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 5.3 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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  1. Bad Boys for Life
    The good-natured tension and ribbing between the two old “boys” is still there — and still a bit old hat — but there is a new dynamic that juices the entertainment factor.
  2. Baby Driver
    As charming as Baby Driver strives to be, the appeal starts to curdle once Wright makes his fetishistic aims clear.
  3. What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy
    The film is not just about a very specific and difficult conversation. Ultimately, it is also about the failure of conversation itself.
  4. In My Father's House
    In My Father’s House offers lots of interesting raw material, but it could use a disinterested observer’s remix.
  5. Wolf Totem
    Annaud and his crew, including wolf trainer Andrew Simpson, nicely illustrate the animals’ cunning and coordination.... The human drama is more perfunctory.
  6. The Hallow
    In a departure from the sexually active teens of most slasher movies, The Hallow plays on more grown-up fears: keeping your family safe and steering clear of a vengeful Mother Nature.
  7. Race
    The film is handsomely mounted and provides a window into the tough choices Owens faced, yet its dramatic licenses oversell its message.
  8. The Family Fang
    Bateman does an effective job directing the movie, which is based on a novel by Kevin Wilson (with a script by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire), smartly opting for understatement from his performers, so that their characters’ eccentricities have something to play against.
  9. Labyrinth of Lies
    Labyrinth of Lies is an eye-opening story about the importance of seeking the truth — even when it’s complicated, ugly and buried beneath years of secrecy and deceit.
  10. The Boy and the Beast
    It is the world of man, not beast, that makes this coming-of-age movie most touching.
  11. Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words
    As a family-approved document, In Her Own Words is celebratory rather than probing, critical or comprehensive.
  12. The Idol
    Like its protagonist, The Idol finds a sense of identity, hope and pride within a landscape of grim dispossession and fatalism.
  13. Cars 3
    There isn’t quite as much pep to the film’s narrative engine on this trip.
  14. Ant-Man and the Wasp
    As “Guardians” and, later, “Deadpool” doubled down on the snark, “Ant-Man” kept things light, its playfulness made all the more endearing by the boyish, twinkle-eyed persona of its star, Paul Rudd.
  15. Expend4bles
    The movie is unsurprising and not especially ambitious, but it’s agile enough to vault over most of its flaws.
  16. Godzilla vs. Kong
    One half of Godzilla vs. Kong wants to tell a human story. Believe it or not, it partly succeeds. The other half just wants to break stuff.
  17. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
    “Kingsman” is essentially a live-action cartoon, one that aims for an audible reaction and little else. That may not be the world’s loftiest goal, but whether it results in a gagging eww or a chuckle, it’s a plan that usually succeeds.
  18. A Royal Night Out
    The script, written by Trevor De Silva and Kevin Hood, falters when farce gives way to melodrama, but the movie regains momentum with a climax in a ballroom.
  19. The Armor of Light
    The Armor of Light is a fascinating little piece of storytelling.
  20. Snatched
    No one will ever credit Snatched with discovering new comic territory. But it earns its share of laughs by covering some well-trod ground.
  21. Allied
    As the espionage plot surges toward its nail-biting conclusion, the path it’s traveling feels less open-ended than preordained.
  22. Touched With Fire
    Touched With Fire is by no means a perfect film. The production values and melodrama sometimes seem better suited for a small-screen movie. But the drama deserves points for its measured, realistic view of mental illness.
  23. Ip Man 3
    Ip Man 3 credibly conjures the period with soundstage sets, rock-and-roll oldies and slicked-back hair. But director Winston Yip shows less concern for authenticity in Ip’s antagonists.
  24. The Wave
    The human scale of this story about a very real threat to one Norwegian village makes the movie more tragic and also more chilling.
  25. Doctor Strange
    All in all, Doctor Strange is a fun and trippy excursion to a place where Marvel rarely seems to go: that is, to the retinal roots of the comics.
  26. Viva
    The story is slightly melodramatic, but director Paddy Breathnach finds ways to make it surprisingly moving at times, in the same way that he makes the Havana slums look paradoxically beautiful.
  27. Sing
    Sing ends, predictably and without straining, on a high note, with everybody’s problems resolved. If only real life could so easily be realigned, by a singing pig.
