Amy Taubin

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Village Voice
For 166 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 56% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 4.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Amy Taubin's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Sobibór, 14 Octobre 1943, 16 heures
Lowest review score: 10 The Caveman's Valentine
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 83 out of 166
  2. Mixed: 49 out of 166
  3. Negative: 34 out of 166
166 movie reviews
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    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Amy Taubin
    SLC Punk!
    Merendino's most innovative directorial strategy is to collapse present and past by having Lillard shout Stevo's reflections about his youthful rebellion directly at the camera, while the scene he's describing in the past tense takes place behind him. I know it sounds like a Brechtian affectation, but it works.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Amy Taubin
    Liam
    Acting is the strongest element in Stephen Frears's Liam.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Amy Taubin
    Runaway Bride
    Runaway Bride isn't as offensive as most studio romantic comedies—just pointless and dull.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Amy Taubin
    All the Rage
    More commendable as social protest than as filmmaking.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Taubin
    Human Traffic
    Sweet, ribald, and even inspired in an off-the-cuff way.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Amy Taubin
    La nouvelle Ève
    Takes its shape from (Viard's) performance, which is as big as life.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Amy Taubin
    Session 9
    The script for Session 9 is so underwritten that even such lively character actors as David Caruso, Peter Mullan, and Brendan Sexton III are left stranded.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 80 Amy Taubin
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
    Crouching Tiger's dramatic line is so blurry that the central character is only a bystander to the climactic fight between forces of good and evil.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Amy Taubin
    You Can Count on Me
    Seems like a TV movie. A well-written, sympathetically acted TV movie, to be sure, but so timid and clumsy in its deployment of picture, sound, and editing that you have to wonder if executive producer Martin Scorsese bothered to give notes.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 Amy Taubin
    Brokedown Palace
    Part cautionary tale, part moral-uplift saga, Brokedown Palace is as dull as it's absurd.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 80 Amy Taubin
    Romance
    A dark and unsparing study of female masochism and a brittle sex comedy of manners, Romance is unsettled in tone, to say the least.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Taubin
    Quadrophenia (re-release)
    It remains one of the most wrenching films about adolescent angst, thanks largely to the performance of Phil Daniels.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Taubin
    Ratcatcher
    The most audacious debut feature of the year.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Amy Taubin
    The General
    The General is a refined, traditional movie about a character who is never more traditional than when he imagines himself outside the law. It’s a great paradox, but it barely comes alive on the screen.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 20 Amy Taubin
    Father of the Bride
    Martin's grin-and-don't-bare-it performance lifts the picture above sitcom level. [31 Dec 1991]
    • Village Voice
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Amy Taubin
    The Anniversary Party
    The film's greatest failure, however, is the absence of any convincing emotional or sexual relationship between Sally (Leigh) and Joe (Cumming).
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Taubin
    Madadayo
    Unabashedly personal and uncool...but between you and me, dear reader, I love it to death.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 40 Amy Taubin
    Shakespeare in Love
    It soon becomes evident just how inane a film this is.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Taubin
    Jump Tomorrow
    The relationship between the hysterical Gerard and the careful, compulsive George is classic screwball material and more compelling than the relationship between George and Alicia.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Amy Taubin
    Benjamin Smoke
    As ethereal, moving, and uncompromising as its subject.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Amy Taubin
    O
    Had Nelson and Kaaya been less concerned with following Othello to the letter and rather had pursued this love affair into uncharted cinematic waters, O might have been more than an unresolved mixture of gimmickry and good intentions.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 Amy Taubin
    The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
    Although there's no evidence of sexual chemistry on the screen, the stars share a certain physical defensiveness that occasionally makes them seem simpatico; most of the time, however, they just look bored to death.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Amy Taubin
    Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
    Schneebaum is a great subject; the film doesn't quite make the most of him.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Taubin
    A Trial in Prague
    Justman's A Trial in Prague acts as something of a corrective to the exuberant but oversimplified "Fighter."
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Amy Taubin
    Beautiful People
    It seems like a more witty, wise, and succinct "Magnolia."
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Amy Taubin
    Boiler Room
    Takes us inside the consciousness and the coded masculine world of a single character.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Taubin
    Titanic Town
    Isn't convincing on every front, but as a political conversation piece, it's potentially effective.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 30 Amy Taubin
    Breakfast of Champions
    Begins on a note of total migraine-inducing hysteria, which continues unabated throughout.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 90 Amy Taubin
    Ran
    A magisterial film, but not quite a great one.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Taubin
    Father of the Bride Part II
    Martin's performance is as impeccable as the set decoration, though one wishes he'd stop wasting his skill. Keaton flaunts her matronly hips, daring us to remember Annie Hall, but despite a jawline that's tighter than it was a decade ago in Baby Boom, she looks past the age of conception (no cosmetic surgery for wombs). [19 Dec 1995]
    • Village Voice
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