writing a screenplay via referendum is not a great idea.
  38. Sneakerheadz
    In its 70-minute runtime, Sneakerheadz offers only the briefest glimpse of issues larger than what's in the shoebox.
  39. For Colored Girls
    The greatest frustration-not just in For Colored Girls, but in Perry's entire oeuvre-is witnessing talented (and often criminally underemployed) actresses struggle with the material they've been given.
  40. Spare Parts
    This blatantly big-hearted product isn't half as vibrant as the original 2005 Wired article on which it's based, and myopically neglects to address Arizona's troubling anti-immigration legislation through even a splash of hindsight.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Whale of a Tale
    Together, these voices paint a complex picture of the clash between globalism and a fast-disappearing localism.
  42. Hit and Run
    That even the criminal class has gone sensitive and finicky eco-conscious has some potential for comedy-or drama, as in Oliver Stone's undervalued Savages-but there's no single detail that might convince a viewer that the characters played by Dax Shepard and Bradley Cooper might ever have been compelled to steal for a living, and this alienates the crime picture from any social context or sense of actual danger, making it essentially a celebrity goof-off.
  43. Freeheld
    Beneath the clichés of prestige filmmaking beat the hearts of a couple it's a privilege to get to know.
  44. Miss Minoes
    Conveying, with a light touch, important lessons for kids on the necessity of civic engagement, the perils of edit-ad conflicts, and the need to honor difference, Miss Minoes is also an ailurophile's dream, featuring a fantastic array of tabbies, calicos, and Birmans that always hit their marks.
  45. Elektra Luxx
    Elektra Luxx's episodic structure and candy-apple compositions make for a good time, even if Gutierrez lacks the narrative and syntactical muscle to pull off the sex-positive Tarantino-esque farce he seems to be after.
  46. American Desi
    Clubfooted but earnest, Pandya's movie never forgets about its second-gen issues, but never quite plumbs them, either.
  47. Shaft
    As an action flick, Shaft is clumsy out of the gate and overfond of hurtling stuntmen through windows.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everybody Says I'm Fine!
    Writer-director Bose shows depth when he deals directly with Xen's loneliness. The scenes that show him after-hours, as he gazes yearningly at the nightclub patrons across the street, are especially moving.
  49. Planet of the Apes
    It's a campy, juiced-up ker-splat, busy with clumsy pyrotechnics and never nearing the vicinity of satire.
  50. The Rules of Attraction
    Roger Avary's crisp adaptation imbues the copious bad sex and general befuddlement of Bret Easton Ellis's solemn, echt '80s Bennington novel with a playfully obnoxious energy that is often funny and -- almost fun.
  51. Edge of Winter
    Director Rob Connolly may well think he's upping the stakes by plunging his film into borderline horror territory, but in fact he's minimizing them.
  52. Constantine
    Fans of Hellblazer are bound to be disappointed.
  53. Little White Lies
    Of sole interest is Benoît Magimel's Vincent, who sheepishly confesses a same-sex attraction to one in the cabal; his moments on-screen provide the only break from this slog.
  54. War on Everyone
    Much of it feels inconsequential compared to his previous films, but McDonagh's unflagging anarchic energy keeps it juicily diverting in the moment.
  55. No Reservations
    The cynic would like to write this off as empty grown-up hooey, "Baby Boom" without an ounce of bang. But you can't do it, because the thing's so charming and frothy and delightful and sentimental and beautifully shot and well-acted and sincere that it takes a good couple of hours before you start craving real nourishment.
  56. Vivere
    I like writer-director Angela Maccarone's ambition, but her technical ingenuity exceeds her grasp of potentially complex emotions, which get stuck in a groove of mawkish self-pity.
  57. Summer in Berlin
    German director Andreas Dresen has made an oddly buoyant little film about loneliness: Part Sex in der City, part Dogme doldrums, Summer in Berlin is most affecting as a character study of two women in their late thirties.
  58. Marius
    Auteuil doesn't distance himself enough from the era to allow room for critique. As a result, the old-fashioned attitudes on display are accepted with open arms rather than reckoned with.
  59. You're Killing Me Susana
    Roberto Sneider's You're Killing Me Susana (Me estás matando Susana) is a culture-clash comedy in which the clash happens both onscreen and off.
  60. The Equalizer 2
    It’s hard to appreciate the hero’s crafty planning when we can’t really make out what he’s crafted.
  61. Life After Beth
    It's not quite as crazy as it needs to be: There's something listless about Life After Beth — it starts out as a reflection on the potentially morbid nature of grief and then doesn't seem to know where to go.
  62. Introducing the Dwights
    With its broad, toothless humor and ham-fisted fits of melodrama, this sitcom-grade embarrassment aims to dethrone "Muriel's Wedding" as the quirky Aussie feel-gooder of all time, except it hurts too much to watch.
  63. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
    There's no breathing life into a formula that ought to have bowed out gracefully while the going was good.
  64. Going Down in LA-LA Land
    A lo-fi feature blend of "True West Hollywood Story" and a gay fairy tale.
  65. i hate myself :)
    It's difficult to label Arnow's cinematic voice, and this particular film, or why anyone would even want to watch something so personal, but i hate myself :) is never not fascinating.
