Author: Derrick Murray

There’s no getting around it: “The Beast” is a beast of a film. A cinematic journey that demands as much from the viewer as it does the vast vision of the director. Teaming with complex ideas, contrasting themes, and a plethora of genre mashups, “The Beast” is an amalgamation of inspiration pulled from some of the most auteur filmmakers to ever make films. And yet, for all its complexities its core is a rather simple story of love, longing, and Léa Seydoux (“Dune Part Two,” “Death Stranding”), who turns in a tour de force performance that carries the film from…

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” sports some of the most horrendous CGI I’ve seen in a while, so poorly conceived and rendered it sets VFX back 50 years.

After feeling like giving up on movies with the lackluster start of the year, March explodes with an overload of films in a short period of time. I’d love to say I have the wherewithal or even the time to give every film their critical due diligence, but unfortunately things have just not played out that way. Nevertheless, I do want to give some thoughts on a few films I’ve seen recently, many of which are either currently in theaters or coming to theaters within the next week or so. Hopefully this will clear the review slate for the next…

If I’m being honest, the recent rise of experimental horror has been largely a miss for me. Things like “Skinamarink” and “Mad God” are films I appreciate for their wild swings but don’t really care for their final product. Horror has been genre long unchanged and open to a freeform approach within the confines of its framework, and we often gravitate and praise films that execute the horror cliches well rather than champion ones that purposefully break free from them, existing on the fringes of a sprawling world. “Late Night With The Devil” somehow manages to exist on both planes;…

With any franchise that manages to overstay it’s welcome, those films are bound to have diminishing returns. There is only so much you can mine from preexisting lore and milk from the nostalgia well before it can no longer hide its cash grab overtones. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” felt the most balanced of the two; a beautiful send off to the older generation and a welcomed ushering of the new. This can be attributed to the generational passing of directors, with a son taking up a father’s mantle which simply by default maintains a certain reverence for its source. “Frozen Empire” lacks…

“The Animal Kingdom” may not be the best of its kind, but for whatever it lacks in its narrative chaos it makes up for with a touching story about fatherly love, letting go, and discovering that things that seek to drive us apart may actually bring us together.

“Love Lies Bleeding” proves that the best love stories are founded on steroids and murder.

“Snack Shack” has enough of that 90s nostalgia to be worth the summer journey, even if the emotional impact and confusing tonal imbalance holds it back from reaching the heights it strives for.

The night is finally upon us! The 96th Academy Awards kicks of at 4pm PST live from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, CA, airing on ABC. The anticipated awards show is hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, turning in his 4th time hosting the Oscars. Poised to win big is “Oppenheimer,” with an astounding 13 nominations including a nominee in every single above the line category. It will be a very interesting night as we see if months and months of sure fire winners actually come to fruition. [You can read our predictions here.] We’ve got you covered here, with all of…

It’s been a strange year for the Oscars. Not necessarily in terms of snubs or close races, but more so in just how predictable the winners seem heading into the final stretch. More than ever, the amount precursors and awards prognosticators have been painting a clearer and clearer picture of what we can expect on March 10th. What is perhaps most telling is how consistent the winners have been throughout the season. Sure, there’s been some surprises, but overall, the atomic bomb has been set off and seems to show no signs of letting someone else build a bigger bomb.…