Mark McPherson's Blog, page 11

“Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever” Review

Do you want to live forever? It’s a question that everybody has thought of at some point, but more as an impossible scenario. Every human will die and it’s an existential dread that we all eventually have to come to terms with. But for somebody as rich as Bryan Johnson, death is seen as another mountain to conquer, as absurd a goal as the viability of artificial intelligence or the colonization of Mars. As with those other endeavors, Johnson’s thirst for a longer life is one that is personally ...

“The Colors Within” Review

There’s a dreamy quality to how The Colors Within meanders around, inevitably arriving at a musical cresendo. Some Japanese animated films start with this pleasant sensation, but oftentimes veers off to find more conflict and urgency. This film, however, is one where the worst problem for three teenagers is lying to their parents about their passion or feeling uncertain about their interest in music. There’s never any central issue that makes these problems boil and it always feels like these p...

“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” Review

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Sure, I’ve been critical of the past few Aardman Animations like Early Man and the sequel to Chicken Run, but it’s hard to find any fault within the romps of Wallace and Gromit. The man/dog duo that has graced mu...

“Oh, Canada” Review

As a refreshing break from Paul Schrader’s films about flawed-men-writing-and-turning-violent trilogy (First Reformed, The Card Counter, Master Gardener), there’s a bitter beauty much different within Oh, Canada. Though still poetic, there’s a freewheeling nature to how the picture bats around the lingering notions of regret and unease that fester with age. It’s the type of film that Schrader could easily pull off, being an old guy himself, but, wow, he still manages to surprise with some deepl...

“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” Review

There’s a discomforting realism to how director Mohammad Rasoulof stages this vicious critique of Iran’s political unrest. Rasoulof has experienced Iran’s most hideous censorship and faced so many critical charges that framing such a criticism of the country’s unjust political system was one of secrecy. At great risk to his freedom, The Seed of the Sacred Fig was a film worth making for its scathing dissection of Iran’s theocracy and the fury that brewed within its recent protests.

The title...

“2073” Review

It is not uncommon these days to hear someone muttering about how our current world now appears as dysmal as the dystopian depictions of sci-fi movies. The invasion of privacy and the rise of fascism have crafted a world that even the wildest of speculative fiction couldn’t match. 2073 is a film that attempts to do that anyway. It merges the documentary-style smatterings of real-world issues and layers it with grim depictions of a decayed future. Neither angle is all that engrossing as the film...

The Best Movies of 2024

2024 was a remarkable year for films if you knew where to look. While the animated blockbusters of Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 were underwhelming, animated films abroad like Flow and Wallace & Gromit were impressive animation displays at its highest levels of cleverness. We did get some standard biopics like Unstoppable and The Apprentice, but also some unexpected ones like the strong performances in The Fire Inside and the monkey performance in Better Man. It was a terrible year for comic book mo...

“Sing Sing” Review

The Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison walls house something far more than a longing for freedom. It’d be so easy for a movie centering around this prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program to store through with quiet melodrama. But director Greg Kwedar manages to tap into something far grander with a focus on introspection. This is not just a film about prisoners reforming but about what makes men tick and connect.

The star of the Arts program is Divine G (), a man who i...

“Red One” Review

I’m not opposed to the idea of Red One posing as a Fast & Furious Christmas special. In fact, I was hoping for that level of momentum to carry this film’s absurd Santa-saving plot fast enough that I’d never grow tired with the familiar story about saving Christmas. But this film is not fast, nor is it furious. It’s an adventure that spends so much time in the slow lane, wasting time explaining the operations of mythical authorities.

A film like this doesn’t need to take it easy when introduc...

“The Six Triple Eight” Review

Tyler Perry is a name closely associated with melodramas that range from light comedy to trashy thriller. That tone is still present in The Six Triple Eight, a true story of black women serving during World War II. It’s a story that feels important and deserves something more than the soft approach it’s been given in this film. A movie with a good message has to be a good movie first, and this film is presented with all the stumbling grace of a community theater production.

Taking place duri...