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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    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Police Story (1985)
    Action geeks who rented Police Story on VHS back in the early ’90s could tell when the good parts were going to start, because that’s when the tracking would get fuzzy, from all the previous renters rewinding and re-watching the same scenes, over and over.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Jiro Dreams of Sushi
    David Gelb's documentary Jiro Dreams Of Sushi shows what a meal at Sukiyabashi Jiro is like: each morsel prepared simply and perfectly, then replaced by another as soon as the previous piece is consumed, with no repetition of courses. Once an item is gone, it doesn't come back. That's why each one has to be memorable.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    For a Good Time, Call...
    The notion of a love story that's really about two women becoming friends is gimmicky, I'll grant, but Graynor and Miller are so charming together, and the movie is so focused and funny.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    No End in Sight
    It's a cogent, often infuriating explication of how the execution of the war went awry.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Tomboy
    It's so much fun that as Tomboy moves toward its conclusion, the inevitable end of Héran's days as Mikael feels like watching someone die.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Life, Animated
    On the list of Disney-related 2016 releases about child-rearing and handicaps, this one goes just above "Finding Dory." What it lacks in wacky hijinks, it makes up in hard truths.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Pearl Button
    A haunting mediation on water replacing its predecessor’s preoccupation with stars and dirt.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    City of Gold
    As Gabbert alternates [Gold's] monologues with long, gliding shots of funky supermarkets and old cinemas, she makes the point these aren’t disconnected aberrations in L.A. This is the city.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Report
    The actor’s (Driver) performance isn’t just gripping; it’s inspiring. He’s not just portraying Jones; he’s embodying an ideal.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Momma's Man
    A comedy of sorts, though to Jacobs' credit, he doesn't aim for cheap laughs.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Better Than Something: Jay Reatard
    Better Than Something doesn't really try to resolve the mystery of how someone could be simultaneously so productive and destructive.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Bridesmaid
    The Bridesmaid goes slack at times, as it follows multiple Magimel family subplots, but as always, Chabrol stages everything with an elegant economy, moving the camera in short bursts that direct the eye but don't distract. Still, the movie would fail completely if not for the dynamic between the two leads.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
    If modern art-lovers want to understand what the Jack Smith experience was like, Jordan's documentary may be their best chance.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The First Time
    In the first 15 minutes, viewers may be rolling their eyes at these kids; by the end, they might be eager to re-watch that opening scene, to get to know them all over again.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Room and a Half
    For those who can’t abide conventional biopics, here’s a viable alternative: A Room And A Half, a fantastical, imaginative depiction of the life of Nobel-winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Good, the Bad, the Weird
    The story’s many advances and reversals can be hard to follow at times, but this isn’t really a movie where plot is paramount. Everything boils down to the action, and what that action means.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
    Banzai is an occasionally incomprehensible rush of subplots, sight gags, mythology, and bizarre fashion choices, truer to the spirit of classic adventure stories than to the letter. Which may be why people who love the film feel the way they do. Buckaroo Banzai assumes an attitude of poise and purpose in an otherwise awkward universe.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    You've Been Trumped
    Aside from the corny title, Anthony Baxter's You've Been Trumped is a fine, powerful piece of documentary filmmaking, using old-fashioned vérité techniques - and more than a little audience manipulation - to show how political influence and media savvy help the wealthy exert their will.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    To the Limit
    To The Limit is full of a lot of talk about "risk" and "dreams" and "making the impossible possible," and Danquart's stabs at making this an inspirational tale can be a little exhausting.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    When Two Worlds Collide
    When Two Worlds Collide employs a variety of styles and approaches to construct a single gripping narrative.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
    Temple introduces viewers to Strummer the punster, Strummer the womanizer, and Strummer the poseur, whom his mates could only really talk to when no one else was around.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
    The pleasure of Happy People comes from watching these men go about their work, while they explain that the only way to make it in the taiga is to do and take exactly what's needed, and not get greedy.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Cocaine Cowboys
    Ultimately, Cocaine Cowboys' lesson isn't that crime doesn't pay, but that it maybe pays too well.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Letters from Iwo Jima
    It's hard to explain exactly why Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima is so much better than its companion World War II film "Flags Of Our Fathers," except to say that Flags tries too hard to emphasize the ironies of selling a war, while Letters deals with the ins and outs of the war itself.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Terribly Happy
    This is a smart, melancholy crime picture, which takes its cues from the title of the perverse old standard Christensen plays on her stereo at night: “You Always Hurt The One You Love.”
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Page Turner
    A little too neat, and self-consciously vague at the end. But it's fascinating to observe and try to interpret François' mysterious smile as she eyes her boss.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Mediterranea
    There’s a specificity to Mediterranea that at times makes it feel like an actual documentary.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Great World of Sound
    Great World Of Sound is painfully specific about the music-scouting grind.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    The Hunter
    Though The Hunter maintains the same even tone after it turns into a chase thriller, the look begins to resemble the work of William Friedkin and Walter Hill in its clean, elemental approach to action.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Noel Murray
    Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
    Malick seems to see everything on a cosmic and microscopic scale simultaneously. Drop him in the middle of a suburb and he’ll consider the magnificence of the children playing, the beauty of the grass, and the centuries it took for the rocks to form. That’s why it’s always going to be a rare gift to look at the world through his eyes — especially when he lets the images speak for themselves.
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