Wall Street Journal's Scores

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For 3,944 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 44% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Les Misérables
Lowest review score: 0 The Limits of Control
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,102 out of 3944
  2. Mixed: 1,197 out of 3944
  3. Negative: 645 out of 3944
3944 movie reviews
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  1. Something in the Air
    Too bad it isn't more engaging — and dramatic — than it is, but this new film, in French with English subtitles, is still worth seeing for what it says of the turbulent state of France in the early 1970s, when Mr. Assayas was a high-school student in Paris, and of the zigzag pursuit—of painting, beautiful girls and independence from a demanding father—that finally culminated in his becoming the filmmaker he was meant to be.
  2. Call Me Miss Cleo
    As directed by Celia Aniskovich and Jennifer Brea, Call Me Miss Cleo is an affectionate portrait of a fringe character who was more a tool than a beneficiary of PRN’s seamy efforts.
  3. Dreamgirls
    She's (Jennifer Hudson) the best part of the show by far, but the writer-director Bill Condon, who wrote the screenplay for "Chicago" four years ago, has done the original "Dreamgirls" proud without solving its dramatic problems.
    • Wall Street Journal
  4. Santa vs. the Snowman
    A strange anomaly. It's both cutting-edge entertainment and primitive precursor of unimagined wonders to come.
    • Wall Street Journal
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Vicky Cristina Barcelona
    The narration, aided by a terrific score, does streamline the storytelling, and adds to it a faintly sardonic top note.
  6. Dune: Part Two
    Instead of a theme park, it’s more of a cathedral—solemn, sober, beautiful and forbidding. Greig Fraser’s photography and Hans Zimmer’s score are full of majesty.
  7. Penguin Bloom
    Penguin Bloom is alternately despairing and inspiring—more of the former than the latter, I found, simply because of the production’s honesty, and the lifetime of difficulty the Blooms’ story suggests.
  8. Pete's Dragon
    Mr. Lowery is very good with actors, and he lets much of his film unfold at a pace that may, in these frenzied times, seem rather leisurely. I thought the pace was fine, and admired him for giving his characters time to breathe. Elliott breathes fire, and the film around him breathes humanity.
  9. Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
    Here's a case of clichés transmuted, for the most part, into stirring entertainment.
    • Wall Street Journal
  10. The Darjeeling Limited
    The film as a whole operates in Mr. Anderson's patented, semi-precious zone of antic and droll. It's not as if the filmmaker has gone off the rails. He's just not solidly on them.
  11. Paris
    As a whole, though, Paris pulses with a contemporary version of the energy that animated Balzac's novels, or Colette's accounts of the life she observed from the window of her apartment in the Palais Royal.
  12. Swing Kids
    Mr. Carter's intelligent, straight-forward style and the good performances of the young actors prohibit hooting at the story's completely American approach to a German story. [11 Mar 1993]
    • Wall Street Journal
  13. Our Towns
    Joy may not be sweeping the nation portrayed in Our Towns, exactly. But a certain amount of happiness abounds.
  14. Date Night
    Watching these two intensely likable comedians work together is a special pleasure.
  15. Greyhound
    Parts of the drama play out on its star’s face, and they’re the best parts, because there’s no one better at portraying a good man’s self-doubts and a frightened man’s courage.
  16. The American
    With its retro pacing, its pretentious lapses and its narrow emotional range, this elegantly crafted existential thriller risks alienating its audience; at times it feels like a test for attention deficit disorder.
  17. Sublet
    It’s a gentle, often funny meditation on advancing age and the fragile joys of youth.
  18. Unfriended
    No, it’s therefore a movie to be seen, if you can endure it — as a shrewd commercial venture, as an online opus that undoes your self-composure and, last and foremost, as a window on a mode of thinking that equates to a state of being.
  19. Sleepwalk with Me
    Sleepwalk With Me makes the subject palatable, funny and maybe even touching.
  20. Monday
    All in all, Mr. Papadimitropoulos maintains a delicate balance between the wryly hilarious and the heartbreaking, and sometimes the high wire trembles. But danger is intoxicating, and Chloe and Mickey—along with their audience—spend much of “Monday” delightfully drunk.
  21. The U.S. vs. John Lennon
    Loosely organized but still fascinating.
    • Wall Street Journal
  22. Chef
    Like so much in Chef, the plot resolution seems contrived and a bit silly. By then, though, we've had plenty of laughs, and generous helpings of warm feelings—the meat and potatoes of real life.
  23. Cold Case Hammarskjöld
    The trip is entertaining and even instructive — not about the facts of the case, which go from murky to opaque, but about the slip-slidingly elusive nature of truth.
  24. Amazing Grace
    A case of good works done well.
    • Wall Street Journal
  25. Black Knight
    It's a shrewd little comedy that uses good British actors to challenge its star, who rises to the occasion.
    • Wall Street Journal
  26. Sugar
    The price of the production's integrity is a leisurely pace -- but it's a worthwhile one. Though Sugar demands patience, it deserves attention.
  27. Shirley
    For all its verbal combat, and marital strife that’s echoed and amplified by a younger academic couple in the manner of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” the story works best when the dialogue tides subside. In those fleeting moments Ms. Moss is able to convey, eloquently and almost wordlessly, a tormented soul.
  28. The Gateway
    The Gateway is a bit like the movie’s drug robbery—they know how to get in, but don’t know how to get out. It’s Mr. Whigham who keeps you watching.
  29. Everything Is Illuminated
    Not everything is illuminated in his (Liev Schreiber) version, but the book's humanity and humor shine through.
    • Wall Street Journal
  30. The Matador
    The Matador has its dull patches, one of which is relieved by Hope Davis's endearing presence as Danny's wife. But what fun it is to watch Julian losing it, and Pierce Brosnan nailing it. He's worth the price of admission and then some.
    • Wall Street Journal
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