Helen O'Hara

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Empire, The Telegraph, Time Out
For 278 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Helen O'Hara's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Avengers: Endgame
Lowest review score: 20 The Brothers Grimsby
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 88 out of 278
  2. Mixed: 187 out of 278
  3. Negative: 3 out of 278
278 movie reviews
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    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    Petite Maman
    A story even more delicate and moving than Sciamma’s last effort, this takes an unusual and thoughtful look at girlhood, motherhood and friendship. It’s enchanting.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    There Will Be Blood
    Uncompromising, intelligent and searing cinema. Along with The Assassination Of Jesse James... and No Country For Old Men, this is the best batch of Western-set dramas in decades. John Huston would have been proud.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    The Florida Project
    Vibrant and brimming with vitality, this is empathic towards its subjects but fiercely critical of the system that victimises them. The performances of Vinaite, Dafoe and Prince will stay with you.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    Little Women
    Not just for women of whatever size. Warm but never wishy-washy, cosy without being cutesy, this is a superb adaptation of the source and further evidence that Gerwig is the real deal.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Paterson
    Quiet, thoughtful and deeply human, this is one of Jarmusch’s finest and features Adam Driver’s best performance yet — although you do risk coming out with a new affection for modernist poetry.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    Hamilton
    Entertaining, energetic and unfailingly smart, this is theatre at the highest level, performed by a cast without a weak link. You can’t say no to this.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    If Beale Street Could Talk
    A sort of Romeo And Juliet with systemic racism replacing the family feud, this is romantic and infuriating, hopeful and despairing. A sensory, desperately emotional experience for lovers and fighters alike.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    Mission: Impossible – Fallout
    A combination of thrilling stunts, insane daring and clever writing make this a stunning piece of action cinema. Just be sure to take your heart meds first, and hold on tight.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    Robot Dreams
    Who needs humans? This is visual storytelling at its finest, a traditional animation of gentle, unshowy genius. Sometimes the very best love stories go deeper than words can say.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    The Tragedy of Macbeth
    Stark but utterly compelling, this chilling take on Macbeth is a visually stunning tour de force. It’s as good as you’d expect from this cast and crew, which is saying something.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
    Bleak, brutal and quite possibly brilliant, this is a triumphant return to form for Lumet and further proof that Hoffman is on an incredible winning streak.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
    While it’s a woefully incomplete middle chapter, at least it’s never boring.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
    A worthy farewell that packs in as much action as its seven predecessors combined and manages not to stint on the emotional beats. Harry Potter leaves us as a quiet, bespectacled, corduroy-wearing hero for the ages.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    West Side Story
    Heartfelt and heart-breaking, this feels like Spielberg has made an adaptation faithful to its roots but also, always, alive to the modern world.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    The Rider
    A thoughtful and thought-provoking look at identity, aspiration and a precarious way of life, this is anchored by a stunning performance by Brady Jundreau and inspired direction by Chloé Zhao.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Honeyland
    Stunningly beautiful and quietly powerful, this is a portrait of a vanishing way of life and of a determined woman who’s just trying to make her way in the world.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Sinners
    An idiosyncratic, thematically dense twist on the vampire myth that’s oddly paced but beautifully played. One to sink your teeth into.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    In the Heights
    Like a shot of summer holiday straight to the arm, this will have you shimmying out of the cinema and hugging all your neighbours. It’s joyful.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Sing Sing
    Brimming with compassion and punctuated by humour, this is a moving look at prison and prisoners. It’s both infuriating and inspirational to see so much beauty in such a harsh environment.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    BlacKkKlansman
    There are few filmmakers as consistently, burningly passionate as Spike Lee. This is vital and timely work that’s up there with his best, with a gut-wrenching sting in the tail.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
    It’s delightful to see these characters again, particularly the long-suffering Gromit, and if the jokes don’t come quite as thick and fast as before, the beating heart beneath the clay remains intact.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Free Solo
    This is daring, dangerous and dizzying stuff, the story of a one man simultaneously in competition and cooperation with nature. Meet Tom Cruise’s hero, probably.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Marry Me
    It’s a fun premise, one that this treats seriously, but it never quite reaches the highest levels of the genre.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Small Things Like These
    A deliberate film that uses small moments to examine one of the great questions of our time: how good people let bad things happen, and how we might push back against the dark.  
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    The Odd Life of Timothy Green
    The midway point between "A.I." and "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid." It has quirky charm and a tender heart, but the treacly sentiment may become wearisome.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Pacific Rim: Uprising
    These Mark 6 Jaegers with their electric whips, “gravity slings” and plasma swords deliver all the giant robot thrills you could wish. Thanks to Boyega and Spaeny, you might even care about the human characters, too.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Helen O'Hara
    Coco
    Pixar has raised the animation bar again, with its most musical — and arguably most magical — film yet. If this is the afterlife we’re all headed to, don’t fear the reaper.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Revenge
    Even if you think you know where it’s going as its builds to a near-wordless finale (and you might be right), the moments of character detail are beautifully judged, and the gore surprisingly well splashed.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    The Big Short
    Witty, absurd and far more entertaining than it has any right to be, this could finally shed light on the financial crisis for those of us who found it all too boring to contemplate.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    A Fantastic Woman
    Given it could be re-titled ‘Microaggressions: The Movie’, this is an unsurprisingly upsetting watch at times, but it’s made compelling by Vega’s dignified, heartfelt performance.
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