Matthew Norman immediately catches the readers' attention with a pop culture reference in his "Ocean's 8" review, his opening paragraph consisting entirely of a gag about Eurythmics' "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves". This sets the scene for the film by implying that it is about powerful women stealing the show by themselves. It addresses the chief theme of the film and the review, with it providing a peg that Norman can return to later.
When he does pick back up on the 'sisters for themselves' theme, it's in the final paragraph where he also addresses a quote from star Sandra Bullock. His final line is piercing. After discussing the use of women in "Ocean's 8", Norman ends the piece simply by saying "Gary Ross is a 61-year-old man." It's a sharp, clever criticism of the film's production that accurately assesses where any of its flaws may lie.
Norman's description of the film's synopsis is spread out across several of his early paragraphs, outlining in his second paragraph the role of Bullock's character before diving back into analysis. This prevents the piece becoming dull, keeping a pace to it rather than Norman's analysis petering out into simply description.
He makes reference first to George Clooney and his on-screen history with Bullock, and then to the previous films in the "Ocean" franchise. This provides useful background information that readers need to contextualise the film. He's witty as he compares the previous films to the Apollo space program, particularly when he references the famed "we have a problem" line from Apollo 13 to describe "Ocean's Thirteen".
Norman's sentences vary in length — his seventh paragraph consists of a single 70-word sentence that is broken up by semi-colons. By contrast, he uses a three-word sentence halfway through his next paragraph. Generally, they're short and snappy as he gets to each of his points without hesitation. His prose remains intelligent and easy to read throughout.
About halfway through the review, Norman abandons the comparisons to the previous films and addresses "Ocean's 8" by itself. This works well because context was important to understand before he can assess the new film. He points out that it "deserves to stand on its own 16 feet" and subsequently allows it to do so. It is here that he begins to offer opinion on the success of "Ocean's 8", and sets the tone for his comments by immediately saying "For the opening 40 minutes it has some sparkle." We infer from this that he didn't enjoy the final hour or so of the film, and that what will follow in his review is likely to be negative. His only praise in this half of the review is for the performances.
Norman's fourth-last paragraph ends with his last comment about the film indepedent of outside context: "But that is a miserably low hurdle to ask such a starry cast to clear, and the glib ease with which the meisterplan is executed exposes what looked at first like a high-carat rock as heist-flick zirconium."His use of adjectives appeals to the educated readers of the Evening Standard and provides the final blow to sum up what he thought of the film.
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