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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  1. My Summer of Love
    Nuanced, exquisite and predictable.
  2. Yes
    For those who accept Potter's premise -- and why not embark on a challenging, enriching experience? -- this is a unique, bold adventure of the soul.
  3. Memories of Murder
    What emerges is quite extraordinary.
  4. Elevator to the Gallows
    Superb.
  5. Hustle & Flow
    The performances are accomplished, but the real star of Hustle & Flow is Brewer, a playwright who has written and directed a few other movies but who is effectively making a breathtaking national debut here.
  6. Last Days
    Despite all of Van Sant's narrative feints and coy protestations, the audience is left with one searing memory after seeing Last Days, and that memory is of Cobain. Was he, as Gordon's character suggests at one point, simply a rock-and-roll cliche? Or was he a visionary genius, as the name of Pitt's character implies?
  7. Junebug
    Manages to be one of the genuinely fresh discoveries of the summer, a little gem that deserves to become a big sleeper hit.
  8. Red Eye
    Will keep you awake, jittery and perched on the edge of your seat for pretty much the entire flight.
  9. Keane
    May be too much suspense for some, but it's vividly powerful.
  10. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
    Gromit's every facial move -- every grimace, scowl, eye-roll and glance askance -- is sublime.
    • Washington Post
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ballets Russes
    An electrifying documentary.
  12. The Dying Gaul
    A small, self-contained gem of incisive writing, superb acting and rich, expressive visuals.
  13. Syriana
    What's so powerful about the film is the rich stories it tells and how it leads them like so many human tributaries to one black, bubbling source.
  14. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    Well told, handsome, stirring and loads of fun.
  15. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
    There are complications, extremely cleverly worked out. Jones is in just about every scene in this taut, provocative film.
  16. Caché (Hidden)
    Laurent's crime is really the crime of being European and conquering people of color. That understood, Cache is brilliant.
  17. Fateless
    Koltai is an accomplished, Oscar-nominated cinematographer (for 2000's "Malena"), and Fateless is meticulously composed and shot.
  18. Bubble
    Soderbergh and screenwriter Coleman Hough aren't interested in creating a coy whodunit so much as evoking the deeper, less romantic mysteries of people -- and it's riveting.
  19. A Good Woman
    All in all, A Good Woman retains ye olde Wilde's zing, his sense of pace and place, but most of all his snappy one-liners, and it finds a new way to showcase them brilliantly.
  20. Mountain Patrol
    Extraordinary on many levels...because Mountain Patrol instead becomes what might be the first Chinese conservationist spaghetti western ever made.
  21. Water
    Water, set in 1930s India, is something pretty rare in the world of movies: an artistic muckraker. It is superb and strange at once, a discreet and self-disciplined attack dog of a movie.
  22. Down in the Valley
    Down in the Valley is exactly what we don't have enough of: It's singular, unusual, unexpected, fresh and familiar at once.
  23. A Scanner Darkly
    Without its animation, A Scanner Darkly would have made a fine cautionary tale about drug addiction, paranoia and institutional treachery in a police state. But with a technique that turns the existing live action into a two-dimensional cartoon, the movie goes one -- maybe even 10 -- better. It becomes its own living, breathing metaphor.
  24. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
    It's a masterful little film, and, thanks to Zhang's seasoned hands, it's subtly heartfelt but never manipulative.
  25. Old Joy
    It feels so real it hurts, and it's the perfect antidote to all those movies where all sorts of stuff blows up.
  26. Little Children
    A hugely absorbing social drama that is, by turns, excruciating, sad and sardonic.
  27. Flushed Away
    Shot through with cheeky wit and hilarious musical numbers by the aforementioned slugs, Flushed Away features an eye-popping boat chase through London's watery nether regions, as well as the winning vocal talent of Kate Winslet, Bill Nighy and Ian McKellen, doing his best Sydney Greenstreet. Well done!
  28. Volver
    This all makes for a deeply entertaining experience that engages our hearts as well as our funny bones. And it's gratifying to see Cruz finally get her due.
  29. Happy Feet
    What's truly surprising about Happy Feet is not its giddily brilliant entertainment, its intimate knowledge of the culture or its toe-tapping music. It's how commonplace these qualities have become in computer-animated movies… Happy Feet may be just one of the crowd, but what a great crowd it is.
  30. Curse of the Golden Flower
    Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower is a kind of feast, an over-the-top, all-stops-pulled-out lollapalooza that means to play kitschy and grand at once.
  31. Mafioso [re-release]
    Mafioso may have been made in another era, but it stands as a classy, even radical rebuke to the film school posers who keep recycling the same tired gangster tropes.
