Derrick Murray is a Los Angeles based stand up comedian, writer, and co-host for The Jack of All Nerds Show.
There’s a beautiful blend of urgency and slow burn in “We Bury the Dead,” keeping the pace moving but keeping us hooked on the character study of its protagonist rather than drop us into one violent, blood soaked clash with decaying bodies after another.
Well, we’ve come to that seminal moment of every year where we scroll through the hundreds and hundreds of films we watched and try to somehow identify the best of them. This year was particularly hard, not because there were so many greats (honestly I don’t think there were) but because the good section is extremely robust. The amount of 4-star films this year probably exceeds the previous two combined, which makes the top 5 relatively easy and the rest of the rankings an absolute bloodbath. I liked so many films equally, so trying to split hairs on an equal…
It’s great to see so many movies each year, going out of your way to consume cinema from around the world as much as you can. But the downside is the amount of films you want to highlight and talk about gets longer and longer, and there really just isn’t enough time in a year to give every film their proper due. So, as we work toward the final list of the Best of the Year, I wanted to take some time to acknowledge some films that flew under the radar or were rather difficult to track down. Sometimes incredible…
“Avatar: Fire and Ash;” it’s just more of the same for better or worse…Lacking its ingenuity and true character development, this third installment only reestablishes lines in the sand rather than do anything to guide people across.
Making movies is hard, and making good movies is even harder. No one truly sets out to make a bad movie, but they just can’t all be winners and the best intentions can be paved with unwatchable flaws. To pretend like films can’t be bad simply because people worked on them is kind of a foolish argument, one that people who, when pressed, will certainly identify films that disliked or films that disappointed. You don’t need to be mean about it (like the Razzies that all but eradicated the ability to say anything negative about any film ever now) but…
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…
