Fionnuala Halligan

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Screen Daily
For 441 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 42% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 4.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Fionnuala Halligan's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 Nickel Boys
Lowest review score: 30 Absolutely Anything
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 306 out of 441
  2. Mixed: 126 out of 441
  3. Negative: 9 out of 441
441 movie reviews
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    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    Blue Beetle
    There is a big effort put into the world building, which pays off.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Fionnuala Halligan
    LOLA
    The imbalance between the sketched, what-if nature of the film and the weight of its visual wizardry is keenly felt.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    Pretty Red Dress
    Very British and proudly Black, Edwards’ film juggles tones and formats we’ve never seen put together before and it’s a pleasure to see a first-timer flex her muscles in a part-musical, wholly dramatic story of a recently-released prisoner who takes a shine to his partner’s micro red frock.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    Mutt
    There’s a lightness to the film and a loveliness to Feña’s open-hearted struggle.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    Wham!
    What emerges is the story of an extremely close and profoundly charming boyhood friendship – but one where the junior partner couldn’t, or wouldn’t, put the genie of his extraordinary talent back in the bottle once his pal had coaxed it out of him.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    The Stroll
    Kristen Lovell has skin in the game of the story she tells, making The Stroll, an oral/archive history of the trans sex workers of New York’s Meatpacking District, a raw and tender memoir.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    Tiger Stripes
    It truly growls in its depiction of the brutal nature of girl friendship and the shock of the menstrual metamorphosis.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    The New Boy
    What sets it apart is Thornton’s deep spirituality, examined here as the titular ‘The New Boy’ encounters – and explores – Christianity. But it is not a two-way street: Christianity will never accept who he is.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Fionnuala Halligan
    The Breaking Ice
    The actors are reasonably charismatic and the film grows increasingly lovely to look at, while failing to really make a case for itself beyond the superficial pleasures.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    The Goldman Case
    Technically, The Goldman Case is a film to admire for all it achieves in such a structured format – emotionally, too, despite the fact the case is very particular, there is so much to engage.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    Occupied City
    After four hours, there’s no sense you know the city, present or past, or that you ever will understand it. Would maps and timelines make it any more ‘satisfying’? Instead, you are haunted by it..
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Fionnuala Halligan
    Killers of the Flower Moon
    Lifting his camera to survey the wide open plains of the past, Scorsese extracts an epic Western from horrible real-life crimes committed against the Native American Osage tribe of, latterly, Oklahoma, delivering something biblical, human, yet deeply inhumane.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Fionnuala Halligan
    Pamfir
    Bold and brave, like its protagonist, Pamfir gorges on its imagery, with the final visual marker sending shivers down the spine.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 30 Fionnuala Halligan
    The Pope's Exorcist
    Stitched together from better pictures - all of which viewers would be better advised to check out - The Pope’s Exorcist’s one saving grace is Crowe who still, despite the hound of hell that is this film, is a significant screen presence who commits to some dialogue that only Satan himself could have dreamed up.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Fionnuala Halligan
    Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
    There’s a great deal of charm and humour to Paik’s work, and to this film, but it’s anchored by his perceptiveness and ability to contemplate weighty themes – and, yes, to anticipate the future.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    Last Stop Larrimah
    In true, blunt Aussie fashion, Last Stop Larrimah takes this wild-west story as it comes, and Tancred tells it well.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    65
    We’ve seen the bones of this creature before, for sure, but some terrific GGI monsters, swampy scares and Driver’s committed performance make 65 a snap-toothed popcorn multiplex movie which, at 93 minutes, is sprightly in comparison with its lumbering rivals.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    Kiss the Future
    [A] polished yet unexpectedly affecting documentary.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Fionnuala Halligan
    Golda
    Golda is a tentative step towards looking at that inflammatory era with the depth it needs and that’s worthwhile: but plucking Golda out of her own life and that time out of its wider context still feels like a missed opportunity.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    In My Mother's Skin
    A well-executed, unusual and historically-tinged horror [film] ... drenched in the atmosphere of Second World War colonial dread.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    Fairyland
    Durham captures a place in time quite beautifully, and McNairy is sympathetic and believable playing a character who could be perceived as weak, or neglectful, but instead comes across as a somewhat hopeless romantic. It’s really his performance that lingers.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Fionnuala Halligan
    Beyond Utopia
    This is a film you haven’t seen before from a place you’ll never visit, a first-class example of bravery and reportage melding into an filmed testament. It’s not just that it’s nailbiting. The unease lingers long after viewing, though, for every person associated with it.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 80 Fionnuala Halligan
    Run Rabbit Run
    Sarah Snook turns in a terrific performance which is always true to the character at every point of a complex arc.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    Causeway
    The unfolding of this unusual friendship, however, and Henry’s lively performance against Lawrence and their resulting rapport, make it a sound prospect to spend some quiet time with.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    She Said
    The team effort of the story flows into and becomes a part of the team effort onscreen, and the fight continues.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Fionnuala Halligan
    Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America
    Robinson is a precise, empathetic and informed speaker and a righteous man who, in sisters Emily and Sarah Kunstler’s documentary, is every teacher you might have ever wished for as a student, but who deserves a larger stage.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Fionnuala Halligan
    The Quiet Girl
    The Quiet Girl is thoughtful, spiritual in its stillness but alive with the hum of the land and the emotions it guards. Editing by the experienced John Murphy finishes the work with a precision that also smoothes this rites of passage story. Certainly, this is a quiet film, but it speaks in high volumes.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    The Stranger
    Wright crafts a hyper-elaborate set-up and delicate drip-feed of information which make spoilers an equal crime, but The Stranger is more of a felt experience than a traditional policier; it’s all about the hunt, not the crime.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    Midwives
    A small-scale, covert glimpse of the lives led behind the headlines.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Fionnuala Halligan
    Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
    Brainwashed doesn’t deliver the opposing views you might like to see aired in a film like this - it’s not a debate for her, even though some film professionals still think it is - and Menkes shows possibly too many clips from her own films (as illustrations of the right sort of take), particularly as this lucid documentary draws to a close. Yet still it’s vigorous, often brash, and full of information.
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