  32. Breach
    The acting is superb, particularly from the three principals.
  33. Bridge to Terabithia
    The news is good for Bridge to Terabithia fans. The beloved children's book has not just survived but thrived in its adaptation to the screen.
  34. Blades of Glory
    To see seemingly reg'lar guys utterly stripped of dignity and defense is cruel enough, but crueler still is the laughter that you cannot seem to stop from rupturing your lungs and aorta.
  35. Rescue Dawn
    That such a masterful depiction of American heroism and can-do spirit has been created by a German art film director known for considerably darker visions of obsession is an irony Herzog no doubt finds delicious.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In the Shadow of the Moon
    Now, finally, we know what it was like to walk on the moon: unbelievably cool. Amazing. Fantastic. Scary.
  37. Michael Clayton
    This uncommonly intelligent thriller evokes the great films of the 1970s ("All the President's Men," "Klute," "Three Days of the Condor") that managed to elicit gritty urban realism while maintaining a suave sense of style and moral complexity.
  38. Lars and the Real Girl
    Gosling's performance is a small miracle, not only because he's so completely open as a man who's essentially shut off, but because he changes and grows so imperceptibly before our eyes.
  39. American Gangster
    It has the aspirations of an epic of crime and punishment, a superb feel for time and milieu, and an almost subliminal feel for myth.
  40. The Orphanage
    Lures us in with extraordinary subtlety. Keeping sound effects and incidental music to a relative minimum, it builds its suspense almost subliminally. So when something scary or shocking does occur -- deprived of those Hollywood-style cues -- we are truly startled.
  41. Chop Shop
    The director has created a not-to-miss gem for the discriminating viewer.
  42. Kung Fu Panda
    Infectious and inspiring, despite one's best efforts to resist its charms.
  43. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
    As he has done in all his movies, from creature features such as "Mimic" to serious dramas such as "Pan's Labyrinth," del Toro creates unforgettable images, filled with color, texture, lyricism and horror.
  44. Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan
    In the end, we're about a third of the way through the great Khan's life; he hasn't even begun to take down the cities of Cathay or spread his seed. That suggests two sequels. I, for one, can't wait.
  45. Boy A
    It's beautiful. I loved it. And it broke my heart.
  46. I've Loved You So Long
    Their characters' desire (Scott Thomas and Zylberstein) -- no, need -- to repair their fragile bond feels as achingly real as the mother lode of hidden pain that gets exposed by the work of these two great actresses.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Every Little Step
    A thoroughly engrossing documentary.
  48. Soul Power
    Explodes in a burst of energy, musical chops and an eerie political prescience that makes it feel like something beamed from some past-is-future time warp.
  49. Paris
    Paris is a funny, sad, romantic and deeply felt love letter to a great city. If you can't book a trip now, it's the next best thing.
  50. Trolösa
    What's best about Faithless is its honesty, its lack of desire to ingratiate itself with the audience.
  51. Cinema Paradiso
    There are films as lovely, but none lovelier.
  52. Jing Ke ci Qin Wang
    A stunner -- as big and messy as a war, as small and perfect as a diamond.
  53. Marooned in Iraq
    Mostly, though, it's a film about that hollow feeling that hits you when the tears have all dried up and your face hurts way too much to even crack a smile.
  54. Murderous Maids
    Troubling and powerful film, lingering on screen well into the final credits and in the minds of its audience long after the house lights have come on.
  55. Painted Fire
    It is quietly observant, with a detached eye for the telling moment, and the visual compositions are often exquisite.
  56. Open Hearts
    Dogme 95 at its best: open-ended and exciting, with a grand sense of experimentation.
  57. The Mystic Masseur
    Merchant's attention to Trinidadian culture, locales and general atmosphere is inescapably alluring.
  58. Liam
    It is through the genius of Frears, screenwriter Jimmy McGovern and this talented cast that Liam lets no one off the hook, least of all the audience.
  59. The Cat's Meow
    An elegant drama about power and its frightening uses, The Cat's Meow is the bee's knees.
  60. Tully
    Thanks to strong performances from all, particularly Mount and Nicholson, we're with this story all the way.
  61. The Wild Thornberrys Movie
    Outstanding entertainment for little ones but just as rewarding for their adult companions.
  62. The Cup
    A chalice of unpretentious delight, flowing over with goodwill, a cheeky love for soccer and, uh, Buddhist humor.
  63. Little Voice
    The trick of this movie is that it's so changeable: You think you've got it nailed and it slithers away to become some other new, fabulous thing.
