Mark McPherson's Blog

“The Smashing Machine” (2025) Review

This movie might not seem like my jam, given that I’ve never been into the UFC, but that doesn’t matter with Benny Safdie’s direction. I never cared much for basketball, gambling, or jewelry, but he made me care about all three with his engrossing direction for Uncut Gems. The Smashing Machine does defy convention by searching through the rise and fall of fighter Mark Kerr less as a by-the-numbers sports biopic and more as a hunt for humanity through the pain and sweat. While this picture seems ...

“Eleanor the Great” Review

is such a talented elderly actress that it is hard to accept the uneven balance of her desperation and exuberance in Eleanor the Great. Her character’s deception is presented as a mixture of wanting to seem like someone greater and finding ways to recapture what was lost. While there’s undoubtedly a level of empathy in this misunderstanding of spinning yarns in twilight years, it rarely rises above melodrama in its stumbling nature of exploring the complicated feelings of getting old...

“Marvel Zombies” Season 1 Review

Spinning off from the zombie episode of What If, Marvel Zombies reveals the problems of bringing together the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe for a zombie horror saga. The MCU has fared fine when reserving its corners for different genres, be it the sci-fi adventure of Guardians of the Galaxy or the atmospheric horror of Werewolf By Night. But when all parties are assembled for the grandest of ensembles of Marvel TV shows, the effect comes off lukewarm for a miniseries where people are gored an...

“One Battle After Another” Review

The fight for our rights will be one of endurance, a notion that coats Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another with equal hope and hilarity. This type of film can stress the need for revolution in its favoring of political rebellion, but still finds a laugh in the older generation of left-wing activists who have grown weary enough that the most radical thing they’ve recently done was smoke weed while watching The Battle of Algiers (which happens in this film with a self-aware level of ab...

“Twinless” Review

Twinless poses such an odd romantic situation that it dares you to laugh at its premise of grief and repression. The unease can be felt from the start, where Roman () endures the tragedy of his twin brother, Rocky, dying in a car accident. Previously in love with Rocky was the insecure Dennis (). He’s unwilling to make his relationship known to Rocky’s brother, not merely because he indirectly caused the accident. There’s the lingering longing in Dennis’s heart that may...

“Him” (2025) Review

In the same way that it’s easy to get lost in the spectacle of football, Him is a film that gets so drenched in its own surreal symbolism of the game’s darkness that it can’t find the endzone. A psychological horror could certainly be strung from the draining aspects of physical and mental anguish that come with rising in the ranks to the top of the NFL food chain. But all a film like this can do is repeat the same message in stylish locations, beating its point continuously against the wall, ho...

“Friendship” Review

Insecurity is the key to what makes comedy work so well. On his sketch comedy show, I Think You Should Leave Now, his many skits have become evergreen humor on the nature of existential dread and social acceptance that coats the many millennials to whom it appeals most. Friendship takes this general concept and blows it up into a film as awkwardly amusing as it tragically tells of the turmoils that come with modern male friendships. There’s always a darkness amid the absurdity whe...

“Highest 2 Lowest” Review

Spike Lee clearly has a love for classic filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa that he wouldn’t turn in a routine and rote remake of his most revered thriller, High & Low. He also doesn’t waste a chance to use a powerhouse actor like in something juicier beyond the standard class criticism of the original film. With such prowess, Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest is likely the best case scenario for adapting the Kurosawa classic by making the film more uniquely his own, alive with music and New ...

“The Long Walk” (2025) Review

When the first person is killed with a gunshot in The Long Walk, it hits like a lightning bolt, even when you can see it coming from a mile away. One of the witnessing boys remarks that it gets easier to hear the longer they walk. Another remark, that’s what they’re afraid of. It’s a fear I shared as well for this dystopian picture that could too comfortably fall into the groove of teenagers being picked off for lagging. There was never a moment when the violence didn’t hit in this film, making ...

“Vice is Broke” Review

Eddie Huang used to work for Vice, the journalistic force that went from punk to bankrupt. Huang’s documentary on the fall of this company, Vice is Broke, was likely made with the intent to be more raw with the discussion. He opens his film by despising the talking heads on the subject who never set foot in the offices of the many writers, aiming to reveal all as the man within Vice’s golden era. But in his attempt to be most real with the subject, Huang’s film ultimately ends up saying little.

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