Charlotte O'Sullivan

Charlotte O'Sullivan
Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications: London Evening Standard, Independent (UK), Sight and Sound

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
4/5 51% Coming 2 America (2021) Coming 2 America gets a few things wrong, yet beats the odds by getting so much right. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Mar 4, 2021
3/5 80% Pelé (2021) Pelé's contradictions are fascinating. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2021
4/5 55% The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021) Whether it attracts awards or not, The United States Vs Billie Holiday is worthy of your consideration. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 23, 2021
2/5 58% To Olivia (2021) Hugh Bonneville (Dahl) and Keeley Hawes (Neal) are extremely watchable. They're heavily hampered, however, by a whimsical script that often feels like propaganda for the problematic Dahl brand... - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 23, 2021
2/5 8% Music (2020) Four years ago, a musical genius shot a stinker. That she's promoting it so aggressively now suggests that she can't see, or smell, what's right under her nose. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 19, 2021
4/5 79% Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021) Wiig and Mumola created Barb and Star years ago and seem genuinely excited to finally be sharing these characters with the world. And there's no room for snobbery at their joyful jamboree. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 19, 2021
4/5 80% I Care a Lot (2021) If you're in the mood for bracing nihilism, welcome to one of the most savage films of the year. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 19, 2021
4/5 84% Pinocchio (2020) Right from the start, Garrone's Pinocchio seems like a real boy, which makes it even more disturbing, and delightful, when the wood becomes flesh. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 3, 2021
4/5 95% The Capote Tapes (2020) This Truman show doesn't contain much the tabloids would find interesting. But who cares? It's packed with revelations about the human heart. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2021
4/5 88% The Dig (2021) Stone's film never gets its hands dirty in the way that Francis Lee's does. But it's a whole lot rougher, and wryer, than Downton Abbey. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2021
4/5 92% The White Tiger (2020) Move over Tiger King. There's a new tiger in town. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2021
5/5 100% Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) So let me put it another way. Jasmila Zbanic's offering is as suspenseful as The Great Escape and features a bunch of children so cute they belong in a John Lewis ad. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2021
4/5 72% The Mauritanian (2021) A gruelling true-life story of incarceration and torture is made eminently watchable by a central performance from Tahar Rahim that ranks among his best. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 25, 2021
4/5 58% Malcolm & Marie (2020) Levinson and his cast play a lot of games to make a serious point. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 22, 2021
4/5 98% Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) Boseman, as skilful as he was talented, hits the right notes, all the time. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 17, 2020
4/5 59% Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) Jenkins is an expert at weaving emotion into set-pieces. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 15, 2020
4/5 98% David Byrne's American Utopia (2020) This is Byrne's show, but it's also Lee's tale of the unexpected. Enjoy. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 11, 2020
4/5 51% The Midnight Sky (2020) Clooney's been saved by the belly. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 11, 2020
4/5 55% The Prom (2020) If you hate cheesy glitz, The Prom will make you want to puke into the nearest punch bowl. For the rest of us? It's time to party. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 4, 2020
4/5 95% County Lines (2019) If you were looking for a word to describe writer-director Henry Blake's horribly timely debut you would not pick "fun", yet the filmmaking is so sharp I was hooked from the get-go. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 4, 2020
4/5 83% Mank (2020) By siding with the writer, David Fincher draws attention to the small print and, in the process, concocts a fabulous and moving yarn of his own. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 4, 2020
4/5 82% Happiest Season (2020) It's funny, as well as brave. Thanks, Santa! - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 29, 2020
3/5 76% Audrey (2020) That said, this mostly feels like a project designed to soothe hard-core fans and is basically pretty bland. The real Hepburn had bite. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 29, 2020
4/5 100% Finding Jack Charlton (2020) Let's just say those looking for a fairy-tale ending won't find it, but what we do get feels like a pot of gold. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 25, 2020