  64. Pauline and Paulette
    In this good-natured film, even the smallest efforts at kindness yield positive results.
  65. Lovely & Amazing
    Holofcener is honest enough to present human foibles, not just as weaknesses but as unexpected sources of humor and strength.
  66. Under the Sand
    Charlotte Rampling takes you so far inside the pain of Marie Drillon it leaves you stirred, shaken and a little in awe.
  67. The Brothers McMullen
    One of the most enjoyable experiences of the year.
  68. Baran
    Majidi has discovered a wonderful cast of players to bring this gentle allegory to life, especially Naji as the irascible but generous Memar, who displays nearly perfect comic timing.
  69. Autumn Tale
    A movie that dares you to slow down and enjoy the subtleties of life.
  70. Heaven
    Unusual, unexpected and strangely refreshing. For this movie to have resorted to a familiar action-flick finish with everything explained, pressed and dry-cleaned would have rendered it banal.
  71. Himalaya
    The dance between authenticity and storymaking works beautifully.
  72. The Trials of Henry Kissinger
    Makes compelling, provocative and prescient viewing. You can draw your own conclusions.
  73. The Closet
    The French originals are always much breezier, the characters more genuine and the actors subtler even if the situations are just as silly.
  74. The Son's Room
    Surprisingly powerful and universal: the search for meaning and small blessings in the face of life's utter randomness.
  75. Secret Ballot
    As much as any earnest historical drama, Secret Ballot serves as an eloquent argument for civic life, showing its human elements to be no less flawed for being so necessary.
  76. The Tao of Steve
    Warmhearted, wonderfully witty.
  77. The Importance of Being Earnest
    The real importance of "Earnest" is the thrill of brilliant repartee. And as we laugh, an amazing thing happens: Oscar Wilde comes alive.
  78. Scotland, Pa.
    It's simple, sizzly and very funny.
  79. Naqoyqatsi
    Filmmaking at its purest and most visceral – a tale full of sound and visual fury, signifying, if not exactly nothing, then something not so readily articulated in words.
  80. Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
    What songs, what people and what a triumph that their music won in the end.
  81. The Blue Angel
    The Blue Angel it's clear to Von Sternberg, and to us, that he's connected with some pure being of cinema, whose power to ignite an audience was unstoppable. She became a great star.
  82. Quai des Orfèvres [re-release]
    It is in fact a traditional mystery more reminiscent of Agatha Christie than the reigning film noir aesthetic of 1947. But it's fabulously entertaining.
  83. Blind Spot. Hitler's Secretary
    Makes for fascinating cinema.
  84. The Mothman Prophecies
    One truly, madly, deeply satisfying creep-out.
  85. The House of Mirth
    Although the cast is uniformly strong, the real revelation here is "The X-Files' " Anderson, who plays Lily with subtle gradations of emotional depth unexpected from someone who has made a career out of deadpan.
  86. Chunhyangdyun
    A three-ring circus of visual pleasure, showing us the beauty of Korean garment, custom and national character.
  87. Spring Forward
    You realize this is a story about the life beyond this movie, about the great changes in life we never give ourselves time to consider. And for a moviegoing experience, that's a lot of bang for your buck.
  88. Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
    A gift for those already in the fold, for those who get the joke and just want to savor it with other like-minded fans.
  89. Late Marriage
    A canny (and profoundly sexy) movie.
  90. Stuart Little 2
    A wonderful thing to snuggle into, as full of heart and pep and innocence as the title character himself.
  91. Amores Perros
    Anguish ranges from gritty and realistic to the tragicomic soap opera found in Pedro Almodovar's films.
  92. Francis Ford Coppola Presents: The Legend of Suriyothai
    Huge, sprawling, and utterly absorbing.
  93. L.I.E.
    Gripping, troubling and deftly acted.
  94. Merci Pour Le Chocolat
    Every moment of the way, there is a delectable sense of subtle menace and, at the center of it all, Huppert's haunting expression, part sphinx, part grace and maybe part scary.
  95. The Hurricane
    Brilliantly played by Denzel Washington
  96. Affliction
    Never has an actor embodied the passing down of violence and bitterness from father to son more powerfully.
  97. Waking Ned Devine
    The plot is far from intricate, but Waking Ned Devine more than makes up for its narrative simplicity with a uniformly engaging cast of Hibernian oddballs.
  98. The Circle
    A memorable and devastating indictment of the oppression facing many women in Iran.
  99. The Endurance
    The nail-biting quality of Shackleton's true story outdoes any dramatic fiction on the market.
  100. Felicia's Journey
    So elegantly layered and emotionally restrained, it makes the horror at its center all the more disturbing.
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