Author: Derrick Murray

It’s the hardest Oscar category to predict as this branch in particular tends to find 5 documentaries no one but they have seen and no awards prognosticator has on their nominee predictions. It’s always a weird world in documentary feature, but most of the time there’s a spoil of riches in true stories. So many, in fact, that I have to create a whole new “Best of” list just for docs. Most likely none of these will make it all the way to the Oscar 5, but there were so many great stories being told that deserve to be highlighted.…

It’s that time again! The time to reflect on all of the movies we’ve seen, gear up for the heart of the awards season and start the film ranking frenzy. Most years, I try to combine all genres into one big list, allowing drama, documentaries, and animated features to all co-exist together. Some years that’s pretty easy, but in 2025 it would simple kill one too many darlings and leave out far too many films I want to highlight. I’ll probably say this in all of these list prologues, but I think it has been a really solid movie year.…

After the mildly received “The Smashing Machine,” the cautious optimism and tepid intrigue for “Marty Supreme” felt palpable. Many were left wondering if the Safdie Brothers were only good together, similar to the Coens whose solo outings have been a far cry from their herald, award winning work. Like a bolt of lightning striking the desert ground, “Marty Supreme” electrifies the screen with breakneck pacing, wholly engrossing characters and a supercharged career best lead performance from Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (“Dune,” “A Complete Unknown”). Turns out Josh Safdie has the juice and possess most of the directorial talents shared between…

“Hamnet” is a near masterpiece, a beautiful portrait of loss and grief and love and art gorgeously framed with intimate natural light and deep emotion. It’s one of the best films of the year.

There’s always some hesitancy when a bolt of fresh air in a tired genre enters into its third film in an unexpected franchise. Not that writer/director Rian Johnson ever pretended that he wasn’t going to make more “Knives Out” movies, just that most people didn’t really expect him to devote the rest of his career drumming up Benoit Blanc murder mystery stories. Thankfully he HAS decided that that’s where his creative heart lies, and as a staunch defender of “Glass Onion” (which I’d argue ages better the more Elon Musk keeps tweeting and talking), “Wake Up Dead Man” delivers on…

While “Wicked: For Good” may share in the similar narrative stumbles on stage, all of those misgivings are melted thanks to Cynthia Erivio and Ariana Grande’s tremendous performances. These women possess immeasurable talent and not even the big screen is large enough to fully contain it.

I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.

The fall festival season may have come to an end, but Oscar season is in full swing and the fall box office is starting to get more and more crowded as studios start up their campaigns and get their films into theaters for a qualifying run. I’d love to review all of the films I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2025 individually, but there are just too many in addition to non festival releases to do that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t put a few films on your radar and cover them with some quick reviews!…

Once in a while a film comes along that sits in your brain for days, unable to fully process or comprehend the experience. Thoughts feel nearly impossible to put into words even as they fire a mile a minute inside the mind and getting it all out there seems like an impossible task. That’s the case with “Die My Love,” a visceral, impressionist examination of depression, postpartum, disassociation, the fallacy of normalcy and the longing to be seen made as an unsettling tapestry of vignettes that blur the lines between reality, dreams and nightmares. I genuinely don’t know what to…

“Predator: Badlands” is the lesser of the latest three helmed by Trachtenberg, lacking the grit and rawness of “Prey” and the blood soaked adventure of “Killer of Killers.” It’s not so much that it’s bad – it’s not and actually a whole lot of fun – but more so that it feels like a standard sci-fi action hero film reformatted to fit a Predator into it.