  66. Dedication
    "Inland Empire's" Justin Theroux pops his directorial cherry with this obnoxious Sundance throwaway, a by-the-numbers romantic comedy that mistakenly believes it's either too quirky or too irreverent to be a by-the-numbers romantic comedy.
  67. Here Comes the Devil
    Bogliano is not a subtle director — check his sudden zooms on items of portent — but he painstakingly shows us Caro opening her mind to the possibility of supernatural evil, and he's careful not to tip his hand too soon as to whether it's real or imagined.
  68. The Brothers
    An epidemic of solipsism breaks out among four lifelong African American friends when one of them announces his impending nuptials. Cringe-inducing slapstick jockeys for screen time with undermotivated high-volume confrontation.
  69. Flawless
    Flawless never approaches the rancid bluster of "8MM," but it's an equally dishonest piece of manipulative hackwork.
  70. All My Loved Ones
    It traces a sustained and moving portrait of the worldly Sam, whose despair as the society he embraced abandons him is both clear-eyed and devastating.
  71. The Iron Ladies
    We get a bunch of straight actors focusing on the "gayness" of their characters, mincing and lisping and melodramatically breaking nails, all in the besmirched name of tolerance.
  72. New Guy
    Never quite locates a sensibility to call its own.
  73. Afraid of Everything
    A stifling chamber piece laced with Repulsion-style foreboding and an undercurrent of kink.
  74. Mama Africa
    These after-school specials are distinctly depoliticized and seem tailored for Western audiences, so the African settings feel oddly superfluous.
  75. Afternoon Delight
    A film whose themes are as neatly laid out as its characters' behavior is preposterous.
  76. Skiptrace
    Skiptrace proves that nothing can stop Jackie Chan, not even poor judgment.
  77. Last Rampage
    Even though this dusty bit of true crime is limp and flimsy as hell, Last Rampage does give a few seasoned actors the opportunity to chew all the scenery they can in a 93-minute movie.
  78. The Land
    The violence, when it comes, is ugly and tragic, as it should be — The Land makes no promises about glory. But the hangout moments fizz with the boys' likable chemistry, and the scenes of suspense, which pick up toward the end, are always arresting and mostly understated, scored to nervous breathing and the ambient bustle of streets at night.
  79. War Story
    Jackson and co-screenwriter Kristin Gore prize ambiguity, allowing for cathartic revelations but no easy resolutions.
  80. Don McKay
    A strange, largely inert indie thriller, Don McKay has got good bones (inspired by Blood Simple, it has a solid cast and a strong pitch) but a terrible metabolism.
  81. Donne-moi la main
    The movie is most compelling when demonstrating the gorgeousness of the South of France—a truth that is always worth emphasizing, but was never really in dispute.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Fuel
    Those outside the bio-church aren't likely to drive--even on regular and currently cheap gasoline--to see Fuel at their local theater.
  83. Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
    For a film whose central motif is dance, there's remarkably little dancing done onscreen, and though Rowland and her co-star share moments of tender, revealing conversation, the movie is ultimately underwhelming, its emotional range as limited as that of its characters.
  84. Lolo
    Lolo is a fun, airy movie, but it's also unafraid of complexity.
  85. Septien
    Never the same movie for five minutes straight, Septien can't sit still.
  86. Ali and Nino
    It's all very tasteful, if not terribly exciting.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Zus & zo
    As a study in sororal emasculation, Zus & Zo ("This and That") is neither funny nor particularly punch-drunk.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    Duplex
    A bitter little fable of rent control and its discontents, Duplex moves rapidly into darkness and claustrophobia.
  89. Face
    Never really finds a fresh groove.
  90. Marebito (The Stranger from Afar)
    This all-digital indie is, by genre standards, either a misfired doodle or an attempt to Lovecraft-ize the popular movement. Or both.
  91. Prom
    Katie Wech's script is a carousel of reassuringly familiar plot lines, kept smoothly revolving.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Last Night
    First-time director Massy Tadjedin conjures some essence of constrained desire, but mostly from the architecture.
  93. The Zero Theorem
    Too bad the story tucked around all that production design is such a futuristic drag.
  94. The Guilt Trip
    Pairing Rogen and Streisand turns out to be inspired.
  95. American Ultra
    Nima Nourizadeh’s American Ultra is a bloody valentine attached to a bomb. It’s violent, brash, inventive and horrific, and perhaps the most romantic film of the year.
  96. Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America
    All his film can do to make its case for Sosa's significance is trot out subjects who compare her to Joan Baez, Ella Fitzgerald, and, most puzzlingly, "Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney in one," without elaboration.
  97. Two for the Money
    In keeping with his apparent ambition to play each character more berserk than the last, Pacino can't discuss wine choice without sounding on the brink of aneurysm.
  98. The Boss Baby
    Aside from the slightly fresh take on a familiar concept, The Boss Baby is barely a moderate success as a kid's flick. Perhaps it will come as good news to studio and audience alike that it works much better as an existential horror movie.
  99. Nothing Like the Holidays
    The cast is appealing enough, though, and those looking for seasonal warm fuzzies can find them, as predictably touching as a muddled-through "Auld Lang Syne."
  100. Murder by Numbers
    But owing no doubt to the requirements of Sandra Bullock, the movie's above-the-line star, executive producer, and worst enemy, this potboiling procedural never stands a chance of disproving its title.
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