  28. Bad Moms
    The comedy sails along, thanks to its charismatic leads.
  29. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
    It may not be the most spellbinding of the prequels so far, but it does advance this saga in an entertaining, if less than fantastic way.
  30. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
    True to its title, as well as its flawed but sympathetic protagonist, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is more confused than cynical or opportunistic. Its bewilderment is contagious, and ultimately endearing.
  31. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
    King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a fun, if sacrilegious, first step in a franchise creation — one that observes the first commandment of storytelling: Thou shalt not be boring.
  32. Early Man
    In the grand scheme of movies for kids, the stop-motion comedy is hardly a stinker. But it’s also less fun and inventive than you’d expect, given the company’s stellar, Oscar-winning track record.
  33. Colonia
    Although genuinely gripping — at times, uncomfortably so — the tale of Lena and Daniel’s efforts to escape from Colonia and expose its abuses suffers from a heavy-handed telling.
  34. Kevin Hart: What Now?
    What Now? is at its best when it focuses on his comic presence. Even if his jokes don’t all land, his train of thought is all you need for an entertaining performance that is funny, angry and sometimes just weird.
  35. Swiss Army Man
    [The film] isn’t for everyone. But the story is astoundingly original. During the summer months, when theaters are occupied by superheroes and sequels, that’s something worth celebrating.
  36. Wiener-Dog
    You wouldn’t exactly call the movie a thrill, but it’s curiously engrossing all the same.
  37. Complete Unknown
    Even if it’s not quite as thrilling as it first seems, Complete Unknown poses questions that practically beg for animated conversation about the fantasy of leaving it all behind — and what that might look like if someone actually did it, again and again.
  38. The Birth of a Nation
    The Birth of a Nation is a flawed but fairly compelling chapter of the American story that powerfully resonates with how that story is playing out today.
  39. Indignation
    The beauty of Indignation can be found in how it builds, growing from a garden-variety coming-of-age story into a poetic, even prayerful, meditation on the pitiless vagaries of character and regret. Thoughtful and reserved, perhaps even to a fault, Indignation winds up packing a wallop far greater than its modest parts might suggest.
  40. Author: The JT LeRoy Story
    We get Albert’s side of the story, and that’s clearly problematic. How much faith should we put in the account of someone who tells such massive whoppers? That question constantly hovers over Jeff Feuerzeig’s documentary, which is by turns fascinating and unseemly.
  41. Morris from America
    If the film’s pace is sometimes as awkward as its hero, and the story a little thin, it still brims with authentic life and affection for the characters (even the dubiously attentive Katrin).
  42. Other People
    All of the actors are pitch-perfect.
  43. The Confirmation
    One of the selling points of The Confirmation is how it steers clear of melodrama or tidy perfection in favor of a taste of life on the margins, where even living paycheck to paycheck would be a luxury.
  44. The Light Between Oceans
    Nominally, The Light Between Oceans refers to the beacon’s location at the geographic point where the Indian and Pacific meet, but it could just as easily be a hint at the salty tears it’s been so carefully manufactured to induce. Ladies and gentlemen, let your hankies unfurl.
  45. A Hologram for the King
    It’s that rare fish-out-of-water story in which the fish miraculously manages to stop needing water, and learns to crave air instead.
  46. Nuts!
    Nuts!”is an intriguing, if patronizing, curio from the cabinet of American arcana, a geegaw from the collective attic that, when dusted off, looks grotesquely funny in the light of today. We wonder how anyone could buy it. Just imagine what, one day, they’ll say about us.
  47. After the Storm
    [A] solid yet subtly sphinxlike new drama from filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda.
  48. Going in Style
    It’s the chemistry among these three fine actors that keeps Going in Style afloat, lifting it from the formulaic and forgettable — which, essentially, it is — and making it genuinely, if modestly, enjoyable.
  49. Patriots Day
    After dispensing with the sluggish setup of the film’s first act, Berg shifts into high gear, powerfully evoking the feelings of dread and white-knuckle excitement that much of America no doubt felt as the manhunt progressed.
  50. The Meddler
    The Meddler is a movie of modest charms.
  51. The First Monday in May
    The First Monday in May isn’t a deep examination of its subjects, but at least it’s breathtaking to look at.
