Sheila O'Malley

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RogerEbert.com
For 605 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 5.2 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Sheila O'Malley's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Under the Shadow
Lowest review score: 0 The Haunting of Sharon Tate
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 465 out of 605
  2. Mixed: 69 out of 605
  3. Negative: 71 out of 605
605 movie reviews
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    • 85 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    Eighth Grade
    The extraordinarily assured feature film debut by writer-director and standup comedian Bo Burnham, starts out with one of these videos and it is so touchingly real, so embarrassingly true to life, you might swear it was improvised, or found footage. But it's not. This is Elsie Fisher, a 13-year-old actress herself, amazingly in touch with what it's like to be in the stage of life she's actually in.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Sheila O'Malley
    Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti
    The film is beautiful in spots, and features a believably tormented performance by Vincent Cassel as Gauguin, but unfortunately it has only a hazy idea of what it wants to be about.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Sheila O'Malley
    Leave No Trace
    Leave No Trace is, at times, heartbreaking, but it's also filled with glimpses of almost casual human kindness, throwaway moments of good will and inclusion piercing through what could be the bleakest of tales.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    The King
    The King has a restless, kaleidoscopic, take-a-snapshot-and-move-on energy. In many ways, it's a documentary about everything, it's a documentary about "then" and it's a documentary about "right now."
    • 87 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    En el Séptimo Día (On the Seventh Day)
    En el Séptimo Dia makes its points powerfully, even more so since the set-up is so simple. Even better, its third act is as thrilling as anything in a traditional sports movie. McKay's control of tone and rhythm is in high gear, creating a work both thought-provoking and hugely entertaining.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Sheila O'Malley
    Hearts Beat Loud
    Hearts Beat Loud could use more urgency in the telling, more sense of what is at stake for the characters.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Adrift
    It's not just a story of an incredible feat of survival. It's also a love story, presented with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    The Tale
    The film is one long interrogation, not only from Jennifer the character's standpoint, but from a directorial standpoint.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 38 Sheila O'Malley
    On Chesil Beach
    The movie is fairly faithful to the book, and yet so much is lost in the transfer.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Beast
    One of the strengths of the film, also written by Pearce, is how much it is willing to withhold, without descending into "Gotcha!" manipulation.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 63 Sheila O'Malley
    RBG
    Cohen and West's approach is so adulatory that the documentary becomes a surface-level work of hagiography.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Disobedience
    A good old-fashioned melodrama, albeit with a quieter touch.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Mercury 13
    At a brisk and efficient 78-minutes, Mercury 13 is engaging, yet sadness and anger seeps in as it progresses.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 25 Sheila O'Malley
    Aardvark
    Aardvark doesn't know how to do what it wants to do. It's not that the tone is uneven or uncertain, it's that the film doesn't have a tone at all. Because a specific tone isn't established, earnest moments come off as insincere, deep moments seem like they're supposed to be a joke. It's not clear if all of this is by design or an accident from a first-time director.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Sheila O'Malley
    You Were Never Really Here
    Based on Jonathan Ames' novella of the same name, the film is rooted so firmly in Joe's point of view he sometimes is absent from the screen entirely. We're inside his head.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    The Last Movie Star
    As a commentary on Reynolds' career trajectory, The Last Movie Star is hit-or-miss. What is undeniable, though, is the space Rifkin has created where Reynolds can do what Reynolds does best, and if you're a fan (as I am) there's much here to treasure.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Sheila O'Malley
    God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness
    A lot of grappling happens. The community grapples. The characters grapple. People grapple alone, people grapple together. Grappling is more interesting to watch than certainty, any day of the week.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Back to Burgundy
    When the film focuses on the wine-making process, in the progression from vine to bottle, it's a fascinating and detailed look at a very specific subculture.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    Love, Simon
    Director Greg Berlanti, who has helmed a string of hit television shows as producer and writer, uses the familiar teenage romance genre to tell an LGBTQ story, and in so doing makes these tropes feel fresh, fun, entertaining.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 63 Sheila O'Malley
    Souvenir
    The story is simple — too simple, in fact — and some of its more intriguing elements could use further developing, but the presence of Huppert makes Souvenir well worth a look.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 50 Sheila O'Malley
    Irreplaceable You
    The dialogue creates an arch and artificial mood, never sounding like real talk despite the clearly talented actors (Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michiel Huisman) playing the roles. The film itself seems to be in denial about its own story.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Permission
    What is most unexpected about Permission is its sense of poignancy and tenderness. In its own way, it's quite heartbreaking.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 63 Sheila O'Malley
    Fifty Shades Freed
    The problem is there's not enough sex and too much ... everything else.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    A Fantastic Woman
    Suffused with fantastical elements, dreamlike sequences and hallucinatory images, A Fantastic Woman stars Daniela Vega, a trans actress, and her performance roots the film in a kind of intimate verisimilitude.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 25 Sheila O'Malley
    The Clapper
    So poorly done, its tone so lackadaisical and uncommitted, it's not clear half the time what you're even watching. If it's supposed to be a comedy, it's not funny. If it's supposed to be a satire, it doesn't know what it's satirizing. The biggest problem is that the stakes are never high enough to invest in any of it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Mary and The Witch's Flower
    Conflict doesn’t have to be some huge melodramatic thing, but the total lack of inner conflict in Mary might be why Mary and the Witch’s Flower — as transportive and entertaining as it is — feels a little slight.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Saturday Church
    A sweet film with a purity of purpose and intent, elevating it above other films portraying similar struggles.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 75 Sheila O'Malley
    Blame
    The film gets increasingly hallucinatory as it progresses, and there's a vivid sense of growing danger.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 38 Sheila O'Malley
    Downsizing
    Alexander Payne's Downsizing starts with an intriguing "What if?...", the launch-pad of all good sci-fi stories, and very quickly devolves into a bland story about a nondescript khaki-wearing guy who learns to care about the less-fortunate.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 88 Sheila O'Malley
    The Greatest Showman
    The Greatest Showman, directed with verve and panache by Michael Gracey, is an unabashed piece of pure entertainment, punctuated by 11 memorable songs composed by Oscar- and Tony-winning duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
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