HOW THE RATINGS WORK:

100-90: Masterpiece, or damn close. Very rare.
89-80: Fanthefucktastic. Near-lock for my year-end top 10 list.
79-70: Definitely something special. Do not miss. Likely list contender.
69-60: Very good, but also flawed or missing some crucial element.
59-50: Didn't quite work for me, but has many redeeming qualities.
49-40: Demerits clearly outweigh merits.
39-30: I really did not enjoy this picture, but talent was involved.
29-20: When will this fucking picture end. When.
19-10: Outright fiasco and/or unwatchably boring.
9-0: One of the worst movies I've ever seen. Very rare.
W/O: I don't know the director and the first two reels (about 35 to 40 minutes) didn't convince me that (s)he has it going on.

Please bear in mind that the ratings are intended not to indicate how "good" or "bad" a particular film is, but how much I personally liked or disliked it. As a general rule (and professional assignments aside), I only see films that are well-received by professional critics, so almost every film reviewed here is admired by a lot of other people, regardless of what I thought.

Now seems like a good time to mention something that my regular readers have probably already noticed: I'm a very tough grader. If I give a film a 75, I liked it a lot. I imagine that most of the films I see will wind up in the 50's somewhere, and those pictures are well worth investigating, even if that rating does inevitably seem dismissive. Even the ones landing in the upper 40's generally have some merit. Take a look around, and you should quickly get a sense of what I mean by each rung on the critical-shorthand ladder.