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Murtada Elfadl
Tomatometer-approved critic
Murtada Elfadl is a culture writer and critic. Originally from Khartoum, Sudan he's now based in New York. His writing has been published in Backstage, Into, The Playlist, The Film Stage and Mediaversity Reviews. Currently he's a film programmer at NewFest, New York's LGBTQ+ film festival.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) |
The film mostly concentrates on Mike’s familial travails and history. It flails around trying to come up with psychologically resonant characteristics for its protagonist. It ends up with an inert and implausible narrative. - Variety
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| Posted Nov 25, 2023
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Stamped From the Beginning (2023) |
The film does not pretend to be presenting radical or new beliefs. Yet by the end, it reveals the myths, the distortions and the made-up fallacies that have been presented as truth for centuries. And that is the most radical thing it could have done.
- Variety
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| Posted Nov 25, 2023
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Good Burger 2 (2023) |
To update the story to 2023, the filmmakers add a few new characters and a tiresome AI plot, winding up with a Thanksgiving diversion that functions just fine playing in the background as families gather for their holiday meals. - Variety
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| Posted Nov 25, 2023
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The Equalizer 3 (2023) |
Washington’s swagger and charisma that compels. His face and voice, his distinctive walk, his trademark gestures — the smirk and pursed lips — are so recognizable that this journey through Italy feels like a visit with a benevolent but ruthless friend - Variety
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| Posted Aug 31, 2023
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John Early: Now More Than Ever (2023) |
Amusingly enough, Early succeeds in leaving his audience wanting more, even when that means more mockery of themselves. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 01, 2023
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Lost Soulz (2023) |
Buoyed by its charismatic lead performance, Lost Soulz makes for an entertaining ride. Its structure, cinematography and (especially) the choreography of musical scenes show the confidence of its first-time filmmaker. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 01, 2023
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Between the Rains (2023) |
With its languid pace, Between the Rains affords the audience an immersive experience into a land few people know much about. - Variety
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| Posted Jul 01, 2023
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The Cemetery of Cinema (2023) |
roving the point of the cliché “it’s about the journey, not the destination,” “The Cemetery of Cinema” stands in for its lost quarry. Diallo’s film ensures its predecessor’s preservation. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 29, 2023
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The Space Race (2023) |
In telling the specific moving stories of a few men, “The Space Race” manages to provide such a rich perspective into their experience that it transcends its goals of shining a light on worthy lives and untold history, to entertain and educate. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 29, 2023
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Master Gardener (2022) |
Master Gardener supposedly has a contemporary setting. Yet it feels out of time, or belonging to a long gone era. Part of that is the profession of its lead character, and part is Mrs. Haverhill. Both seem like relics from another time and place. - AV Club
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| Posted Jun 29, 2023
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No Hard Feelings (2023) |
As a summer lark, this makes for a nice diversion. Yet it still feels like an opportunity missed. There could’ve been more laughs, the raunchy elements could’ve been pushed harder. A class satire is introduced but never explored. - AV Club
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| Posted Jun 23, 2023
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The Line (2023) |
Wolff gives a focused, attention-grabbing performance, working from the outside-in, with an affected long-voweled voice and measured, studied pose and walk. As Tom’s world crumbles, his performance becomes more raw, adding sensitivity and disillusionment. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 16, 2023
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Transition (2023) |
Although this is a personal narrative, when framed within a global seismic historical event — the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban — it inadvertently becomes smaller. As a story of one man’s navigation of his identity, however, it's a strong narrative. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 10, 2023
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The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023) |
A horror movie’s strength lies in disturbing its audience. While “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” is more of a socially conscious satire, it has enough scares to create a disquieting mood. - Variety
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| Posted Jun 10, 2023
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Guy Ritchie's The Covenant (2023) |
Offers marginal entertainment value. It’s a film that seems afraid to offer any ideas about its setting and characters beyond the minimum. - AV Club
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| Posted Apr 19, 2023
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Molli and Max in the Future (2023) |
In trying to satirize the current political and social situation, the film comes up short. The targets are obvious and easily recognizable, which makes the laughs come easy and quick. However, that also lessens the bite of the satire - Variety
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| Posted Apr 19, 2023
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How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) |
Plays like a taut thriller that tells an unusual story. Its strength lies in making a topical issue palatable and highly watchable. It offers no judgment and no easy answers yet it firmly engenders empathy for its characters’ actions. - AV Club
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| Posted Apr 06, 2023
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Praise This (2023) |
Adds a mostly delightful entry to the musical genre, even if it doesn’t offer a unique take. More successfully it acts as a winning introductory calling card to the acting and musical talents of its rising star, Chloe Bailey. - Variety
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| Posted Apr 06, 2023
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Inside (2023) |
The film has exhausted both the premise and its leading man’s capabilities, while the audience has grown tired of pondering whatever themes it purports to examine. It’s time to part ways, and yet the images keep flickering and the film keeps going. - Variety
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| Posted Mar 25, 2023
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A Good Person (2023) |
The drama is a cluster of scenes with bad dialogue and platitudes instead of actual pathos. The comedy comes in when it’s uncalled for, breaking whatever genuine emotion the actors worked hard to craft. - AV Club
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| Posted Mar 23, 2023
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Creed III (2023) |
Creed III captures the spectacle and ceremony of boxing, providing the audience with an entertaining thrill ride. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, owing much to its predecessors in the Rocky and Creed series in story structure and character development. - AV Club
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| Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (2023) |
For the most part, this is a fun time at the movies. There’s laughter, action, and movie stars playing to their strengths. It’s exactly what audiences expect to see from Ritchie and that’s its main selling point. - AV Club
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| Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023) |
Though the film can stand on its own as a separate piece of work, new audiences might question what the fuss is all about. - AV Club
