Richard Whittaker

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Austin Chronicle
For 248 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Richard Whittaker's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Akira
Lowest review score: 0 Old
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 178 out of 248
  2. Mixed: 59 out of 248
  3. Negative: 11 out of 248
248 movie reviews
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    The Black Phone
    It's the period details that really make The Black Phone ring. It's not the set dressing, or the costumes, or the hairstyles (although Jeremy Davies does sport a fantastic muttonchops-mullet merger as Gwen and Finney's alcoholic, abusive father). It's that grimy sense of the era, that way that kids felt left to their own devices. This is an Amblin adventure drenched in R-rated fear.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Wild Men
    There's never a singular direction for the film and its sub-plots, but instead it's as if Daneskov strikes for a central mood, then lets each element wander a little away from it: not far enough to be disruptive, but never quite cohesive. Like the misguided men it follows, its charm is in its disorder.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Mid-Century
    Mid-Century may fit well into the zip code of architectural horror like 13 Ghosts and The Night House, but its unique design makes it well worth the visit.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Brian and Charles
    In its funny, implausible, and heartwarming depiction of a ramshackle platonic friendship between two oddballs, Brian and Charles creates a complete and immersive world – rainier than, but not that far removed from, Kyle Mooney's equally idiosyncratic and endearing fantasy Brigsby Bear.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Cha Cha Real Smooth
    If Raiff's first film was about two neurotic characters learning to get out of their own heads, then Cha Cha Real Smooth is a tenderly bittersweet story about a couple learning to use theirs.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Richard Whittaker
    Frank and Penelope
    Somehow, there’s more than a little bit of fun to be had in this oddball little throwback, filled with mischievous glee and a sullied heart of gold.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story
    Deep in the Heart is a reminder to everyone, whether they're raising cattle, walking through a state park, or just turning on a tap, that their actions have consequences for the state's beautiful biodiversity. It's an extraordinary document of the Lone Star State’s wildlife, and a remarkable call to action.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    We Are the Thousand
    It's a film that inspires, that will make you want to try the silly, impossible, wonderful thing.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Watcher
    Coldly gorgeous and never less than enthralling, Watcher is undoubtedly worth watching.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Richard Whittaker
    Dashcam
    Annie is a lot to handle, even for the truncated 77-minute run time, and maybe it would work better as a V/H/S 20-minute slot – but then you wouldn't get quite so amazingly infuriated by her. Dashcam, like few films, relies on your annoyance.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Crimes of the Future
    Crimes may lack the incisive wittiness of eXistenZ or the suppurating nightmares of The Fly, but even lesser Cronenbergian body horror is something to behold.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Richard Whittaker
    Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
    Just because you can shove a bunch of IPs together, should you? Especially when the motivation is a 90-minute joke about beloved TV series, with a lot of cheese-as-cocaine gags. Who is it for? People who still laugh at uncanny valley jokes. For those that don't, no reason to worry, because most of the references will be explained to you.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Lux Æterna
    Lux Æterna is barely a film – even Noé has called it an essay – but then it's not meant to be complete. Created in five days on Yves Saint Laurent's franc (one has to wonder what they thought they were getting), it's a discussion, not a conclusion.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 20 Richard Whittaker
    Firestarter
    Nothing here really works. Even a surprisingly flat score from horror master John Carpenter (who was originally slated to direct the '84 version) can't save Firestarter from being a colossal misfire.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Oasis Knebworth 1996
    Scott subtly weaves those stories together by having every talking head be simply a voice, unified in their belief that this weekend was vital, an affirmation that it was OK to be young and broke.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 30 Richard Whittaker
    Monstrous
    What really drags it down is the wafer-thin script by Carol Chrest, which neither Sivertson nor a determined if sometimes overblown Ricci can pull past its messy metaphor and undeserved twists.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Charlotte
    What Rana and Warin have also created is a quiet warning. As a new tide of fascism and monomaniacal cultural oppression looms on the horizon, they make Salomon’s story a tragic reminder that fleeing a nightmare may mean more than just keeping it in your rearview mirror.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Richard Whittaker
    Men
    With neither the grandiosity of pagan vision that illuminated The Green Knight, or the subversive forest horror of Ben Wheatley's In the Earth, Garland's Men is never quite a joke, but maybe that would have made it a more pointed parable.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    The Duke
    The Duke may superficially seem like old hat, but in its comfortable ways there’s still a strong message.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    Pompo the Cinephile
    Never less than enchanting, constantly surprisingly exciting, and with a burning sense of optimism that maybe, sometimes, hard work and vision can really win the day, Pompo: The Cinéphile is a tribute to everyone who colors within the lines but make those colors all their own.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    The Tale of King Crab
    By turns beautiful and ugly, occasionally infuriating in its obfuscation and disconnect, always slow and intriguing, King Crab is powered by the wild-eyed and soft-spoken charisma of Silli as the instinctually rebellious and disdainful Luciano.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Richard Whittaker
    Memory
    Memory is better than some Neeson action flicks, worse than others, but, predictable as it is to say, you'll have trouble remembering it much longer than its run time.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 78 Richard Whittaker
    The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
    This is Cage trying to find himself in all those messy decisions he’s made, trying to make amends while accepting and celebrating who he is.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Richard Whittaker
    9 Bullets
    9 Bullets just constantly misfires, and never gets better than the inadvertent comedy of Worthington pulling a gun on a dog as a negotiating tactic.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Paris, 13th District
    Paris, 13th District never quite provides a good enough reason to smoosh two of Tomine’s stories together.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 67 Richard Whittaker
    Rookie Season
    Rookie Season feels like it started off as a standard fluff piece about a sports team with a little bit of money to burn, and it's undoubtedly race fans who'll get the most out of its personal depiction of life behind the wheel. But what it really delivers, hidden under the hood of a very stock story of a season, is much more driven by Lidell's story.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Richard Whittaker
    The Northman
    The Northman lives and breathes like the old epics; not Old Hollywood's cartoonish depictions of warriors with horned helmets, but the ancient tales to which he pays deep respect.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Richard Whittaker
    Navalny
    As the focus of the film, Navalny himself is a fascinating and complex figure, but Roher makes him explicable by focusing on his family, his recovery, his motivations and his growing realization that to change Russia for the better he has to risk his life.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Richard Whittaker
    Coast
    Coast is undeniably empathetic towards the inner lives of kids living in the bland nothingness of California’s Central Coast, but it’s also not got a lot new to add.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Richard Whittaker
    Morbius
    Morbius does what it's supposed to, nothing more, and barely that. If only this living vampire had more of a pulse.
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