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William Mullally

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

William Mullally is Arts & Culture Editor at The National. An award-winning culture writer, he’s lived in the UAE since 2009 and chronicled the rise of the region’s diverse creative scenes. He’s served as Dubai Eye 103.8’s film critic since 2013, and has contributed to Arab News, ET Bil Arabi, The Insider Arabia, GQ Middle East, Esquire Middle East, Al Arabiya, Savoir Flair and Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. His long-running celebrity interview series has achieved more than 50 million views across his YouTube and TikTok channels.

Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) 66% 4.5/5 EDIT “For all its technological ambition, Avatar: Fire and Ash ultimately argues for something disarmingly simple: that survival, meaning and progress are collective acts. ” – The National (UAE) Dec 16, 2025 Full Review The President's Cake (2025) 100% 4/5 EDIT “The film’s quiet argument is unmistakable: children always pay the highest price for the politics they never chose, and a society that fails them inevitably shapes them in ways they cannot escape.” – The National (UAE) Nov 24, 2025 Full Review Groom & Two Brides (2025) 3/5 EDIT “You’re likely to be comforted by the tropes, eased by its zippy watchability, and amused by committed performances from actors clearly having the time of their lives with material far outside their comfort zones.” – The National (UAE) Nov 7, 2025 Full Review Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025) 61% 4/5 EDIT “You don’t have to be a Springsteen fan to connect with a character unable to grapple with what’s going on inside of them.” – The National (UAE) Oct 20, 2025 Full Review F1 The Movie (2025) 82% 4/5 EDIT “I found myself, at times, digging my nails into the arms of my chair. Few movies literally place me on the edge of my seat, and F1 was one of them.” – The National (UAE) Jun 24, 2025 Full Review Elio (2025) 83% 4/5 EDIT “This is a story with broad appeal – made to help children once again dream of a brighter future – and accept that what makes them different is also what makes them irreplaceable.” – The National (UAE) Jun 17, 2025 Full Review Mountainhead (2025) 74% 3.5/5 EDIT “This is the most cynical work yet from Armstrong, and may prove to be his most divisive. But as far as food for thought, there’s plenty here to chew on – just be careful of the bitter aftertaste. ” – The National (UAE) Jun 1, 2025 Full Review Lilo & Stitch (2025) 72% 4.5/5 EDIT “Lilo & Stitch is better than the original, first and foremost, because it’s updated with love and care for its source material.” – The National (UAE) May 20, 2025 Full Review Once Upon a Time in Gaza (2025) 92% 4.5/5 EDIT “Once Upon a Time in Gaza is far from an ordinary crime story – instead a layered, self-reflexive meditation on identity, resistance, and the cost of survival.” – The National (UAE) May 19, 2025 Full Review Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) 80% 4/5 EDIT “When a series can still surprise you like that, you never want to let it go. Particularly when it’s unclear if we’ll ever see filmmaking of this kind again.” – The National (UAE) May 14, 2025 Full Review No Other Land (2024) 100% 3.5/5 EDIT “ See No Other Land, and something chronically labelled “complicated” becomes simple.” – The National (UAE) Apr 2, 2025 Full Review A Minecraft Movie (2025) 48% 3/5 EDIT “This is not a disaster. Not by a mile. In fact, for most of its duration, it's downright charming and, in parts, had me laughing out loud.” – The National (UAE) Apr 2, 2025 Full Review The Brutalist (2024) 93% 3.5/5 EDIT “This is a film adorned in truth – truth about art, humanity and society. In it, power is the only true currency that matters, and evil is infectious and pervasive. ” – The National (UAE) Feb 22, 2025 Full Review To a Land Unknown (2024) 98% 4.5/5 EDIT “To a Land Unknown is a gripping neorealist neo-noir that is among the best international crime films produced in years, well-executed on all levels. ” – The National (UAE) Dec 10, 2024 Full Review Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) 31% 2/5 EDIT “What are we doing here, exactly?” – The National (UAE) Oct 2, 2024 Full Review Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) 75% 3/5 EDIT “For the first time in a long time, Burton feels like he’s having fun again – opening his old toy box and remembering how much he enjoyed prosthetics and practical set design before he lost himself in the computer-generated era.” – The National (UAE) Sep 4, 2024 Full Review Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 (2024) 90% 5/5 EDIT “With this documentary, Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson has created a film that, even without comment, is an astonishing, invaluable document of the history of Israel and Palestine, and a fascinating insight into the complicated nature of journalism.” – The National (UAE) Aug 30, 2024 Full Review Borderlands (2024) 10% 0/5 EDIT “Borderlands, based on the massively popular first-person shooter space western, is bad – very bad. Unfortunately, it’s not even the kind of bad you can have fun with – that would have taken someone putting their heart into it and failing. ” – The National (UAE) Aug 12, 2024 Full Review Trap (2024) 56% 3/5 EDIT “What is Trap interested in? Fatherhood. Perhaps that’s why the film feels like the most wholesome thriller in recent memory – not to mention the funniest. ” – The National (UAE) Aug 5, 2024 Full Review The Sixth Sense (1999) 86% 5/5 EDIT “This is popcorn cinema at its most purely empathetic – a horror film where the true horror is in not being seen, heard or understood by those around us, especially the people we love. ” – The National (UAE) Aug 3, 2024 Full Review BLACKPINK WORLD TOUR [BORN PINK] IN CINEMAS (2024) 3/5 EDIT “It’s maximalist, manicured pop that has devoured all possible influences in its successful bid to take over the world. There are no nutrients to be had here, but it tastes pretty good, so who cares? Indulge yourself. Dance a bit. Bring the children.” – The National (UAE) Jul 31, 2024 Full Review Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) 78% 3/5 EDIT “The machine is what will kill superhero films, if we let it. Teasing the future will no longer sell the present. Deadpool & Wolverine is a call to let things matter on their own again, and to peel a few more of these cynical masks off in the process.” – The National (UAE) Jul 26, 2024 Full Review From the Ashes (2024) 3/5 EDIT “The heart-wrenching event the film’s premise prepares us for, the big fire, comes in the first 30 minutes. That alone might leave you colder than expected. Once that’s out of the way, however, the film starts to get more interesting. ” – The National (UAE) Jul 20, 2024 Full Review Goodbye Julia (2023) 100% 5/5 EDIT “For people from across the world, in all walks of life, there is much to consider here, not only about the region, but about ourselves, and the ways in which we, no matter how far along we are, still have room for change.” – The National (UAE) Jul 20, 2024 Full Review The Holdovers (2023) 97% 4.5/5 EDIT “In a time when things often seem so hopeless, when the same forces of inequality and military injustices plague our own world, perhaps it’s this film’s realistic salve that makes it resonate so strongly. ” – The National (UAE) Jul 20, 2024 Full Review
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