Washington Post's Scores

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For 11,479 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: 6,015 out of 11479
  2. Mixed: 3,069 out of 11479
  3. Negative: 2,395 out of 11479
11479 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.
  101. Last Orders
    The movie's pace is unhurried by Hollywood standards, but it's all the richer in character detail.
  102. Rabbit-Proof Fence
    Searing dramatization of a story of remarkable courage, stamina and spirit.
  103. Shine
    The movie does what any great musician should: It lifts an idea to the heights of ecstasy; it sells its song.
  104. Hoosiers
    Yet much of the movie's validity stems from time and place recreated with such authenticity that you can sense the wet chill in the morning air and the new wax pungent on the old gym floor. [27 Feb 1987, Weekend, p.n29]
  105. The Deep End
    The real story lies beneath the surface of this superbly acted, strangely moving film.
  106. The Heart of Me
    Old-fashioned moviemaking at its best.
  107. The Crying Game
    An intriguing yarn.
  108. Apollo 13
    Apollo 13 is humanized by Hanks's reassuring portrait in courage, by Harris's nicotine-stained fingers and Quinlan's lacquered French twist.
  109. The Last Days of Disco
    The director isn't much on orgies; he's all talk. But that's good, not bad, because his talk is so brilliant. Stillman is the Balzac of the ironic class, the Dickens of people with too much inner life.
  110. Out of Sight
    Jack is just one of a dozen enormously appealing personalities in Out of Sight.
  111. Shanghai Noon
    Childishly simple, but extremely funny.
  112. The Secret Lives of Dentists
    Small, quiet movie that imperceptibly takes its viewers by their throats and doesn't let go
  113. When Harry Met Sally...
    It's a movie that walks on air.
  114. Menace II Society
    Though brilliant, Menace II Society is definitely a film to guard yourself against. There's not a trace of softness or sentimentality. At times, the picture takes on the scary you-are-there verisimilitude of a tabloid-TV show.
    • Washington Post
  115. The Fugitive
    Pure energy, a perfect orchestration of heroism, villainy, suspense and comic relief.
  116. Smoke Signals
    And that's the surprise of the movie, beyond even the humor and humanity of its inside look at contemporary American Indian culture. It's really the oldest and most primal story forms, the one about the old man and the boy.
  117. The Man Without a Past
    Everything has a Chaplinesque feeling, from the largely silent scenes to the highly visual, tragicomic situations...But The Man Without a Past is entirely free of the tramp's cloying sentimentality.
  118. The Joy Luck Club
    Never has political correctness looked so sumptuously handsome as it does here, and in its perfect-pitch instinct for the cultural vibe, this sweeping movie is so immaculately dead-on that it nearly transcends criticism.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Panic
    Anyone interested in serious film should absolutely not miss it.
  120. Swimming Pool
    The tension is never crushing, as it would be in an American job. Instead, it grows by increments, until you realize the movie, in its quiet way, has you snared entirely.
  121. Heist
    Mamet doesn't just give us an enthralling heist flick, he makes the language something to savor. You're biting your nails with your ears peeled.
  122. Daughter from Danang
    Maybe Thomas Wolfe was right: You can't go home again
  123. The Man Who Wasn't There
    When you're in the hands of the Coen brothers, you're in for sheer originality.
  124. About a Boy
    Hilarious, touching and wonderfully dyspeptic.
  125. The Emperor's New Groove
    A hip, hilarious new animated feature.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    My Architect
    This is a bittersweet story, no question. But to the son's great credit, what emerges from his patient investigation is a remarkably rich, even sympathetic, portrait of the father.
  127. One Hour Photo
    It begins by scaring you to death by evoking a monster, and by the end it has seduced you into caring for him.
  128. The Rookie
    So unassuming and pure of heart, you can't help but warmly extend your arms and yell "Safe!"
  129. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
    The movie's big action scenes, at times, make you forget you're even watching animation. There's an in-your-face sequence involving a runaway, crashing train that will make you squirm in your seat trying to get out of the way.
  130. The Emperor's Club
    This isn't a stand up and cheer flick; it's a sit down and ponder affair. And thanks to Kline's superbly nuanced performance, that pondering is highly pleasurable.
  131. Traffic
    Sinfully watchable ensemble movie.
  132. L'Auberge Espagnole
    It's an exhilarating, funny, very sweet movie.
  133. The Missing
    Has Blanchett and Jones to its credit. To watch them is to take in two of the screen's greatest natural wonders.
