Author: Derrick Murray

The end of awards season is finally upon us! The 96th Academy Awards 2024 Oscar nominees were announced bright and early (for the west coast) January 23rd at 5:30am by Zazie Beetz (“Joker”) and Jack Quaid (“The Boys,” “Star Trek: Lower Decks”). It’s been a wildly contentious season in all categories, with some early frontrunners falling by the wayside like “The Color Purple” and “Maestro” both missing major categories in the precursors, and some unstoppable forces that simply haven’t missed all year like “Oppenheimer.” There’s bound to be some big surprises and major snubs, all of which we’ll cover shortly…

“Mean Girls” isn’t quite the train wreck the marketing would lead you to believe, and possesses some genuine fun to be had if you’re willing to let it have its cake and eat it too.

“The Beekeeper” is surprisingly entertaining even if it’s expectedly stupid, self aware enough to lean into its action tropes and deliver some truly gnarly, bonebreaking action against everyone’s favorite modern punching bag: tech bros

The 81st Golden Globes are here, and we’ve got your live coverage of all the winners in every category! It’s an interesting night. This will mark the first telecast for the rebranded show, which includes new ownership under the Dick Clark Productions (DCP), overhauling its voting body focused on diversity, completely shutting down the very controversial HFPA for good, and adding some new categories. Comedian Jo Koy hosts the 81st Golden Globes, which air Sunday January 7th at 5pm PST on CBS, the first time the ceremony has been carried by that network. (If you missed out on the nominations,…

“Society of the Snow” is a thrilling, visceral, terrifying portrayal of a true story that leaves you on the edge of your seat praying for a miracle that, even if you know the story, are never quite sure will actually come.

Though it was a hard and tumultuous time in Hollywood, 2023 actually proved to be an incredible year for films. Almost every major director working today released a new film. From Martin Scorsese to Michael Mann, Christopher Nolan to David Fincher and beyond; there was an influx of first timers and newcomers that really brought their A game. Admittedly this was one of the hardest years to pick a top 10-15. Some of that is because I saw almost 365 new films in a single year, a feat I wouldn’t recommend to any cinephile. But there was just simply more…

The Toronto International Film Festival may have concluded nearly 3 months ago from the time of this writing, but we are still trying to catch up on some last minute stragglers. Even the best festival planners can’t catch everything the festival has to offer, and though we made a pretty sizable dent in the slate there we still some casualties of time that we were unable to see. Thankfully, many of them had limited theatrical releases, allowing us to seek them out and add them to our very long list of TIFF viewings. Many of these late films are international…

We’ve reached that pivotal part of the year where it seems every single film that’s been sitting on the shelf or awaiting a release after its festival run suddenly floods the theaters. December is almost always catch up time for cinephiles and critics. Rushing to the theaters (sometimes far far away) to catch limited releases, pouring through a backlog of screeners, and preparing for the Oscar predictions and nominations that follow shortly after the year completes. It’s essentially hell week for critics, and this December is no exception. 2023 has been a great year for movies, and while I would…

“Rebel Moon” is diet “Dune,” sugar-free “Star Wars,” splenda “Seven Samurai,” the “Jupiter Ascending” for Snyderbros.

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” may be lost at sea, but if the voyage itself doesn’t make sense and we’re happy to put this all behind us and start fresh, it is at least having fun as it stares its own death in the face.