Jacob Oller

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Paste Magazine, The A.V. Club, The Film Stage
For 358 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 35% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 62% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Jacob Oller's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 91 In the Heights
Lowest review score: 0 Five Nights at Freddy's 2
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 204 out of 358
  2. Mixed: 113 out of 358
  3. Negative: 41 out of 358
358 movie reviews
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    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    What We Left Unfinished
    Clocking in at barely over an hour, What We Left Unfinished feels a bit unfinished itself, and its compelling premise will leave history buffs, media scholars and those simply looking for a good yarn about lost art wanting far more.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Knocking
    The feverish Knocking puts together a fittingly upsetting portrait of lonely instability through its simple premise, visually inventive first-time director and physically invested star.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Nobody
    Even in its over-the-top finale, Nobody never quite reaches the bloody ballet of Wick, nor the depth that franchise’s odd underground world offered, which dulls the tip of its action.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    A River Below
    A River Below is pure investigative journalism.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Emergency
    Emergency’s ensemble sustains its premise for far longer than it should be able to, maintaining the nuanced balance of commentary-thriller-comedy whenever the script becomes too interested in just one ingredient of its complex cocktail.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    A Quiet Place Part II
    A charmingly unambitious, ultimately enjoyable step down of a sequel: A controlled expansion where novelty fades to reveal technical prowess and contempt starts peeking out behind familiarity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
    In truth, this isn’t a movie about understanding why—a question that desperately wants an easy answer to a complicated problem—but about understanding Bourdain. Appreciating him. Mourning him. To that end, Roadrunner succeeds once the mythologizing dies down and we see the person inside the romantic.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Plan C
    Tragos and her brave, badass subjects spend almost all of Plan C zipping through explanations of a constantly evolving abortion landscape.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    To the End
    Throughout, Lears is all over the place. When To the End focuses on climate change deniers, it can be cathartically searing.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Girls State
    A documentary that can struggle to tie its young politicos to the outside world, but thrives when tying them to each other.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    I Like Movies
    Writer/director Chandler Levack finds uncommon honesty in this Canadian video store employee and those he chafes against, even if the coming-of-age story eventually falls into some of the more palatable pitfalls its strident star would rail against.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Yes Day
    It’s a lightweight film befitting its premise’s “good vibes only” origins—and its uninspiring construction makes its solid performances a pleasant surprise rather than a compliment to an already good movie—but you could do a lot worse than say “Yes” to Yes Day.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Fremont
    People don’t always want Goldilocks movies, but amid the melodramas and rom-coms, the IP blockbusters and action movies, Fremont’s easy flow and small scope provide the same reassurance (and opportunity for projection) as a small, optimistic piece of paper.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Fallen Leaves
    Bone-dry yet filled with yearning, Aki Kaurismäki’s Finnish rom-com is a charming tale of persistence amid chaos.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Jacob Oller
    Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie
    Its predictability is pleasingly colored by countless icky-fun, yokai-inspired curse-monsters.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 69 Jacob Oller
    69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez
    The problem isn’t that the film is as shallow as its subject, but that its efforts to find substance beyond the style are handicapped by its broad format.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 69 Jacob Oller
    The Dry
    As is, The Dry’s condensed yet unfocused, by-the-numbers drama might be fine enough, but those looking for a truly great telling of this story may feel that justice wasn’t served.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 69 Jacob Oller
    You Hurt My Feelings
    You Hurt My Feelings, which confronts middle-aged neuroses and creative anxieties with all the subtlety of a bestselling author with a new Twitter account, still finds warmth amid its middling dramedy.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 69 Jacob Oller
    Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game
    The film’s highlight is the swaggering Sorvino. More charming with age, like wine or scoundrels, he manages to enrapture without pandering, entertain without sacrifice or compromise.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 68 Jacob Oller
    American Symphony
    American Symphony itself is at its most mundane when focused on the professional life of the rousing, youthful musical multihyphenate. And, because it builds its structure around the creation and premiere of his first symphony, much of the film bundles that mundanity into the kind of behind-the-scenes footage accompanying a concert doc.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 68 Jacob Oller
    Wolfs
    It’s a star vehicle intent on dulling its leads’ shine, a slick blockbuster relying on narrative and visual restrictions, a cynical movie about the power of friendship. And yet, even as Wolfs undermines itself, it’s a charmingly prickly (or charming, despite its prickliness) mess.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 68 Jacob Oller
    Revolution Rent
    This revolution may be televised, but aside from the rawness that too rarely brings it near its potential revolt, it’s an underwritten rerun.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 68 Jacob Oller
    Spider-Man: No Way Home
    After so long playing with the legacy and impact of Spider-Man, No Way Home finds its way back.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 68 Jacob Oller
    A Glitch in the Matrix
    While not compelling enough to be one of the two options—either a destructive or awakening force for our own personal simulations—winkingly proffered in the doc itself, A Glitch in the Matrix still has genuinely gripping segments.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 68 Jacob Oller
    Finch
    A forgettable sci-fi with standout elements—making the most of what he’s got left, even if it’s not enough.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 68 Jacob Oller
    The Batman
    The Batman is ambitious and dedicated to its vision, but despite some rather obvious clues, it can’t crack how to make the World’s Greatest Detective seem like one at all. Rather, we just have another passable Batman, not different enough to outrun his legacy’s ever-growing shadow.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 67 Jacob Oller
    2000 Meters to Andriivka
    More damningly prosaic than the overwhelming chaos of a war movie’s climactic assault, 2000 Meters To Andriivka marches through death by a thousand unknowns. There’s still heartstopping terror and momentary poetry in this toil.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 67 Jacob Oller
    Forbidden Fruits
    If you don’t worry about the story and just immerse yourself in the gags, Alloway’s film is a must-watch for the Venn diagram overlap between Shudder subscribers and the slumber party crowd.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 67 Jacob Oller
    From Ground Zero
    With little in way of organization, From Ground Zero can oscillate frustratingly between styles, artistic ambition, and production quality.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 67 Jacob Oller
    Twinless
    As its characters make bad choices, some foolish, some perverse, and some truly Machiavellian, Twinless sticks with the absurd emotional catastrophe that follows. That dedication to the mess it’s made is often captivating, even when the film’s intentional line-blurring between comedy, romance, and gaslighting thriller never reaches the heights of its twin-centric sources of inspiration, like Brian De Palma.
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