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. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
    As usual, it's the colorful and loquacious Joker who is most riveting. Shirley Walker's orchestral score is also quite powerful.
  2. In the Valley of Elah
    Haggis also appears to have no respect for his audience. At its crudest, the film settles for agitprop...it's no Hollywood guy's call, particularly as he's extrapolating from a single case that could have occurred anywhere, at any time.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Debt
    A more daring script might have found ways to tell the stories in parallel, doling out just enough information to keep viewers involved. But, as it is, The Debt grasps the viewer pretty firmly, delivering thrills without trivializing the moral quandaries that set it in motion.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Providence Effect
    Though it drags on a bit, the film is certainly good-hearted, informative and relevant. We look through the doors of the St. Mel's classrooms and we see the whirrings of a school that can help a smart West Side kid land a spot at MIT. That, at least, is something to celebrate.
  5. Fishing Without Nets
    Details count in this movie, whether it’s well-executed camera work or the affecting score.
  6. My Best Friend
    Leconte is always a deliriously clever director; his "Ridicule" and his "The Girl on the Bridge" stand out as vivid films on subjects no one in America would even consider. Possibly he's trying too hard here to be liked, just like Francois. But as long as he's merciless, he's great fun.
  7. The Client
    Unfortunately, the film rarely slows long enough for the actors to do anything more than sketch in their characters. On the other hand, the showdowns between Sarandon and Jones are choice; it's a meeting of charismatic equals.
  8. Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
    A flat-out hilarious celebration of B-moviemaking mastery. [19 Apr 1996, p.G06]
    • Washington Post
  9. Mr. Malcolm's List
    This is a movie that will inevitably be compared to other, better movies (oh, and “Bridgerton” — expect to see a lot of “Bridgerton” comparisons). Still, it’s like a knockoff handbag: It looks real enough, until you start examining internal zippers. Yes, it does the job almost as well as the original. It’s just missing a few details that could have made it a classic.
  10. The Good Lie
    In a bait-and-switch worthy of its title, The Good Lie may lure in viewers eager to see a Reese Witherspoon movie, but they’ll fall in love with something else entirely.
  11. Gay Sex in the 70s
    An engrossing piece of social history, a lively, astonishingly well-documented excavation of that period.
  12. The Fox and the Hound
    Like a faked antique that copies the physical characteristics of the original but misses the spirit, the new animated Disney film, The Fox and the Hound, looks like Bambi and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but exudes phony innocence. [10 July 1981, p.17]
    • Washington Post
  13. The Great Debaters
    It's a great family movie, if not historically perfect, and something that a lot of people are going to like.
  14. The Bay
    A ripped-from-the-headlines psychological chiller that burrows under the skin with its terrifyingly local twist.
  15. The Other Side of the Street
    More love story than thriller, with the mystery providing only slack tension and the December-December romance that ultimately develops between Regina and Camargo crackling with drama and sexual tension aplenty.
  16. Polina
    As Polina, Shevstova delivers a performance that feels wonderfully unforced, if that’s the right word, in a role that can only be called “driven.” There’s almost an emptiness about her character. Polina’s expression of self is all on the surface — at least initially.
  17. Pinocchio
    Fairy tales have always held the threat of darkness as punishment for misbehavior, and this Pinocchio is no exception.
  18. Puss in Boots
    For a kids' movie, the humor, at times, strays a bit too far into grown-up territory.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Beauty and the Dogs
    By the end, the outcome is still unclear, leaving viewers hanging. Such ambiguity might work for pure fiction, but given that there’s a real-life incident behind the story, the lack of closure is unsatisfying.
  20. Being Julia
    May lack originality but makes up for it in sheer bravado and really nice clothes
  21. American Made
    Liman knows how to keep the convoluted, almost impossibly far-fetched story on the rails, without losing our attention, and he adds many details that will bring a smile.
  22. The Boy and the Beast
    It is the world of man, not beast, that makes this coming-of-age movie most touching.
  23. Not Fade Away
    In writer-director David Chase's heartfelt delivery, this same old tune somehow comes out sounding fresh.
  24. Hearts Beat Loud
    Its smallness is its strength — as is its silence. That’s the odd and evocative resonance of Hearts Beat Loud. For a movie that is so rock-and-roll, it turns out to be less about making noise than about listening to the message that can only be heard in the stillness that comes after the song.
  25. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
    It’s only upon reflection that viewers may realize that, despite its nominal title character, the movie never delves that deeply into who Gloria Grahame was, aside from a femme fatale slinking across a black-and-white screen.
  26. The End of the Affair
    Fails to capture the spiritual hallelujah of the novel.
  27. La Femme Nikita
    Parillaud is expressive but rather mundane. She's best at playing sullen, but there are so many French actresses who specialize in this particular talent -- the French have mastered the apathetic pout -- that she seems generic.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    ¡Viva Maestro!
    Gustavo Dudamel’s transfixing talent is obvious throughout the documentary ¡Viva Maestro!, a compelling but incomplete look at the prodigious Venezuelan conductor.
  29. Jindabyne
    Sometimes, the sincerest form of tribute is inferiority. Watching the Australian film Jindabyne, one soon embraces the conclusion: Robert Altman did this work better. And with fewer brush strokes.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Compromising Positions
    It's particularly disappointing because Perry -- a talented director whose credits include "David and Lisa," "Diary of a Mad Housewife," "Rancho Deluxe" and "Mommie Dearest" -- has assembled a fine cast whose considerable talents go to waste, smothered by the plodding script and stale social commentary. It's also disappointing because the film opens with such promise: several wonderful scenes, some genuine laughs, snappy dialogue. Then the Novocain sets in. [3 Sept 1985, p.B11]
    • Washington Post
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