Sheila O'Malley

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RogerEbert.com
For 508 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 67% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 30% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Sheila O'Malley's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 Both Sides of the Blade
Lowest review score: 0 The Haunting of Sharon Tate
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 386 out of 508
  2. Mixed: 58 out of 508
  3. Negative: 64 out of 508
508 movie reviews
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    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    Reality
    Reality is a brutal film, with a short run-time and a story arc so strong it obliterates the memory of self-important complex films, weighted down with a "message," straining for relevance. Satter's film doesn't need to push. Reality wears its relevance on its fluorescent-lit short sleeves.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Close to Vermeer
    Close to Vermeer is a gentle, thoughtful documentary, populated by knowledgeable individuals like Vandivere, experts at the top of their fields who have maintained their passion and love for the subject.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    The Night of the 12th
    There's more going on here than meets the eye. The Night of the 12th runs deep. The film's effectiveness lies in its matter-of-fact surface and its roiling wordless interior, the stealthy way it makes its points (without announcing "This is The Point").
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    It Ain't Over
    The Berra family tells the stories with familiarity and affection, often laughing or crying: this is well-trod ground, tall tales, the narrative of their family.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    The Eight Mountains
    Directed by Belgian filmmakers Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen, The Eight Mountains works slowly and patiently. It doesn't rush. This may be frustrating for some viewers, but the film works because of its slowness and patience, not despite it.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    The Artifice Girl
    Ritch's script is thoughtful and intense, making The Artifice Girl a mentally engaging and challenging work.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    Little Richard: I Am Everything
    Lisa Cortés uses the Big Bang as a visual motif throughout, with stars and galaxies exploding, hurtling out into the darkness. It is an apt analogy.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    Everything Went Fine
    Based on the autobiographical book Everything Went Well by the late Emmanuèle Bernheim (a frequent Ozon collaborator), Everything Went Fine is an emotional and complex portrait of a family in crisis, the father's stroke exposing underlying cracks, old pains, new anxieties.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Showing Up
    There's something a little too neat about the structure of Showing Up, and the pigeon wears its symbolism on its broken wings. But the piercing specificity of Reichardt's vision, and her insights into the dynamics of an art scene like the one in Portland, are spot on.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    Enys Men
    I was riveted by every moment of this haunting weird film. Enys Men made me legitimately uneasy.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Sheila O'Malley
    The Lost King
    The Lost King gets sidetracked. Still, it's a great story!
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
    The film doesn't burden pinball machines with more meaning than they can stand. Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game is strictly low stakes. This is part of its knowing charm.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Sheila O'Malley
    Unwelcome
    Some of Unwelcome is legitimately creepy and upsetting. Some of it is hilarious. Whether or not the hilarity is intended is unclear.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 38 Sheila O'Malley
    Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
    The characters never take shape, not even as caricatures. There are elements of parody, but Operation Fortune is not broad enough to be a spoof. It's weirdly empty.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    The Quiet Girl
    Foster is masterful in evoking a child's point of view.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    Emily
    What Emily does so well is establish a mood. The mood is flexible enough to contain multitudes.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Seriously Red
    As it is, Seriously Red sneaks up on you.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 38 Sheila O'Malley
    Baby Ruby
    Baby Ruby operates at a high-pitched melodrama-horror level, and the constant frenzy becomes exhausting. The film's nerves become so frayed there's almost no feeling left in them; the terror is monotonous and repetitive.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Sheila O'Malley
    When You Finish Saving the World
    When You Finish Saving the World floats uncertainly on the edge of satire. This is a big problem. Satire can't be uncertain. Satire needs a sharp bite. When You Finish Saving the World is toothless by comparison.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Sheila O'Malley
    Saint Omer
    Alice Diop understands how silence, when allowed to exist, vibrates with echoes, and it is these echoes that are trying to speak to us. They have a lot to say. "Saint Omer" shows us how to listen.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb
    Gottlieb (the director) uses a very light touch throughout. This is a family affair.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Women Talking
    Sarah Polley's trust in the material—and her actors—allows for the performances to flourish, and the performances drive the story along with the barrage of words.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Retrograde
    Retrograde is about many things, but it's really about the faces. The cameras linger on the faces, allowing the expressions of suffering, tension, nerves, and desperation, to take root.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    The Eternal Daughter
    The Eternal Daughter feels like a first draft, or a sketch to be filled in later. This is perhaps reflected in onscreen Julie's struggles to even write an outline. Hogg's outlines, though, are more interesting than other people's finished products. There's always so much to think about.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Lady Chatterley's Lover
    You feel you are running alongside the characters, trying to catch up with them on their journeys forward.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Sheila O'Malley
    There There
    There There doesn't come to life, even as an intellectual or artistic exercise.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Something in the Dirt
    Something in the Dirt has the gritty DIY-vibe of the no-budget world from which it sprang, and is both thought-provoking and crazy-making, just like the mood it presents.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    I'm Totally Fine
    Brandon Dermer's I'm Totally Fine is a funny and charming movie, with two entertaining performances from Jillian Bell and Natalie Morales at its center, but where it really works is in its understanding of grief, and how grief can turn someone's world—and mind—upside down.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Call Jane
    Call Jane is about an important subject, but it's also a character study of one woman waking up, not just to her own strength, but to the fact that she's hidden in the suburbs for too long. It's time to help others. It's a very satisfying character arc.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 100 Sheila O'Malley
    Aftersun
    Consciousness operates on multiple tracks and Aftersun understands this. The multi-level awareness is not in the dialogue, but it's there in the film's gentle rhythms, the editorial choices, the patience and sensitivity of Wells' approach.
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