  134. Grosse Pointe Blank
    A hilarious new addition to the wonderfully warped Generation X-Files.
  135. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
    Each revelation seems more disturbing than the next. But Chinese treatment of Tibetans is only half the heartbreak. The other is the amazing resilience of the Tibetans, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist.
  136. Bull Durham
    It eases up on you, lazy as a cloud, and carries you off in a mood of exquisite delight. To borrow W.P. Kinsella's phrase, it has the thrill of the grass.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A Hard Day's Night
    Still a marvel of verve and bone-dry wit, the movie has been treated kindly by time.
    • Washington Post
  138. Tarzan
    This Tarzan doesn't bellow, he kvetches; he doesn't dominate, he persuades; he doesn't rule, he seeks consensus. He isn't the king of the apes, he's a citizen of the animal planet.
  139. In the Company of Men
    This is a fully realized movie, whose intelligence -- despite its grim findings -- dwarfs any Hollywood production.
  140. The Weather Underground
    One of the most thought-provoking documentaries of recent times.
  141. Jerry Maguire
    Joyous redemptive romantic comedy.
  142. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
    More juvenile than a Mel Brooks movie, wittier than "Get Smart," almost as low as "Animal House" and close to the laugh count of "Airplane!", "Gun" is a loving parody of every cop show that ever syndicated its way to your living room. [2 Dec 1988]
    • Washington Post
  143. Our Lady of the Assassins
    It's sad, funny, shocking and completely unlike any movie in a dozen years.
  144. Enigma
    With a cast of actors playing some of England's smartest people and with a crackling script by Stoppard -- no slouch in the brains department -- it pays to stay awake.
  145. The Professional
    Oldman is the least inhibited actor of his generation, and as this deranged detective, he keeps absolutely nothing in reserve.
  146. Get Shorty
    Barry Sonnenfeld's irresistibly charming lampoon of Hollywood.
  147. Kandahar
    Though it might lack in Hollywood production values, it overflows with moral impact.
  148. Beetlejuice
    Not since "Ghostbusters" have the spirits been so uplifting. [30 Mar 1988]
  149. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (re-released)
    A glorious romantic confection unlike any other in movie history.
  150. Groundhog Day
    For once, the audience isn't forced to surrender its intelligence (or its healthy cynicism) to embrace the film's sunny resolution.
  151. Stir of Echoes
    There's visceral horror, too, including a grisly image -- a horror-in-miniature involving a fingernail -- that located an open nerve in my jaded ability to endure screen violence.
  152. Babe
    A hilarious fantasy, about a plucky piglet that learns how to tend sheep, Babe is a barnyard charmer.
  153. The Fisher King
    A modern epic that fuses myth with hard-edged reality, it's a one-of-a-kind, thoroughly engaging experience.
  154. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
    McNamara fits perfectly into Morris's canon: He tells a story that knocks you right off your feet.
  155. Bukowski: Born into This
    About as good a picture of a writer's real life as we are likely to get. It is wide-ranging, it is fair, it is thorough, and although it admires, it is also tough enough to condemn.
  156. The Piano Teacher
    A disconcertingly assured tango between tenderness and brutality.
  157. Dirty Pretty Things
    One of the year's best films.
  158. Teacher's Pet
    It's part sugar, part spice (cayenne, not nutmeg) and all-around brilliant.
  159. The Quiet American
    Thanks to Caine's subtly nuanced performance, there's a deeper dimension to everything. He's snappily ironic at times, sometimes amazingly delicate, always engaging.
  160. The Grifters
    If Frears and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake (who scripted "The Stepfather") are light on substance, they're satisfyingly heavy on nuance. Grifters may not blow you away afterward but it keeps your attention riveted during.
  161. sex, lies, and videotape
    What "The Big Chill" was to baby boomers, the inspirational sex, lies, and videotape is to the mall crowd. It's designer soul-searching, a looking glass for a generation.
  162. Igby Goes Down
    A dead-on sense of how rich kids live and talk today, a sense of the melancholy of a dysfunctional family, and some great dark laughs.
  163. Osama
    Although it's a drama, Osama feels like urgent documentary.
  164. To Die For
    Brilliantly written by Buck Henry, "To Die For" works on several levels. As a satire on the American obsession with celebrity and fame, the movie is nuanced and haunting. And for the most part, Van Sant keeps the tone chillingly light and ironic.
  165. Kissing Jessica Stein
    It's funny and human and really pretty damned wonderful, all at once.