  52. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
    If The Dial of Destiny takes its cast somewhere far-fetched — and boy, does it ever — it makes sure to bring us all back to where we belong, just in time for the closing credits.
  53. A Cure for Wellness
    When the climax does come, it arrives with a bra­cing blast of campy absurdity so flamboyantly deviant that it glows with a kind of perverse brilliance. But the setup is starved of logic, the film’s vital oxygen.
  54. Don't Breathe
    Despite the violence, the real horror of Don’t Breathe may be the sense of futility that all its characters feel, whether they can see or not.
  55. The Shallows
    Is The Shallows a thriller for the ages? No, but it’s decent popcorn fare. It’s about as deep as the titular lagoon on which it’s set, but the breakers promise a short and heart-pounding ride, with no wipeout.
  56. Our Kind of Traitor
    There’s little of the poetry that Perry teaches in the script, but the story’s mechanics are solid.
  57. Art Bastard
    The documentary is a compelling indictment of the way commerce drives the art market. But the movie’s methodology is hit-or-miss, jumping from one interview to another, to jarring effect.
  58. Chongqing Hot Pot
    Although its final act is brutal, this Chinese crime drama also has elements of farce and romance.
  59. Queen of Katwe
    Subtlety isn’t the strong suit of Queen of Katwe. But beneath the hackneyed aphorisms, there’s a thrilling story worthy of our attention.
  60. New York New York
    The thing that really doesn’t translate is the movie’s melodramatic sensibility. What New York New York presents as profound tragedy may strike non-Chinese viewers as simple bad timing.
  61. Older Than Ireland
    In giving equal weight to all subjects, “Older” flirts with triviality.... But Fegan punctuates some commonplace observations with more peppery ones.
  62. Phantom of the Theatre
    The movie is carried by sweeping widescreen images, dynamic camera movements, impressive special effects and a color scheme that contrasts icy blues against fiery reds.
  63. Tickled
    The story is so nasty, so depraved and troubling, that viewers may well wonder at its value beyond prurient interest.
  64. Elle
    Elle would be too clever by half — not to mention fatally offensive — were it not for Huppert, who in her portrayal of Michèle owns the movie from its opening moments to its bizarre, but not entirely surprising, denouement.
  65. Gimme Danger
    A bittersweet, elegiac tone can’t help but suffuse a film animated by so many anarchic spirits who have since left the planet, but it leaves viewers with the exhilarating, inspiring reassurance that we still have Iggy. To adopt his own highest praise: That’s cool.
  66. Risk
    Risk raises deep misgivings about its subject and its maker. But it’s still queasily, compulsively watchable — and probably necessary, if only as a cautionary example of how ethics, objectivity and agendas come into play in nonfiction filmmaking.
  67. As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM
    Although “As I AM” sometimes gets lost in the weeds of the club scene and Goldstein’s personal entanglements, it approaches the central irony of his life with both clarity and sadness, honoring its subject with a frankness he would have appreciated.
  68. Nerve
    Nerve is exciting, topical and potentially prescient, but it scores no points for character development, and the plot holes are so big that you could, well, drive a speeding motorcycle through them.
  69. Ghost Team
    Ghost Team should have spent more time with its big-hearted living characters instead of chasing after dead ones.
  70. Phantom Boy
    There’s an appealing quaintness to the storytelling that calls to mind the Tintin books of the artist and writer Hergé, especially that series’s old-world charm.
  71. Life, Animated
    Life, Animated makes fascinating points, about the power of cinema, about meeting our loved ones where they are and, as Ron says, about who gets to decide what constitutes a meaningful life.
  72. The Blackcoat's Daughter
    The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a visually striking masterpiece of mood and carefully calibrated storytelling. If only its technical gifts...were in service of a better — or at least more original — story.
  73. Denial
    The movie may be competent at telling its story, but it’s missing one key ingredient: feeling.
  74. The Kind Words
    At times, the film seems pat in its portrayal of modern Judaism struggling to maintain tradition in a changing world. Tonal shifts are problematic, with a maudlin score that evokes television melodrama giving way to quirky, sped-up sequences that treat family drama as light hijinks.
  75. Max Rose
    Max Rose seems to come from someplace personal, but its pain feels dialed down a notch to make it easier to digest. Still, the movie gains resonance from its look at what may be the final years of a movie legend.
