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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    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    We Are Wizards
    Ignore the scattershot approach, however, and there's considerable pleasure to be had in spending time with these bizarre enthusiasts and watching the creative ways they find to express their obsessions.
  2. The Dukes
    How, though, to resent a work of such deliberate inconsequence?
  3. How About You ...
    The only crowds this stodgy little movie is likely to please tend to be home on a Saturday night, watching PBS.
  4. Slumdog Millionaire
    An almost ridiculously ebullient Bollywood-meets-Hollywood concoction--and one of the rare "feel-good" movies that actually makes you feel good, as opposed to merely jerked around.
  5. Role Models
    Wain, Marino, and Rudd pull it off because theirs is a funnier, brainier, bawdier brand of feel-good.
  6. JCVD
    What exactly is JCVD? Comedy? Confession? Confusion? No one will ever mistake these backstage shenanigans for "Irma Vep." But as a self-regarding expression of masculine angst, it's a Damme sight more fun than "Synecdoche."
  7. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
    In adapting Irishman John Boyne's acclaimed young-adult novel, writer-director Mark Herman (Little Voice) draws beautifully modulated performances from his two child actors, who navigate a full range of emotions from wonder to betrayal to guilt.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Gardens of the Night
    Pitched at the risible level of Marco Kreuzpaintner's Trade, the film never quite recovers from writer-director Damian Harris's dithering way of shooting things.
  9. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
    Funniest movie of '08? Close enough, for those who don't mind monkeying around.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pray the Devil Back to Hell
    Reticker offers perhaps a too-narrow focus on this historical moment, but Pray the Devil remembers the golden rule of moviemaking--rather than tell, it shows, and what it shows is quietly affecting.
  11. Repo! The Genetic Opera
    The grim finality of the ensuing pietà suggests the last act of Hamlet or, rather, Hamlet 2--so embarrassing that, for the first time, I wanted to avert my eyes from the screen, although that might have also been because Repo! appears to have been shot with a cell phone.
  12. Soul Men
    Mac and Jackson carry the show--particularly Mac, who's at his crackly, cranky best here. As swan songs go, Soul Men is pretty sweet.
  13. House
    The central problem here is one common to faith-based films: The heroes (Reynaldo Rosales and Heidi Dippold) are both overly bland and poorly cast.
  14. Otto; or, Up with Dead People
    Campy but not comical, reactionary but not very clever, LaBruce's film is best saved for those tickled by the sight of homo-zombie orgies or the hardcore penetration of an open wound.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
    Kuenne lovingly assembles home-movie footage and new interviews, while deftly borrowing a narrative trick from fiction--the plot twist--to create a true-crime story so gripping, devastating, and ultimately unforgettable that it easily trumps any thriller Hollywood has to offer this year.
  16. Splinter
    Buoyed by solid ensemble work, some yuckily effective special effects, and a script that subverts genre convention by having its characters do smart things instead of stupid ones (mostly), Splinter earns our respect while delivering 82 minutes of lean, mean fun.
  17. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
    The biggest titters at a recent preview screening came during a scene in which Mewes shows off his dick--as though, at last! Still, how Jason Segal of him. Does Apatow always get there first?
  18. My Name Is Bruce
    The only things missing from this unfunny Campbell love fest are a passable script, Sam Raimi's inventiveness, and a level of sophistication beyond nose-picking and ass grabs.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Matador
    The Matador reserves judgment while raising the core issue concerning this traditional ritual: deep, poetic cultural expression or glorified animal cruelty?
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Other End of the Line
    At a time when our global standing is sinking like a stone, it's comforting to know that, at least on the big screen, we can still land the babes no matter how obnoxious we are.
  21. The First Basket
    The First Basket is more than a triumphalist screw-you to those who think Jews don't play sports.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Let the Right One In
    A coolly balanced and utterly compelling examination of alienation and love.
  23. Synecdoche, New York
    Like most of Kaufman's work as a writer, Synecdoche, New York is a head trip that time and again returns to a place of real human emotion--in this case, to the idea that no matter how brilliant we may be or think we are, we're all looking for a little guidance (or, yes, direction) in life.
  24. Changeling
    Burdened by a convoluted script and an ensemble-proof leading lady, the director fails to illuminate a particular corrupt system.
  25. I've Loved You So Long
    A modestly satisfying tale of sisterly love weighed down by a history of family betrayal and mendacity.
  26. Pride and Glory
    How ironic that a movie filled with police officers should end up feeling like a hostage situation.
  27. Johnny Got His Gun
    Filmed theater is an inherently dubious genre, and Johnny Got His Gun is little more than a good performance of dated material.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Universe of Keith Haring
    Equally a portrait of the artist and a portrait of a decade.
  29. Fear(s) of the Dark
    Though multi-director projects are patchy by definition, Fear(s) of the Dark hits with an all-star batting average.
  30. Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
    The film's length may well be intended to mirror the 72-day ordeal, but it's relentlessly wearing and lacking in nutritive fiber.
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