    • Washington Post
  166. A Mighty Wind
    There's an extra dimension here, not present in the other comedies. Not only is the material amusing, it's charmingly engaging.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dogtown and Z-Boys
    Using home movies, photos, a brilliant soundtrack and candid, articulate interviews, director Stacy Peralta (one of the original Z-boys) details the birth of a pop culture phenomenon.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Winged Migration
    Mysteries still surround many aspects of bird migration. This film unravels exactly none of them. Rather, in some of the most remarkable footage you'll ever see, the film lets you look over the shoulders of migrating birds.
  169. Intact
    Mesmerizing art-noirish thriller.
  170. Adorenarin doraibu
    Delightful, delicious, de-lovely.
  171. Happiness
    Part of this success is due to the exquisitely cast ensemble-composed of actors, not movie stars. To a man, woman and child, the unforced performers are spot-on.
  172. Air Force One
    Ford makes such a dynamic president in Air Force One, you may find yourself favorably weighing his odds in Iowa and New Hampshire.
  173. Dark City
    Obliged to go from lost soul to demigod, Sewell's performance is as fascinating as Proyas's mystical vision.
  174. X2: X-Men United
    The fantastic and at times deliciously nihilistic world of X2 is fully, believably three-dimensional.
  175. Austin Powers in Goldmember
    Mike Myers unleashes (or seems to unleash) the entire contents of his comic mind.
  176. Joe Gould's Secret
    A brainy, superbly acted buddy movie.
  177. Shattered Glass
    The interplay between Glass and Lane is riveting and rigorous.
  178. Blood Simple
    I love the unsettling details.
  179. Songcatcher
    It's a highly professional project complete with exquisite production details and superb actors, yet its subject matter is so far out of the mainstream, it feels almost radical.
  180. Sweet and Lowdown
    A quirky, tender, splendidly acted fable.
  181. Crimson Gold
    An extraordinary film in many ways, the least of which is its unorthodox casting.
  182. Harry Is Here to Help
    A deliciously mordant French spine-tingler.
  183. Spartan
    Until its final stumble, this intelligence thriller, starring Val Kilmer, is charged with brilliance.
  184. Man on the Train
    What a good movie. Sometimes you get tired of 'splaining and you just want to say: Hey, this one's really very good. That's all, folks. It's a damn good movie.
  185. The Widow of Saint-Pierre
    It's a kind of 18th-century "Dead Man Walking" but with that earlier film's foreground arguments against capital punishment pushed to the background here.
  186. 8 Women
    Really, really good -- Yes, it's over the top, giddy and parodistic (God bless it). But it also takes a thoughtful, if surreptitious, look at what eight women might act like when men aren't around.
  187. Lantana
    Perceptive, powerfully acted psychodrama.
  188. Seabiscuit
    Yes, it's that cheesy, but it's also surprisingly appealing. After all, the horse Seabiscuit really WAS that phenomenal.
  189. Concert for George
    It offers a special "something" for everyone who ever appreciated the Quiet Beatle's musical gifts and spiritual explorations.
  190. Heat
    As with his other works, [Mann] binds sound, music and pictures into one hypnotic triaxial cable and plugs it right into your brain. He makes this almost-three-hour experience practically glide by.
  191. The Insider
    A well-orchestrated nightmare that keeps you on edge until the very end.
  192. In This World
    Although fictionalized, it feels depressingly real. It's a 90-minute newsreel with a broken heart.
  193. Raising Victor Vargas
    Succeeds where 100 studio-generated teen romances -- starring the bland, the blunt or the blow-dried -- have failed.
  194. Spellbound
    Just might be the most action-packed suspense thriller of the summer.
  195. The Manchurian Candidate
    An exceedingly loopy satire of the entire American political circus, and could be viewed as offensive to the sensitive-souled in either camp. And time hasn't in the least softened its bite. [Re-release]
  196. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
    Brings kinetic, stylistic and even sexy dimension to the Bram Stoker legend.
  197. The Story of the Weeping Camel
    The movie, a lyrical blend of documentary and fiction filmmaking techniques, offers a bold example of the rewards of crossing boundaries -- stylistic, cultural, temporal and even commercial.
  198. Joy Ride
    Climb into this rig and you'll be sweating bullets.
  199. The Virgin Suicides
    Bewitching.
  200. The Princess Bride
    As a good fairy tale should, The Princess Bride teaches but never preaches. It's a lively, fun-loving, but nevertheless epic look at the nature of true love.
