Washington Post's Scores

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For 11,478 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Oppenheimer
Lowest review score: 0 Dolittle
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6,014 out of 11478
  2. Mixed: 3,069 out of 11478
  3. Negative: 2,395 out of 11478
11478 movie reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    12
    Mikhalkov's 12 breathes and floats.
  2. Tokyo Sonata
    At its best, Tokyo Sonata is a deft interweaving of seemingly dissonant ideas -- war and music, family and politics, authority and freedom.
  3. Frost/Nixon
    Neither the title nor the subject matter prepares you for the pure fun of Frost/Nixon.
  4. Treeless Mountain
    It's in this final chapter that the director states his message, which is handled so lightly, almost incidentally, you might miss it. But it's a profound one. For what the girls learn is that the way to get what they want -- no, need -- isn't by hoarding something, but by letting go.
  5. Three Monkeys
    It's a film filled with excellent acting, beautifully composed shots, and one or two legitimate storytelling surprises.
  6. Burma VJ: Reporter i et lukket land
    Thanks to the new guerrilla narrative, the world has a constant flow of images to file in its collective consciousness. And that camera-testable accountability slowly becomes a global civic right that fulfills the noblest purpose of journalism -- to bring truth to power.
  7. Afghan Star
    Afghan Star goes much deeper, eloquently conveying the tensions, small victories and shattering setbacks of a fragile democracy struggling to regain a once-flourishing culture.
  8. Lorna's Silence
    While the Dardennes may be moralists, they are also makers of thrillers: The story within Lorna' Silence is built on tiny increments of tantalizing details, meted out in penurious droplets and with chest-tightening tension that suggests that what the brothers wanted to be when they grew up were boa constrictors -- Belgian boas, with degrees in Marxist theory.
  9. Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
    All in all, this is a celebration of Australian exuberance, a national ethic of adventurousness and enormous charisma.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bandslam
    the script's earnest intelligence and the actors' charm (Connell, Hudgens and Kudrow are especially fun to watch) make this film an entertaining ode to teenage joie de vivre.
  11. The Baader Meinhof Complex
    Seems propelled by a doomed sense of inevitability and is all the more gripping for it.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amreeka
    Abetted by an observant cast, she (Dabis) navigates across politically and emotionally fraught terrain with a warming inflection of humor and a mother-hen's attention to the needs of all of her characters.
  13. The Horse Boy
    A lovely, amazing, wonderfully provocative film.
  14. Good Hair
    Thanks to Rock's running monologue, combining scathing humor with trenchant observations, the film manages to be side-splitting even while making its most poignant points.
  15. Swimming
    Absolutely refuse to make predictable patterns in the sand. Instead, they set their characters loose.
  16. The Brothers
    A politically incorrect but often hilarious jam session, in which men and women trade insults like musical licks.
  17. The Dish
    Simple fare, a feel-good movie that re-creates a time and place with gentle humor and a reminder that the Aussies have the right stuff, too.
  18. Black Knight
    Lawrence is miraculous, as always.
  19. End of the Century
    The interviews with band members, managers, friends and peer fans confirm not only how influential, but how beloved the Ramones were.
  20. Trolösa
    Held together by the intensity of its focus.
  21. Cinema Paradiso
    Just about everything you ever loved (or hated) about Italian films can be found.
  22. The Fluffer
    More tasteful, sensitive and original than you might imagine.
  23. Frequency
    It's like a chick flick for men--and the women who love them, sniff-sniff.
  24. The Adventures of Felix
    This French film has a breezy, documentary air that belies the important issues is raises.
  25. The In-Laws
    Subtle it's not. Still, the film, directed by Andrew Fleming ("Dick"), gets large and plentiful laughs where it's supposed to.
  26. Anywhere But Here
    So closely observed, so funny and so true to the junk that is everybody's real--as opposed to movie--life that it comes to feel like some kind of a miracle.
  27. The Cider House Rules
    More honest than any conventional morality tale. Here there are no heroes and no real villains; the good guys are all flawed and even bad guys are sometimes capable of the noblest of acts.
  28. Divine Intervention
    Antic, puzzling and disturbing film.
  29. Open Hearts
    Like the director, the cast seems to have burrowed into the material, made all the more wrenchingly realistic by Dogme precepts.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Mystic Masseur
    A soft-focused, wistful big-screen art film.