2/5 25% Hillbilly Elegy (2020) Suffice to say, unless you're a silly billy, you'll see through the pantomime. This fight ain't fair; it's been rigged. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 25, 2020
3/5 78% A Christmas Gift from Bob (2020) Bob's gift will almost certainly be embraced by a Covid-captive audience. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2020
4/5 90% Luxor (2020) Luxor is reminiscent of other deliberately excruciating movies in which uptight, middle-class singletons lose the plot. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2020
5/5 68% Ammonite (2020) As with the rocks Anning can't get enough of, this romance contains multitudes. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2020
5/5 94% Nomadland (2021) [Zhao's] movie gives a voice to the marginalised. If you listen hard, it might just change your life. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2020
5/5 85% Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) Baron Cohen gets America. In fact, he gets the world. It's a good thing someone understands us. In this time of trouble, the mirror held up by Sacha and co is just what we need. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2020
2/5 66% The Secret Garden (2020) [Thorne's] tweaked the timeline, the story now begins in 1947, and is trying to explore some interesting ideas, such as colonialism's impact on bottom-of-the-pile Brits. But the plot is so clumsy and frantic that nothing sticks. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2020
4/5 96% Mogul Mowgli (2020) If there's a formula for "sexy" film-making, Ahmed and director Bassam Tariq flout the rules at every turn. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 23, 2020
4/5 89% Kajillionaire (2020) Kajillionaire won't make anyone rich, but who cares? - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 13, 2020
4/5 87% Shirley (2020) It's a flawed mistress-piece. I can't wait to watch it again. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 13, 2020
4/5 88% Supernova (2021) Without entering into spoiler territory, Tusker decides on a plan of action that feels more familiar than it should. But you need to see this movie. Just be aware that the script's not as stellar as the leading men. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 13, 2020
5/5 98% One Night in Miami (2020) King's the greatest. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 13, 2020
5/5 95% Soul (2020) Co-directed and written by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, this is nourishment for, well, the soul. If you're feeling kind of blue, help is on its way. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 13, 2020
4/5 90% The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) Sacha Baron Cohen steals the show in Aaron Sorkin's mostly entertaining, occasionally cheesy, totally timely take on a notorious US trial. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 4, 2020
4/5 87% On The Rocks (2020) This voyage around a father navigates territory that often seems overly smooth. Luckily, Murray and Jones provide all the jagged edges we need. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Oct 4, 2020
5/5 95% David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020) This is an emotional experience. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 28, 2020
4/5 79% The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020) [T]he performances and one-liners are so droll you'll almost certainly come out beaming. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 12, 2020
4/5 82% I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) Charlie Kaufman's latest is so good it induces separation anxiety. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2020
4/5 35% The New Mutants (2020) Fox's last X-Men movie is an unholy mess... Out of the wreckage, a cult classic has been born. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2020
4/5 73% Mulan (2020) I'm as athletic as a bed sock but, for so many reasons, this movie made me want to do backflips. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2020
4/5 100% Coup 53 (2020) Coup 53 is stranger than fiction and a terrifying reminder that the past never goes away. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 3, 2020
2/5 64% Hope Gap (2020) Diehard fans of Nicholson will probably suck it up. For the rest of us, this is hopeless. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 28, 2020
4/5 70% Tenet (2020) To point out that Tenet has flaws feels ungrateful. It's like slagging off Santa. But, I confess, some of the yick yacking - vis a vis physics, metaphysics and so on - made me sleepy... Those quibbles aside, Tenet is an eye-popping, ground-breaking blast. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 21, 2020
4/5 83% Flash Gordon (1980) Basically, whether laughing with this film, or at it, you'll have a blast. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 9, 2020
4/5 72% An American Pickle (2020) This is more of an appetiser than a main meal, but it's still dill-ish. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 9, 2020
3/5 44% Endings, Beginnings (2020) If you can sit through to the end (a huge if), you'll be pleased that you did. - London Evening Standard EDIT
Read More | Posted Aug 9, 2020