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Published by Film at Lincoln Center

Sheila O'Malley

Present Tense: The Death Scene

By Sheila O'Malley
September 26, 2019
Perchance to dream: the challenges of death scenes are technical as well as existential

Present Tense: Matthias Schoenaerts

By Sheila O'Malley
September 12, 2019
The man in me: in the Belgian actor’s hands, characters who could be tough-guy cliches become fully-realized and three-dimensional

Present Tense: Female Comedians

By Sheila O'Malley
August 23, 2019
Yes, and: why comedy and improv often produce some of the greatest actors

Present Tense: Out of the Blue

By Sheila O'Malley
August 8, 2019
Into the black: Dennis Hopper's doom-ridden, death-stalked film takes punk rock at its word

Present Tense: Back-ting

By Sheila O'Malley
July 25, 2019
Can’t look away: the nearly lost art of acting with back to the camera

Present Tense: What Happened Was…

By Sheila O'Malley
July 11, 2019
Alone together: Tom Noonan’s two-hander is an unblinking look at the havoc loneliness can wreak on humans

TCM Diary: The Chemistry Set

By Sheila O'Malley
July 2, 2019
Explosive combinations: the elective affinities at work in Jack Conway’s Love Crazy and George Stevens’s The More the Merrier

Present Tense: Sylvia Plath Goes to the Movies

By Sheila O'Malley
June 27, 2019
Something fresh and strange: newly released letters reveal the prominent presence of movies in the poet’s life

Present Tense: Rolling Thunder Revue

By Sheila O'Malley
June 12, 2019
I contain multitudes: on Dylan, Whitman, and Scorsese’s new Rolling Thunder Revue documentary

TCM Diary: They Were Expendable

By Sheila O'Malley
June 6, 2019
World on fire: in an increasingly dire situation, John Ford’s characters look to the skies or out to sea, hoping for intervention

Present Tense: Infinite Brando

By Sheila O'Malley
May 31, 2019
Tennis anyone? In Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace gets at the heart of Brando’s art

Present Tense: Almost Like Falling in Love

By Sheila O'Malley
May 16, 2019
Love is a battlefield: Aliens’ Hicks and Ripley are an unlikely pair, but “unlikely pairs” are the bread and butter of romance, Hollywood-style

Present Tense: Frank O’Hara at the Movies

By Sheila O'Malley
May 2, 2019
“Darkness embossed by silvery images”: the New York-School poet had a rapturous relationship with the cinema

I Know Where I’m Going

By Sheila O'Malley
May 1, 2019
In Joanna Hogg's sublime breakout The Souvenir, a budding artist strives to stay true to her path despite a consuming romance

TCM Diary: Man of Aran

By Sheila O'Malley
March 6, 2019
Truth in fiction: Robert Flaherty's 1934 "documentary" remains an astounding depiction of a landscape that still shocks and stuns

TCM Diary: Sounder

By Sheila O'Malley
February 12, 2019
Dirt roads and green fields: remarkable performances by Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson punctuate Martin Ritt's 1972 family classic

In Memoriam: Nicolas Roeg

By Sheila O'Malley
January 2, 2019
The cinematographer turned director blew our minds to show better what makes us tick

TCM Diary: The Canterville Ghost

By Sheila O'Malley
October 16, 2018
Speaking of spooky: Charles Laughton excels in a superior adaptation of an Oscar Wilde yarn, American style

Review: Private Life

By Sheila O'Malley
October 1, 2018
(Tamara Jenkins, USA, Netflix, Opening September 21)

TCM Diary: Dorothy Malone Knows

By Sheila O'Malley
July 31, 2018
Voice of experience: the Hollywood actress brought a sense of hard-won wisdom and forthrightness to The Big Sleep, Tarnished Angels, and more