  31. Life and Debt
    After viewing documentarian Stephanie Black's dour exegesis of the wrecked Jamaican economy -- only the most insensitive vacationer will want to set foot anywhere near the resorts and beaches of Montego Bay.
  32. Big Night
    It's the moviegoing equivalent of great eating.
  33. DysFunktional Family
    Wickedly funny.
  34. The Guys
    This is a superb theatrical situation, and you have two great performers doing the emoting.
  35. In Too Deep
    Has a gritty authenticity to it … captures the spectacularly crazed quality of urban violence.
  36. Beautiful Creatures
    Wonderfully empowering to watch Petula and Dorothy turn the tables on their testosterone-crazed tormentors.
  37. The Luzhin Defence
    Where it succeeds best is not in describing how Luzhin got broken but how love fixed him, albeit temporarily.
  38. A Love Divided
    Stunningly acted by Liam Cunningham and Orla Brady as the Cloneys.
  39. Little Voice
    Little Voice may be more of a confection than a square meal, but it's proof of how good a dish can be when the ingredients are of the highest order.
  40. Sidewalks of New York
    The chatty, romantic roundelay takes a lighthearted look at the misadventures of six in the city.
  41. In July
    Unabashedly, un-graphically romantic.
  42. Scratch
    Engrossing and infectiously enthusiastic documentary.
  43. The Emperor's New Clothes
    Engaging, witty and touching film, one that defies categories to become a romantic comedy, historical biopic and philosophical rumination, all in one.
    • Washington Post
  44. Lovely & Amazing
    Warmhearted and slightly edgy seriocomedy, these sisters experience some pretty entertaining ups and downs. Entertaining, that is, for people who appreciate irony.
  45. Shanghai Ghetto
    A touching documentary.
  46. Le bossu
    Great sword fights, great acting, fabulous sword fights and, of course, really cool sword fights.
  47. Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams
    The Cortez family flies into action with the same testy family dynamics, silly humor and cool gadgetry that animated the first Spy Kids.
  48. Comedian
    What begins as an indulgent vanity piece (Seinfeld was a producer of the film) ends up as a fascinating portrait of creativity at its most compulsive.
  49. Evelyn
    It's full of good heart, and you can't help but like its unequivocal sentimentality.
  50. Red Satin
    Although the movie is slow-going at first, it gradually awakens, like Lilia. And then it dances.
  51. Murder by Numbers
    Turns potentially forgettable formula into something strangely diverting.
  52. Judy Berlin
    Something to get excited about.
  53. The Cockettes
    An absorbing primer in one of the most fascinating chapters in American social history.
  54. Blow Dry
    It's fun. Hey, it's almost spring, Rickman is fabulous and so is Richardson. Warren Clarke is continually funny. And Heidi Klum alone will melt the snows of yesteryear.
  55. When Brendan Met Trudy
    An Irish lark that blows in, trailing daffodils and the sniff of spring, from that adventurous releasing company Shooting Gallery Films.
  56. Southpaw
    If Southpaw leaves you hungry, this much is also true: The "food" was good in the first place.
  57. Greenfingers
    Big muscular guys pruning roses IS funny and charming.
  58. Innocence
    A film that's tender and disarming for its intimate honesty. It's also deeply refreshing to see a movie that dares to explore sexuality among mature characters.
  59. Grateful Dawg
    Think of this movie as a glorified home video rather than a bitingly insightful documentary. But for Garcia and Grisman, this soft-shoe approach couldn't be more appropriate.
  60. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
    A portrait of a hero.
  61. The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack
    This curious documentary is something rare, evincing opposites: It's both delightful and powerful.
  62. Keeping the Faith
    May be the most ruggedly decent film to come along in a couple of decades.
  63. East Is East
    An edgy, irreverent, thoroughly winning comedy.
  64. Notorious C.H.O.
    A raunchy and frequently hilarious follow-up to the gifted Korean American stand-up's "I'm the One That I Want."
  65. The Way Home
    Simple without being slight, and profoundly moving without dipping into mawkishness.
  66. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
    It testifies to art's vitality and endurance, despite its marketers' -- and sometimes even its makers' -- efforts to the contrary.
  67. Mansfield Park
    It isn't Austen, but it's delicious fun.
  68. Beautiful People
    The movie's devil-may-care freneticism is edgily amusing, almost liberating.