  76. Miss Sharon Jones!
    What makes Miss Sharon Jones most captivating is how its subject, in spite of hardship, remains a magnetic stage presence.
  77. Office Christmas Party
    The film’s success is due to the twinkly commitment of the large and talented cast.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    LBJ
    I suspect that none of these actors had as much fun bringing to life the cagey and colorful political vulgarian as his fellow Texan, Woody Harrelson, seems to be having in LBJ, crudely and rudely drawling his lines behind a wall of latex makeup, plus-size prosthetic ears and horn-rimmed glasses that obscure his own facial features.
  79. A United Kingdom
    Although the relationship lacks a certain fire, the acting is superb.
  80. Being 17
    What elevates the film is not just its beautiful setting in the French Pyrenees but also how the beautiful mountain exteriors serve as a metaphor for characters’ inner lives. Téchiné keeps his distance from his subjects, allowing their emotions to reveal themselves and delivering a payoff that is ultimately a delicate one.
  81. Miss Hokusai
    Miss Hokusai is more adept at delivering beautiful visuals than anything deeper. That’s perhaps not all that ironic, given that the movie’s portrayal of Hokusai is as a man who valued art above all else.
  82. Phantasm
    Phantasm will not be remembered as a masterpiece of the horror genre, but it sustains a gauche, hokey, desperately improvisational charm.... It entertains through a half-facetious juvenile gusto.
  83. Chuck
    Although the central match in Chuck is effective, and hits all the right beats, unlike the best of the “Rocky” movies, the drama outside the ring is less potent than drama inside. This, despite strong performances by Schreiber and — especially — Moss, a grounding presence who summons a toughness not usually seen in her work.
  84. We Are X
    You don’t have to understand the lyrics — or even like the music — to find We Are X entertaining, even, at times, moving.
  85. I Called Him Morgan
    The documentary I Called Him Morgan, which charts his brief life and career, offers classic tunes and a vivid history of the New York jazz scene, while never quite managing to sell the drama inherent to its tale.
  86. Gifted
    It is redeemed by an appealing cast, tart dialogue and the preponderance of genuine emotion over the manufactured variety.
  87. Sword Master
    Despite bloody mayhem, Sword Master is more swashbuckling ballet than epic battle.
  88. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
    The new documentary about Al Gore’s continued climate crusade lacks urgency.
  89. Isle of Dogs
    In its own messy, slightly ungovernable way, this digressive bagatelle feels looser than some of Anderson’s most tightly controlled mis-en-scenes. But the story, for all its busyness, is negligible. The script feels less like an organic whole than an effort to keep building up a scrawny central premise until it felt like a movie.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Leap!
    Anyone who’s ever dreamed of tutus, tights and toe shoes will likely get a kick out of Leap!
  91. Cézanne et Moi
    It’s a touching evocation of friendship, brotherly competition and artistic courage at the cusp of a new century.
  92. Girls Trip
    Girls Trip accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: shock and amuse. Along the way, it reminds us how important old friends can be.
  93. Alpha
    Sweet, strange and at times slightly scary.
  94. Murder on the Orient Express
    “Murder” may lack urgency, but it does have style. The sets, the costumes and the vistas are stunning.
  95. Megan Leavey
    This movie is rarely more than merely competent, but it should stir lovers of justice as well as dog fanciers.
  96. The Wedding Plan
    The film’s structural shortcomings will matter less to most viewers than the personality of the central character, Michal.
  97. Dean
    Dean has its moments. The cast is solid, and the story moves along smoothly. Slight though it may be, it’s a sweet enough tale, while it lasts.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Going in Style
    Going in Style is cautiously conceived, but it also projects a sincere human interest and reveals a command of intimate, subtle dramatization that is likely to prove Brest's artistic and commercial fortune sooner or later. [25 Dec 1979, C1]
    • Washington Post
  99. Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe
    "Farewell to Europe” is a little like Zweig himself: smart, overly fastidious and remote to a fault. By avoiding Zweig’s inner life, his eventual collapse seems all the more perfunctory.
  100. This Beautiful Fantastic
    Depending on how you take your twee — sparingly or, as is the case in this preciously concocted tale of English misfits, slathered like marmalade over a crumpet — it will either delight or quickly cloy.
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