  201. Shadow Magic
    Sumptuous, warm, continually amazing, it's a completely enjoyable couple of hours at the flickers.
  202. Bright Leaves
    A brilliantly amusing couple of hours.
  203. The Station Agent
    The best advice to filmgoers who appreciate smart, mature, humanist movies is, simply, Go.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Calle 54
    This is one fan's valentine to the music he loves. It just happens that the fan is a terrific filmmaker and the music loves him back -- and we get to see it and hear it all. What a treat.
  205. Me Without You
    Friendship matters to those of us who still claim membership in the human race, and Goldbacher's merciless autopsy on it is both illuminating and dispiriting.
  206. Quills
    Profane, sacrilegious, pornographic, sadistic and Sade-istic, titillating and the most honorable movie of the year.
  207. The Magdalene Sisters
    Mullan's movie is admiringly uncompromising. He refuses to augment the horrors with relief.
  208. Go
    The latest furiously paced, perversely entertaining "Pulp Fiction" for puppies.
  209. Road Trip
    I'm talking cheap visual gags, painfully embarrassing moments and other sophomoric humor guaranteed to get you and your friends almost vomiting with laughter.
  210. Auto Focus
    In this admirably unconventional film, director Paul Schrader is interested in just about everything BUT traditional biopic business.
  211. Army of Darkness
    Raimi offers all the fantasy, camp and hardcore horror you devoured in the comics. You can feel the pen-and-ink drawings coming to life. Dipping wittily into myth, the macabre and the modern, it's an effervescent adventure that's as amusing as it is genuinely gripping. [19 Feb 1993, Weekend, p.n38]
    • Washington Post
  212. Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
    For students of cool ... Le Cercle Rouge is required viewing.
  213. Shakespeare in Love
    The movie becomes something quite rare and magical: a text about a text that is also full of life. In other words, it's a true first: It's both postmodern and fun!
  214. American Splendor
    The genius of the film is its utter commitment to the Pekar point of view.
  215. Two Girls and a Guy
    You'll likely come away from this astonishing encounter between the three corners of a lovers' triangle not just amused but enlightened about such not-so-simple issues as fidelity, betrayal, lust, possessiveness, honesty and forgiveness.
  216. The Winslow Boy
    Mamet's graceful, reverent movie adaptation moves along with a deliberating, almost hypnotic flow, strengthened by impeccable, dignified performances from Nigel Hawthorne, Rebecca Pidgeon and others.
  217. Nine Queens
    When you think you've figured out Bielinsky's great game, that's when you're in the most trouble: He's the con, and you're just the mark.
  218. A Fish Called Wanda
    It's a deliciously dishy comedy, but like sushi an acquired taste.
  219. Wattstax (re-released)
    A candid, colorful and deeply meaningful sociocultural time capsule, one that captured the black community at the height of its political energy and optimism.
  220. The Good Thief
    Nolte is not only made for the role, he's also rehearsed it in real life.
  221. Monster
    Theron has rendered herself 100 percent unrecognizable. Not since Robert De Niro morphed into hulk dimensions to play heavyweight boxer Jake La Motta in "Raging Bull" has there been a transformation this powerful and effective.
  222. The Shawshank Redemption
    Remarkable.
  223. Far From Heaven
    Three sterling performances from Moore, Haysbert and Quaid, all of whom grapple with psychic pain in different, touching ways.
  224. Moulin Rouge!
    It's a wonderful postmodern hug of a movie, and never once do you not know you're watching a movie.
  225. Sunshine State
    The scenes unfold with such unhurried delicacy, and the characters are so intriguing, you can ignore the editorial bluntness and savor the smaller, sweeter details.
  226. Divided We Fall
    Profound, powerful Czech import takes a tragicomic approach to the Holocaust, though unlike Benigni's film, the movie does not sentimentalize those caught up in the Nazi dragnet.
  227. Morvern Callar
    As Morvern, Morton is disconcertingly enigmatic, often bordering on catatonic. But she carries the movie effortlessly. And even though we're on the outside looking in, she carries us along, too.
  228. Since Otar Left
    A small film of surpassing beauty and sadness. Yet its bittersweet flavor isn't artificial, but rather the product of the slow ripening of character.
  229. Burn! (re-release)
    I don't think "Queimada" is as great a movie as "Battle of Algiers," but it retains its vitality, its outrage, its savagery and its spirit.
  230. La grande strada azzurra
    Passionate, literally shimmering movie.
  231. Central Station
    Profoundly affecting.
