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Betsy Sharkey

Betsy Sharkey's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
Biography:

Los Angeles Times film critic.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Stop Making Sense (1984) 100% EDIT “Talking Heads made for great material, with its revolutionary mash-up of punk, funk, art, avant-garde and other sounds. But what sets "Stop" apart is the intimate look at that brilliant talking head, lead singer David Byrne.” – Los Angeles Times Jul 16, 2020 Full Review The Best Man Holiday (2013) 71% EDIT “The result is a joyous, raucous, righteous film but also a frustrating and disappointing one. Not quite the gift of the season some had hoped for.” – Los Angeles Times Nov 5, 2019 Full Review The Secrets (2007) 67% 3.5/5 EDIT “There is pain and empowerment in The Secrets as difficult choices are made. There are also gaps, but emotionally moving performances by Ardant, Bukstein and Shtamler in particular, keep you with this small but provocative film until the end.” – Los Angeles Times Jan 19, 2017 Full Review Applause (2009) 89% EDIT “Zandvliet and Steen create an unvarnished saga of a recovering alcoholic whose acting career makes all that teetering on the edge of one-day-at-a-time very public. It is a singular performance and a deeply affecting if imperfect film.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 7, 2016 Full Review Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) 66% EDIT “It is an impressive feature directing debut, with Banks handling the high-octane chaos of "Pitch" with almost perfect aplomb.” – Los Angeles Times May 14, 2015 Full Review I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (2014) 84% EDIT “The kind of heartwarming, sentimental tale of a gentle soul that the PBS show's iconic character would love.” – Los Angeles Times May 14, 2015 Full Review I'll See You in My Dreams (2015) 93% EDIT “What "I'll See You" does particularly well is get at how any relationship - whatever your age - comes with a limited, rather than a lifetime, warranty.” – Los Angeles Times May 14, 2015 Full Review Hot Pursuit (2015) 8% EDIT “So bad you'd think it was directed by the worst sort of male chauvinist director.” – Los Angeles Times May 7, 2015 Full Review Maggie (2015) 61% EDIT “The plot is lean, the dialogue is spare and there are some intriguing stabs at intellectual and emotional terrain. But the pacing is deadly, so slow there might be time for a catnap or two without missing anything important.” – Los Angeles Times May 7, 2015 Full Review The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2013) 68% EDIT “It's a hoot and a half.” – Los Angeles Times May 7, 2015 Full Review Welcome to Me (2014) 74% EDIT “Though some of the jabs "Me" takes at reality TV are clever, the film, like Alice, tends to fracture at key moments. What makes it worth watching is Wiig.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 30, 2015 Full Review Far From the Madding Crowd (2015) 85% EDIT “"Far from the Madding Crowd" has its appeal. Yet like unrequited love, one can't help but lament what might have been.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 30, 2015 Full Review Adult Beginners (2014) 49% EDIT “The kind of comedy that goes down easy even as it looks at the hard stuff.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 23, 2015 Full Review The Age of Adaline (2015) 55% EDIT “A sweeping romance beautifully wrapped in classy couture and slightly suspect in the way it uses metaphysics to manipulate matters of the heart.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 23, 2015 Full Review 24 Days (2014) 83% EDIT “Knowing the outcome behind the true-life tragedy "24 Days" doesn't diffuse the horror, the tension or the sadness of watching one family's drama unfold day after agonizing day when a son is kidnapped and hope dies.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 23, 2015 Full Review Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) 91% EDIT “As stirring as Binoche is as Maria, Stewart is breathtaking as Valentine. Assayas uses the issues he parses in "Sils" to zero in on a personal-professional minefield that Stewart has navigated as well.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 9, 2015 Full Review The Longest Ride (2015) 31% EDIT “The two-plus hours is mostly marked by an emptiness born of scene after scene designed to blatantly manipulate emotions rather than trigger them.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 9, 2015 Full Review 5 to 7 (2014) 70% EDIT “"5 to 7" is an interesting directing debut that, like Brian, shows promise.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 3, 2015 Full Review Ned Rifle (2015) 78% EDIT “[It] might not sound entertaining, yet when the writer-director is on his game, as he is in "Ned Rifle," the effect is bizarre black comedy that is designed to set you thinking about what his satire is really saying.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 2, 2015 Full Review Furious 7 (2015) 81% EDIT “"Furious 7" is the fuel-injected fusion of all that is and ever has been good in "The Fast and the Furious" saga that began in 2001 with souped-up cars and a stripped-down story about a tightknit East L.A. street racing crew.” – Los Angeles Times Apr 2, 2015 Full Review Home (2015) 53% EDIT “Tension is one of "Home's" biggest issues. There just isn't nearly enough of it. Story is another. Even a kids' movie needs more complexity and more invention.” – Los Angeles Times Mar 26, 2015 Full Review Get Hard (2015) 28% EDIT “With Ferrell and Hart involved, it's probably impossible for anyone to completely resist their baser instincts to be amused by the patently offensive. Though it's hard not to wish more moviegoers would.” – Los Angeles Times Mar 26, 2015 Full Review The Gunman (2015) 15% EDIT “Part of the contract that movies of this sort forge with moviegoers is that the reasons for all the running and gunning won't get in the way of the action. "The Gunman" doesn't play by those rules.” – Los Angeles Times Mar 19, 2015 Full Review Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014) 88% EDIT “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is a moody comic allegory about desperation, disconnection and dreams that uses Fargo, the Coen brothers classic, as a touchstone to examine modern life.” – Los Angeles Times Mar 19, 2015 Full Review Cymbeline (2014) 32% EDIT “A mash-up of social media shortcomings and Shakespearean tragedy that becomes as much a tale of cinematic ambition gone awry as anything the Bard intended.” – Los Angeles Times Mar 12, 2015 Full Review
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