  69. Standing in the Shadows of Motown
    It's a thrill to listen to the seasoned survivors offering witty, evocative anecdotes about themselves and others.
  70. Interview with the Assassin
    Barry's deliberately unspectacular performance makes this even more powerful. He gives "Assassin" a disquieting authority.
  71. Personal Velocity: Three Portraits
    Embraces reality, humanity and compassion, as leavened by wisdom and wit.
  72. Tattoo
    Well acted, moodily shot and tautly written, this Tattoo may feel like you've seen some of it (or its ilk) before. Still, its haunting images get under the skin, leaving an indelible impression.
  73. The Caveman's Valentine
    An intriguing, visually startling murder mystery that showcases the virtuosity of Samuel L. Jackson.
  74. Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
    He (Tobias) had a life, however, that was way off the charts in its unpredictability, and sharing it with him is fascinating.
  75. The Day I Became a Woman
    An episodic drama rich in sly humor and symbolic imagery.
  76. The Low Down
    A well-acted first effort written and directed by Jamie Thraves.
  77. One Night at McCool's
    First-time feature director Harald Zwart has a real flair for farce, and he keeps the outrageous high jinks of the script lively yet grounded in reality.
  78. Our Song
    It's more a collection of episodes that build to a complex, richly layered picture of these girls' lives. And the more time we spend with them, the more endearing they become.
  79. Chutney Popcorn
    Its easygoing, disarming air will endear it to its target audience, who will appreciate this movie as much for the lifestyle it depicts as its actual story.
  80. Happenstance
    Utterly delightful fable of romantic destiny.
  81. Maelstrom
    Sensual, funny and, in the end, very touching.
  82. The Son's Room
    A deceivingly simple film, one that grows in power in retrospect, as the cumulative impact of so many quiet moments makes itself felt.
  83. Lucky Break
    Apart from the deja vu all over again, Lucky Break is no worse a film than "Breaking Out," and "Breaking Out" was utterly charming.
  84. Sade
    What an amazing little film. God love the French. They make movies with ideas in them, other than: How many cars can we blow up?
  85. Bounce
    It's a love story, yes, but one whose sweetness is cut by honest performances, a sharply drawn supporting cast and a fairly serious, yet never self-pitying, tone.
  86. The Color of Paradise
    A heartbreaker, plain and simple.
  87. Elling
    Bighearted audience pleaser.
  88. Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist
    Extraordinarily poetic, suspenseful film.
  89. Secret Ballot
    A psychic journey deep into the very fabric of Iranian (and by extension, all) life.
  90. Undisputed
    It's so gritty it'll get under your fingernails. And it harks back to one of Hill's greatest films from the '70s, "Hard Times."
  91. La bûche
    A confection that is ultimately better because of its bitterness.
  92. Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
    Viewers will leave Amandla! moved by the music, impressed by the musicians and dubious about the possibility of political and social healing.
  93. Till Human Voices Wake Us
    Like the best of poems, it doesn't lend itself to easy understanding. But, like the best of poems, it's extremely provocative, to both imagination and intellect.
  94. Fever Heat [re-release]
    Great picture? No. Cool picture? Oui. Not as good, I must say, as the sort of thing we moron yanks were doing on our own over here – "D.O.A." is much better.
  95. Chunhyangdyun
    Demonstrates that sometimes the simplest stories are the most profound, and certainly possess the most moral authority. It's a film that emphasizes loyalty and sacrifice, values that have become jokes in most other films these days.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lady and the Duke
    Still, it is a decidedly fresh take. Rohmer has said he came upon a condensed version of Elliott's diary by chance, in a history magazine. His rendering of her story focuses not so much on the politics of the time -- though they are the basis of much of the dialogue -- but on the emotional thicket.
  97. The Backyard
    The movie is not for the squeamish, but for those who are unafraid to look at what is, perhaps, their own metaphorical "backyard," for those willing to stare into the long, dark night of the contemporary American soul, its bone-crunching message is worth hearing.
  98. Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
    An absorbing and inspiring portrait of two musicians whose unerring sense of what's right -- both artistically and ethically -- has not just held them in good stead but driven their particular brand of success.
  99. Late Marriage
    Late Marriage is a closely observed, somewhat funny, ultimately very sad movie.
  100. Stuart Little 2
    It's a pleasant experience. But that's what it is: a sequel that replays every aspect of the original movie.
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