  232. Lilo & Stitch
    The animation, rendered in good old-fashioned watercolors, is appealing. It's easy, rather than flashy, on the eyes. But the best thing about the movie is the humor.
  233. Say Anything...
    It's hard to remember a recent love story -- maybe "Moonstruck" -- that's as involving as this one. This is not to suggest that the two movies are in the same league, but this is a teen movie that transcends its teen limitations.
  234. Aberdeen
    It is difficult to watch, but it's also impossible to take your eyes off the screen. It does not blench at the things that Hollywood routinely blenches at: substance abuse, dying, family dysfunction, love.
  235. Black Hawk Down
    The next worst thing to being there. That's how real it feels.
  236. Read My Lips
    Fascinating and transgressive love story.
  237. The Good Girl
    Aniston delivers an utterly un-Rachel-like performance. It's neurosis-free and unmannered, by turns funny, sad and profound.
  238. Dead Man Walking
    What this intelligent, balanced, devastating movie puts before us is nothing less than a contest between good and evil.
  239. Gosford Park
    Without hesitation, I hand the comic award to Smith. She plays a pinched guest known as Constance, Countess of Trentham, to such a hilarious tee, her tee runneth over.
  240. Iris
    Not just a fitting document of a life brilliantly lived but a vibrant, almost palpitating piece of cinema.
  241. Topsy-Turvy
    A 160 minute work of sustained brilliance and delicacy.
  242. Cruel Intentions
    A witty, raunchy comedy, which proves that a well-written piece of business – oozing with sex, wit and nasty intrigue – works for any generation.
  243. Vanity Fair
    Witherspoon's simply terrific, and it's amazing how quickly and easily she sheds speculation that she was too modern for the role.
  244. The Return
    It's not the sort of film one can be said to enjoy, but it is the sort of film that has the clarity of a dream and lingers for hours.
  245. To Be and to Have
    Amounts to a rare gift and an opportunity to appreciate the end of an era and celebrate one of the screen's most subtly etched heroes: the soft-spoken Monsieur Georges Lopez.
  246. Flirting with Disaster
    Writer-director David O. Russell's exhilarating follow-up to "Spanking the Monkey," is even wilder, giddier and more unpredictable than that irreverent debut.
  247. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
    It's a new new thing, classic myth from both literature and the movies, commingled, set to great folk music, and untrammeled by any sense of predictability, urgency, realism or believability but hypnotic, graceful and seductive.
  248. Sense and Sensibility
    This rapturous romance is not only laugh-out-loud funny but demonstrates how little humankind has evolved in matters of the heart.
  249. America's Heart and Soul
    Harbors some indelibly arresting images and characters whose stories, even at their most superficial, manage to be authentically inspiring.
  250. The Battle of Algiers
    The greatness of The Battle of Algiers lies in its ability to embrace moral ambiguity without succumbing to it.
  251. Monsoon Wedding
    Exploding on the screen in a riot of movement, music and color.
  252. Boys Don't Cry
    The longest, hardest sit of the season -- you are stuck there, a single tube of puckered muscle, waiting for the extremely ugly violence to occur -- but it is driven by performances of such luminous humanity that they break your heart.
  253. Fargo
    The brothers, who have always seemed fond of their characters, have never taken quite so overt a stand for life's simple joys.
  254. Spy Game
    The movie is sleek and shiny as a new bullet, reflecting Scott's patented surplus of style.
  255. House of Sand and Fog
    The movie's intense watchability can be traced directly to superb performances by Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley.
  256. Spider
    His story is sad, compelling and morbidly, tragically watchable.
  257. Shall We Dance?
    But the movie has a great deal of zest and charm, and Yakusho gets so exactly that crest of melancholy that is a man’s early 40s, until he decides to go for another kind of life, that the movie is infinitely touching.
  258. Roger Dodger
    Takes both its characters and the audience to the depths, but it's a journey Kidd redeems with wit and fluency and, ultimately, a deeply persistent humanism.
  259. Sunshine
    It's a brilliant, profound movie, but it's almost no fun at all.
  260. Tears of the Sun
    The film is a strictly no-bull proposition.
  261. All the Real Girls
    The movie may take five extra minutes to end and could do with one less sunset but . . . other than that it's damned near perfect.
  262. Festival Express
    A delirious piece of pop ephemera.
  263. Ten
    Shows us, in an extraordinarily simple way, the hopes and frustrations of one woman's life.
  264. American Beauty
    Hilarious, painful and brutally frank.
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