The Maze Runner
The lost boys.
The Maze Runner is fighting a losing battle. Even the most dedicated devourer of young adult dystopia must be feeling a little jaded at this stage as clones of The Hunger Games…
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A life in
the pictures.
Films that stay with you.
Writing that looks a little closer.
Explore the collected reviews of Linda O’Brien.
397 REVIEWS · ONE CRITIC’S PERSPECTIVE
The Messenger
A special delivery.
At one point in The Messenger, a character offers a toast to the armed forces, declaring that the American people still support the troops, regardless of how they feel about the war…
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The Monk
Dark habits.
There were a lot of prescribed texts that I just never got around to reading when I was studying English in college. As a general rule it tended to be the ones…
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The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Mortal sins.
So apparently The Mortal Instruments is big news in the world of the teenage girl. The screening I attended had an audible fan presence – cooing and squealing at the love interests…
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The Neon Demon
Filthy/Gorgeous.
It's been a boring summer. I mean really boring. Independence Day… Tarzan… Some Marvel films I can't even remember the name of…. Nobody seems interested in making either a statement or an…
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The Nice Guys
Naughty but nice.
In grimy, seventies LA, two grizzled, down on their luck private detectives find themselves on the hunt for the same young woman; a hunt that will take them deep into the equally…
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The Patience Stone
Solid as a rock.
In an unidentified war-torn Middle Eastern country, a woman in her thirties prays over the bedside of her older husband as he languishes in a comatose state with a bullet lodged in…
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The Perfect Guy
Crazy in love.
Leah (Sanaa Lathan) is a woman who seems to have it all – a great job, shiny car, designer footwear and a handsome boyfriend who is really good with children. She also…
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The Pipe
The West awakes.
After the last twelve months or so, finding an Irishman with any degree of faith in his government is an almost impossible task but at heart most of us still have some…
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The Promise
A broken promise.
On the 22nd of August 1939, just before Germany invaded Poland, Hitler gave a speech to Wehrmacht commanders at his home in Obersalzberg in which he reportedly justified the planned extermination of…
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The Purge
Family fight club.
Later this summer, Ethan Hawke will reunite with Julie Delpy for the conclusion of their idyllic movie romance in Before Midnight. I imagine that for Hawke, this moment of respite can’t come…
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The Queen of Versailles
A palace built on sand.
Timing is everything. When director Lauren Greenfield began work on the film that would become The Queen of Versailles in 2007, her aim was to follow one of the wealthiest families in…
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The Raven
Caw blimey!
There’s an odd trend in the ascendant where historical biographies are mashed together with incongruous horror elements. Soon we’ll have to contend with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter but for now it’s time…
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The Revenant
The wild frontier.
You know you’re having a bad day when being treated like a human chew toy by a grizzly bear isn’t the worst thing to happen to you. So it is for Leonardo…
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The Runaways
Almost a runaway success.
Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash….The Runaways. One of these things is not like the other. Many will be familiar with Joan Jett’s inexplicably popular ode to jukebox joints, 'I Love Rock…
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The Salvation
Revenge of the Western.
When you look at the evolution of movie genres, the Western is perhaps the one that has undergone the biggest change over time. In their heyday, the cowboy pictures would fill matinee…
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The Sapphires
Sweet soul music.
As time periods go, the late 1960s provides rich fruit for storytelling. The global civil rights movement, war in Vietnam and the death of the 1960s dream of peace, love and understanding…
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The Sea
That sinking feeling.
For John Banville’s sake I hope none of the Man Booker Prize judges go to see the adaptation of his award-winning book The Sea; it’s so terrible that they may be compelled…
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