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| Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023) |
Little Richard: I Am Everything critiques the star’s Christian evangelism, which strikes an unexpected note in these types of biodocs. - Mediaversity Reviews
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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Mutt (2023) |
While Feña’s journey may contain some contrivances, the way this young man adapts to each predicament feels authentic and emotionally potent. - Variety
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| Posted Feb 19, 2023
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Past Lives (2023) |
Past Lives makes time for the minutiae that define the immigrant experience. - Mediaversity Reviews
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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New Gods: Yang Jian (2022) |
a fine addition to the New Gods saga with impressive animation that fills the frame with details that illuminate the narrative. - Variety
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| Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Fairyland (2023) |
McNairy rises above the movie’s sometimes hooky script to tell the story of this relationship in full. Because of his performance, Fairyland is ultimately, utterly heartbreaking. - AV Club
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| Posted Feb 14, 2023
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All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023) |
Ostensibly a decades-spanning story of a woman from Mississippi, it unspools like visual poem vignettes that give us tiny glimpses into that life. - AV Club
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| Posted Feb 11, 2023
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Drift (2023) |
A languid tour through Greece punctuated by violent interludes to Jacqueline’s life in Liberia don’t constitute quite a compelling enough narrative. Nor does this story say anything persuasive about the refugee experience. - AV Club
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| Posted Feb 11, 2023
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Magazine Dreams (2023) |
Magazine Dreams is visceral and intense but ultimately feels like only a half-realized portrait. - AV Club
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| Posted Feb 11, 2023
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Eileen (2023) |
Eileen is a stylish and wild ride that never lets up from its first frame to its shocking finale. - AV Club
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| Posted Feb 11, 2023
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The Locksmith (2023) |
Pay it half a mind and every few minutes a loud bang, a gunshot or an actor yelling would draw attention. The plot is so straightforward that nothing will be missed. Alas, nothing is gained either, and the entertainment value is subpar at best. - Variety
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Saint Omer (2022) |
The screenplay, alongside Kagmae’s restrained performance, takes its time to connect the dots, making Saint Omer’s payoff even grander. - AV Club
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| Posted Jan 14, 2023
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The Whale (2022) |
Unfortunately for a film claiming that the body is nothing but a container for the soul, the performance ends up being more surface, less vital spirit. - AV Club
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| Posted Dec 08, 2022
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The Eternal Daughter (2022) |
What separates this film is the delicate handling of what both parents and children want from each other. Setting it as a ghostly, dreamlike story, Hogg is able to reveal truths while also showing the aspirational ideal of such relationships. - AV Club
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| Posted Dec 03, 2022
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Devotion (2022) |
Though Majors is able to show Brown’s inner turmoil, a spark with Powell never ignites. There’s an air of politeness that governs this relationship. In their attempt to present a wholesome friendship, the writers end up showing one that doesn’t connect. - AV Club
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| Posted Nov 26, 2022
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Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend (2022) |
Fortunately, the film is only 97 minutes long. But even this grace note comes at a cost to the viewer. The end of the story comes out of nowhere, as if the filmmakers ran out of money and stopped shooting before they were really done. - AV Club
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| Posted Nov 26, 2022
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Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022) |
Bardo demands that we go along with all these flights of fantasy and imagination. It’s a lot, and it’s exhausting. Yet at times invigorating. - AV Club
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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My Policeman (2022) |
My Policeman’s ambitions are grand. Anna Karenina, really? None are realized, and instead of a classic tragic romance, it ends up being a turgid, airless concoction. - AV Club
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| Posted Oct 20, 2022
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Aftersun (2022) |
Aftersun feels like a combination of memory and hallucination, but rooted in truth. - AV Club
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| Posted Oct 17, 2022
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Till (2022) |
Chukwu has shown a great knack for collaboration with actors and drawing marvelous performances out of them (see Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge’s staggering work in Clemency). She evidences it again with Deadwyler in Till. - AV Club
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| Posted Oct 13, 2022
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Tár (2022) |
From its very first moments, Tár announces itself as an event. It’s not just another movie—it’s an immersive visual and aural experience. - AV Club
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| Posted Oct 06, 2022
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The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022) |
There’s fun to mine from this material, but it requires the audience to abandon critical thinking and take what the film is saying at face value. By questioning nothing, Farrelly offers a demonstration of his own... how not to treat a complex subject. - AV Club
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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Goodnight Mommy (2022) |
The original Austrian film had shock value and genuine, gruesome horror. This new Americanized version sands the edges off of the narrative every chance it gets. - AV Club
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| Posted Sep 16, 2022
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The Silent Twins (2022) |
In The Silent Twins, the Gibbons sisters are let down by a script that undercuts the unique circumstances of their lives with familiar and ultimately less compelling storytelling tropes. - AV Club
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| Posted Sep 13, 2022
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Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) |
The problem with taking centuries-old tall tales and visualizing them is that no matter how grand you go, there’s a limit. The task was impossible to begin with. - INTO
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| Posted Aug 26, 2022
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Babel (2006) |
Blanchett and Pitt are playing a version of the "ugly Americans abroad" trope. The film does not shy away from presenting them as entitled despite the circumstances that they are in. - Sundays with Cate
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| Posted Mar 04, 2022
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Don't Look Up (2021) |
There's a shorthand that makes each character's real world avatar easy to get and laugh at but that also undermines the film's intelligence. This is not smart satire. - Sundays with Cate
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| Posted Jan 02, 2022
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Nightmare Alley (2021) |
Sumptuous look and design frame this bleak noir. A reticent at first Bradley Cooper comes alive when sparring with a stylized Cate Blanchett. - Sundays with Cate
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| Posted Dec 19, 2021
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