Author Spotlight

Sheila O’Malley

Sheila O’Malley writes regular reviews for RogerEbert.com and has written for Film Comment, Sight & Sound, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Sewanee Review. Her personal site is the Sheila Variations.

7 Results
The Worst Person in the World: Lost and Found

Part rom-com, part existential meditation, the final installment in Joachim Trier’s Oslo trilogy dignifies the fluctuating desires of a woman on the cusp of thirty.

By Sheila O’Malley

Bringing Up Baby: Bones, Balls, and Butterflies

Howard Hawks’s madcap battle of the sexes is a reminder of how necessary and sneakily profound silliness can be.

By Sheila O’Malley

Dance, Girl, Dance: Gotta Dance

Pioneering Hollywood filmmaker Dorothy Arzner brought a rare feminist sensibility to this backstage drama that explores the role of ambition, friendship, and love in the lives of two dancers.

By Sheila O’Malley

The Great Escape: Not Caught

John Sturges’s POW drama is an ode to ingenuity and cooperation that anticipated a wave of demythologizing war films.

By Sheila O’Malley

Songbook

The Hot-Blooded Love Cry at the Cold Heart of Badlands

Mickey & Sylvia’s 1956 hit “Love Is Strange” injects a hint of lustful energy into a screen romance that is otherwise unsettlingly detached.

By Sheila O’Malley

Something Wild: Last Chances

Jack Garfein’s no-holds-barred account of sexual assault and trauma captures the volatile sensibility of the Actors Studio.

By Sheila O’Malley

The Long Shadow of Gilda

In Gilda, Charles Vidor’s “violent, sexual, chaotic” noir, the director focused on Rita Hayworth’s skills as an actor and a dancer, eliciting a performance that became iconic in its own right and made her an international superstar.


By Sheila O’Malley