Noel Murray

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IGN, Los Angeles Times, Polygon, The A.V. Club, The Daily Beast, The Dissolve, The Playlist, UPROXX
For 2,356 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 10% same as the average critic
  • 39% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Noel Murray's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Black Narcissus
Lowest review score: 0 Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,214 out of 2356
  2. Mixed: 972 out of 2356
  3. Negative: 170 out of 2356
2356 movie reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    A Face in the Crowd
    It's like an early version of Network, and it's just as overwrought, but Kazan enlivens the material with a mise en scène so vigorous that it could make anyone buy into the auteur theory. Kazan varies his shooting style, alternating between portraiture, expressionism, and docu-realism for a look and rhythm that's about 15 years ahead of its time.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    They Live by Night
    It's a strikingly poetic first feature, more about the naïve romance between young hoodlum Granger and his reluctant nursemaid Cathy O'Donnell than it is about robbing banks and dodging cops.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Miss Hokusai
    One of the ways this film feels fresh and revisionist is that it doesn’t succumb to “great man”-ism, positioning a famous artist’s genius as singular.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Meaning of Life
    The Meaning Of Life is unsparing and elaborate in its vision of humanity at its foulest.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Iran Job
    The sports drama gives The Iran Job a strong hook, while the cultural context enriches the movie's real story, which is less about Sheppard's life in Iran than about the people he meets.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Blue Hawaii
    Compared to the morose plots of later Elvis movies, Blue Hawaii is a breezy vacation, and Presley looks appealingly relaxed as every Hawaiian's favorite haole.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Battle for Brooklyn
    Most viewers should find the documentary Battle For Brooklyn gripping and provocative, no matter their opinions about eminent domain, historic preservation, or public dollars going to support private development.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Chicken with Plums
    Just as the plot combines fantastical and biographical elements-some of it is reportedly based on Satrapi's own family legends-so the filmmaking veers from straightforward to more outsized. The tonal shifts don't always work.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Priceless
    Unlike Salvadori's previous comedy, 2003's "Après Vous," Priceless is less preposterous, and more grounded in character.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Duchess of Langeais
    Though not exactly a "comedy" of manners, since it's more melancholy than funny, The Duchess Of Langeais is very much concerned with how the rules of social etiquette interfere with raw human need.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    American Cannibal: The Road to Reality
    Still, no matter how Grebin and Nigro are selling it, American Cannibal isn't about the horrors of reality TV. It's about guys like Roberts and Ripley, who convince themselves that ANY job in show business would be preferable to waiting tables.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Belle
    Individual moments in Belle are frequently magical: Many of the real-world scenes are beautifully staged and illustrated, with characters moving quietly and slowly through outdoor spaces while sunlight dapples across the water and birds flit by.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Whose Streets?
    What this film is not, in any way, is comprehensive. Very intentionally, Folayan and company don’t concern themselves with the bigger picture. This is ground-level journalism.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise
    Ultimately, If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise is a documentary about the myriad ways that the poor stay poor, and the way our society marginalizes them by reducing them to numbers on a balance sheet instead of people with their own unique stories to tell and their own network of friends and family who love and rely on them.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Princess of Montpensier
    Tavernier turns a tale of courtly duty and manners into a tense, twisty drama.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    1900
    The story is almost too small for Bertolucci's sprawling approach, and the ungainliness of his international cast stifles both the dialogue and the performances.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Beaches of Agnès
    If The Beaches Of Agnès has no clear structure, that's only because neither does Varda’s life--except in retrospect.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Black Death
    Black Death bears some similarities to a zombie movie in the way the plague inevitably overtakes the populace, and it also has one foot in the "creepy community" genre, alongside films like "The Wicker Man" and "Two Thousand Maniacs!"
    • 58 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Viva
    Biller obviously feels for these plywood people she's created. She surrounds them with rich color and eye-popping décor, and fills them with the awareness that as awkward as their sex games may be, they may one day miss what they stood for.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Moon
    Moon is enjoyable as much for its small scale and solid execution as for its crazy twists and creeping existential dread.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Murder of Fred Hampton
    The last half of The Murder Of Fred Hampton shreds the official statements of Chicago law enforcement.... But the first half is all about the life and times of Hampton, as he rouses the rabble and defends the new socialism, while cautiously inspired by the ever-present cameras and microphones.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Girl Model
    Girl Model shows that even though some models make big bucks, the global economy remains the same as it ever was: Those with nothing are seduced by the prospect of something, such that they hesitate to complain, lest they end up with less than nothing.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Bay
    The result is surprisingly satisfying, like "Jaws" for the YouTube/Skype era.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    It Happened in L.A.
    [Morgan's] observations about Hollywood’s image-consciousness and the transactional nature of L.A. relationships are nothing new. But there’s a specificity and a liveliness to her jokes that makes them feel almost fresh — or, at the least, relevant.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    I Know Where I'm Going!
    The film isn't as deep or ambitious as some of the Powell-Pressburger films that followed, but it's still a delightful love story, blessed with attractive leads, lovely locations, and witty dialogue.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Obscene
    Yhough Obscene tells the story without fully exploring its nuances, that story is both fascinating and more than a little inspiring.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Best of Enemies
    Alternately entertaining and unsettling documentary.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Chris & Don. A Love Story
    Describing the early stages of their sexual attraction, Bachardy sums up the whole outrageously fortunate arc of his life. "It was exactly what the boy wanted," Bachardy says. "And he flourished."
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
    Think of Not Quite Hollywood as a vividly illustrated catalogue of astonishing smut.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Blank City
    In the end, Blank City becomes not just a salute to the artistic adventurousness of a bygone New York, but a reminder that new strains of creativity keep emerging, just when the scene looks stalest.
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